Action Figure Daniel

Category: Reading

  • “Mind Over Money” by Claudia Hammond

    • Money represents what can be
    • Money allows us to quantify and exchange trust
    • The promise of money does not trigger the same places in the brain as something exchangeable for money
    • “Shekels” used to be a measure of barley that workers would get for a day’s labor
    • We loath signing our future-self up for work
    • We are usually willing to pay a premium to avoid the chance of regret
    • Often, buying a more expensive something lets you feel better about the medication and food
    • The “Compromise” premise (showing a high price to start thing inclines us to buy something between the most and least expensive item) disappears when we complete the transaction
      • It is only around when we have something to compare
      • To avoid the premise: While shopping, imagine the thing in the context of its final placement
    • Financial incentives teach us to only work when there is an incentive
    • “Yes, money does have motivational power but only as long as it is getting paid.”
    • Financial rewards represent a “physical” manifestation of our work
    • Praise should be honest and succinct
    • “Pay enough or don’t pay at all”
      • (Don’t go cheap with friends)
      • A small gift is better than paying a friend
    • Help people to understand they have some control
    • We view poor people with disgust and as non-human
    • Ask rich people for a donation not a deal
    • We want things people we like have but only if it is achievable
    • We are okay with people doing immoral things if it is for “enough” money
    • Gamblers tend to see “near misses” rather than “losses”
    • We like to think we hate taxes but we actually like to pay them
    • “Thrive” and “Thrift” come from the same word

  • “Range” by David Epstein

    • Diversity tends to teach nuance that focused study cannot
    • Where patterns do not clearly repeat, experience does not bring insight
    • “Chunking” lets us group things into known patterns that can more easily be recalled and acted on
    • Do not reward people for a singular solution as it will reduce exploration
    • Modernity changes how we make sense of the world
    • Improvising turns off the self-critique part of the brain
    • Showing shortcuts bypasses learning and only teaches the rules
    • Retrieval is all about the journey
    • Repetition is less important than struggle
    • Look to other disciplines to solve tough problems
    • Use analogies to other projects before estimating a current project
    • Instead of trying to predict “what you like”, try to predict “who you are like”
    • “A problem well-put is half-solved.”
    • Sometimes people drop out simply because they realize they are not good fits (rather than lacking grit)
    • Before starting, we should determine when we should quit
    • The question is not “whether” we are gritty but “when” we are gritty
    • We tend to use “local search” to find solutions in “known pools”
    • We need both birds for their vision and frogs for their depth
    • Hedgehogs tend to get worse over time
    • Ask for the missing data!
    • Focus on “making sense” not “making decisions”
      • This lets you change direction later if the facts change
    • Send “mixed messages” to help stir up a stale mate
    • We have a really hard time letting go of familiar tools

  • “Rising Strong” by Brene Brown

    • Do not gold plate grit
      • If your story is gritty, talk about it. Talk about how hard and painful it was. Make people listening do not think they are broken or bad because they cannot push through as easily as you seem to have.
    • Stop “living” the emotion; instead, feel it
    • Hurts and pains cannot be compared
    • Whining is fine but realize your standing in life
    • Recognize you are feeling something
      • “Offloading” is dealing with emotions without engaging with them
    • Be curious about why
      • We have to know something to be curious about it

  • “Radical Intimacy” by Zoë Kors

    • ‘Radical’ is a preceding
    • Avoid using ‘baby steps’ as an excuse or weapon
    • It is okay to take “‘adult steps” too
    • The Mother pulls us through the keyhole
      • “Not everything you let go of needs to have claw marks.”
      • (Learn to be okay with letting things go)
    • Unaddressed issues come out sideways
    • Denial, deflection, distraction
    • “The elephant did not just show up.  You’ve been feeding and watering it for years.”
    • “Pain shopping” by following exes on social media
    • Do not try to fix what cannot be fixed
    • Use a third person narratives to recognize things without personalizing them
    • “If there are feelings in the room, someone has to feel them.”
    • If you cannot trust your body, then the act of living is unsafe and that is traumatic
    • “How you do anything is how you do everything…  except in bed.”
    • Love is a state of being, not an emotion
    • Energetic intimacy
      • Presence
      • Humility
      • Curiosity
    • Be a thread (distinct but integrated) not an egg (integrated and indistinct)

  • “The Ballot and the Bible” by Kaitlyn Schiess

    • “Is that your Bible?”
      • (Make sure the morals you are quoting are yours)
    • Being okay with subjugation by the rich is a puritan thing
    • “Light on the hill” is saying we are responsible for the world
    • Not all biblical promises and covenants always apply to all people and nations
    • “Liberty”, as in “civil liberty”, does not appear in the Bible
      • (This is in fact a great religious misconception. Biblically, the ideal form of government is a monarchy.)
    • Interpretations should not rest solely on historical context
      • If a reunderstanding of historical context changes your interpretation, then your interpretation is probably inappropriate
    • “The Bible is not a riddle to be solved”
    • Sin affects both individuals and communities
    • Taking the Bible “literally” is to abuse the scriptures
    • Communities are united by their common loves
    • The point is to use earthly tools but not get distracted by them
    • “Exile as mission”