Two great books I think you should check out

Based on our discussion yesterday, a lot of us are looking for new ideas/experiences to help us grow in new ways, so I thought I would share some really interesting books that have been keeping me active this summer.

The first book is called Moonwalking with Einstein. It tells the story of a journalist who starts following the World Memory Championship and begins learning mnemonic strategies to do incredible memory feats in very short periods of time. Some of the feats include memorizing long lists of random digits, the order of playing cards, thousands of names-to-faces, etc. . I was initially drawn to the book because I want to use these strategies to learn to study even more efficiently for medical school; however, I think the benefit far transcends academic studies and has the potential to improve my effectiveness in every venture/activity I do. Since reading the book, I've started to implement many of the strategies and have done things that I thought were previously impossible. One evening, I memorized every license plate in a parking lot and another day, in just a few hours I memorized a page-long excerpt from a book verbatim. Nevertheless, after those initial successes, I have not been disciplined enough to practice the techniques enough to make them second nature. One of my goals (inspired by the second book, below) between now and Aug 7th, when I head back to Cali is to practice the mnemonic number and association systems every day for at least 20min.

The second book I'd like to recommend is called The Power of Habit. I am midway through it right now. The book is about - you guessed it - habits, which according to some studies account for up to 90% of a person's actions each day. For many years I have been thinking about ways to encourage people to change unhealthy habits: to eat less junk, exercise more. I've seen some of my friends pick up unhealthy addictions to substances and videogames, and I've also often wanted to create/change some of my own habits (such as increase my discipline to practice memory techniques above). Reading the Power of Habit has been a great experience because it not only describes how people's habits have been exploited to create ultra-successful brands/industries (think toothpaste) but also why some successful habit changing programs (alcoholics anonymous) work. I'm a strong believer in self-discipline and hard work, and I think that by recognizing what kinds of signals create cravings and routines, I will be able to remove negative/unproductive habits and replace them with focused clear routines that maximize the results I want.

Let me know if you want to join me!

Bill Aulet from MIT and Brad Feld are discussing "Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Lessons to a Successful Startup"

Friday, 7/19 and for more info: http://bit.ly/15AQh6t