The Book Chief

(roughly!) 100 word reviews with a quote and some notes tacked on.
Also posting the odd #BookReviewHaiku

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

@lustforlife recently reshared an article I wrote for them a while back. Enjoy! I’m still quite proud of it, hopefully there’s something in there for everyone.
#MentalHealthMatters

Setting the world on fire – A Lust For Life https://t.co/0iVcRRx9mO

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Hey,
@grok, who are the five most famous people to visit my profile? It doesn't need to be a mutual, don't tag them, just say who it was

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Conor McGregor surely be the next pope

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

@AMAZlNGNATURE

[Kazuko M. @EstherHawdon]

"The first snow,
Just enough to bend
The leaves of the daffodils."
― Basho Matsuo (tr. Eri Takase)
[image: right: Takeji Asano]

[Kazuko M. @EstherHawdon]

"just existing
I exist...
snow flitting down" Issa Kobayashi
(image: Koitsu Tsuchiya)

[Kazuko M. @EstherHawdon]

"From nowhere,
Clouds coming out ―
Autumn clouds." Santoka
(lake chuzenji, nikko, Hasui Kawase)

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

@paddypower The evil lad from James Bond?

[Kazuko M. @EstherHawdon]

"Autumn only deepens;
today, too,
I travel." Santoka
(image: Koukei Kojima)

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

On August 29, 2018, I met Ryan Holiday for the first time.

At the time, I was 2 years into a nomadic ski-bum phase & trying to figure out what to do next.

Standing outside the Four Seasons in Vail, CO, where he had just given a talk, I asked Ryan if he had any advice.

He said,

At an inflection point in his own life, he turned down some high-paying job offers to work as a research assistant for Robert Greene.

“Because Robert’s life,” he said, “resembled what I wanted for myself.”

He tried to call Robert, and, as he knew it would, it went straight to voicemail. Because Robert’s day, Ryan said, is spent reading, researching, thinking, making notecards, and engaging with ideas. That, he said, is what he wanted his typical day to look like too.

“So look at the people five to ten years ahead of you in whatever career you’re considering,” Ryan told me. “Does their life look like one you’d want for yourself? Are they who you want to be? Because that’s the trajectory you would be on.”

Takeaway 1:

There are many spokes on the career hub, Ryan told me.

When weighing opportunities, people tend to over-index on the salary/compensation spoke, he said.

But there's also the people spoke—the people you work for and with, as well as the people you meet through the people you work for and with.

There's also the knowledge and information spoke—the ideas you work on, the things you learn, and the skills you acquire.

There's also the trajectory spoke—the path you are put on and the life you will eventually carve out, the person you will eventually become as a result of the people you worked for/with, the ideas you worked on, the things you learned, and the skills you acquired.

There's a lot to consider, but the best thing to do is to look at the people five to ten years ahead, as Ryan told me, and ask yourself: Does their life look like one you want for yourself? Are they who you want to be? Because that’s the trajectory you're on.

Takeaway 2:

In a later conversation, Ryan told me that the most important spoke of all is the work itself.

“The work has to be the win,” he said.

Even if the compensation is good, even if the people are great, and even if the trajectory is one you're happy to be on, most of your time is spent doing the work. Like Robert, Ryan’s typical day is mostly spent reading, researching, thinking, making notecards, and engaging with ideas.

“So ultimately,” Ryan told me, “you have to love doing the work. You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.”

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

@scullion262 I see you as even more of a role model today. You have the support of so many people who care more about you the inspirational and honest person than just the athlete who can run fast. Some things are bigger than sports. Keep well

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Day 4 #sports #writing features one of my favourite books. Sticking with the basketball theme, it depicts @KingJames return to Cleveland; what a story!

https://t.co/MfNcozt3ks

#ThursdayMotivation #sportspsychology #basketball

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Day 3 Summer #Sports Writing Project

A #quote from Coach @johnmosleyjr of @LastChanceU Basketball fame.

If you haven't watched #LastChanceU on #Netflix yet. I strongly recommend you do! 🏀

https://t.co/riwgsb18Z5

#basketball #sports #sportspsychology #wednesdaythought

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Day 2 of Summer Writing Project.

What do @lionsofficial @henshawrob and @LimerickCLG @GearoidHegarty have in common?

#sports #LionsSA2021 #gaa #hurling #sports #sportspsychology

https://t.co/P6OHUZri6m

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

New summer writing project to keep me off the streets and busy:
https://t.co/Np101ZiRUq

#sports #sportspsychology

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

@ElaineEgan_ @john_boyne #NeverForget

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Hopefully it will better inform me than watching #Contagion at the start of all this

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Started reading this book this morning...

A nice mixture of #history and #science to make better sense of these strange (but not totally unusual) times we live in today.

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

I don’t often remember characters from novels but I’ll never forget #judestfrancis and his story. Shout out to lions.andmen for the incredible #alittlelifebookart https://t.co/UR2j53bkuO

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

This is unquestionably the toughest book that I have ever read. It follows the progress of four friends from college into adulthood but focuses particularly on #judestfrancis who has endured the most terrible… https://t.co/GGTDFQs2Wj

[The Book Chief @mrbookchief]

Read this in just a couple of days and it kept me guessing me right up to the end.
Lauren is 10 years old and lives with her alcoholic grief-stricken father. Between the two narratives it is very hard to figure out… https://t.co/01pO8gtDn3