On Reading

Stephen King wrote a marvelous book "On Writing" that everyone should read. Here are ideas on reading that will make us better content evaluators and coaches.

1. Better to read a great book multiple times than many bad books. I've read James Kerr's Legacy over three times. I'll read Ed Smith's Making Decisions multiple times. Give ourselves the chance to imprint great concepts. 

2. Abandon bad books. Just because we start a book doesn't oblige us to finish it (unless it's assigned). 

3. Share great books. I've given multiple copies of Man's Search for Meaning away. Everyone should read it. 

4. Think about it. Read a chapter of a nonfiction book and process it. What did the author want to share? Is that an enduring idea? 

5. Ask "did the book leave me in a better place?" Did it help me understand the world, the game, people? 

6. What books do coaches read with their teams? Coach Scott Celli has read Jay Bilas's Toughness with multiple VOLLEYBALL groups. UNC legendary soccer coach Anson Dorrance reads The Leadership Moment (Michael Useem) with his teams. 

7. Read widely. Walter Isaacson's biographies on DaVinci and Ben Franklin are exceptional. Study greatness. Werner Herzog recommends J.A. Baker's The Peregrine for its prose. 

8. Fiction has merit, too, as it stimulates us to ask, "What's next? How does the hero escape this predicament?"

9. Read this article (I'd Rather Re-Read These 10 Books) and a few quote excerpts. 

• Work to learn, not for money. People who build wealth focus on building profitable skills first and making money second (from Rich Dad Poor Dad)
• "The Turkey Problem — A turkey gets fed 364 days in a row. Each day it grows more confident in its future prospects until Thanksgiving. This is a metaphor for people in fragile positions who can succeed and thrive for a while until they don’t."  (Nassim Taleb)
• “People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”
• "Don’t do what you know on a gut level to be the wrong thing to do. Don’t stay when you know you should go or go when you know you should stay. Don’t fight when you should hold steady or hold steady when you should fight...I don’t think there’s a single dumbass thing I’ve done in my adult life that I didn’t know was a dumbass thing to do while I was doing it.”" - Cheryl Strayed
• "Invert, invert, invert — Instead of trying to be smart, avoid being dumb. Instead of trying to make amazing decisions, avoid catastrophic ones." - Charlie Munger

Lagniappe (something extra). Elite 'platform skills' will get you and keep you on the court. "Repetitions make reputations" equals consistency.