Book Review: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived
Last Christmas, my brother bought me this booked called The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. The premise of the book is simple: everything you need for success and happiness in your life is contained in the Bible, specifically in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is said to be written primarily by King Solomon, builder of the first temple in Jerusalem and regarded as the ultimate ruler. Solomon, who appears in the Old Testament, is described as being widely respected for his wisdom. He also was quite wealthy and powerful. The book of Proverbs, it's said, contains the rules that Solomon lived by to attain and keep success.
I was a bit skeptical about the book when I started; I'm always concerned when the Bible is cited as the only source of information necessary to achieve some goal. I had to say, though, that I was pleasantly surprised. I may even pick up a Bible to more thoroughly read Proverbs, as it seems that there really is some great and insightful information there.
The author, Steven K. Scott, isn't a great writer by any stretch of the imagination. I can't say that I enjoy his writing style in the least, but it was decent enough to continue reading the entire book. The chapters are crammed with examples of what happens when following Solomon's advice, and also what happens when the advice isn't heeded. Many of these examples lack evidence and there are a lot of generalities. His points would have been better served by hypothetical examples rather than trying to align well-known events with his viewpoints.
Perhaps the most ironic part of the book was reading about humility. Scott points out that Proverbs indicates the importance of humility in happiness and success. He says this in a book where he mentions how wealthy he is literally in every chapter. It seems that whenever possible, Scott wishes to remind you of his wealth, alternating between stories of how great a marketer he is because he made millions or explaining a bad investment where he lost millions. To be honest, his personal examples could have been completely dropped and the book's points would have still easily been made. Scott comes across as an arrogant know-it-all rather than a guide, which is what I think he should have tried to be. Perhaps some humility would have helped.
Aside from the overarching preachy, "I know best" attitude that pervades the entire book, the advice actually is quite solid. I was particularly impressed with the chapter entitled, "Overcoming the Most Destructive Force in Relationships," which is all about anger. I've read several other books on dealing with emotions such as anger (the best, by the way, is Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh) and I thought that the advice given here fell inline with a lot of the best advice I've read.
Overall, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived is a worth a read. If you can get past the tone of the book and the frequent references to how rich the author is, you'll find a significant amount of really good advice. The advice spans all parts of life, including business endeavors and relationships. Does Solomon have all the answers? Probably not, especially since he became a victim of his own pride later in life and lost all the power and wealth he had attained. Still, the book of Proverbs contains practical advice that we'd all be better off following. And I never would have known that without this book.
Office warfare
"Missing something?" My co-worker's sly smile betrayed his involvement with my missing laptop.
"Yes I am," I responded coyly, " are you?"
The smile disappeared from his face as his eyes darted across his desk looking for any sign of missing property.
"Oh, my bag," he let out a sigh of relief, "there's nothing in it, I don't care."
"Well then," I paused to take a sip of my water and turned back to face my desktop monitor, "I guess it's a good thing that that's the only thing missing."
Panic once again overcame him as he resumed scanning his workstation for any missing items.
"Ah crap, my keys!" he exclaimed.
I turned around triumphantly and smiled. Mind games are fun.
"So shall we trade?" I asked, knowing full well that he'd never find his keys. He stubbornly looked around for five minutes before finally giving in.
We did the exchange, laptop for bag and keys, hostage-style. I immediately secured the laptop lock that I had, for the very first time, forgotten to attach previously.
"Now that that's over with," I smiled, "how are you planning on listening to music today?"
He paused and looked at me quizically. Slowly, he turned to look at his desk.
"Oh come on, my headphones too?"
Starting from zero
I've worked myself into a fairly specific job as a front end engineer. My days are filled with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript almost exclusively (though mostly JavaScript for the past six months). It took me years to get to this point, knowing what I'm good at and what I'm not good at. Everyone's career tends to follow this same path: you start out not sure what you're good at, and as you figure it out, you start moving more towards your proficiency. Sometimes you end up proficient in what you start out as, oftentimes you end up really good at something that wasn't part of your job when you first got out of college.
There's a natural sorting that happens in the first few years of employment whereby you sort yourself to a job where you offer the highest value. You may start as an engineer and end up as a manager, or you may start out as a designer and become an engineer. If you're more outgoing and social, you'll end up in a career where that helps you succeed; if you're ridiculously good-looking, you'll end up in a career where that serves you (do you really think it's a coincidence that most salespeople are incredibly good-looking?).
What then tends to happen is that you identify with your role more closely. You've spent years developing this role and it becomes part of your persona. You know your strengths and weaknesses and, most of the time, play only to your strengths. It's natural and expected. But it's also nice to try to break out of your self-imposed role to try new things. This happened to me today at work.
Something had slipped through the tracks and it was my job to implement it...fast. There was very little front end work required to implement the feature and my initial reaction was, "ah crap, I don't know how to do this." Literally, I was starting at zero knowledge of how this feature would have to be built. A slight sense of panic started to overcome me. Maybe I can just assign it to someone else.
But I took it as a challenge instead. Okay, I've spent years becoming a good front end engineer...I can do other things too, why can't I be good at this as well? So I took the position that I was going to do this, and not only would I do it, I'd write up what I was doing to help others who may have to do the same thing later. So I started talking to people who might be able to inform me. After talking to about four people, I finally found someone that could walk me through the process. She, in turn, sent me to speak to several other people to help along the way.
At the end of the day, I had implemented most of the feature. I had started at zero and ended up almost complete thanks to the help of a handful of others. I stepped outside my usual role to do something new, and I was happy with the result. Perhaps I'm not just a front end engineer anymore.
Year number two
It was two years ago on July 26th that I arrived in California to work for Yahoo! Last year, I wrote a post describing what had happened in my life during that first year. Truth be told, I didn't know if I would actually stay out here after a year. Being so far from my family and friends was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I held onto my condo in Massachusetts as a security blanket, knowing that I could change my mind at any time and head to my life as I formerly knew it was comforting. But I decided to stay and continue on into another year.
This second year was very different than the first. The overriding theme was definitely hard work. I loaded up my plate with a lot of work. Along with my primary job on My Yahoo! (and later the Front Page), I contributed to YUI, was a mentor and teacher for the Juku, and worked on the second edition of Professional JavaScript. I'm not sure I worked this hard since I was in grad school while working full time and writing the first edition of Professional JavaScript.
I definitely didn't play enough in the past year. There were major stresses related to my home life, my condo in Massachusetts, and my health. At times I felt like I had lost my smile. The one exception was getting closer with my friends, Shelby and Courtland. You guys rock in so many ways that I can't even begin to describe. Oh wait, yes I can: Hawaii.
Hawaii was my first real vacation in years. I'm not just talking going away, I'm talking leaving the computer, watch, and cell phone behind. I'm talking sleeping when I felt tired, eating when I was hungry, and the toughest decision I had to make was to hang by the pool or go to the beach. All made better by sharing the experience with Shelby, Courtland, and a few others. The only crappy part was that it was so short (four days). Viva Hawaii!
This year didn't see much in the way of dating. As it turns out, having your heart ripped out makes one a little gun shy when it comes to the fairer sex. I was definitely pickier after that, picking my spots much more deliberately in the hopes of avoiding more such pain. The result was a year of very few dates and certainly none to write home about. In lieu of having a love life of my own, I found myself giving more relationship advice than ever before. Apparently, I'm the go-to guy for everything from how to pick up a girl to interpreting signals to picking out gifts. Whatever I can do to help.
I've now moved into a townhouse, my third home in four years. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate moving and how poorly I deal with major life transitions. If anyone had told me ten years ago that I would move three times in four years, I would have laughed them out of the conversation. For a guy who didn't even live away at college, this has been quite the lifestyle shift. All of a sudden, I see things not as how much I like them, but as how difficult it will be to move them. My love for large furniture has certainly been cooled through the experience.
I've also written more in the past year than ever before. If I wasn't writing a book, I was writing a blog post (for myself, for YUI, for others). I've written as therapy, I've written for work, I've written letters to people...just a lot of writing all around. It seems like something is trying to be expressed through me all the time and I need to get it out of my head and onto paper (or computer) to free it. Yeah, kind of esoteric, but I'm sure you're used that from me. 
I think this past year will undoubtedly go down as one of my most productive years ever and possibly one of the least fun (except for Hawaii!). Now, the goal is to take my foot off the pedal and relax a bit. Once my writing is done, and once my latest round of condo issues are resolved, I'm ready to settle into a life with more socialization and less around-the-clock responsibilities. Yes, I think year number three will be a big one for me, and I can't wait to see what happens next.
Shameless plug: Drinks
It seems like all the craziness over iPhone applications has finally hit and everyone who's anyone is hacking together some little app to run on the platform. As with shareware in general, most of the applications are crap. However, my buddy Courtland threw together a really slick app called Drinks
iDrink contains a database of over 4,500 cocktail recipes that can be searched, rearranged, and rated. You can search for drinks by their names or ingredients, plus you can add your own recipes easily. Not sure what you're in the mood for? iDrink has a random mode that will pick something for you. If you like your cocktails, I'd recommend giving it a try (or even a buy, it's only $4.99).
Thinking differently
I'm often accused of thinking differently than other people. It's quite common for me to hear people say, "hmmm...I hadn't thought about it that way." Actually, I take great pride in getting people to think about things in a way that they may never have considered; it's what makes life fun. I take nothing as an absolute and consider several areas of gray whenever possible. But I wasn't always like this. At one point, my life was just white or black, on or off, true or false, good or evil.
As far as I can remember, there was one moment that broke me out of binary existence. It occurred in 1992 while I was still taking karate (shaolin kempo, to be precise). I was a brown belt at the time and a tournament was coming up that would have representation from a bunch of schools. Now, I was never very good at tournament fighting, and anyone who's practiced martial arts knows that there's a huge difference between tournament fighting and street fighting. But I was encouraged to give it a shot. Sure, why not?
There were five people in my division at the tournament. My singular goal was not to come in last place. It shouldn't be too hard, I only needed to beat one person to avoid being fifth place. Except that it was hard. I got beaten and ended up in last place. Dammit.
The interesting thing was that they were placing four people from each division at this tournament. That means a plaque was awarded to places 1 through 4 with everyone else going home with nothing. That meant I would have been the only one in the division to go home without a plaque. One astute official realized this and found an extra plaque, took a sticker and wrote on it, "5th Place." He promised that he'd talk to the other officials and get an engraved plate sent to my school so the plaque would look official.
I returned to my school the next week to find that the official had kept his promise. My instructor Paul handed me the plate and said, "congratulations on earning fifth place."
"Congratulations?" I shot back in my typical sarcastic tone, "I came in fifth place out of five. I could have stood there, just let him kick my ass, and I still would've gotten fifth place. I don't deserve congratulations."
"I think you do," Paul said with a smile beginning to appear on his face, "you see, you're looking at it as coming in fifth out of the five people at the tournament...I'm looking at it as coming in fifth out of the five people at the tournament and the hundred other students I have who didn't even try."
I was blown away. From that moment on, I began inspecting things in a different way. The martial arts gave me a lot growing up: confidence, strength, knowledge. But perhaps the best lesson I learned was how to think outside the box and see what other people were missing.
And that’s 17!
I don't write as much about the Celtics as I do about my beloved Patriots, but this season has really been something magical. Having grown up watching Larry Bird and the original Big Three, I have to admit I was a bit spoiled when it came to basketball. The teams of the 1980s played the sport the way it was meant to be played, with teamwork and passion.
This year's Celtics reminded me a lot of those old teams I grew up cheering for. They, like the Patriots and Red Sox before them, put team ahead of personal accolades. Also like their Boston counterparts, the Celtics made sure everyone was ready to contribute; in the Finals alone they used 12 players, something unheard of on most teams and certainly unheard of on even the best Celtics teams.
I feel especially happy for Paul Pierce, who originally came in as second fiddle to Antoine Walker and then nearly lost his life after being stabbed 11 times. He's spent the past 10 years in Boston on mostly lousy teams (save for one that went to the Eastern Conference finals before losing to the Nets) and never demanded to be traded. He played his hardest with what amounted to a high school team around him the past couple of years. It's great to see him on top of the world.
This year's playoffs were a great ride. I agonized as the Celtics struggled on the road, but that's exactly why having the best record pays off. They earned the right to home court advantage during the regular season and it paid dividends in the playoffs. I got to wear my "Beat LA" t-shirt and now I'll get to wear a championship one. Man, what a great year to be from Boston.
Arlen Specter: Misplaced priorities
I don't usually comment on politics, but this time I just can't hold myself back. This week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell met with former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh to go over his account of the Patriots' videotaping practices. At the beginning of last season, the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick were punished for videotaping opposing teams' defensive signals. Walsh claimed he had more evidence and this week he brought it to Goodell. The result: Goodell says that everything Walsh provided substantiated what the league already knew and had already punished the Patriots for. End of story, right? Wrong.
Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, avid Philadelphia Eagles fan, thinks that the investigation isn't enough and that the league did a shoddy and biased investigation. He wants an independent investigation of the scandal because, as he put it:
If you can cheat in the NFL, you can cheat in college, you can cheat in high school, you can cheat on your grade-school math test. There's no limit as to what you can do. I think they owe the public a lot more candor and a lot more credibility.
Correlation between videotaping signals and cheating on grade-school math tests aside, I can't imagine what else Specter wants aside from the Patriots being stripped of their Super Bowl victory and having the trophy handed over to the Eagles. He seems particularly perturbed (or "incensed", as he keeps saying) about their being a videotape of the Steelers during an AFC Championship game. Why this is a matter of Congress is beyond me. Specter even threatened that Congress would enforce an investigation if the NFL didn't do one themselves (which, of course, they just did and came to a conclusion on).
Fortunately, not everyone in Congress agrees with Specter. Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts responded to Specter's issues with the following statement:
With the war in Iraq raging on, gasoline prices closing in on $4 a gallon, and Americans losing their homes at record rates to foreclosure, the United States Senate should be focusing on the real problems that Americans are struggling with.
This is one time that I'm happy to take ownership of Kennedy as a representative of Massachusetts. He hit the nail right on the head. As much as we'd like to think that sports are important, they pale in comparison to the real troubles that this country and its citizens are facing at the moment. The very thought that a one-man witch hunt of a professional sports team could sideline discussions about the economy, gas prices, or the war in Iraq irritates me to no end.
In business, we are always striving to deal with the biggest, most important issues first before going on to the more menial ones; I think Senator Specter has a severe case of misplaced priorities and his biased approach to this issue is a shameful example of how those in Washington can impose on others based on nothing more than a whim. Here's hoping that more rational heads can prevail at the Senate Judiciary Committee.
