The Infinite Machine — Summary

Being very interested in DeFi (Decentralized Finance) — I failed to find good books about that topic out there — other than The Infinite Machine. This book narrates the story of Ethereum. It was such a pleasure reading it. I enjoy having an insight about how radical and paradigm shifting ideas came to be. Let’s … Read more

The Blackstone way of Investing

In this excerpt from What it takes, Stephen Schwarzman explains how Blackstone developed it’s highly risk-averse and impersonal investing strategy. His system differs from that of Warren Buffett which I find highly interesting. Warren makes decisions on his own mostly, at Blackstone there is a process through which investing decisions have to go. THERE ARE … Read more

THE HARDER THE PROBLEM, THE MORE LIMITED THE COMPETITION

What follows is an excerpt from the founder of Backstone Stephen A. Schwarzman’s Biography. Blackstone is the largest alternative investment firm in the world. This is my favorite chapter so far in this book. It is so interesting to me because Stephen describes his thinking process when he created a new company. What he was … Read more

Patient Urgency — Excerpt from The Self-made Billionaire Effect

Last time we read about Empathetic Imagination, one of the defining characteristics of self-made Billionaires. Another characteristic is Patient Urgency. It means feeling an urgency to have everything in place at the right time and sustaining that urgency during prolonged periods of time. The Self-made Billionaire Effect explains. They always say time changes things, but … Read more

Be willing to be lucky

One remark particularly stuck in my head today while reading When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead. Thus, the title of this post. I began to look for work a few months after I started taking classes. The business side of entertainment–that’s where I was heading as far back as the family trip to … Read more

Rewire your brain through games

What follows is an excerpt from the book Superbetter. Rewire your brain so it’s easier to motivate yourself, persevere, and succeed. In video games, we play as heroes. We become conquering space cowboys, warrior princesses, daredevil racecar drivers, or the last survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Even in nondigital games, we strive to be the … Read more

The Power of Games

A while ago I made a post about Janes McGonical’s TED talk, watch it if you haven’t. This is an excerpt of her book Superbetter. I highly recommend this book. Introduction You are stronger than you know. You are surrounded by potential allies. You are the hero of your own story. These three qualities are … Read more

Assertivity in Public Speaking

What follows is a assertiveness training session taken from the book When I say no, I feel guilty. Dialogue #22Ron handles digressive, irrelevant,pertinent, and criticalcomments during thepresentation of areport. Ron is a young graduate student in business administration taking a course in economics. He has great difficulty in getting up in front of a group … Read more

Empathetic Imagination — Excerpt from The Self-made Billionaire Effect

I’m fascinated by a book which explains what Self-made Billionaires have in common. One of the key factors of self-made billionaires is their ability to be empathic enough to understand the needs of other people, and imaginative enough to find and evaluate solutions to those problems. The Self-made Billionaire Effect explains. Inspiration exists, but it … Read more

In learning, embrace difficulties

There are two great books about the science of learning, A Mind for Numbers which I made a summary of and Make it Stick. The following paragraphs are from the latter. Embrace Difficulties WHEN MIA BLUNDETTO, age twenty-three, first lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, was billeted to logistics in Okinawa, she had to get her ticket … Read more

The Accountability Mirror

I want to introduce a very powerful self-improvement concept with the following chapters from the book Can’t Hurt Me, from David Goggins. In fact, this might be the most powerful/no bullshit concept ever. I showed up on her doorstep later that day with my stomach growling. I didn’t ask for forgiveness and she didn’t demand … Read more