Post: #226

A couple of comedians in the UK made a funny alternate them tune for 'The Quantum of Solace' when that film came out.

Always makes me laugh when I think of that strange title:

Post: #227

Meditation for Warriors by Loren w. Christensen

Post: #228

Legal textbook: Religion And The Constitution.

Fascinating read.

Post: #229

What have you found out so far?

Post: #230

Democracy: The God that Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Post: #231

Just finished A Dead Bat in Paraguay. Excellent ending.
Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff. Probably the best game book not about game I've ever read. All about frame control.

Post: #232

(05-12-2014 10:57 PM)Biz Wrote:  Pitt, how so?

It made me very understanding with people, extremely loyal, I couldn't tell lies, in other words is a book that is not applicable to the alpha world, it will make you beta as fuck.

However I am still happy that I am loyal to people, it's the favourite quality I have but most of the stuff on that book needs to be ignored because it wouldn't work in many areas of life (game is one of them).

Post: #233

I am currently reading More Money Than God: Hedgefunds and the making of a new elite. It's a pretty good read, chronicling the history of hedgefunds from their humble beginnings in the 50's/60's to the present.

Takeaways:
1)Hedgefund managers make insane amounts of money, even if they don't hit their targets.

2) Initially the most successful Hedgefunds got their edge via innovation. (developing a system for tracking market volatility, Paying performance based salaries to employees, etc) However as time went on people would copy these and they would be forced to innovate further or resort to insider trading.

3) Insider trading is a really good option if you don't get caught. Many of the things that the managers do would be instantly recognizable as insider trading to you or I, however the author spends a lot of time defending these actions, saying how they aren't technically insider trading.

I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in investing. These sorts of funds play a huge role in the market today and it is good to see how these funds can direct and shape the market.

Post: #234

I read that book.

One of the best finance books I have read.

Post: #235

(05-12-2014 11:06 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  Ian Fleming is a very underrated writer. There are parts of "From Russia With Love" that are superb, and very long stretches of "Casino Royale" that are even finer. Some of the short stories are excellent, particularly one called "Quantum of Solace".

He truly loved his character and wrote about some of the best and purest manly activities in loving detail, so I'm surprised he's not even more popular on the forum.

I just got through Part I of FRwL. Fleming took almost 100 pages of setting up the characters in SMERSH. Gut wrenching, humane, sinister, bureaucratic. Red Grant and Tatiana Romanova are described vividly. Finally Bond is introduced after 100 pages starting with how he kills his boredom (intense workout) and prepares his breakfast. Very entertaining read.

I read Casino a few years ago and loved it as well. There are so many little details that really give you a full psychological profile of Bond that the movies can't show you. These books surprisingly read very fast for 300 pages. Will definitely look into Quantum after this one.

Post: #236

I loved Bond's breakfast in FRwL. One of the heights for me.

Lots of good stuff to come there...

The first few chapters of Casino Royale reach literary greatness at times. The female character takes it down as they so often do.

Post: #237

I'm reading right now The Biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson for the fourth time.

It's like he was such a fucking baller, he was unstoppable, driven and creative. He lived the life he wanted and died in his own right doing what he wanted. Many red-pill thinking about business, education, innovation, design, engineering, charisma, seduction (even though he was an LTR kinda guy, I respect the way he approached women fearlessly and got them hooked on his charm) and many more. I hate what iphones have done to society, specially with women, but the guy had mojo and I feel he was like a kindred-spirit, long lost mentor.

I'm also reading Bang by Roosh. I don't agree 100% with all of his method (not all of them are my style), but the guy is right on the money, and it's worth every penny.

Post: #238

I should have read this book years ago. I am preparing for an intensive reading and writing course and I thought I would read this book to sharpen my abilities as a reader. For some time I've considered myself an avid reader (reading on average around 1-2 books per month depending on the length). This book has expanded my perception of what it means to extract information and knowledge from a book. It relates that reading a book is a conversation between author and reader; that reading is an active process and not just a passive one. It categorizes 4 types of reading:

Elementary reading:
-What you learned in grade school. The ability to read and then regurgitate what you just read.

Inspectional reading:

-Skimming (or "pre-reading") a book. Relates how to quickly gather knowledge and how to pigeonhole a book by reading the cover, table of contents, the dust jacket, the back of the book, and various passages.

-This section also expounds on what the authors refer to as "superficial reading." This means reading a book once all the way through, without bothering to stop and look up terms or stopping when the reader arrives at a particularly difficult section he or she does not understand. One quote that stood out to me: "Understanding half of a really tough book is much better than not understanding it at all, which will be the case if you allow yourself to be stopped by the first difficult passage you come to" (p.37).

Analytical reading:

-Explains the 4 basic questions a reader asks:

1. What is the book about as a whole?
2. What is being said in detail, and how?
3. Is the book true?
4. What of it?

-The importance of enumerating what a book is about, and how the different parts relate to each other to make up the whole. (Ever been asked, "What's that book about?" This book will tell you how to answer intelligently).

-Goes into the benefits of writing in a book and taking notes in the margins, underlining, etc.

-How to come to terms with an author and determine the message of the author.

-The importance of giving a book fair criticism. "The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging." The caveat is that one must first understand what one has read. Rule 9. "You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, "I understand," before you can say... "I agree," or "I disagree," or "I suspend judgement" (p. 141-142).

-"How do you know whether you are making proper use of your experience to help you understand a book? Ask yourself whether you can give a contrete example of a point you feel you understand" (p. 171).

Syntopical reading:

-How to read multiple books or sections of books that relate to the same subject concurrently. This includes how to select passages that relate to your subject, and how to locate those passages by way of skimming.

The book also contains information on how to read various sorts of books including literature, history, social science, mathematics, current events, etc. I think the book extends its reach a bit too far here. Some of the passages are fairly short, with dull advice such as reading a poem once, and then again aloud, in order to understand it. It also trivializes the value of what it calls extrinsic reading, the use of outside sources for assistance. To its credit, it also has sections on how to use those sources (How to use a dictionary, how to use an encyclopedia, etc.). It even has a recommended reading list which is essentially a list of the Great Books of the western canon. The back of the book also contains mini-exercises to test one's reading prowess. It's a fun little section to test whether you actually learned anything from the book.

Overall a very good book to designed to improve one’s reading skills. Highly recommended.

Post: #239

Reading the art of happiness by Dalai Lama.

Post: #240

In this book Dr. Harris sets out to relay how we can understand our behavior using simple terminology. He explains Transactional Analysis in a simple way and why people often act against their own self-interest. Dr. Harris asserts that within every human being there are 3 psychological roles. These roles are constructed based on “recordings” of what a person sees, hears, and experiences from birth through childhood.

The 3 roles are:

Parent- The admonitions and rules that a child heard from his parents and witnessed in what they did; the recording of external events. The no’s, the don’t’s, the praise, the criticism. The author includes some common phrases I’m sure many people have heard from their parents such as “You’re judged by the company you keep,” “Clean your plate,” “You can never trust a man/woman,” and so on. This is the authority figure within each person, this is the part that tells others what they’re doing wrong and doles out criticism or guidance, and when we beat ourselves up for doing something wrong or not doing enough this is the role we take on; that of the Parent.

Child- The feelings a person feels when he is experiences various interactions with other human beings, mostly his parents; the recording of internal events. Because very young children are unable to converse, most of their early recordings are feelings. Dr. Harris writes “The predominant by-product of the frustrating, civilizing process is negative feelings. On the basis of these feelings the little person early concludes, “I’m not OK” (p. 28). He goes on to say “Frequently we find ourselves in situations where we…find ourselves in a corner. These hook the “hook the Child,” and cause a replay of the original feelings of frustration, rejection, or abandonment. When anger dominates his reason, we say his Child is in command” (p. 30). The Child also contains positive qualities including creativity.

Adult- The ability to view reality objectively and make decisions based on those objective facts. “Adult data accumulates as a result of the child’s ability to find out for himself what is different about life from the “taught concept” of life in his Parent and the “felt concept” of life in his Child. The Adult develops a “thought concept” of life based on data gathering and data processing” (pg. 31).

What happens when people in different psychological roles interact? What happens when a person’s Child interacts with another person’s Parent? Read this book to find out. Dr. Harris uses other terminology such as “strokes” (recognition or validation) and the various ways people go about attaining those strokes. A passage which caught my attention noted how Child-Child transactions rarely last very long. The author notes how the hippie movement faded because by cutting off the source of disapproval (Parent) the hippies also cut off their source of valid praise. “Boy to girl: “Of course I love you. I love everybody!” (p. 78). If everybody is special, strokes no longer mean anything.

He also elaborates on what he views as the 4 ego states a person can hold about himself and the other people:

-I’m Not OK, You’re OK
-I’m OK, You’re Not OK,
-I’m Not OK, You’re Not OK,
-I’m OK, You’re OK.

This was not necessarily a challenging read, though it caused me to think about how I interact with others, how the behavior of other people causes me to sometimes think irrationally, and it’s given me another way to view other human beings. Recommended.

Post: #241

Currently reading Charisma Myth and a couple of improving your writing craft books.

Charisma Myth has been fairly good so far. I'm 1/4 of the way through it.

Post: #242

I'm currently reading "The Next Decade" by Dr. George Friedman, STRATFOR founder and "Secret Voyages to the New World" by Gunnar Thompson. The prior outlines Friedman's predictions for the early 21st century including America's gradual disengagement from the Middle East, a détente with Iran, a new competition with Russia, and increasing cooperation between Russia and Germany. Given current events, it is very interesting reading. The latter deals with European explorations of the Americas prior to Columbus, including Marco Polo, the Venetians, the Norse, and even earlier Hebrew explorations under King Solomon and his heirs. This book is certainly thought provoking if nothing else.

Post: #243

Interesting Stratfor video.

In it George Friedman (the founder of Stratfor) debates geopolitcal forecasting with Robert Kaplan. In the video - Kaplan argues that geopolitical forecasting is a lot harder than most people think. And as such is sceptical about its true value.





As for me - I am currently reading this book:



http://www.amazon.com/The-Reign-Relativi...0195177177

Quote:Universally recognized as bringing about a revolutionary transformation of the notions of space, time, and motion in physics, Einstein's theory of gravitation, known as "general relativity," was also a defining event for 20th century philosophy of science.

During the decisive first ten years of the theory's existence, two main tendencies dominated its philosophical reception. This book is an extended argument that the path actually taken, which became logical empiricist philosophy of science, greatly contributed to the current impasse over realism, whereas new possibilities are opened in revisiting and reviving the spirit of the more sophisticated tendency, a cluster of viewpoints broadly termed transcendental idealism, and furthering its articulation.

It also emerges that Einstein, while paying lip service to the emerging philosophy of logical empiricism, ended up siding de facto with the latter tendency.

The book analyzes how Einstein's theory of relativity shaped the work of those philosophers who were interested in the ideas of Kant's 'Transcendental Idealism'.

Really excited about this book!

Post: #244

I've seen this before and found myself in agreement with Kaplan as well. For anyone interested, Stratfor has a YouTube channel that updates a few times a week. Interesting stuff for those of us interested in global politics.

Post: #245

When thinking about geopolitics - I think the ideas of Nasim Taleb are very powerful.

Most of history is shaped by 'Black Swans' which people never saw coming.

Who would have guessed that an unknown writer working alone in the British library would eventually shape the political division across the world? [Karl Marx]

Who would have guessed that the most important scientific theory ever would have inspired the worse crime ever committed by man? [Charles Darwin and Adolf Hitler]

Who predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall? Not many people - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions...viet_Union

Who predicted that the Chernobyl disaster would inspire the policy of glasnost which eventually lead to break up of the Soviet Union? Nobody.

Who predicted 9/11? Nobody.

If Lee Harvey Oswald had missed JFK - how would the world look today?

If the bullet had killed Ronald Reagan - how would the world look today?

If John Smith had never died - Tony Blair would never have come to power. How different would the UK be today?

When predicting the future - how can you attempt to factor in such randomness?

Nassim Taleb is correct in my opinion. And the most important point he makes is this. Humans very quickly forget how genuinely shocking an event once was. Very quickly - it becomes a fact of history. And everything leading up to that event is interpreted and understood in a way which plays down the psychological impact that such events have.

And this leads us to mistakenly believe the future will be a lot less surprising than it actually will be. After reading Taleb's work - I have made a point of savoring how surprising events can be. As a reminder that the world is a lot more unpredictable than the human mind ever imagines.

Post: #246

Plenty of people predicted 9/11, just no one cared to stop it. Look at the aftermath of that day. How many wars have been fought and will be fought? I think it mollifies us to think of these events as having a certain randomness but a lot of these "operations" are meticulously planned. Look at the false flag event in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Granted, it is much easier to believe that these things happened as a result of a mad man/men, but in reality it is far more complex than that. Also, in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles, intelligent people knew exactly what was going to happen as a result of German reparations and the systematic destruction of their economy.

I think that, again, it makes us feel more at ease thinking these were just random. Don't even get me started on JFK and the "magic bullet".

Post: #247

I'm reading Perfect Phrases for Customer Service.

I'm not in the field of customer service but I think it is a good skill to learn how to communicate well for everybody. Especially if you want girls.

Summary:
You've heard it a million times: "The customer is always right." But let’s face it--sometimes the customer is misinformed, confused, or downright difficult. The ability to handle such customers is what separates the serious professional from the average employee.

Perfect Phrases for Customer Service, second edition, provides the language you need for everyday customer service situations--and includes simple, effective techniques that can help you meet even the most demanding customer needs. Master the most effective words and phrases for:

-Defusing bad situations before they get worse
-Handling complaints patiently and professionally
-Satisfying customers and increasing sales
-Building long-term relationships with important customers

Post: #248

Greg Iles is John Grisham but with flowing more talented prose and a stark male perspective. His book always have alphas in it.

Check out the Penn Cage novels which are set in and around Natchez , MS for southern gothic on steroids.

I just started his latests "Natchez Burning" and it's compulsively readable.

Also ,I'm reading Landmark: Herodotus Histories - fascinating accounts and stories of the ancients.

Post: #249

(05-26-2014 09:56 PM)robreke Wrote:  Greg Iles is John Grisham but with flowing more talented prose and a stark male perspective. His book always have alphas in it.

Check out the Penn Cage novels which are set in and around Natchez , MS for southern gothic on steroids.

I just started his latest "Natchez Burning" and it's compulsively readable.

Also ,I'm reading Landmark: Herodotus Histories - fascinating accounts and stories of the ancients.

Post: #250

Just started reading Ethical Oil. Pretty interesting so far. Anyone else read it? It is about staunch opposition to the oil sands and how illogical it is. Delves into who the other suppliers are, and the fact that among the major oil producers, Canada is the only one with a democratic government and any semblance of environmental protection. Yet the oil sands operations are vilified as being dirty and immoral. The sad thing is that other countries that would benefit from a reduction of oil sands exports are contributors to the anti-oil sands agenda.