Books Flashcards
Little Bets - Peter Sims
Key points
do things to discover what to do
action produces insights
most ideas fall flat
try thousands of preliminary ideas
only a handful make the cut
multiple failures lead to progress
seek out active users - early adopters
1972 HP 1st calculator $400 - build a thousand and see what happens
Pixar Steve Jobs 1986. hardware company
sold only 120 Pixar image computers
high end computer graphics
switched to digital animation TV commercials
failure essential for success
growth versus fixed mind set
healthy and unhealthy perfectionism
striving for excellence, strong organisational skills
parental pressure , worrying about mistakes
good writers - shitty first drafts
plussing smallifying problems versus waterfall technique
lucky unlucky “stop counting there are 43 photos in this news paper”
lucky people pay more attention to whats going around them
S-curve active users
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
talent x effort = skill skill x effort = achievement employing that skill to achieve something; sports, writing, play concerts, deliberate practice purposeful practice improve, correct specific weaknesses repetition with reflection and refinement identify weakness and address them conscious incompetence move to unconscious competence dazzling mastery breakdown to component skills talent - potential grit - not giving up keeping at it, working relentless to improve through deliberate practice.
Philosophy
Jean-Paul Sarte The absurdity of human existence
Karl Popper - scientific method, paradigm shift
normal science then step change
how science develops, evolves
Thomas Kuhn emergent phenomena fundamental physics chemistry biology psychology aesthetics
paradoxes ‘evil demons’
domain of applicability
most cells in body are replaced apart from teeth
human being = several trillion cells
‘bucket of mud’
human = intricately configured atoms
the emergence of consciousness
a new way for matter to organise itself and behave
atoms organise themselves into complex self sustaining systems = us
to become self aware….the ability to think about their place in the cosmos
microscopic behaviour, human behaviour
an individual water molecule has no idea it is part of a snowflake or a person
particles that obey the laws of physics, extremely well understood, great precision
construct meaning for our lives
purpose of existence ?
Bounce, Mathew Syed
Blah
Outliers,
Beatles had done their 10K hours before they did their 1st recording.
Intensive playing in Hamburg for several years
Aircraft crashes - Asian cultural deference to captain from subordinates - not able to communicate critical errors made by captain.
Origins - How the earth made us, Lewis Dartnell
this is only the latest phase of glaciation in our recent planetary history.
there have been 40-50 ice ages over the past 2.6 million years. they have been getting progressively longer and colder over time.
‘Quaternary’ is exceptionally unstable time for the planets climate. Freeze up last approx 80K years, shorter respites are 15K yrs. The current Holocene interglacial Epoch (i.e now) started 11,700 yrs ago. last ice age began 117K yrs ago and lasted around 100K yrs ago. ..a brief thermal intermission before climate plunges back into another ice age. erratic climate 4km thick ice sheets. The previous interglacial was 2degC greater - elephants, lions etc in London
What drives these ice ages ? Milankovitch cycles. smal variations in earth’s orbit
