Weekly Quote: Tony Bourdain on Character and Skill
This week's quote comes from the world-traveling documentarian, chef, and writer Anthony Bourdain, whose book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly greatly inspired me when it was released a couple decades ago. I keep a well-read copy of the book on my shelf. I remember buying it a few days after I moved into my second apartment in the early 2000s. It's one of the few possessions that's moved from city to city, through career changes, and from being single to being a happily married dad with two kids.
Tony is sadly no longer with us, but his legacy as a writer, traveler, and chef continues to inspire many. I still use the Global 8-inch chef's knife, which he recommends in the book, daily when I'm prepping meals for my family, just as I did as a kid in his early twenties, living on his own and trying to figure out the world. Another tool that’s been well worth holding on to.
As for the quote, it broadly speaks for itself. We've all known people who are strong of character but lack the skills. We should always bet on them. They're the ones worth putting the effort in for because they'll be there for you, too. Most often, the energy pays off, and everyone gains something.
Finding Focus: How I Fortify My Day With A Morning Reading Habit
Life holds a certain dissonance, even in the best of times. Joy comes with pain. Growth with sadness. Not to sound too much like Master Yoda here, but hopefully, you get my point. Life is messy and full of responsibility. People depend on us, and to be successful, we need all the help we can get.
In my own life, this is undoubtedly true. To help fortify my day, I take 15 or twenty minutes each morning to read a daily passage from several books and to review a selection of highlights from past reading. Aside from starting the day with a sense of accomplishment, it also offers me fresh insights related to essential roles in my life.
To accomplish this, I’m using my recently acquired iPad mini, whose primary purpose is to act as a personal reflection tool. I use it for reading, journaling, highlighting, and light note-taking.
The Books
Here's what I'm reading as part of this routine, as well as the corresponding role that it's aimed at improving:
The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids by Ryan Holiday
The Better Parent and Partner
This is the newest addition to my daily reading list. I'm on my first read-through and started it on January 1st. As the title implies, this book is helping me build my toolset as a father. The role of a father is among the most important to me, and as a stay-at-home parent, it's where I spend most of my time on a given day, so having this book as part of my startup is really helpful to remind me of my desire to be a helpful and loving father and husband.
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday
The Better Human
Now on my fourth read-through, The Daily Stoic is the book that began my interest in Stoicism and daily learning, helping me realize that a few pages a day can be an antidote to the powerful feelings of self-doubt that lurk just outside our field of vision. The Daily Stoic helps to fortify me against my lack of control over external events and reminds me of my power to understand and shape my reaction to those events.
Daily Creative: Find Your Inspiration to Spark Creative Energy and Fight Burnout by Todd Henry
The Better Creative and Professional
My friend Jim suggested this book during one of our regular calls last year, and I enjoyed reading passages sporadically but didn’t quite commit. This year, I'm making it a part of my daily ritual. This feeds my creative self; I'm a better writer and thinker when that gets attention.
After finishing my morning reading, I switch to the second part of this routine and jump from the Kindle app on my iPad Mini to my preferred app that helps me manage and organize highlights from ebooks, articles, and email newsletters, Readwise.
Making and Reviewing Highlights
Much of what I think and write about is sparked by my reading. To manage highlights from things I've read, I use Readwise. I like that I can access all of my saved highlights via the app or the web, and they regularly email me with highlights and summaries to review. You can read more about how I use Readwise in this piece I wrote as part of the PKM Toolkit series.
While I'm reviewing highlights, I have two shortcuts at the ready. The first allows me to easily send a topic idea to a Craft document where I keep possible ideas of interest to write about. The second opens a mind map in Mindnode for a similar purpose. However, this is less focused on specific topic ideas and more on adding bits and pieces to projects or topics already in active development.
Building The Fortification
My daily reading practice is a powerful way to start my day in the right direction and help me build a foundation upon which to work to be a better dad, husband, human, and creative. While this habit is just part of my morning routine, it's crucial to any success I find during my day and offers an outsized reward for my time invested.
Six Rules for Improving Your Reading Practice
Reading is a practice, in just the same way journaling or playing music is. After making a conscious effort to read more this year, I’ve created a few rules that I follow to keep on track. I think you’ll find them helpful too.
1. Schedule reading time every day
Making time daily is essential, even if it’s only for 15-30 minutes. I write about the value of incremental growth because It has worked well for me. Making small daily gains is an effective way to accomplish your goals.
2. Remove the progress and clock from reading apps
If you read on the Kindle app on a tablet or phone, it can be helpful to declutter the screen by removing the progress info and the clock from the page view. I wrote about how to toggle that data here.
3. If you aren’t captivated, quit
Don’t finish a book that doesn’t work for you. Your time is precious; respect that, and know it is okay to put a book down that doesn’t inspire you.
4. Buy books you want to read
Keep a list of books you want to read or buy a few you plan to read. I know this can be a trap for some people with lots of bookshelf space they want to fill,, so do what works best for you. I usually have a few new books waiting to be read on my desk or on Kindle. This allows me some readily available choices if I want to dig into something different.
5. Use Focus Mode for iOS and iPadOS devices
If you are reading on an iOS or iPadOS device, create a Focus Mode that disables notifications when you open your preferred reading apps. It’s the ideal way to read and focus on a device that is otherwise a firehose of information.
6. Share what you are reading
Tell those around you about what you are reading. You don’t need to offer a full book report, but if there’s a neat fact or insightful anecdote, it’s worth sharing in the proper context. This is a great way to connect with the people around you, and maybe you’ll help someone else pick up their next book!
If you use only one of these rules, pick number 1. Sure, it seems obvious, yet how often have you wanted to do something and never really started doing it or didn’t dedicate regular time to accomplishing the goal? You need to commit resources to succeed at something, and If you make time every day for the things you want to achieve, you will be successful, even if it takes a while.
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Discipline is Destiny
Ryan Holiday's new book, Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self Control is available today. Discipline is the second in the Stoic Virtues Series, following last year's release of Courage is Calling.
I pre-ordered a signed copy directly from Ryan, which arrived on Saturday. I'm already a few chapters in, highlighter in hand. Ryan is one of those authors whose work I typically purchase in multiple formats, usually Kindle and in print. I have several of his books on audio too. As I said, I'm a fan!
I recommend either The Obstacle is the Way or Courage is Calling for someone new to his work. Although you won’t go wrong with any of his books, particularly the ones focused on Stoicism.
Here's Where I Started
I walked into a book store on a snowy December afternoon in 2017, and The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living caught my eye. It was on a table themed around the coming new year. Although I did not know who Ryan was then, I immediately knew this was a book I wanted to read.
More importantly, it was a book that I needed to read.
I had just finished four years as a business owner and was starting a new mid-level operations management job at a distressed account. I was dealing with a lot of anxiety, and The Daily Stoic was part of how I ended my day and managed the stress. I'd read the day's passage, maybe do a little journaling or some other reading, and go to bed. The book helped me stay grounded after many long and draining days of putting out fires, rebuilding the team, and developing relationships with everyone from the C-Suite to the frontline.
Six years after finding The Daily Stoic, I reach for it nearly every day and still feel like I'm learning new things. I hope you have a book or something similar that does the same for you. If you don’t yet, you know what I recommend.
Weekly Quote: John Kenneth Galbraith on Changing Minds
This week’s quote comes to us from John Kenneth Galbraith. Galbraith was a professor of economics at Harvard University, United States Ambassador to India under John F. Kennedy from 1961 to 1963, and an advisor to President Johnson. He was also a prolific author of dozens of books, including several memoirs and highly regarded books about history, the economy, and society.
It’s easier and more comfortable to reinforce your current beliefs than question them. So you probably seek out information that helps support and reinforce the things you believe. Most people do this occasionally, and it takes effort to overcome.
Despite the challenges associated with rethinking, the next time you have an opportunity to do it after collecting new information, you should. It may feel difficult in the short term, but it’s worth it because you stand to gain a new and potentially more valuable perspective that can help you grow as a person.
I recommend reading Think Again by Adam Grant if you want to learn more about this idea. Adam does a lot of research on how useful it is to think like a scientist and not a prosecutor or a preacher when searching for the truth. As is usual with his books, the narrative is compelling and the argument is sound. The audiobook, narrated wonderfully by the author, also an experienced podcaster with a talent for telling stories, is worth listening to as well.
Weekly Quote: Marcus Aurelius on Having no Opinion
This week’s quote comes from Marcus Aurelius, author of Meditations, Stoic philosopher, and Roman Emperor from 161 to 180.
Choosing not to have an opinion on a subject over which you have no control is a valuable lesson. It’s vital to learn the difference between what should receive your attention and the low signal, high noise stuff that doesn’t deserve your time but does its best to get in front of you regardless.
When you cast your opinion towards things that don’t matter, when you comment and like or share, when you offer an idea that you may not even believe in, it’s easy to get sucked into a vortex that makes you unhappy and robs you of your attention and inspiration. It’s not an easy place to escape, so avoid it.
In fact, entire industries thrive when you don’t follow this advice, with some sharing impressive quarterly earnings on calls to their investors, touting the financial success of their engagement strategy.
Time is the most valuable commodity you have. Do everything you can to avoid getting caught up in things that don’t matter. Guard your attention, and honor yourself by making the most of it.
Weekly Quote: Tony Fadell, Author of “Build,” on Screwing Up
This week’s quote comes from the book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell, founder and one-time CEO of Nest Labs and the co-creator of the iPod and the iPhone.
Mistakes are the language of growth, and the idea of productive struggle is one of untapped potential. It’s a powerful experience to learn something, especially after getting it wrong.
I’m a few days late with this because of illness in the family, and I’m unable to write many thoughts, although I do not doubt that I’ll be sharing more from this book in the future. Tony is an accomplished and driven guy from whom we can all learn a great deal.
PKM Toolkit: Using Kindle for Learning and Research
Books are a significant source of joy in my life and a big part of what inspires this site. I read daily, even if only for a short time on busy days, and I do most of my reading using the Kindle app on my iPad.
I like using Kindle because it makes reading more manageable and more accessible. I can easily organize highlights and streamline knowledge transfer into other places for future access. Here are some other reasons why Kindle is an essential aspect of my personal knowledge management system.
Readwise Integration
I wrote about how much I use and like Readwise in the first entry of the PKM Toolkit series. I have used an old-fashioned highlighter in print books and then typed those quotes or passages into Readwise, but it’s time-consuming. Live Text on iOS makes this a little easier by taking a photo and then copying the text,, but highlighting in the Kindle app is simple. Readwise is integrated with Kindle and can automatically sync highlights for me.
Using the Kindle highlight feature, which imports into Readwise easily, is a low-friction way for me to take notes because I need to highlight the text. As a result, the interruption in reading is limited.
Split Screen for Intensive Note Taking
While Readwise is my go-to app for short highlights and the quotes that I feature, Craft is the app I use for data collection, in-depth note-taking, and as a tool for reviewing and tracking my projects.
On my iPad, I can have Craft and Kindle open in split-screen, so I can paste text and take notes. I don’t do this often, but it’s convenient to have the option.
Searching
The keyword search feature in Kindle works well. I like how It breaks down the results into different sections, starting with notes and highlights and then sections of the book by chapter.
I use this feature a lot when building a quote post, so I can find the original context from which the quote was pulled.
Access on Other Devices
Sometimes I read on my iPhone or my hardware Kindle, and because the sync feature is pretty reliable, I can switch back and forth as needed.
Where it Fits in
I get a lot of information from the books I read, which end up in different places based on the intended use. Highlights go into Readwise but can end up in Craft for a different kind of review, and some go to Day One in my personal reflection journal, where I can write at length to get more clarity on a concept.
Despite enjoying ebooks, I still like the printed page, and my personal preference for Kindle is what works best for me right now. With Kindle, I like the portability, ease of note-taking, and access to my books on different devices.
If you’re trying to improve your reading experience on the iPad, you can read about how I hid the reading progress and clock in Kindle and also check out my Reading Focus Mode that helps deal with distractions.
PKM Toolkit is a series featuring software and ideas that help collect, organize, review, and share knowledge. You can learn more about personal knowledge management by reading the first entry of the series.