15 August

Books

I have finished listening to The 4-Hour Work Week I mentioned earlier. The book is so good, there is so much to take in so I am going to buy a hard copy and read it properly.

Now I am reading (listening to) Nassim Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness. I read his The Black Swan book ten years ago or so. Nassim’s style is quite entertaining and that helps a lot as in his books he talks about the complex fundamental concept of randomness and how it influences our lives.

Films

The Founder - the movie is about the creation of McDonald’s fast-food restaurant chain. The story is a good illustration of the statement that the most successful people are usually not the brightest nor the nicest guys on the planet. Ray Croc, played by Micheal Keaton, was not a nice guy but he gave us McDonald’s as we know it today. McDonald brothers, on the other hand, received penies for their creation ($1.3M each, that’s around $10M today) but they could have been billionaires by now.

YouTube

I recently discovered a channel with 16M(!) subscribers. Guess what’s it all about? It’s about popular science. I especially liked this video about the Success paradox because it somehow correlates with Nassim Taleb’s book I am reading.

Podcasts

I really enjoyed an interview with Stephen Fry on The Diary of a CEO podcast. One of my favorite British TV shows is Jeeves and Wooster and I still think that Bertie Wooster was the best role of Hugh Laurie despite the fact that I love House MD very much.

I knew about Stephen’s troubled childhood already but it still fascinates me how after all of that one goes to Cambridge and becomes a world known actor, comedian, broadcaster, etc.

The story about the first meeting with Hugh is hilarious.