Sound Familiar?

Will you give yourself to this program....?
DocOctagon
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Sound Familiar?

Post by DocOctagon »


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Barkadion
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by Barkadion »

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"Man is what he reads." - Joseph Brodsky

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BlackPyjamas
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by BlackPyjamas »

Lol...I see a common theme developing..

Gordion
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by Gordion »

Have you guys ever read any of his books...? If so any recommendations on what to start with?

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B71
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by B71 »

Gordion wrote:Have you guys ever read any of his books...? If so any recommendations on what to start with?
I haven't read "Extreme Ownership" but I'll be checking out his kids' book "Way of the Warrior Kid" on Audible during my commute next week.

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B71
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by B71 »

I just finished listening to "Way of the Warrior Kid" while I was out walking my dog this morning. It was ok but I wouldn't recommend it for grown-ups or for kids who have an advanced stage of teen-style cynicism. It's definitely for kids in grade school.

I bought it because I recall reading somewhere that "Way of the Warrior Kid" was basically Jocko Willink's "Discipline = Freedom" philosophy dumbed right down, which I figured would be right up my alley. A lot of these self-development books are one or two good ideas crammed into 200 pages of filler.

If you're looking for a lengthy exploration of his core concepts, you won't find them here. There were a few bits sprinkled throughout that made me think about how I could apply this "warrior path" to my own daily life - particularly the bit about developing one's own code. There are other bits that I would have liked to heard more about. For example, I am very interested in Willink's take on "learning how to learn" but I found it difficult to extrapolate from the examples of rote memorization (kid memorizes multiplication tables and the names of the American presidents) to the more complex learning one does for work and school.

This is definitely a book for kids, so to act disappointed that it doesn't squarely meet the needs of an adult professional would be ridiculous. If you take it as the Coles Notes (Cliff Notes -?- for Americans) I'm looking forward to the release of his "Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual" in October.

Ten8
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by Ten8 »

B71 wrote:I just finished listening to "Way of the Warrior Kid" while I was out walking my dog this morning. It was ok but I wouldn't recommend it for grown-ups or for kids who have an advanced stage of teen-style cynicism. It's definitely for kids in grade school.

I bought it because I recall reading somewhere that "Way of the Warrior Kid" was basically Jocko Willink's "Discipline = Freedom" philosophy dumbed right down, which I figured would be right up my alley. A lot of these self-development books are one or two good ideas crammed into 200 pages of filler.

If you're looking for a lengthy exploration of his core concepts, you won't find them here. There were a few bits sprinkled throughout that made me think about how I could apply this "warrior path" to my own daily life - particularly the bit about developing one's own code. There are other bits that I would have liked to heard more about. For example, I am very interested in Willink's take on "learning how to learn" but I found it difficult to extrapolate from the examples of rote memorization (kid memorizes multiplication tables and the names of the American presidents) to the more complex learning one does for work and school.

This is definitely a book for kids, so to act disappointed that it doesn't squarely meet the needs of an adult professional would be ridiculous. If you take it as the Coles Notes (Cliff Notes -?- for Americans) I'm looking forward to the release of his "Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual" in October.

Any particular reason you went with this instead of Extreme Ownership?

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B71
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by B71 »

Ten8 wrote:Any particular reason you went with this instead of Extreme Ownership?
After listening to him on podcasts, I did consider picking it up. He's an interesting guy and a very credible source on leadership. But given what I'm after, I didn't think I'd get much out of it.

I read some reviews that said "Extreme Ownership" was comprised of fairly basic leadership principles illustrated by his experiences in war. I figured it was geared towards civilians who had received little or no leadership training. I'm not in that audience. Plus, I don't have subordinates to lead right now. I figured his book was designed for people who have teams to lead. So I'm not in that audience, either.

More to the point, I'm a little more inward-focused right now. I want to work on improving myself in all aspects. Recently, I've been contemplating the concept of incremental improvement (which I think started with "So Good They Can't Ignore You" and the line from Steve Martin where he said if he played banjo every day, in 20 years he'd be pretty good at it). I've read a few books on it, but nothing's really resonated with me. I'm looking for a more systematic approach to my own improvement and I'd venture that Jocko Willink would have a fairly structured approach to life.

I thought that "Way of the Warrior Kid" might be the simplified version of his "Discipline = Freedom" ethos, and since the "Field Manual" doesn't come out until October, I gave the kid's book a shot.

Ten8
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by Ten8 »

B71 wrote:
Ten8 wrote:Any particular reason you went with this instead of Extreme Ownership?
After listening to him on podcasts, I did consider picking it up. He's an interesting guy and a very credible source on leadership. But given what I'm after, I didn't think I'd get much out of it.

I read some reviews that said "Extreme Ownership" was comprised of fairly basic leadership principles illustrated by his experiences in war. I figured it was geared towards civilians who had received little or no leadership training. I'm not in that audience. Plus, I don't have subordinates to lead right now. I figured his book was designed for people who have teams to lead. So I'm not in that audience, either.

More to the point, I'm a little more inward-focused right now. I want to work on improving myself in all aspects. Recently, I've been contemplating the concept of incremental improvement (which I think started with "So Good They Can't Ignore You" and the line from Steve Martin where he said if he played banjo every day, in 20 years he'd be pretty good at it). I've read a few books on it, but nothing's really resonated with me. I'm looking for a more systematic approach to my own improvement and I'd venture that Jocko Willink would have a fairly structured approach to life.

I thought that "Way of the Warrior Kid" might be the simplified version of his "Discipline = Freedom" ethos, and since the "Field Manual" doesn't come out until October, I gave the kid's book a shot.

Rogr.

Your description of doing a little every day or regularly reminds me of the Japanese concept of "Kaizen", or continuous incremental improvement:

http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarge ... ion/kaizen

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B71
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Re: Sound Familiar?

Post by B71 »

Ten8 wrote:Your description of doing a little every day or regularly reminds me of the Japanese concept of "Kaizen", or continuous incremental improvement:

http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarge ... ion/kaizen
I did a little reading on kaizen. I picked up an electronic copy of "One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way" (probably from the Amazon deep discount bin). Maybe I should re-read it, because I really don't remember much of it. As I was saying earlier, some of the stuff I had read really didn't make that much of an impact on me.

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