Nate Shivar

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What I Learned Reading 263+ Books In 5 Years | Part 1 | 2007

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Last week I read a post by Julien Smith called “Lessons I Learned Reading Over 200 Books.” It was really fascinating and well done. I was quite jealous.

But then I realized, “wait, I’ve done that.”

Since January of 2007, I’ve read about 263 books. I say “about” because I was only half keeping track until September 2008 – when I converted to a spreadsheet and really started tracking.

I’ve decided to start reviewing (nearly) every book I read here. And that means getting caught up.

Unlike Julien (who put everything in 1 ridiculously long post), I’m going to split mine up into 6 ridiculously long blog posts (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). I’ll also keep going after this initial push to 2013 and beyond.

2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Most Recent Full Reviews

I’m just going to write a couple sentences for each – and only what I remember about the book, and a short bit of review.

Here we go… [Read more…]

A Bear Walks Into Camp

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Or, Our Experience On The Appalachian Trail Overnight, And What We Learned

Ever since I read Bill Bryson’s book A Walk In The Woods, I’ve wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. So last year, my brother Jason and my brother-in-law Matt, hiked a short section from Woody Gap to Neel’s Gap along the Georgia Appalachian Trail

It was a short 9 miles or so, up to the stunning views from Blood Mountain…

View Near Blood Mountain

Foothill of Blood Mountain

We were hooked.

But none of us was (or is) in a life position to hike the whole thing. But we decided to keep section hiking in Georgia.

This year, we planned a 20 mi overnight hike from Neel’s Gap to Hogpen Gap and onwards to Unicoi Gap.

We didn’t quite get what we bargained for (including a bear).

Here’s what happened and what we learned… [Read more…]

How I Set Up A Standing Desk + Home Office For $50

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Even though I think the health benefits of standing are a bit overstated – anything done in moderation is probably going to be better for you.

And in my case – I needed to moderate my sitting.

I generally just did what any normal person would do – stand up every few minutes to stretch, re-focus, drink water, then sit down and go back to work.

But running my own business and working just whatever hours I wanted to work led me to need a small spot at home to talk with clients in a different time zone, and generally have a place out of the way to take care of those tasks that – in an office – would take 10 minutes, but in the home generally end up taking  30 minutes – with a frustrated me and frustrated family members as well.

We have a small place – and I definitely didn’t want to buy or place a desk in my bedroom – or any other room for that matter (we live in a small condo).

And I had the whole standing desk in the back of my mind (very geeky fad) – but they generally cost $$$ and take up wayyyy to much space. [Read more…]

Apparently You Have To Be Really Skilled Now

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Here’s a career and business idea that seems to be bubbling up in America right now… Your credentials don’t matter. Your career sequence doesn’t matter. And your career choice doesn’t matter.

All that really matters to have a solid, high-paying career is to be really freaking good at whatever you do.

Over at Slate, a pharmaceutical chemist critiqued the idea that “America needs more scientists and engineers.” He argues that we don’t need more scientists – we need better scientists.

Scientists who are really freaking good.  Mediocre American scientists don’t have a job – they aren’t needed. Mediocre work doesn’t work anymore – and what remains can be done by cheap Chinese scientists. See the full article here.

Over at The Economist, Babbage discussed a group of programmers who are “tenXers.” In other words, programmers who, through insight, versatility, and sheer productivity create 10x the amount of code that an average programmer can create – in less time, with better accuracy. Read the full article here. Here’s a quote of a quote from the article…

In his delightful guide to recruiting top talent (“Smart and Gets Things Done”), Joel Spolsky, a company founder and ten-x programmer himself, as well as a former paratrooper in the Israeli army, wrote in 2007 that the trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of good ones is that no matter how long they strive, they will still produce something mediocre. “Five Antonio Salieris won’t produce Mozart’s Requiem. Ever. Not if they work for 100 years.”

And this trend applies to every field now. Mediocre doesn’t cut it. And if mediocre is needed…well there’a a few million Indians, Chinese, and Filipinos who can do mediocre.  [Read more…]