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(on Wikipedia)
https://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/
A dying guy writes about how awesome he had it, and gives advice to his children.
It takes almost half of the book to mine more than two interesting points. It is a glaring reminder of how important it is to have a solid first chapter. Instead, chapter after chapter this book keeps promising something interesting, forcing the reader to cling to the "I'm dying" parts to hope for something better.
For people who stick it out, there is a lot of fluff which I was able to trivially summarize with two pages of bullet points. That's nothing to sneeze at, so I suppose this is worth reading for some, though I won't recommend it.
- A continuation of his lecture Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.
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Published 2008-04-08
Sure, some of this is paraphrasing but some is my writing tersely what he extended to fill pages in a book.
- Tenacity without an audience.
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Walls are there to stop the other people.
- Take a boost when offered.
- Walls show us how badly we want something.
- Not everything needs to be fixed.
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Explicitly manage time. Consider the Time:Money ratio.
- Direct time with intention.
- Small TODOs.
- File.
- Keep the unnecessary convenient.
- Delegate.
- When on vacation, vacate.
- Value self-reflection and self-judgement.
- Have self-judgement on progress.
- Effort should give obvious results.
- Feedback loops for lesson-learning and motivation.
- Welcome feedback, and don't obsess.
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Enable the dreams of others.
- Take risks or vouch to enable their dreams.
- In the reverse: Take a boost when offered. Let others enable your dreams.
- Make others on your team happy, and happy with you.
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Motivate, and instill it into others to themselves motivate others.
- "Pay it forward"
- You can't fulfil your dreams in a vacuum (alone).
- Give yourself permission to dream, and dream big.
- Treat the disease, not the symptom.
- Have proper introductions.
- Remember names.
- Find commonalities.
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Pursue optimal meeting conditions. Try for food.
- p 143.2 - No, that's not why Hollywood "does lunch". It's because they have brutal hours, and lunch is their only free time during the day. They have to keep working while there's light.
- Let others talk.
- Don't talk loud or fast.
- Note ideas independent of origin (and opinion).
- p 143.5 - Give praise. (This is 180° from what he talks about earlier.)
- Phrase alternatives as questions.
- Resort to theatrics to break through, especially for know-it-alls.
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Have patience for people's good side.
- When seeing another's potential, take risks or vouch to enable their dreams.
- Leverage cliches.
- Experience is the default of attempt.
- "Glorious failure", from large risks.
- Experience is a valuable gift to others.
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Show sincere gratitude.
- Gratitude may be inadequate, so pay it forward. Help some future person in that same way.
- Give evidence of thanks: Honest, simple, without expectation for reciprocation or repayment.
- Spending additional time and effort over the minimum will compound (and feedback).
- Reminders, by way of an object (a-la a "landmine"), can be given to others in lieu of nagging.
- Overprepare. Have contingency plans.
- Apologize sincerely.
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Have patience to receive apologies.
- This builds on "patience for a person's good side" and "let others talk".
- Tell the truth.
- Keep your word.
- "Heart" might be repaid in unknowable, unforseeable, unseen ways.
- You are never entitled to be above work.
- Be the one to cross-pollinate, and benefit from the blossoms of both fields.
- Communitarian: Rights with responsibilities.
- Just ask.
- Balance optimism and realism.
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"Stop Sucking and Live a Life of Abundance" is supposed to be a website somewhere.
- I couldn't find anything obvious, and I didn't care to look harder. The owner's name is mentioned in the book.
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Pay for your emotional insurance. Pay it with time.
