[n.b. This may seem like a weird time to publish this book summary given my last couple posts, but I actually got this book from a physical library in the pre-Covid times, and the library is re-opening, so I have to return it soon. Plus, I do think it is relevant to anti-racism work to […]
Author: Eric
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Amazon link I purchased this book when it came out several years ago, but gave up on reading it at the time because I didn’t have the patience to absorb Coates’s words and perspective. I restarted it this week, and finished it in a couple days, as it’s not a long book…but it is a […]
Privilege and Self-Education
My heart hurts today, and I felt I had to write about what’s going on in America. Staying silent reinforces the current systemic inequities. Silence implies that the system we have is okay. And it is not okay. So I am sharing what little I know, and links for me and others in my position […]
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
Amazon link This book is Frankl’s account of surviving the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, as told from his perspective as a psychiatrist. He readily admits that the conditions were so brutal that every ounce of energy had to be put into survival to even have a chance. He gives the example of earning a […]
Letting go of the Hero mindset
I’ve been thinking about personal responsibility this week, and how I align what I take responsibility for with what I control. In my own work with a coach, we’ve identified that I can get into a “Hero Eric” mindset where I try to make everything go right – I feel responsible for holding everything together […]
The Interruption Opportunity
As the coronavirus is wreaking havoc with our lives, I have been reflecting on what opportunities can be found in this tumultuous time. I wrote on LinkedIn about the value I am finding in an abundance mindset where I appreciate and give thanks for what I still have, and I wanted to expand on that […]
Tiny Habits, by BJ Fogg
Amazon link Book site I went through BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits course back in 2014 with limited success in creating my intended habits. I was planning to skip the book since I figured it was more of the same, but after hearing a podcast interview with him, I realized he covered more in the book […]
Fast is slow. Cheap is expensive.
While the title of this post may be reminiscent of the Party slogans in the book 1984, I’ve recently been finding it useful to remind myself of these seeming contradictions. Trying to go fast often slows things down because we make mistakes which we then have to go back and fix. Spending less sometimes costs […]
Breaking the Lonely Hero story of Leadership
This past weekend, I was coaching at a CEO summit organized by MiLA Capital as well as a couple other venture capital firms. A theme that showed up throughout the weekend was a story of leadership that was driving lonely CEOs to exhaustion, which is one of the reasons they so appreciated this chance to […]
The Last Word on Power, by Tracy Goss
Amazon link Tracy Goss is an adherent of Werner Erhard, who developed the est methodology that was later monetized into the Landmark Forum. What I knew of the Landmark Forum seemed pretty dodgy (see this 2003 rant on how I thought it was an evil cult), so I didn’t even want to open this book […]
