The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Summary
Ben Franklin's autobiography. Fascinating read from a man Charlie Munger called his favourite human of all time
Rating: 4/5
Notes
Started reading and writing early in his teens
Started being vegetarian early and spent the rest of his money on books
Moved to New York by himself at 17 after a fight with his mother
Left for Philly short after on a tremendous journey
All his friends loved to read
He always chose to drink water instead of beer, which everyone drank around him
Formulated his life plan on his trip back to Philly from London and followed it throughout his life
He created a junto, a group of people who discussed issues and topics of the day
An advantage of him being able to write - to explain difficult concepts to the common people
One of his biggest regrets was not writing to Ms. Read when he ent to London but did end up marrying her years later
He started a subscription library for people in his town and made reading cool
‘See’st thou a man diligent in his callingn, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before small men’
‘Be that would thrive, must ask his wife’
Ben’s 13 virtues
- Temperance: eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation
- Silence: speak not what doesn’t benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling convos
- Order: let all things have its place, let each part of your business have it’ time
- Resolution: resolve to perform what you ought
- Fragility: make no expose but to do good to others or yourself; waste nothing
- Industry: lose no time; be always employed in something useful
- Sinceity: use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, speak accordingly
- Justice: wrong no one by doing injuries
- Moderation: avoid extremes
- Cleanliness: tolerate no unorderlinenss in body odour or habitation
- Tranquility: be not disturbed at triflers
- Chastity: rarely use sex but for health and offspring
- Humility: imitate jesus and socrates
He never reached all virtues but the path and progress made were what made him a better man
‘Few in public affairs act in a view to the good of mankind’
‘After getting the first one hundred pounds, getting the second is much easier’ - with money
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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