patlo's Reviews (1.32k)

Blink by Malcom Gladwell

A very nifty, simple little time management / productivity tool. It is essentially a technique for timeboxing and focusing on one specific task for a particular time, and then giving yourself a break to rest/recupe/refocus, and then repeating the cycle.

Very useful for those of us whose attention wanders often.

Could be used effectively with GTD or any other task-list strategy.

Ride Your Way Lean advocates cycling as an exercise and lifestyle choice to lean up. It begins with very basic information: why cycling, how to buy a bike, equipment - and my fear was that it would be too simplistic for my needs. It gets a bit more helpful though, with good discussions of basic nutrition, eating plans, ride plans, indoor trainer exercises, off-bike exercises and other goodies.

I would recommend this book to somebody who's considering or just getting into cycling. For more seasoned riders wanting more depth of content, see Base Building for Cyclists by Chapple, or The Time Crunched Cyclist by Carmichael.

A thrilling page turner of an adventure novel. You learn the history and current state of north central Mexico's Sierra Madre mountain range as the author tries to travel its spine in order to see if it is really as dangerous as you have heard. It feels like a mix of Sebastian Junger and Ernest Hemingway. It's hard to tell if the overwhelming narco-traffic content is embellished, but I sense that it's not. It certainly gives more perspective on the nature of the drug trade coming from Mexico to the US, and the lifestyle of those willingly or unwillingly involved.

It's not often that I bring a book to work with me and hope for red lights to be longer so I can read a bit more on stops in the drive.