Timeless wisdom

I normally don’t buy “foo foo” books, so I was skeptical when a colleague gave me a short book “Warrior of the Light” to read. I almost gave up about half way in but it did have some nuggets. Some examples:

• Those who look to other people’s misery with indifference are the most miserable of all.
• God judges a tree by its fruits and not by its roots
• [The Warrior] asks “how will this affect the 5th generation of my decendants”
• Cowards end up making the bars of their own prison
• A child who got beaten because his father lost a battle will bear the marks for the rest of his life

It’s short book. Worth a flip.

Timeless wisdom?

A few nuggets from a newish book from Morgan Housel about (wisdom) that is timeless that may be worth noting:

• The world isn’t driven by greed, but rather envy (Charlie Munger, RIP)
• People don’t communicate on social media so much as they perform for one another (Jonathan Haidt). So true.
• History reveals no instances of a conqueror being surfeited by conquests (Stefan Zweig).
• There’s been ~100B humans that have ever lived.
• There’s a saying that people don’t remember books, they remember sentences. On a related note, Mark Twain, when editing, would read aloud to his wife and kids. When a passage caused them to look bored, he would cut it.
• Ken Burns (of the documentary fame), when writing a documentary script will literally extend a sentence so it lines up with the the beat in the background music. “Music is God”.
• The valuation of every company is simply a number from today multiplied by a story about tomorrow. Nice!
• Humor is a way to show that you’re smart without bragging (Mark Twain)
• Everything seems unprecedented when you haven’t engaged with history. So true.
• “My only measure of success is how much time you have to kill” – Nassim Taleb
• The US constitution is ~7500 words; the average mortgage contract is 15,000 words!
• … you get the idea.

I general I found the book ok, not great. But maybe worth a quick flip.

Confucius wisdom

The Analects is not an easy book to read & understand. However, I did find a few things in there that resonated with me:

The Master said, “To fail to speak to a man who is capable of benefiting is to let a man go to waste. To speak to a man who is incapable of benefiting is to let one’s words go to waste. A wise man lets neither men nor words go to waste.”

The Master said, “He who gives no thought to difficulties in the future is sure to be beset by worries much closer at hand

The gentleman is troubled by his own lack of ability, not by the failure of others to appreciate him

Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire

It is not an easy matter for a man who always has a full stomach to put his mind to some use

If by the age of forty a man is still disliked there is no hope for him

I’m sure others will find deeper meaning in this classic.