Active Recall!

Podcasts, videos, and iPad art

Reading List for August 07, 2021

Not sure if it makes sense do these monthly or what but I did one in April and it was a nice way to check in on my recent reading.

This past week I was in New York and re-listened to Naval’s interview on The Knowledge Project. I’d count this as a top-10 quake episode—podcast episodes that got me to actually take action. In particular, this got me to start jumping between many books. He says he treats books more like blogs, some chapters are better than others and it’s okay to skip or some or just quit a bad book altogether.

That said, I do think I went too far to where books don’t provide a focused outlet for me. It’s too easy to jump between digital books. They’ve become too much like blogs.

To fix this, it should be helpful to write recaps like this and focusing podcast episodes around single books.

On to the books…!

Recently finished

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
I finally finished this. And even recorded some unpublished episodes about the book. Still need to edit them or just record a fresh episode from scratch. In any case, it’s a great book capturing the path to mastery.

If I’m ranking it alongside other 1000 page books I’ve read, it’s the one that made me feel least like a dumbass.

I got to the speech in Atlas Shrugged kept looking for a paragraph break and then for the end of the speech and held like an entire novella between my thumb and index finger and then quit, on a plane if I’m remembering correctly. (I’m probably not.)

I read Infinite Jest and somewhere in the middle realized I’d need… okay well this wasn’t the feeling then but today it’s the feeling I got watching Tenet or Westworld and knowing I’d need to watch some YouTube theory videos afterward.

(The equivalent at the time being reading Aaron Swartz’s ending theory.)

There’s an episode in one of Simon Rich’s shows where the character is figuring out how to position Infinite Jest just right in his apartment before a date arrives. Watching that scene felt like the Predator had his laser sight centered directly on me.

Okay so I’ll re-word it. If I’m ranking Musashi alongside other 1000-page books I’ve read, it’s the one I enjoyed the most. Come for the sword fights (you’ll get them), stay for the journey through mastery and its worth against other things life offers.

You Can’t Lose Them All by Sal Iacono

Cousin Sal talks about his life through the lens of gambling. It’s a fun angle and, man, he does love gambling. If you’ve listened to him on Bill Simmons’s podcast, you’ll know what to expect. It’s definitely a “if you like him, you’ll like the book, if not, you won’t” books.

I like the book.

This will likely be a top-3 book I’d recommend on storytelling. (You know, if someday I ever get good enough at telling stories that I’m ever asked for that recommendation.)

He captures a period in his life that many will experience: you’ve reached a big goal (maybe a peak in life, even, or at least in a career) and you’re working on the next thing.

He also makes it clear what the self talk is like for other overthinkers. (My hunch: Anyone writing about themselves is likely someone who overthinks things, including me.) He even contemplates how he got to be one of these people who writes about their own lives for a living.

Sapiens popularized the idea that shared stories between enormous groups are what make us human. _A Million Miles in a Thousand Years_ explains why personal stories are worth sharing.

Okay I went a little long so I won’t write long notes for these but here are some in progress books.

  • Alexander X: Sci-fi (or like modern fantasy?) about a secret group of immortals. Very fun book to listen to while walking Booster.
  • Psycho-cybernetics: Re-listening (not sure how closely I paid attention the first time) after hearing Pat Flynn and Dan John mention it on their podcast. First steps in an effort in building up my mental fitness. (Enjoyed Shaan and Sam talking about mental health/mental fitness distinction.) Meditation for health, visualizations & mental movies for fitness.
  • Save the Cat Writes for TV: I’m not writing a TV show but am realizing that if I want to take The Notepod podcast more seriously, it mostly means writing. Good book so far but I know I need to, you know, actually write.
  • New Teeth: I look forward to any Simon Rich writing. This time he writes about parenthood. I’m hoping to enter that phase in the next few years so it’s very fun pre-reading.

Okay I’m writing this in a car now and am getting nauseous. I’ll finish by butchering a naval-ism: read books you enjoy until you enjoy reading!

Orson Scott Card and the gap

“You see, the work of a storyteller doesn’t get any easier the more experience we get, because once we’ve learned how to do something, we can’t get excited about doing exactly the same thing again—or at least most of us can’t. We keep wanting to reach for the story that is too hard for us to tell—and then make ourselves learn how to tell it. If we succeed, then maybe we can write better and better books, or at least more challenging ones, or at the very least we won’t bore ourselves.”
— From, Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

I started reading this and there’s a nice intro about how the book came to be. Ender’s Game was a novella. Card had an older idea for Speaker for the Dead and then thought maybe he’d be able to make an older Ender the protagonist, connecting his stories.

But first he’d have to re-write Ender’s Game as a full novel. Which he did, then he wrote Speaker for the Dead and the third in the trilogy. Long process, but worth it.

This reminded me of a Jack Butcher and David Perell workshop called “Get going, then get good”. They mention Ira Glass’s The Gap concept. The gap between your ability and ambition is closed by doing a whole bunch of work.

In this case, Card presents a bit of what happens after that. With Ender’s Game he was at the top of the game, but there’s still room to keep stretching.

You can finally make things that satisfy your own taste. You can picture that as the gap is infinite or just that there’s a world you enter once you close the initial gap.

Creator lessons from NYC food: Katz’s

Times Square, ok… Top of the Rock, sweet. Katz’s, can’t wait!

When friends would visit me in New York, it was often their first time so they were eager to see a bunch of tourist spots. Some I’d look forward to more than others.

Anyway, Katz’s was one I’d look forward to going to and a place I went to on this trip back.

It reminds me of the book The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath.

The first time I took my brother there, his wife wasn’t sure what she wanted initially and so he placed his order then after the sandwich was made she tried placing her order and got an earful about ordering both at the same time from the start.

That starting moment overshadowed anything about how good the sandwich was.

On this current trip, I saw a group of about 8 people finishing up and leaving. A minute later, one of them walked back.

He lost his ticket.

At Katz’s, you get a ticket when you enter and the sandwich makers mark the ticket for the food you ordered. (Sort of like dim sum.)

Then you pay when you exit. If you lose the ticket you can’t exit without paying a $50 fee.

But of course you just go back and look around in fear before giving up and paying $50.

It’s a bad way to end the meal.

I’m guessing it overshadowed how good the food was.

But anyway, I haven’t lost my ticket or been chastised at the counter, so I love the food.

Ordering tip: corned beef sandwich with chopped liver (RIP Bourdain)

Creator lessons from NYC food: Xi’an Famous Foods

Okay after Very Fresh Noodles the other day the craving came back pretty fast. Instead of going back, I thought I’d go down the street to the newer Chelsea location of Xi’an Famous Foods.

Got the lamb noodles and a pork burger.

It was, unsurprisingly, delicious. As good as I remember.

So now let me do a biang biang esque pull and try to connect this to creative work.

  • Help your audience pick: There are a couple pages posted up alongside the menu. I remember one from the first time I went to the St. Marks location: eat take out orders fast or the noodles stick together. At this location one page had a disclaimer about spiciness. The owner would order it spicy, otherwise he finds it too bland.
  • Compromise, sometimes: Now, there’s a story Seth Godin tells where David Chang allowed customizations at Momofuku when Godin went in the early days. Then one day it was, nope, no customization you’ll have to go elsewhere. And in not compromising, he became a creative success. It’s a good story. It’s also not a black and white world. Sometimes it’s worth following the data. Someone spreads the word by bringing a friend in, but their friend doesn’t handle spicy well. The mild option helps in that situation.
  • Treat your team well: No tips signals that employees probably get paid a good wage. And the owner responds to reviews, defending his workers if they’re accused of some kind of devious intent. While it might be breaking the “customer is always right” idea, his team must appreciate that support. Good for the long game.

I’m writing this at the end of my week in Manhattan. I might write a couple more: Katz’s, Minetta Tavern. But for now I’m very, very full.

(P.S. for my Road to 159 audience, dry lamb noodles are 1000 cals. Well worth it.)

Creator lessons from NYC food: Very Fresh Noodles

Here we go with some different things I’ve been eating and tenuous life lessons.Very Fresh Noodles (same stuff, less stuff, very good location)

I love Very Fresh Noodles. I also love X’ian Famous Foods. Which one’s better? I don’t know. Probably just depends on the day. I think it’s a stretch to say that either is way way better than the other.

(Where, while I also enjoy both In-N-Out and Shake Shack, I can see why people think one is way better than other. They’re more different than Very Fresh Noodles and X’ian Famous Foods. I also sometimes wish that In-N-Out didn’t have a good burger so I could say that In-N-Out vs Shake Shack boils down to being from California vs. liking good burgers. Because there’s something more pleasant about going to In-N-Out and so then California people will say you don’t get it, you don’t have to spend $22, and other true things but that aren’t about the burgers themselves. Anyway, this argument doesn’t happen anymore because Shake Shack is in California now too.)

Okay so basically X’ian was a great lunch option with multiple locations.

Very Fresh Noodles opened up a single location in the Chelsea Market. It’s very touristy, so that can be a non-starter for some people. But the side entrances meant it was somewhat easy to get in and get out without waddling through Chelsea Market’s main corridor. I’ve never seen Very Fresh Noodles without customers.

Very Fresh Noodles has similar food but with a much simpler menu. It was roughly: beef or lamb, dry or with soup.

A nice 2×2, like Apple’s offerings.

“Basically, Steve hit Apple’s entire product line with the Simple Stick. He was going to transition Apple from its multitude of computer models to a simple grid of four: laptops for consumers and pros and desktops for consumers and pros. It was one of the most dramatic minimizations of a product line in technology history.”

They’ve since added a few things, but not to the point of X’ian’s table of elements esque wall of photos to pick from.

Anyway, the takeaway: simplify your offerings and be on a platform where people already are.

Always, always write in the editor

I’ve written this a bunch but the good stuff is worth repeating endlessly: there’s nothing that helps me publish more than writing in the editor.

Whenever I write in something where I can’t directly hit publish, I run into issues:

  • Telling myself “oh I’ll fix these things when I copy it over and edit it”: Inevitability, I put too many placeholders in. Every “TK” I casually toss in is another anchor on the editing process. A handful leads to not wanting to edit and finish at all.
  • Not being entirely clear on if the writing will be for publishing: This leads to half finished pieces. I’ll start off with something for publishing but then write a note to myself. Then I’m right back to the issue mentioned in the previous bullet. It’s not always easy to distinguish which sentences were for publishing or not. And it can be tempting to just give up on writing a published thing and tell myself “well at least I’m getting practice typing the words, even if it’s private.”
  • It’s easier to lose drafts: While I can use an action to publish in Drafts, and also I can set up a workspace to separate things intended for publishing, it’s still too easy for things to get lost in the shuffle if I’m writing finished work in the same place that I write “reminder: drop off suit”.

Anyway, just wanted to hit publish again on something after doing these unfinished actions while on a trip to NYC:

  • Wrote 9 thread drafts on the plane (none published)
  • Wrote 5 thread drafts in a coffee shop (none published)
  • Wrote a very long thread in another coffee shop (not published)
  • Recorded something like 90 minutes of voice notes (not published)

If they were private, that’d be okay. But I wrote them all with the intention to hit publish and didn’t get it out.

Write in the editor.