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• Book of the Week: Essentialism

  Essentialism is about doing less, but better. The book talks about why less is better, the differences between essentialist and non-essentialist and how to achieve essentialism. In order to do less, better, you need to be able to know how to say no. This goes back to saying no (Saying No, Saying No, Part II). Being able to say no is a very important skill to have. Success Leading to Failure

• Book of the Week: The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning

  This week’s book is The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning. I wanted to read something to help me retire. I found out about Bogleheads through the personal finance subreddit. I didn’t find the book that useful. For people getting into retirement planning, it is an okay introduction. I found it easier to read stuff online and read finance books like The Intelligent Investor and Unconventional Success. I’m more concerned with investing than retirement even thought I’m investing for retirement. The goal of investing for retirement is to avoid taxes (money to government) and expenses (money to brokers/managers). The earlier you start investing, the better. IRAs and 401ks have tax benefits. Tax benefits are good. What’s a Boglehead? The founder of the investment management company Vanguard is John C. Bogle. Bogleheads are his cult followers. Putting Money Toward Retirement

• Book of the Week: The Hard Things About Hard Things

  Ben Horowitz is half of the VC firm, Andressen Horowitz. He was previously the CEO of Opsware (formerly Loudcloud) and worked with Marc Andressen, the founder of Netscape. This is a book written by a CEO for other CEOs. Ben has a popular blog, so you may recognize some things, but he goes into more of the backstory behind those ideas. The trend is to turn blogs into books. This is not a business book, because there are no formulas to being a CEO. Being a CEO is hard. The initial phases are easy when you’re building things. Things get hard when you hit the market and things don’t go the way you expected. This isn’t a book that you can summarize easily since there are so many hard things. If you want a taste, you can watch an interview Ben gave at the Stanford about nailing the hard things. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2e3RqL4VWs&w;=560&h;=315] Transparency

• 2013 Best Books Read

  Here are my picks for the best books I read in 2013. How Innovations are Adapted

• 2014 Best Books Read

  This post is for the people who ask for me things to read. Industries These are books that talk about an industry that is ubiquitous, but few people really know about.

• Book of the Week: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

  I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, because I grew up without the benefit of having two dads. In the future more people will grow up with two dads. The poor dad was educated by school while the rich dad was educated by life. Robert takes advice from his rich dad, but is constantly reminded of how everyone else thinks by his poor dad. One of the stupidest things you can do is spending your time getting good grades in school to get a well paying, stable job. Doing so will only guarantee you’ll be poor for the rest of your life. The books explains why people who do everything they are told while growing up end up poor and educated. The book is divided into six lessons. Lesson #1 The Rich Don’t Work for Money

• Book of the Week: Understanding Exposure

  I read Understanding Exposure 3rd Edition by Byran Peterson on a recommendation from a friend who was getting into photography. The 3rd edition was revised to include the advances in digital photography. This book is for people who want to stop using the automatic setting on their cameras and want to explore creatively. The Photography Triangle: ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture To take a properly exposed photo, you need to understand the photography triangle. Photography is about capturing light and each of the 3 points in the triangle affect how light is captured. ISO determines how sensitive the sensor is. A higher ISO number means the sensor is more sensitive, but can also be noisier. The aperture determines how big the hole that lets in light is. A big hole lets in more light and makes lets things be in focus. A smaller hole makes more things in focus, but lets in less light. The shutter speed determines how long the sensor is exposed to light. The faster the shutter speed, the less light. A faster shutter speed let’s you freeze motion while a longer shutter speed lets you capture and blur flow. If you change one setting, you need to adjust the others to make sure you still have a properly exposed photo. How you make these trades offs depends on what you are trying to achieve creatively. One of the most common things I get asked is how I make the background blurry. I purchase a lens that has a low f-stop, which means it can open the aperture very wide. This makes a small part of the image in focus while the rest is blurred. Another common question is how do I make a photo of water look like it is flowing. This requires a slower shutter speed. One you lower the shutter speed, you need to decrease the ISO to make the sensor less sensitive. You can also make the aperture hole smaller to let in less light. If that still doesn’t cut it, you can put a neutral density filter in front, which will cut the amount of light that passes through the lens. Lastly, it is not the camera you have, but how you use it.

• Book of the Week: The Complete Japanese Joinery

  The final book of my weeklong woodworking book binge is The Complete Japanese Joinery. I picked up this book after watching a video on intricate joins of sashimono woodworking. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8vJ11cXLs4&w;=560&h;=315] The book diagrams how the joints are made without the use of nails. After reading about hand tools it was interesting to get a different perspective on how to work wood. The most noticeable difference is the saws. I doubt I would use any of the techniques since a dovetail works mighty fine by itself. Purchase The Complete Japanese Joinery on Amazon.com or check it out from your local library.

• Book of the Week: Hand Tools

  Continuing on my woodworking binge, the next book is Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings. If you’re doing traditional woodworking without power tools, then you need to know how to use the various hand tools that exist. It is amazing how many forms wood and steel can take. Some of the sections of the book on rulers, sandpaper and the screwdriver were unnecessary filler. The illustrations were nice, but you’re probably better off watching youtube videos and getting really specific books on workbenches and hand planes. Purchase Hand Tools from Amazon.com or check it out from your local library.

• Book of the Week: The Woodwright's Guide

  The Woodwright’s Guide is another book by Roy Underhilll. More of the same, going from tree to furniture, but is organized by the people who do each task. Since this is a newer book, one should probably prefer to read this one over The Woodwright’s Companion. The people are the

• Book of the Week: The Woodwright's Companion

  Roy Underhill has a PBS show called The Woodwright’s Shop that shows traditional woodworking techniques. The Woodwright’s Companion is a book he wrote. Woodworking Woodworking appeals to the inner creationist in me. It’s about taking a tree and turning it into a piece of functional furniture. Using your hands without electricity to do that is pretty amazing. It is more than thinking of wood as a building material, but rather bringing out the beauty of the wood in your piece. One has to really pay attention to the wood to know how to work it. It expands and contracts with the weather. I’m used to working with cold, unfeeling machines, but wood is alive or at least it used to be. The book is not a how-to for woodworking, but more about telling a story and sharing some history.

• Book of the Week: Luxury Fever

  Luxury Fever was mentioned by one of the books I read. I’m guessing it was from a book on happiness. I found the book too long for what it was. Too many examples, took a long time to get to the point. People spend money on stupid shit. America would be a better societal-wise if we had a progressive consumption tax to keep people from spending money on stupid shit. That’s good to know for policymakers, but what the hell can I do about it? Usually I read books where by the end of it, I learn about ways to improve my life. I’m people, so I spend money on stupid shit too, no matter how rational I may think I am. I know eating that piece of cake isn’t good for me, but it tastes damn good. I’m not going to write about why spending money on luxury goods is bad and why a progressive consumption tax is the solution. You can read the book for that. Income Inequality [caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”602”] Share of pre-tax household income received by the top 1 percent, top 0.1 percent and top 0.01 percent, between 1917 and 2005 (wikipedia)[/caption] People complain about income inequality now, but it was worst when J. D. Rockefeller was alive. Yet despite increasing income inequality, a larger percentage of luxury cars are being sold. It could be that the 1% are buying multiple cars and the poor people are buying cars they can’t afford. Percentage of Luxury Cars Sold | Year
  —|—
  7 % | 1986
  12 % | 1996
  17 % | 2014
  It’s All Relative