The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

February 11, 2014 by Shane Parrish

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Atul Gawande. A reader recently pointed out that I hadn’t covered his most recent book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. I had only covered an interesting subset of the book—why we fail.

In this post, we’ll take a quick look at some other parts of the book.

To put us in the proper context, we’re smart. Not scary smart but smart enough. We have skills and we generally put them in the most highly trained and hardworking people we can find. We have the most educated society in history. And we’ve accomplished a lot. Nevertheless, sometimes success escapes us for avoidable reasons. Not only are these failures common—across everything from medicine to finance—but they are also frustrating. We should know better but we don’t. The reason we don’t learn, Gawande argues, is evident: Read more of this post

Love is Wise, Hatred is Foolish

Love is Wise, Hatred is Foolish

February 14, 2014 by Shane Parrish

“Love is wise, hatred is foolish.”

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell gave us some of the more enduring developments in 20th-century philosophy. His 10 commandments of teaching andwriting on avoiding foolish opinions demonstrate how Russell wanted philosophy to speak to ordinary people.

In this rare 1959 interview with BBC, Russell is asked to pass along advice to a later generation. In just under two minutes he articulates two things: one intellectual and one moral that still resonate today and cut through our noisy world. Read more of this post

The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant: Twelve Keys to Successful Living

The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant: Twelve Keys to Successful Living Hardcover – Bargain Price

by Terry Felber  (Author) , Dave Ramsey (Foreword)

Every life requires a spiritual foundation.

“Grandfather, you left this…” Julio lifted the leather-bound journal and stepped toward the old man.

“It is yours now,” said Antonio, with a gleam in his eye. “I’ve lived my life according to the twelve principles recorded in it. And if you will apply its principles as I did, your success will be greater than you could ever imagine.” Read more of this post

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy Hardcover

by William B. Irvine  (Author)

One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. Read more of this post

The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius [Paperback]

Pierre Hadot (Author), Michael Chase (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: January 27, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0674007077 | ISBN-13: 978-0674007079

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius are treasured today–as they have been over the centuries–as an inexhaustible source of wisdom. And as one of the three most important expressions of Stoicism, this is an essential text for everyone interested in ancient religion and philosophy. Yet the clarity and ease of the work’s style are deceptive. Pierre Hadot, eminent historian of ancient thought, uncovers new levels of meaning and expands our understanding of its underlying philosophy. Read more of this post

Aristotle for Everybody by Mortimer J. Adler, Chairman of the Board of the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Aristotle for Everybody Paperback

by Mortimer J. Adler (Author)

Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.) taught logic to Alexander the Great and, by virtue of his philosophical works, to every philosopher since, from Marcus Aurelius, to Thomas Aquinas, to Mortimer J. Adler. Now Adler instructs the world in the “uncommon common sense” of Aristotelian logic, presenting Aristotle’s understandings in a current, delightfully lucid way. He brings Aristotle’s work to an everyday level. By encouraging readers to think philosophically, Adler offers us a unique path to personal insights and understanding of intangibles, such as the difference between wants and needs, the proper way to pursue happiness, and the right plan for a good life. Read more of this post

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull, co-founder (with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) of Pixar Animation

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True InspirationHardcover

by Ed Catmull (Author) , Amy Wallace (Author)

From Ed Catmull, co-founder (with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) of Pixar Animation Studios, comes an incisive book about creativity in business—sure to appeal to readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath.

Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.” Read more of this post

What Is Love? “Love requires you to be physically and emotionally present. It also requires that you slow down.”

What Is Love?

February 14, 2014 by Shane Parrish

“Love requires you to be physically and emotionally present. It also requires that you slow down.”

What better day is there than today to explore love? In Love 2.0, psychologist Barbara Fredrickson looks under the hood to explore love.

She begins by exploring longing before connecting it to love. Read more of this post

Rhinoceros Success : the Secret to Charging Full Speed Toward Every Opportunity

Rhinoceros Success : the Secret to Charging Full Speed Toward Every Opportunity Hardcover

by Scott Alexander  (Author) , Dave Ramsey (Foreword)

Dave says, “I believe in this book so much. It’s one of the 4 books that I require my team to read when they start working on my team.” Scott Alexander has discovered the REAL secret of success: becoming a rhinoceros. Read it and go rhino! Read more of this post

Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil Hardcover

Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil Hardcover

by Paul Bloom  (Author)

A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone.

From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society—and especially parents—to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing on groundbreaking research at Yale, Bloom demonstrates that, even before they can speak or walk, babies judge the goodness and badness of others’ actions; feel empathy and compassion; act to soothe those in distress; and have a rudimentary sense of justice. Read more of this post

Leverage: The CEO’s Guide to Corporate Culture

Leverage: The CEO’s Guide to Corporate Culture Paperback

by John R. Childress  (Author)

LEVERAGE: The CEO’s Guide to Corporate Culture: A book specially written for the CEO and business leader to better understand what corporate culture is, why it matters, the impact on performance, where culture comes from, how to better understand the strenghts and weaknesses of your own culture, and importantly, how to develop and sustain high performance culture.  Read more of this post

On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes

On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes Hardcover

by Alexandra Horowitz  (Author)

From the author of the giant #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog comes an equally smart, delightful, and startling exploration of how we perceive and discover our world.
Alexandra Horowitz’s brilliant On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinary—to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, “the observation of trifles.” On Looking is structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, with experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. Read more of this post

The organization that renews itself: Lasting value from lean management; Applying lean principles to management, rather than just operations, can help large organizations reimagine how they work and unlock value through continuous improvement

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life Paperback

by Twyla Tharp  (Author) , Mark Reiter (Contributor)

One of the world’s leading creative artists, choreographers, and creator of the smash-hit Broadway show, Movin’ Out, shares her secrets for developing and honing your creative talents—at once prescriptive and inspirational, a book to stand alongside The Artist’s Way and Bird by Bird.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly Read more of this post