👨👩👧👦Proud dad. 🛜🛠️Working man. 🏋🏻♂️📖 Into Jiu-Jitsu, Kettlebells, & Books.
Writing
Joined December 2019
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Lots of free stuff on @audible_com like this one (Pinocchio) through Amazon classics. It’s awesome. Been listening to it with my 4 y/o here and there.
@amazon is in a unique position to do a great public good by creating a @AmazonKindle native app that can teach kids to read for free.
eliminate angst:
every Friday do 2 things before you call it a day:
1/ review goals you have
2/ plan out your week ahead (get's rid of Sunday scaries if you know you have a plan)
every Saturday/Sunday, pick one day to be mostly screen free. No scrolling, no emails, no side work. You can read books, write stuff down, but no screen unless its used for calling, maps, etc. If you have a side project, reserve it for one of those two days but not both. The sabbath is a good thing!
Don't let your mind whither, don't let your body whither.
Read something difficult for cognitive fitness.
calnewport.com/the-good-thin…
simple framework we used in jiu-jitsu that could be used in, let's say, soccer practice.
framework:
- practice 1 skill in isolation
- then do it in a live situation
- then do it different
example:
- do an ankle lock
- spar, but your goal is to get an ankle lock
- do an ankle lock differently
or in soccer:
- passing drill
- scrimmage, but you have to pass the ball before you can shoot
- pass in a different way (other foot, different direction, different part of your foot, etc.)
Fabric of Reality Notes
A prediction without an explanation is just a guess. And an explanation shouldn't be "because it's always been that way". (See turkey before thanksgiving problem presented in Black Swan)
Contrary to what I learned about Galileo, it wasn't him declaring that the Earth revolves around the Sun that got him in trouble. It was that he said nature could be explained mathematically that offended the church. Opening the door for further explanations that would undermine previous dogmas.
Kevin Connelly retweeted
Another way the current administration is trapped in the ZERO-SUM FALLACY: The H-1B visa situation.
+ You are NOT taking a job from a citizen, rather creating jobs by increasing overal economic output. Plus these people (even vegetarians) SPEND locally.
+ The US has long been benefiting from other countries' brain drain; without it its edge wd collapse. Tesla, Von Braun, von Neumann, Fermi & Einstein did NOT each take the job of a citizen.
+ It the problem is anti-Indian racism, say it, don't play games.
Next up on my reading list: the fabric of reality by @DavidDeutschOxf.
I expect it to be a difficult read for me. I like to work into my reading rotation something that I'll have to struggle, stumble, and rewind before I can grasp it.
The Fabric of Reality (as I understand it so far) helps the reader try to understand the relationship behind our 4 deepest theories:
1/ quantum physics,
2/ epistomology,
3/ computation, and
4/ evolution
I struggled with the quantum chapters in beginning of infinity and 6 easy pieces, but not giving up!
binged the 2nd and 3rd books of the "red rising series" in 14 days: "golden son" and "morning star".
if the first book was dune meets hunger games meets 1984; the 2nd & 3rd books are more akin to intergalactic game of thrones.
from an entertainment perspective: 10/10 story for me. the story moves quick and unpredictably. great lessons on leadership and relationships. also a fun surprise to find capitalism as a uniting ideal that brings the colors together; an idea that is out of vogue in many circles.
finished Richard Feynman's 6 easy pieces yesterday. for me it was humbling, and, at times, not so easy. had to reread many parts of it, and the final chapter on quantum physics was (much like beginning of infinity's chapter on it) hard for me to grasp.
but overall it was a great read. especially the section on how physics relates to other sciences, the first chapter on atoms in motion, and conservation of energy.
i found myself explaining things to my 4 year old's "why?" questions differently which has been fun. which brings me to my next side quest: taking key concepts from this book and adapting them to a kids book i can read to my children. more to come...
LOVE to see Charm City show up in the weekly dose.
Hopkins engineers won't need to go far to find something cool to work on.
Read All the Good News That's Fit to Print in this Week's Weekly Dose of Optimism from @notboringco:
notboring.co/p/weekly-dose-o…
Ft. @NobelPrize @jeffholden @cyantist @anduriltech Privo @finkd @biohub @SCP_Hughes @aeonmag & more
& title card / virtual cell video from @runwayml
a lot of chatter around how big tech needs to win public sentiment back (see every @theallinpod episode lately. cc @Jason).
@Meta is doing this with free access to muse + American Workforce Academy.
What @amazon is uniquely positioned to do to (given their origin & product line-up) is go all-in on improving literacy rates / scores. They should make a completely free app native to @AmazonKindle for kids to learn how to read. Free web version available for people who don't have a kindle. Would be a huge PR win, and actual win for kids everywhere.
Golden Son (2nd book in Red Rising series) is a very fun read.
So good it ruined my circadian rhythm this weekend.
Dune meets 1984 meets Hunger Games meets Game of Thrones.
To whom it may concern: getting your @Costco order delivered is 100% worth the cost.
Sincerely,
A fellow parent who used to spend 2 hrs doing a costco run on the weekend and now enjoys that time playing with the kids instead
My Q3 2026 Reading List
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb was my favorite read this quarter. Although probably the most well-known book in the Incerto series, it was the last one I read. I learned a lot. I was a little disappointed to learn that Nassim and I would not walk well together (I'm a fast walker), and that I resemble "non-Brooklyn John" (the antithesis of Fat Tony). Beyond that, the book left me inspired to find more ways to expose myself to positive Black Swans.
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne is a great read about the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful of the Native American tribes. Beyond the part of American history that was new to me, I appreciated most learning about three main characters: Quanah Parker, John Coffee Hays, and Ranald Mackenzie.
How to Know a Person by David Brooks was pitched to me as "a high IQ How to Win Friends & Influence People". Brooks' The Road to Character hit me like a freight train when I read it in 2017, and I got value from Dale Carnegie's work...so I was in. In one of our potential futures, AI takes over a lot of knowledge work—in which case the value of EQ & relationships increases. This is a sound reason to keep those skills sharp.
Red Rising is a sci-fi novel my college roommate recommended to me. It was so fun that I purposely took the long way walking to places so I could continue listening to the audiobook. It reads like 1984 meets Dune meets Hunger Games—on Mars.
Kevin Connelly retweeted
Be careful not to become impressive to strangers and unavailable to your family.
planning my reading for next quarter, need help deciding fiction to read.
choosing between heart of darkness & anna karenina (will go with poll results)
heart of darkness is a redemption read, i was assigned it in high school and remember it being difficult for me at the time.
anna Karenina will be the first Tolstoy i check out, a natural progression after going deep on Dostoevsky.
don't compete on being the best, compete by counterpositioning:
anthropic caught openai by focusing on enterprise / coding tools instead
google can check their opponents by using trust as their position. you already use gmail, drive, etc. they need to position @GeminiApp as the only agent you want to share your data with