The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula Le Guin

An interesting book that first didn’t grab my attention (lots of jargon and names) but which later on proved to be interesting to listen to. Here is my analysis of the story structure.

1. You (situation, comfort)

Genli Ai is the protagonist. She is an ambassador (envoy) from a new planet. This planet is full of people who don’t have a single sex (but can become either once every 28 days). He (although the book is narrated by a woman, so sometimes you forget that, and that might be part of the experience of the book) wants…

2. Need (want something)

… to get the states of the world (Gethen) to join the alliance/federation of planets.

3. Go (new situation)

He talks to the king and is in a place he can’t call home.

4. Search (progress, adapt)

He has to travel the planet and talk to many people. The same goes for his friend (the former prime minister). And Genli learns a lot about how they live and interact. The end is foreshadowed by fore-tellers.

5. Find (no turning back)

After much struggle there is a plan to get the ship to land and the world to join the federation.

6. Take (trouble, pay a price)

But the road there is a long struggle and his friend dies.

7. Return (go back to where it started)

He returns to the capital and finalises his plan.

8. Change (now capable of change)

He is changed by his experience. And the world there is also about to change.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Sticking with the last sci-fi review of Speaker for the Dead, here is another analysis of a classic of the sci-fi literature. An analysis of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein.

1. You (situation, comfort)

We’re on the moon. And we’re following the adventures of Manuel (“Manny”), a supercomputer (Mike), and their rebel friends. The introduction does a great job of describing where we are, what is different from ‘our’ world and not focus too much on the logistics of a moon colony.

2. Need (want something)

Manny needs to break free from the Warden (the local authority figure). He wants to live free. A secret organisation is started.

3. Go (new situation)

Government is overthrown.

4. Search (progress, adapt)

Now they have to scramble to become a state in their own right.

5. Find (no turning back)

They go to earth to try and convince others they are the real thing. This phase (5) is the opposite of the start (1) and true in every way. They are not on the moon anymore, they are being diplomats (not technicians).

6. Take (trouble, pay a price)

The world isn’t listening to diplomatic channels. So a raid and bombings are on the way.  “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!”.

7. Return (go back to where it started)

Finally, earth recognizes their independence. They are cheered on by the crowds on the moon.

8. Change (now capable of change)

Manny withdraws from politics. Mike stops talking. They are now a free state, but some things are just the same again.

Solve for Happy

Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat is a book that delighted at times, full of anecdotes and very frustrating at other times. It’s a book that describes a mans search for happiness after his son suddenly dies in a car accident. It’s a book that is very personal yet also full of references to scientific literature. It’s a book that speaks many truths that we might forget in the busyness of that thing we call life.

Formula for Happiness

Here it is, the formula for happiness. Happiness = your perception of events in your life – your expectations of life. That’s it, easy as that. Life plays itself out in your head, it’s a battle between what you expect and what you get. If you get more than you expect, you are happy. If you get less than you expect, you are unhappy. It’s the thoughts that make us unhappy (and it’s the thing we can change) and not the events.

Most of our suffering is useless. Physical pain is very bad and really hurts. But most pain we experience is the pain we give ourselves. It’s unnecessary and leads to nowhere. So, in this moment, choose not to suffer. Choose to be happy. Accept life for what it is, and embrace it.

6 Illusions, 7 Blind spots, 5 Truths

Gawdat wants to teach us that between us and happiness, there are a few obstacles. And I couldn’t agree more with his analysis of the illusions we keep on telling ourselves.

• Thought: You are not the thoughts you’re thinking. You can (with some restrictions) control what you’re thinking.
• Self: You’re also not your body. Or emotions. Or heritage. Or religion. Or name. Or past performances. Or your things. You’re the observer, the person who sees it all. “In a world without an ego, where it doesn’t matter how everyone else sees us, we will do our utter best and get the results without caring what others think.
• Knowledge: You’re not what you know. What we know is just an approximation of the ‘real’ truths. There are many unknown unknowns still to be discovered. Real knowledge is knowing what you don’t know (Confucius).
• Time: Mechanical (minutes/hours/etc) time is made by man. Happy emotions are linked to the now, bad thoughts are linked to the past and future. If you want to be happy, live in the now.
• Control: You’re not in control of your life. Unexpected events (black swans LINK TALEB?) rule our lives. Don’t expect control, but do your best anyway (take responsibility).
• Fear: Admit that you have fear, then face it. If you hide from fear, it will only breed more fear, anger, hate, and suffering. What is the worst that can happen (LINK TIM FERRIS TALK)?

Our blind spots have helped us as a species for the last few million years. See a leaf move, think tiger, survive. Acting on a possible threat was a good strategy. But in our ‘normal’ day-to-day, there is no need for these blind spots anymore.

• Filters: Your brain filters out much information, otherwise it would be overloaded.
• Assumptions: Our assumptions are nothing more than a story our brain makes, not reality.
• Predictions: Predictions are only stories made by our brain about the future.
• Memories: Your memories are only a reflection of how you see the past (they are far removed from facts).
• Judgements: You judge before you know the whole situation (thus preventing you from making a correct assessment).
• Emotions: Our perception of reality is clouded by irrational emotions.
• Exaggerations: We have an availability heuristic and exaggerate what we see.

It’s not reality that shapes us, it’s the lens through which we see the world. So let’s take a look at how to better look at our world.

• Now: When people were asked what they were thinking about (past, now, future), results show consistently that they are happier when they’re living the moment. Connecting with others in the present is one of the best things to do. To get to the now, you have to stop doing other things (e.g. thinking). Stop doing, just be. Be here in the moment, that is where life is happening.
• Change: Change is the only thing we can predict with certainty. So go with the flow, know what you can influence, let other things go. Find the way of least resistance. Be more grateful, less greedy (or ambitious).
• Love: Unconditional love is one of the most beautiful and universal things you can offer the world. The true happiness of love is to give love. The more you give, the more you get back. Love yourself (self-compassion). What you give, you get back many fold (also see Give & Take by Adam Grant). Choose to be nice, not right.
• Death: Everyday we’re dying a little (it’s a process, not an event). Without death, there would be no life. When our body dies, the memories of you can stay for centuries. Death is unavoidable, life is now. So live before you die.
• Design: So here is where my opinions differ from Gawdat. He argues that life on this planet could not have come to fruition in any other way than by design. There must be a creator for all this to work. I would argue that life has come out of this randomness. And yes we don’t exactly know how, but you don’t need a creator to explain the processes by which evolution, human interactions, and the individual processes are moving.

Speaker for the Dead

Something different this time. Instead of a short review, an analysis of the story structure of the most recent sci-fi book I’ve read. The book in question is Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. It’s partly based on this essay/guide by Dan Harmon.

1. You (situation, comfort)

This part is for establishing the protagonist. This takes a while because we first get a deep dive into the world (which is maybe partly the protagonist, in an abstract way). There we follow two people who will later on die. Ender, the main character, only arrives (literally) later on.

It does establish the world we are living in (how long after Enders’ Game), which planet, what species.

2. Need (want something)

The thing that is not perfect is that the piggies (the other species on the planet) and humans need to live together. And change is happening, piggies are learning.

At the same time, a need is that for Ender (as Speaker for the Dead) to come speak the death of the xenobiologists. This is the actual call for adventure.

3. Go (new situation)

Ender is on his way in his spaceship. He has crossed the threshold, said goodbye to his life-friend (his sister). Or the go could be at the killing of the first xenobiologist.

The story goes from peace/observation to action and possible conflict.

4. Search (progress, adapt)

How can we communicate with the piggies? What story needs to be told here? Why were the xenobiologists killed? Who can we trust? Ender and others go on a search for the truth.

5. Find (no turning back)

Ender meets with the piggies.

6. Take (trouble, pay a price)

Congress (world government) is not happy. Rebel or sentence two people to years in prison. Option 1 is chosen. They meet with the female piggies.

Ender gets things done. Negotiates with the three living species and finds a way to get everything rolling.

7. Return (go back to where it started)

A new peace is established after much negotiation.

Ender gets his sister involved. They are a team again.

8. Change (now capable of change)

Truth has been found. The sermons have been spoken. The team is back together (with some new friends).

Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue ocean strategy is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost to open up a new market space and create new demand.

I’ve heard about the blue ocean strategy from many people, and at multiple times. And the above description is about as much as I knew about it. Get away from the competition, and make your own (new) market. That sounds very positive, but how is it done?

This is my overview of the schemas from Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and Chan Kim.

The BLUE Ocean

Where most companies compete is also where most companies are. They are competing against each other for the same attention of the same customers. If this market is a pond, it’s one that is very full. And it’s competitive if companies are fishes, some might even get hurt. The red ocean is the current (know) market.

Where the bulk of the profits are made, is where the least amount of companies are. This is in markets that don’t even exist today, they are unknown. Imagine yourself on an expedition around the world and you find a body of water that no person has ever been on. You’ve found yourself a blue ocean. Here there a no boundaries, rules, or competition.

You can get yourself into a blue market by making a strategic move. There is no ‘blue ocean’ company, but there are products that companies launched (via a strategic move) that swam in a blue ocean for a very long time. There are very few companies that have been able to apply the blue ocean strategy multiple times.

How can you be one of these companies? How can you make a strategic move that leads to a blue ocean?

VALUE Innovation

Value innovation is a dedicated focus on making the competition irrelevant by offering exceptional value to your customers, whilst keeping your own costs down. If you create value without innovation you are probably only providing a little more value for your customers (e.g. the new iPhone). If you create innovation without a direct value for customers you don’t have a market (e.g. Virtual Reality in the ‘80s/now?). If you combine both, you create something people want (e.g. the original iPhone, Tesla Model S, Cirque du Soleil).

Value innovation is the combination of improving your cost structure and providing customer value. You decrease your costs by not doing and minimizing the things that most of your competitors focus on. And you improve the value by doing and raising something your competitors don’t focus on.

Blue Ocean TOOLKIT

To innovate where others are competing you have to know how to identify what is a value innovation. For this purpose, you can use the following tools: The Strategy Canvas, The Four Actions Framework, Six Paths Framework, The Buyer Utility Map, and The Price Corridor of the Mass. Yes, these are quite some tools, so get ready for a short explanation of each one. The tools are sequential and normally the next one builds on the insights of the previous tool.

The Strategy Canvas

Use the strategy canvas to identify where you do things different from your competition. To do this you should identify all the competing factors on which you operate. Some examples are; price, marketing, location, star performers, service. Here is an example of the strategy canvas. Note that you can best use this framework at the beginning (where your line might look like that of the competition) and at the end (when it should look very different).

The Four Actions Framework

Use the Four Actions Framework to identify which things you should eliminate, reduce, raise, and create. You need to know what your unique buying reason (UBR) should be for your customers, in what way are you different from the competition. And what things are the competitors doing that makes no sense (e.g. explaining wine in fancy terms to people who just want to drink something tasty).

The Four Actions Framework helps you to increase your focus, diverge your value curve and define your tagline. You pick one place on which you focus your efforts. You add value to your customers on something that others are not. And you summarize this in your tagline, preferably something that’s catchy.

The Six Paths Framework

Use the Six Paths Framework to redefine where your product is competing. On six dimensions you can ask yourself a new question. Instead of looking at the competition within an industry, ask yourself what you can do with your product in another industry. Instead of looking at a trend and adapting to it, why not create a new trend yourself?

The Buyer Utility Map

Use the Buyer Utility Map to identify blocks to providing utility to your customers. In each step of the use of a product (from purchase to disposal) a customer is assessing it on various dimensions. This ranges from their own productivity to the environmental impact of the product. The more places you can check off, the better.

The Price Corridor of the Mass

Use the Price Corridor of the Mass to define at what level you can price your product. In this tool, you can define at what level your competitors (within your market, but also similar markets) price their products. You can then price your product 1) higher, 2) in the middle, or 3) lower. This all depends on how unique your product is. If it’s new but easily copied, maybe price it low to keep competition away. If it’s very difficult to replicate, price it high.

Your price should mainly be defined by ‘target costing’. This means that you use the strategic price (found via the price corridor) and deduct the desired profit margin. What is left is the target cost. By going in the opposite direction from normal pricing, you will be more likely to find novel ways of keeping your costs down (e.g. innovation in price model, partnering, operational innovations, etc).

SUSTAINABLE Blue Oceans

Creating blue oceans is not a static achievement, it’s a strategic process that needs to constantly be updated. The toolkit as presented here is only a start and using it is the only way to create new blue oceans.

In your pursuit of value innovation, there will always be imitators. Their strength and duration before they arrive are highly dependent on how easily they can copy your formula. And when the competition gets near, update your value curve, eliminate, create and stay relevant. There are no permanently excellent companies, but there is a blue ocean strategy that you can follow!

Four Hour Body

Here are some observations I’ve taken from The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss.

Before anything else. This is the subtitle; An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. That is quite the promise. And this activates two thoughts in my head. The first is, he’s tested most things on himself and really knows how to promote something, maybe even too much. The second is, we (people) usually don’t follow through on advice, we normally try it for a day, and then go on doing what we did before. Inertia is very strong, are there things from this book that can break through mine?

Weight loss, the first promise

What Tim is looking for in his life is small things that have a big impact. It’s the same what the authors of Blue Ocean Strategy say, focus on the few that influence the many. And because he focusses on the small things, he believes these are also the ones that are most likely to stick and have an impact.

When you want to lose weight, there are three things you can play with; 1) diet, 2) drugs, 3) exercise. Tim chooses a 60% diet, 10% drugs (i.e. caffeine), and 30% exercise approach.

Measurement is also very important, so let’s start with mine:

Weight*: Now 93kg – Goal 88kg (ish)

Bodyfat*: 16% – 12%

Muscles*: 39kg (stays the same, hopefully)

*Based on a household scale that sends a small electrical signal through your legs, not too accurate, but good enough for my purpose.

• Make it a game.
• Make yourself accountable (e.g. by placing a bet with a friend, or posting it publicly on a blog)
• Track or you will fail.

Let’s talk about food

3,500 calories are equal to about a pound (0,45kg) of fat. If you consume 1,150 calories too few (food – (exercise + BMR)) per day, you would lose about 1 kg of fat per week. That means if I stick to this and don’t get any more crazy with tips and tricks from the book, I will have to diet for four weeks. Are there any other things I can do?

Slow carb rules

1. Avoid ‘white’ carbs – bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas
2. Eat the same few meals over and over again – protip: you’re probably already doing this
3. Don’t drink calories – no milk, soft drinks, fruit juice – also limit diet soft drinks
4. Don’t eat fruit – it’s mostly sugar, eat a vitamin pill if unsure
5. Take one day off per week – and that will be Saturdays – to keep your metabolic rate high

More tips

1. Eat a breakfast – don’t skip it – really!
2. Eat enough protein – 60+ grams per day (did you know that Queal is high in protein?!)
3. Drink water – the normal advice is 2 litres – I keep a bottle at my desk, I average about 3 litres per day
4. Batch that cooking – you won’t be in the kitchen every day
5. Watch out for very dense foods – nuts and alike

Yo-yo can be good, “Forget balance and embrace cycling.” It can be beneficial to eat more on one day and less on another, versus moderately on both.

List of recommended foods (that I liked most)

• Egg whites with 1-2 whole eggs for flavour
• Lentils
• Black beans
• Spinach
• Mixed vegetables
• Sauerkraut
• Legumes
• Garlic

What to do on binge day?

• Have a high protein meal (and not too large) as your first
• Eat a bit of fructose (e.g. grapefruit juice) before meal two to flat-line blood glucose
• Use supplements to increase insulin sensitivity: AGG and PAGG?
• Consume citric juices – lime juice in water
• Consume caffeine (pill), theobromine (dark chocolate) and theophylline (green tea) to let everything pass through your body faster
• Do small exercises during the day – to bring glucose transporter type 4 to the surface of muscle cells (so they can absorb the food instead of your fat cells) (e.g. 10 squats before you eat)

Observations from the book

• Correlation isn’t causation, if you train for a marathon you won’t immediately look like a professional marathoner
• Your predisposition is only that, something that will happen if you don’t challenge the status quo.
• Measure with the same devices each time, the change/progress is what matters

Supplements?

• Cissus quadrangularis (CQ) – possible fat-loss effects and anabolic effect
• Ephedrine hydrochloride: 20 mg
• Caffeine: 200 mg
• Aspirin: 85 mg

High on caffeine, dependency, difficult to wake, so below is an alternative

• Policosanol: 20–25 mg
• Alpha-lipoic acid: 100–300 mg
• Green tea flavanols (decaffeinated with at least 325 mg EGCG): 325 mg
• Garlic extract: 200 mg

I’ve decided that I will use caffeine (not so sensitive to it) and green tea. The others are difficult to get in The Netherlands and it’s all extra costs for that 10% extra.

Things to do with your body

• Swim! – cold exposure can lead to extra burning of calories
  • Tim does ice baths for about 20 minutes, don’t have a bath and it sounds (and is) painful
• So I will place an icepack on the back of neck in the evening
• Drink cold water in the morning, 500 ml
• Cold showers (end with cold water on shoulders/back)

“Short-term cold exposure (30 minutes) in humans leads to fatty acid release to provide fuel for heat production through shivering. This same shivering could be sufficient to recruit GLUT-4 to the surface of muscle cells, contributing to increased lean muscle gain.”

For exercises, Tim has a few different pieces of advice. Most include exercises that recruit multiple muscles in the body and focus on the big muscles (legs, chest, back). I’m very familiar with Stronglifts 5×5 and I will use this as my basis (doing 3 big exercises each time, A/B schedule).

To conclude

In all honesty, the 4-Hour Body is not the most organized book ever. There are many stories and then some research to back it up. But when you want to act on it, it’s difficult to piece together the advice into a workable program (of diet, exercise and supplements).

The things mentioned above are the things that I’m doing, for you it may differ and I wish you the best of luck with your goals. In the near future (or in the past if you’re reading this later) I will post an update with my observations from the other side.