Summary of my reading from June.
Enjoy...
*Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed (6/1)
In my June edition of proper admin, I noted that this was the third of Cheryl Strayed's books that I read in the final week of May. I also mentioned that I am listening to her weekly podcast, Dear Sugar Radio. A lot of her work has resonated with me and I need some more time to put that feeling into writing. So, I am going to do a separate post when the time is right and cover the three books together. Let's say sometime in August.
I've already written a little bit about her ideas from these books, though. The thoughts about withholding and how they distort reality was a powerful section in this book. Her description of how her too-small hiking boots impacted her toenails (from Wild) and her personal recollections of how she ignored obvious problems in her own life until they literally became too loud to ignore (from Tiny Beautiful Things) were among the catalysts for my own recent decision to buy a larger pair of running sneakers.
The biggest idea that I am wrestling with at the moment involves how it is human nature to narrate our own lives. The events that happened in our past are the building blocks of our future. The way we respond to our own experiences of success, hurt, shame and joy shape the people we become.
I look back and see how these things have always held true for me. My worst ever performance as a student, a freshman year course about volcanoes, led to my becoming a more focused and meticulous learner. A bitterly disappointing three years of complete failure as a college basketball player led to my best preseason and a near breakthrough into the rotation in my senior year. A butchered rehab process from my first major ankle injury gave me the understanding needed to rehab almost perfectly when I repeated the injury on my other ankle a few years later. I am beginning to see how my lay off will likely make me a better employee in my next position.
Strayed wrote in Tiny Beautiful Things that losing her own mother at the age of twenty-three unquestionably made her a better person. She repeated this point on her podcast. Last spring, I read this idea for the first time and found the suggestion that a mother's death could lead to someone becoming a better, fuller person incomprehensible (and perhaps vaguely offensive).
I'm not fully around to the idea, yet, but sitting here a year later I do see what Strayed meant in her words. I understand that I might look back one day and say the same. Given how human it is to simply narrate our own journey and reflecting on the ways I have always responded to negative experiences in the past, I see no reason why I would one day say otherwise.
*Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion (6/4)
An essay collection from an author who I am aware of but still do not know much about. Most of the writing is set in the late 1960s (that decade yet another thing that I am aware of but still do not know much about).
There were many interesting little comments and ideas throughout. One idea I liked was that it is easier to identify the start of something than the end. Another idea I liked a lot was that if you do not at least remain on 'nodding terms' with the people you once were, they tend to come back to you at the very worst possible times.
The essay that has stuck in my mind is the final one- I believe it was called 'Goodbye To All That'. It remarks on what I consider a necessary realization for those considering the difference between post-adolesence and adulthood- the recognition that everything you do adds up, that each day does count and all the time wasted along the way does accumulate somewhere. I remember the first time I read this idea- in Meg Jay's The Defining Decade- and thinking about how the true professionals I knew at the time seemed never to have a case of the Mondays.
*Mind Gym by Sebastian Bailey and Octavius Black (6/5)
A few months ago, I posted a description of my reading process. This included a section on my screening process for reading books. In most cases, I wrote, books that rate at 4.2 or higher out of 5.0 on goodreads.com pass the final test.
When I checked on Mind Gym, I noted that high rating and added the book to my library list. A book about learning and development strategies? Sign me up, please!
Ah, but...turns out I looked up the wrong Mind Gym (*). This book actually rated closer to 3.2 on the scale. And though the book was not entirely a waste of time, I did find some parts a struggle to read and others were a bit too simple for what I expected to be a more nuanced read. More than once, I thought 'this book is not very good for a 4.2' and switched my attention over to a different read.
*The other Mind Gym is a fitness book. No plans on reading it at the moment.A couple of the ideas are worth restating. One is that relationships tend to break down over an accumulation of small, negative events. Generally, it is thought that five or so positive interactions are needed to outweigh each negative one.
The second is that assuming you know how someone else is feeling is a surefire way to lead to a bad reaction. Just ask, I guess. A close cousin to this idea that I am thinking about at the moment is how asking someone to justify their feelings or explaining to someone how their feelings are wrong is a surefire way to get them to shutdown.
*Only What's Necessary by Chip Kidd (6/8)
This is about Peanuts and the author of those comic strips, Charles Schulz. Although the book covered the life story of the author, I really just looked at the comics. Not an entirely worthless exercise, though, to read the text that occasionally interrupted the panels, because in a way Peanuts was his life story told through the medium of the comic strip.
*The Great Fortnight of No Reading by Tim Concannon (6/8 - 6/22)
From June 8 to June 22, I actually did not finish reading a single book. This is not to mean I did not read- I did read. Just not much.
What happened? No idea. It was a good two weeks, though. All I know is I went into June 8 feeling somewhat down on things and emerged two weeks later feeling pretty good. I don't really have a good explanation for it right now.
*Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (6/22)
I posted about this eleven days ago. Took about eleven days to write, too, I might add. Race is a very difficult topic to write about.
I have thought a little more that post since I wrote it. The startling thing was, when I challenged myself to come up with one instance where I found it helpful to describe something, someone, some group, some whatever by using racial terms- I came up with a total zero.
I wrote last Tuesday that I am not sure when this year is going to end. When it does, though, per tradition, I will likely come up with at least one 'new year' resolution. I'm ready to go with mine- I'm done using words like white, Asian, black, and so on.
*Nonrequired Reading by Wislawa Szymborska (6/24)
One of my favorite managerial catchphrases is that 'there is no substitute for the reading'. It was a frustrated reaction to one of my least favorite meetings in my previous role- essentially, each person attending 'did not have the time to read the contract' yet somehow felt ready to articulate their fully developed point of view on how to approach a particular situation (*).
*Did not have time to read the legal document governing what was allowed and not allowed, in case what I wrote above was unclear. Unbelievable! Did the Supreme Court set a precedent for allowing 'I had too much email that day' to serve as an acceptable defense for breaching a contract?Most people do not do the reading. This starts in junior high school when you first learn about cliff notes and it is more or less the Lemming Olympics from there.
Where were we? This book is a series of short book reviews and I liked how each review made no attempt to substitute for the reading. Instead, Szymborska simply made a connection to an idea or observation that may or may not have loosely related to the book she was supposed to be reviewing.
This book forced me to think about this blog a little bit. I think trying to mirror the approach shown here is a good idea. Most of the time, an audience is capable of taking in only one idea at a time (*). So, no matter how much I have to say about a book or topic, the best bet is probably to keep it short, simple, and focused on the one idea. If I have more to say, I'll just do a second post (**).
*Another one of my favorite managerial catchphrases there. Also, when I say 'an audience can only take in one idea at a time', no offense meant! All audiences except this one, I should say. You folks are capable of taking in multiple ideas at once, I'm sure.
**Wish me luck...In terms of a specific idea I took from this book, I thought the observation that animals of the same species do not attack each other unless placed into captivity was fascinating. What does this say about humans?
*Stitches by Anne Lamott (6/25)
Where is the meaning in suffering? This is the topic of the book. It is a short read, about one hundred pages (less, actually).
There was quite a bit contained within this work and I'll include my notes in the final footnote
The best idea from this book transformed my thoughts on the Lost In Translation bracket's second semifinal- that the gift of grief is the return of yourself. I needed time to think about that line but saw the wisdom within almost immediately.
*The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman (6/26)
Klosterman's second novel is about a man who invents and steals cloaking technology. He uses it, primarily, to watch other people while they are alone. This is done to get a better understanding about who people really are since the character's philosophy is that most people are not themselves when they are with other people.
The most compelling idea from the book was an observation made that most people do not seem to 'count' the things they do when they are alone. Instead, they approach the time as filler to get to the next time they are not alone. I suspect this idea originally was directed at television viewing.
I wonder what people who supposedly 'count' the time they spend alone more than others do with that time. Unfortunately, this book did not cover it (unless it was subtly suggesting something about voyeurism). I should have asked Chuck when I went to his book reading...
*Plain Talk by Ken Iverson (6/27)
Iverson is the former CEO of the Nucor Corporation. Though nearly bankrupt in the 1960s, Nucor is the largest producer of steel in the USA today.
The book is about his management philosophy. Stated simply, he advocates such principles as transparency of leadership, minimization of management layers, and production based pay. Each of these principles ties into a larger idea of how loyal and motivated employees are the bedrock of any long-term success in a business.
A lot of what he wrote about spoke directly to me and served as clarification of many of my own principles about leadership. I will likely cover ideas from this book in more detail on my other blog.
The most interesting idea from the book is how he described layoffs. In short, Nucor didn't bother. Instead, Iverson advocated sharing the pain from top to bottom, providing an example in one difficult time by cutting his own compensation from $450k to $110k (1). This allowed workers to focus on doing their jobs well by minimizing concerns of job security within an industry where turnover in such times is considered the norm.
That's all for this week, folks. Thanks for checking in.
On Friday, we might see the final of the world's longest tournament. 'Iktsuarpok' is a small favorite, if the recent betting lines are to be believed, but anything can happen between now and then. That does include the possibility of a delay (to 7/29) but I am working on the post and hopeful that it will wrap up by Friday.
If I do not finish up in time, please
Tim
Foot-noooooootes!
1. A Nucor analogy...
The approach to layoffs reminds me of how some countries handle economic downturns. To simplify the example, instead of a 10% fall leading to a layoff of 10% of all workers, each worker instead reduces their own pay by 10%.
It also reminded me of how holding or buying into index funds with demonstrated long-run success tends to perform better as a long-run strategy than selling off or staying away during a market dip. I suppose the link to the above analogy is keeping your portfolio intact instead of selling off at below-market prices is like keeping your employees around during a downturn. Once economic conditions pick up again, the idea is that the company retaining its employees or the portfolio holding more stock shares will increase its value faster than those who are scrambling to re-hire or looking for 'deals' in an upward moving market.
Endnote- my notes from Stitches...
*Where is meaning in suffering? This is a question very much worth asking.
*There is no need to call a nightmare a dream.
*Healing means standing in the middle of the horror. It means waiting and witnessing while another suffers in your sight.
*To help others through suffering means spending time with them so it passes a little more tolerably. It means leaving behind what you think needs or must be done just to keep them company. You might have to force your way in because it can be difficult for the suffering to reach out.
*A search for meaning never looks good on the surface. It pulls you from the success you might have achieved at work or at school. It will force you to confront difficult truths about your life that will cause hurt for your friends and family. People will worry about your control over your own life even as you are feeling empowered like never before.
*There is no value in pretending you do not see what is going on, around you or within you.
*The American way is to help. It is not to need help.
*Grief is frowned upon. My company's bereavement policy was five days for immediate family and scaled down 'appropriately' from there, a policy that is the norm among all company policies I am aware of.
This leads to expectations, such as the need to appear 'back on your feet' ASAP so you are not labeled selfish or whiny. Believing this when you are suffering will distort your view of your surroundings and you will not see those who are ready to help you, who are able to witness without becoming embarrassed, who might be uncomfortable or nervous or afraid of saying the wrong thing but willing to try, anyway.
*Grief takes some time. It might take years. But the end result is always the gift of coming back to yourself.
*Restoration requires only that someone not give up. To teach fully is to restore a person in a way that allows the student to use his or her natural gifts.
*Teaching is a calling for those who do not understand the idea of giving up.
