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What are you reading?

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Jeffery Lewis is a pretty smart guy when it comes to missiles and nukes, I might have to actually buy that one to see if his book is as good as the rest of his work.
I love the vehicle he chose for his story, a Commission Report.
 

Birdbrain

Well-Known Member
pilot
Lately I finished reading Geronimo, Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior. It was a very engrossing book taking on the story of the life of one of America's important historical figures and demonstrating the actions and mindset that made him the legend he became.
 

rockthearts281

meh, worst case scenario, we die.
Just finished reading The Operator by SOCS Robert O'neil. Great book. Good laughs, great lessons, very insightful.
 

BarryD

Well-Known Member
Contributor
If you guys have kids, I recommend Way of the Warrior Kid by Jocko Willink, get them on the Warrior Path :)
I would, but we basically get the book in a nutshell at the end of all the podcasts . . .

I'm currently reading In Love and War by James and Sybil Stockdale. Definitely would recommend any MIDN out there or people getting ready to go to OCS.
 

Austin-Powers

Powers By Name, Powers By Reputation
I would, but we basically get the book in a nutshell at the end of all the podcasts . . .

That's true but I think it's important to get YOUR KID to read, I know I had this struggle as a kid, I hated to read, but Jocko gave me that epiphany, also, it could be motivating to kids that struggle with low self-esteem, again, I struggled with this, it's worth I think for kids to be proud of themselves and be strong.
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Leaders: Myth and Reality by Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jay Mangone. The team that wrote this book was obviously lead by McChrystal, and it draws heavily on his experiences. The format is paired profiles of leaders from different eras who shared a single defining characteristic or similar story. But to start off, they examine one leader alone: Robert E. Lee. They note that he'd had a mythos about him as "the Marble Man" even back to his West Point days. They discuss Lee the legend versus Lee the flawed human being, and drag right out into the open the problem with idolizing a man who was offered command of the Federal Army, but turned it down and fought to keep African-Americans in chattel slavery. A main point is that Lee the legend is different from Lee the human being. The legend was created by other people and for other people, in order to serve the psychological needs of people not named Robert E. Lee.

The pairs are interesting:
FOUNDERS: Walt Disney and Coco Chanel
GENIUSES: Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein
ZEALOTS: Maximilien Robespierre and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
HEROES: Zheng He and Harriet Tubman
POWER BROKERS: Boss Tweed and Margaret Thatcher
REFORMERS: Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr.

They then wrap up with a discussion on a higher level, with some excellent points about how human beings misunderstand how and why we pick leaders, and what makes them effective. First, it's highly situational. Just because you're successful in one environment, with one group of people, doesn't mean that there's some grand principle of leadership that can be distilled down for everyone to use. Second, leaders don't have as much power as they think they do. This is a common theme of McChrystal's writings. Powerful people can't issue diktats from on high; they have to create a culture for other people to thrive in. Ultimately, power and influence are not things you can seize. They are things given to you by other people, and they can vanish in a heartbeat. Third, leaders emerge as much because people want them to as because of the efforts of the leader themselves. The actual human being becomes the focus of the psychological needs of his or her followers, and this is why people get mythologized. It's also why the Elon Musks of the world can grind people the way they do - people will go to the mat for a cause they believe in, at least for a short while.

An example they bring up towards the end of the book is Churchill's failure to be elected PM after leading the country through WWII. He was a legendary leader for that time. Then times changed. A telling anecdote they bring up is Churchill having his official portrait painted post-WWII. He and his wife hated it, and when it was shipped to his home, his wife had it burned. Perhaps that was because the painter didn't paint an idolized portrait of Churchill the legend, just one of a mortal man towards the end of his years.
 
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BigIron

Remotely piloted
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Did you read it and think it’s garbage, or did you not read it because your position on the author?


You kids are gonna rot your. ain with that shit. You don't need an alt-right Kermit the frog Canadian shrink to tell you to make your bed, I hope. Stay away from that pseudo-scientific self help garbage.

I'd you want a more scholarly takedown of JBP's huckster trash than I can provide, they're available all over, but start here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hot-thought/201802/jordan-peterson-s-flimsy-philosophy-life

https://newrepublic.com/article/148473/jordan-petersons-tired-old-myths

https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/01/23/postmodernism-not-take-place-jordan-petersons-12-rules-life/

https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/evmn9p/jordan-peterson-is-canadas-most-infamous-intellectual
 

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
Ian Bremmer and The Eurasia Group are releasing their predictions for 2019 tomorrow. Should be interesting reading. Most curious to see what they are forecasting for the Chinese economy and whether or not the Brits go through with Brexit.

https://www.eurasiagroup.net/live
 

mad dog

the 🪨 🗒️ ✂️ champion
pilot
Contributor
I don’t read many books [I had a hilariously low SAT verbal score] but “The Finishing School - Earning the Navy SEAL Trident” by retired Navy Captain [and retired Navy SEAL] Dick Couch was fascinating. It’s non-fiction and was written in the early 2000s.

5FD21F6C-3D69-40ED-8E26-061D9A4FFE33.jpeg
 

Birdbrain

Well-Known Member
pilot
Over Christmas leave I read J. Peterson's 12 Rules for Life. It was incredibly interesting...I had no idea I was so much like a lobster. I also started reading Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownership on the plane rides back, it tells a story from combat or training and then explains the points behind it. I'll have to stash that one for after API academics.
 
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