These are all at least a little bit dated, but the usefulness has hardly been diminished. They’re all worth reading at least once a year (the last one is worth reading at least every month…)
The days are long, but the decades are short. (By Sam Altman, 2015)
Commencement address to Cal Tech (Richard Feynman, 1974)
The day you became a better writer (Scott Adams, 2007)
Happy New Year! Some of my favorites from 2015:
The Day You Became A Better Writer
Brene Brown on the Tim Ferriss Show
The sunset in Batu Ferringhi. A pic can’t do it justice, but here it is anyways. 
Yeah, I know I’m a bit behind putting a movie from 2014 and blog post from 2007 on my 2015 best of list.
A personal aside here — wanted to gather a few pictures from Game 6 of the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals. Chicago Blackhawks 2, Tampa Bay Lightning 0.
Here’s a video from our seats of the final few seconds:
And a summary of the night’s events:
These are three that I love…and try to live:
When a problem came up at the mills, his first concern was to discover what error he had made; he did not search for anyone’s fault but his own: it was of himself that he demanded perfection.
~From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (said of Hank Rearden)
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
~Abraham Lincoln
Do less, but better.
~From Essentialism by Greg McKeown
I’ve been riding an unbelievable reading hot streak lately. It seems like every book I’ve picked up has been insightful, entertaining, or interesting. So I thought I’d share a few of my favorite reads from the last year or so.
Other recommended books (novels, for those who just can’t get in to non-fiction):
You can own all of these for about $70 through Amazon (!!!).
Two random notes:
Some comments from Mark Cuban about the size of the current tech bubble made some waves this week (likely thanks to a few sensationalized headlines). His thought is basically that this time around, much smaller investors have major skin in the game (relatively major at least; a $25,000 investment in a family member’s startup is nothing to a VC, but may represent a major portion of net worth for a middle class family).
There’s probably a lot of truth to this. But in the spirit of staying positive as I get back into the process of firing up a business, I am also encouraged by all tools now out there that weren’t around five years ago when I was going this for the first time. So many great tools that help entrepreneurs stay organized and focused have popped up. They’re obviously too many to note, but here are a few that I’d never heard of but have loved at least tinkering with:
I’m sure everyone working in the startup world can immediately think of tools that make their lives much easier. That wasn’t really the case five years ago…which is exciting.
On a personal note, my oldest nephew turned 18 this week. Watching him grow into a talented, smart, kind, and friendly young man has been such a joy to me as an uncle–I can’t imagine how proud his parents (my brother and sister-in-law) must be. Happy birthday Danny!
I’ve decided to start being a bit more active here. I am guessing there are exactly zero people who read this site regularly, but as I start up a new business venture (more on that in future posts), I’m hoping that I will have some valuable thoughts to share.
More importantly, I’ve found that writing helps me to sort through my own thoughts and ideas, and distill what is really useful.
So I thought I’d highlight three books I’ve read over the last year that I found inspiring and insightful:
While I’m at it, here’s a list of various things I’ve come across that I’ve been inspired by / found really useful / just enjoyed. In no particular order:
