Below is the ever-adapting collection of links to things that interest, teach, and motivate me.
When possible I link directly to the author/creator’s website. But occasionally an online store may be the only option.
The lawyer says I must tell you: I do not receive any benefit from sales.
Books
NON-FICTION
Red Team Thinking is a great overview of the United States Army’s Red Teaming curriculum. Hoffman attended the courses at Fort Leavenworth and brings us details of the processes and techniques taught.
Cal’s early works are specific to scholastic excellence; How to Become a Straight-A Student, How to be a High School Superstar, and How to Win at College. Straight-A Student and Win at College were foundational for my 4.0 GPA non-traditional college success. These three books are gifted to all my friend’s kids as they enter the pertinent age.
The above-listed scholastically inclined books pushed Cal on a path towards answering adult questions; So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Deep Work, Digital Minimalism, and A World Without Email are required readings.
It’s Your Ship. I would not call this an advanced management-level leadership book, but it is great for those young and/or newly promoted leaders. Would make a great gift book.
The Power of Habit. Duhigg and Cleary both released Habit books at about the same time. Proof that if you are thinking about something, or inventing that new cool widget, so is someone else. Personally, though Cleary got more traction, I find Duhigg’s work to be much better. Let the comments commence!
Normal Accidents
Never Split the Difference
Thinking Fast and Slow
Getting Things Done
Range
The Fabric of Reality, The Beginning of Infinity
The Challenger Launch Decision
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
Where’s My Flying Car?
Good To Great, Built to Last, How the Mighty Fall, Great By Choice (with Morten T. Hansen)
The 5 Levels of Leadership, The Leadership Bible NKJ
The QBQ! The Question Behind the Question.
Leading Change
All of it. If a title doesn’t seem to interest you, read it. You will be surprised. Or start with the Reader, the slippery slope that takes you into the world of John McPhee. I was introduced to McPhee with his Alaskan escapades of Coming into the Country.
The Art of Learning
Josh is “That Guy”, his father wrote a book (later a movie) about Josh and his path to becoming a child chess superstar, Searching for Bobby Fischer. After becoming a youth champion in Chess, he became an International Champion at 16. Josh went on to become the World Champion in the martial art of Taiji Push Hands. He earned a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under Marcel Gracie. Waitzkin has created the Art of Learning Project where his ideas about how to excel at learning through tying thematic ideas of disparate subjects together have been turned into resources for teachers and schools.
Kaufman’s Personal MBA is a great way to understand the knowledge and intricacies of a Master of Business Administration without the decades of debt incurred to have a diploma to hang on a wall. The book is broken into eleven sections. You are welcome to read them in the order presented or bounce around to what interests you. Not enough info in the book to appease you? Heck out Kaufman’s website, www.personalmba.com. There is a lot more information broken down for easy searching mimicking the book’s sections and chapters. Highly recommended.
I first found Santa Fe Institute member Gonzalez’s work through his Deep Survival- Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why. I was looking to why people make decisions that bring them harm or get them killed and his work kept being cited in works I was reading. The details, research, and anecdotes Gonzales brings in his works are excellent. Also, check out his Deep Survival and Flight 232.
On Killing, On Combat
Meditations- Modern Library, Gregory Hays Translation. Meditations is a collection of diary entries that Aurelius wrote to himself. It is believed that he never intended it to be read. Luckily, you can.
The Book of Five Rings- Thomas Cleary Translation
If you do not already know. Just read it.
Great at Work, Great by Choice(with Jim Collins)
Antifragile is the full collection of thoughts from the Incerto series. Black Swan is my favorite though.
Naval Ravikant with Eric Jorgenson
Zero to One, The Straussian Moment
Twenty-One Mental Models that Can Change Policing
You are the Message- If it is possible for you to step away from the late Mr. Ailes’s political views, and possible character flaws, read this book.
Ultralearning
Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last
The War of Art, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t
The Art of War- Thomas Cleary Translation
If you do not already know. Just read it.
Tao of Seneca,
The Undercover Economist, The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, The Data Detective
The 5 Principles of Human Performance
Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle
University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies
Red Team Handbook Version 6
Train to Win, Condition to Win, Wes Doss-In Memorium
FICTION
If there is a movie made of a book, ALWAYS READ THE BOOK FIRST!
The Scot Harvath series is Brad’s bread and butter. I was lucky to meet and spend some time with Brad at the 2005 90MPH With My Hair on Fire Counter-Terrorism Conference. In one book, Brad included the protagonist, Scot Harvath, using the Marc Lee Glory Knife which I designed. Very cool!
Self-claimed to be Rambo’s Father. Morrell’s standalone novel, The Fifth Profession is my favorite. But I also recommend the famous First Blood (hence the “Rambo’s Father” moniker) along with the Brotherhood of the Rose Series. The severely underrated Thomas De Quincey Series is also well worth your time. I met David at the 2005 90MPH With My Hair on Fire Counter-Terrorism Conference and was able to have some excellent conversations with him throughout the week.
The Dune Saga is an excellent example of Joseph Campbell’s ideas on a Hero’s Journey. But Herbert’s ability to imagine and create exotic worlds, peoples, ideas, and technologies is second to none. I may be too late since they continue to make shows and movies of the books, read them before you watch them!
The Wallander series is a well-written, very original Swedish Noir detective/murder mystery.
The translation by Emily Wilson is best (I highly recommend the Claire Danes narrated audiobook)
James Reece series. Jack is a fan of the wrong tomahawk, but I won’t hold that against him. Amazon is developing the James Reece, Terminal List books into series. Read them before you watch them!
The Camulod Chronicles is a series of realistic interpretations of the King Arthur tale. It may be in the Fantasy genre, but there isn’t much fantasy. The Templar Trilogy can be difficult to source, but well worth the trouble. These are fictional representations of the origins of the Templar Knights. Lots of real events and history are woven with conjecture to create a great trio of stories.
Legends of the Fall…because, sometimes we need to read a novella about a family more screwed up than our own.
The Grey Man Series grabbed my attention and held on. Greaney was Tom Clancy’s assistant-writer for quite a few novels before moving into his own. These books are in the process of film production the first movie on Netflix! Read them before you watch them.
I cannot say enough, nor do I have the words to articulate the impact Mr. Gaiman has on modern literature. That said, cut your teeth on his work with The Graveyard (highly recommend the author-narrated audiobook) though considered part of the Young Adult genre. Do not let that slow you down. Read it or listen to Mr. Gaiman read it to you, no matter. It is amazingly well done.
A River Runs Through It is Mr. MacLean’s pièce de resistance. Who doesn’t want to read about an author’s young days fishing, loving, and losing in early 1900’s Montana?
Creator of the stories that brought us Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall among others.
Of Pressfield’s many fictional writings, I have, so far, read The Gates of Fire and The Virtues of War. The Gates of Fire is an excellent telling of the 300 Spartans standing against the Persians at Thermopylae. In the Virtues of War, Mr. Pressfield places the reader within the events and the mind of Alexander the Great.
The Millennial Series is the foundation of Swedish Noir. The original three books by Larsson are well followed by David Lagercrantz’s additions.
As most of you know, the entire Jack Ryan series is excellent. Although my favorite is the standalone, Red Storm Rising. For the last few decades, this book lost its importance. The rise of Russian aggression as of late brings this back book into vogue.
Blogs
The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) by Maria Popova
Cedric Chin
by Kevin Lewis
The Wise & Wealthy weekly newsletter
Widely is the name of the blog. Range is the topic. I consider myself a person with extensive “range” as Epstein defines it. To best be a part of the conversation, one must be able to sign in with an FB account. Which means I am unable to join the conversation over there (thanks a lot Cal Newport). If you see something you think I might find interesting within the Widely conversation, let me know: interesting@eddiekillian.com
Monday Musings, Friday Findings
David designs things. His organizational and productivity PDF designs are perfect. Many are downloadable for free. I started using his Emergent Time Log, reading notes page and many years ago.
Shane Parrish
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Economists extraordinaire Tyler Cowan and Alex Tabarrok have eclectic writing styles and interests in topics. And they seem to always be correct. Hmm.
Kevin Simler is hit and miss with new posts, but the archive of posts is extensive, varied in topic, and highly interesting.
Typical Beltway news with a mild spin, but generally informative. I just wish it would land in my inbox earlier in the morning.
Mark Mateski started the Journal over 20 years ago. The tools, ideas, and resources available there are definitive. The Red Team Journal predates the now-defunct U.S. Army courses and the totally different other than name, IT red team systems. Mateski is the real deal when it comes to contrarian thought processes and quality decision-making systems.
Bryce Hoffman has adapted what he learned at Fort Leavenworth and adapted the ideas into his book and now has grown that training and coaching into a business.
Daily Stoic
Writing Wednesdays
Cal Newport
Daily Digest
by Bill Murphy
Vlogs
Former SEAL and current thriller writer. Jack has good taste in vehicles and gear but is a fan of the wrong tomahawk. I won’t hold that against him.
Podcasts
Find these in whatever app you listen to your podcasts.
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Commonplace Expertise- Cedric Chin
Conversations with Tyler- Tyler Cowan
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Jorgenson’s Soundbox- Eric Jorgenson
The Founders Podcast- David Senra
No Turning Back- Stan McChrystal
North Star Podcast- David Perell
The Knowledge Project- Shane Parrish
The Thinking Leader- Bryce Hoffman
Thiel Talks- Peter Thiel
The Tim Ferriss Show- Tim Ferris
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Eddie Killian 