Book Thoughts

It feels a bit funny writing about the Metaverse in 2021. 2021, when the Metaverse was “hot,” feels like a very long time ago. Much that’s written about the Metaverse today is either 1) journalisticaccounts of how underwhelming Facebook’s Metaverse product is, or 2) articles about various companies shutting down their “Metaverse” divisions. That being said, it’s still an interesting concept and important one. We are living more and more of our lives online.

This was a wild book. This is the story that inspired Moby-Dick: a whaling boat is repeatedly rammed by a whale and destroyed. Then, the crew - stranded in lifeboats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - must find their way to land (which takes 90+ days). It’s a wild story, but also had interesting insights about economics, leadership, and human psychology.

Good listening falls into the category of “things that seem easy but in reality are hard” (also in that category: playing an instrument well, staying focused for extended periods of time, assembling IKEA furniture). It’s a superpower of sorts, allowing us to better understand people, connect with them, and turn any conversation into an interesting one. What exactly defines good listening and why is it so hard? What can we do to get better at it?

Every year, I try to read several books on one subject I’m particularly interested in. One area for me has been friendship, which I’ve read 6-ish books about over the last 6 months. I chose it as a topic given 1) it’s really important and 2) is something I don’t feel I have a ton of time for - as a midcareer father to young kids, most of my waking hours are accounted for.

GE was once the most valuable company in the US. And not in like 1875, but in 2001. Now, it’s worth about 15% of its peak value. What happened? Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric, by Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann (368 pages) Lights Out is an interesting look into GE’s decline, written by two WSJ reporters. It’s a relatively quick read and enjoyable, though probably best for people interested in business books .

This feels like an appropriate book to start 2023 off with, given many people make resolutions or look for clean starts around this time. A lot of resolutions center around reducing pleasure (e.g., dry January, weight loss) or increasing pain (e.g., exercising more) in the short term to make our lives better in the long term. Dopamine Nation is an interesting discussion of how pleasure and pain work, viewed largely through the lens of addiction, which is Dr. Lembke’s specialty.

I’ll be happy once I find my soulmate and get married. I’m really just focused on getting this promotion, which will make me happy. Once I’m in my 40s, the best days of my life are over and I’ll never be as happy as I was in my 20s. I’ve dreamed since I was a kid that I’d be a successful actress. That is clearly not going to happen, which makes me unhappy now and will for years. The Myths of Happiness addresses why these are…myths.

The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat by Stephan Guyenet This gets filed under the genre of “books that thoughtfully explain why we’re not all walking around with six packs” and is kind of a companion to Burn: Burn focused on exercise (and how our bodies have evolved to make exercise less effective for losing weight), and The Hungry Brain is focused on food (and how our bodies have evolved to overeat).

Being a good person does not equal being a good husband (or wife). You can provide for your family, be a great parent, and refrain from committing Major Marriage Crimes (adultery, murder) and still make your partner unhappy. Fray was married for 12 years until his wife asked for a divorce and blindsided him. He blogged about it – She divorced me because I left dishes by the sink - which eventually became this book.

The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen Here are some things I learned about bananas from this book: All the bananas you eat are clones of the same original banana (called a “Cavendish”) Bananas can grow 20 inches in 24 hours Bananas led to multiple governments being overthrown.