Words On Wednesday

I feel like autobiographies can be hit or miss and depend on a lot of factors; how interesting the person is or was, how well they wrote, and whether they narrated the audiobook themselves all play a huge role in how much I enjoy the book. Alex Trebek knocked it out of the park. I grew up watching Jeopardy! off and on. I was never one of those viewers that had it on every evening, but if I was channel surfing and noticed it, that was definitely one of the shows that I would gravitate to. Jeopardy! was nice because it didn’t have the lowest-common-denominator crowd work that a lot of game shows thrived on. The simple and straightforward delivery of interesting questions from Trebek, with contestants that generally seemed to know their stuff really appealed to my logos fixation. When Trebek was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and later died as a result of the disease, I was disappointed. In general, I don’t really get attached to celebrities or mourn their deaths. I didn’t know these pe...

Because of some work initiatives, I’ve started digging into books on leadership. My manager recommended a few, and “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (or just “7 Habits”) was the first available from the library. With little else to go on, I decided it was a reasonable place to start. My expectations were admittedly set very low. At a glance, “7 Habits” looks like just another book about self-improvement, with a bunch of buzzwords and very little actionable material. However, I wanted to give it a solid attempt before I panned the book as complete trash. The funny thing about the habits themselves is they aren’t exactly hidden; Covey has them listed and described in plain view on his site. I’ll even drop them right here, it isn’t a secret. These are not some ancient gnostic wisdom that get you into an occult club. It’s just a way of thinking about things. Habit 1: Be Proactive® Focus and act on what you can control and influence instead of what you can’t. Habit 2: Begin With the...