Jacob Varner’s Book Log

The Hoops Whisperer

2021-04-15T00:00:00-05:00

Like Moonwalking with Einstein, this was another “fun” and different read that goes outside of the normal type of book I usually read. Ravin’s passion for basketball and strict Jewish upbringing leads to a very unique career path and a seemingly fantastic career for him.

The many stories of Ravin training the best basketball players in the world make this a pretty easy page-turner while I feel that I learned a thing or two about their personalities and his training methods along the way. Reading about him going from a career and job that he mainly had because of parental and societal pressure to a hobby and then a job that he truly loves was a great motivating factor and added perspective I hope to always keep in mind in my own career.

Towards the end, Ravin mentions some of the uglier sides of coaching, management, and the front offices of a few NBA teams and while it was a little hard to hear, it’s not all that surprising and I would like to optimistically hope that some have changed as the league appears to be even more of a “players’ league” now.

I’d love to read a more up-to-date version of this book with even more stories about his unique career in the further flourishing last few years of basketball and the NBA.

Woke Church

2021-04-08T00:00:00-05:00

I went into this book with low expectations because I’m not a big fan of just labeling racial and social justice as “woke” mainly because of how much the word has been taken over in a mocking manner from one side of the political aisle. However, very early on in the book, the author does a good job of defining what the word is intended to mean and with that at least made me get over the choice of the term in the title and agree ultimately with what his ideal was.

After reassuring me early on in the book, despite the title, the author starts off very strong with a great commentary on what the Church should be and what it should stand for in relation to racial and social justice. Unlike all of the other books on race I’ve read in the past and even more than the other book on Christian racism, this book ties everything into the Bible. At times, it felt like I was reading a Bible study or book on theology more than I was reading a book on race.

Because of that, I think this is a great book for other Christians to start with, especially if they insist on starting every discussion into a topic as important as racism and race in America with the Bible.

I appreciate that the author mentions all he’s learned in striving for multicultural churches and his desire to seek out situations where he can help in neighborhoods, schools, and other vital areas that the Church does not assist nearly enough. This book focuses a lot on what the Church should have already been doing based simply on the teachings of Jesus instead of needing a new call to start paying attention to racism and the many harms that stem from it.

This book gets dives into a lot of detail in most chapters, and because of that, it’s hard for me to remember all the high points and adequately summarize the book. However, within the first few pages, the author provides an excellent diagram that summarizes the different types of “woke” that are found in our world and how the Church needs to be in the middle of all three in order to be most effective.

Because of the level of detail and Biblical information provided in this book, it’s probably one that I should have read slower. But with the stack of books on my shelf and in my wish list continuing to grow, I find it hard to take my time and slowly read books like this in the way they deserve. I will certainly be going back to this book to double-check Biblical references and re-read whole chapters when I feel they are applicable to current events.

Much of the main points are made before the last few chapters, so it had a sort of slow ending in my eyes. Between that and my desire for a little more history to be conveyed, those are about my only minor complaints about the book as a whole. I still highly recommend other Christians take a few days to read this short but information-packed book.

Set for Life

2021-03-30T00:00:00-05:00

I loved this book as much as, if not more, than The Simple Path to Wealth, and I think it pairs well with that book by spending more time on certain aspects like real estate and income growth. I also feel like this book was perfect for my current circumstances and added a lot of timely advice on how I approach our housing search, career aspirations, and other things that I’ve been mulling over recently.

Like a lot of personal finance books, this book is based around a few key steps, but I especially like how this book mostly limited it to three and spelled out which parts of the steps had to be done in order and which could overlap. The book is broken down into saving the first $25,000, then pivots into using that cushion to take more risks and pursue higher income and purchase a house that ideally also makes money, then finishes with the “final” steps once over $100,000 in net worth of “real” assets.

In almost every part of the book, there are good, real examples with the match and numbers clearly laid out for each of the scenarios. It was also refreshing after reading The Total Money Makeover to have the author actually explain the benefits and downsides to just about every option without just outright downing most things.

This book is certainly geared more towards people chasing early financial freedom, and with that, there are some more “extreme” habits that it suggests, but I think there is enough good information without it being too judgemental for people that aren’t necessarily trying to retire by age 30. All of the strategies discussed are still good and can be used on a longer timeframe, but they’re also there if someone is looking to retire and be financially free really early in life.

One big area that is noticeable is in the discussion of retirement accounts. The author doesn’t go as far as claiming they are bad but makes a good case for why they shouldn’t be prioritized, especially for people trying to reach financial freedom on an earlier schedule, because they keep money inaccessible or at least harder to access until later in life. While I’m not at the point yet, it does make me rethink how much I want to keep increasing my retirement contributions, because they’ll ideally just be used to build wealth for later in life and the extra money I would contribute could be used for more accessible assets like real estate or just regular index funds.

Rework

2021-03-19T00:00:00-05:00

I’ve been aware of and vaguely familiar with Basecamp and these authors, but I’m glad I waited until I had spent a few years in a “real” job before reading this book because it made their observations and ideas that much more valuable. I loved this book and loved how easy it was to read. There is so much quality, “out-of-the-box” information throughout the book and it could not have been presented in a more succinct way. There are even pictures and graphics with each chapter!

During my quick read, there were a few chapters that I had to immediately share, and the fact that each chapter is usually just two pages made it just as easy to snap a picture of the open book and immediately capture basically all the information for each idea. My favorite chapter, by far, was the one on meetings and about how they are useless and a waste of time almost all the time. Even when meetings are needed, we usually approach them the wrong way with such long set times and very little direction in most cases.

This was just one of many chapters that I could immediately understand its value when looking at my own experience in my early career. While I have not yet developed a product completely on my own, I hope to use a lot of what this book covers as I continue to work on a small team at work, developing various applications. I think it’s a long shot to implement a lot of these ideas at a company level, given the set ways of older generations at the top of most companies, but I do hope that I’m able to apply most things personally and on a small team level.

In an ideal world, I’ll be able to continue to work and apply most ideas where I can so that if I do get the opportunity to start my own product and company or join a smaller, more progressive software team, I will have these ideas and my own slight tweaks to utilize. This book was a very quick read, but it’s also a perfect book to keep around and go back to quickly reference certain chapters.

My only knock on this book is that I do wish there was a little more information in each chapter with examples of how the Basecamp team and others have had success with the methods. It’s a small complaint, and honestly wish it just came with a companion book that expanded on all the ideas where I could just reference the few chapters that I wanted to read more on. The goal of this book was to waste no words, and it accomplished that goal for sure, so again, this is a very minor flaw in my eyes.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone to read since it is such an easy read, but I’d especially recommend it for those in software or other problem solving and creative-centered careers.

The Total Money Makeover

2021-03-15T00:00:00-05:00

I’ve never really been a fan of Dave Ramsey, based on the little I knew about his main ideas, but recent comments he’s made caused me to shift to be even less of a fan. Before making up my mind completely, I figured I should at least read some of his stuff in order to be totally sure I understood his main points and ideas around money. I expected to read this book and just come out with a better understanding of why he has his opinions, even if I still didn’t agree with them for me (or most people). Instead, reading this book somehow made me agree with his ideas even less and generally like him and his style even less.

I am by no means an expert in personal finance, mostly because I’m still very young and have not had the chance to make enough mistakes or learn the right or wrong way to do certain things. But, like a lot of my interests, I have jumped fully into the world of money and personal finance over the past few years. With that, I listen to several podcasts, have read many books, and generally try to always find new ways of looking at money and wealth through discussions or reading other online resources.

That being said, I’ve never heard or read a person in the personal finance space self-promote their ideas like Dave Ramsey. Occasionally podcast hosts will have guests that share their money successes and lessons learned, but they’re almost always credited to generally well-known advice and often creative applications of those methods. It does help to hear specific stories of people, but not in the sense that this book covers them. Almost every chapter has two to three stories of people generally improving their finances, but everyone is just name-dropping “The Total Money Makeover” and praising Ramsey.

For the people that bettered themselves through his strategy, I’m happy for them. I realize that his ways are good for certain people that really need the very disciplined and structured approach that Ramsey preaches. However, the arrogance that he presents his ideas and the constant gaslighting and exaggeration of other ideas really make this book hard to read as someone who is aware of other strategies for wealth building and money management. Ramsey constantly mentions that he’s a “math guy” but then continues to show that he either has no concept of the math behind optimal money strategies, or he is just trying to be contrarian to attack a large and passionate audience.

Before reading this book, I knew I was very adamantly against Ramsey’s view of credit cards and his order for paying off debt. This book only showed me how strongly he pushes his ideas without accurately portraying the other methods or options. He does this by saying things like anyone that goes against his ideas is just a proponent of the credit card or lending industry. He has entire chapters dispelling “myths” with many of them pitting a myth against a barely related random statistic instead of an accurate truth that goes along with the myth he is attempting to deny.

For example, to go against the “myth” that credit cards can be used to make money, he simply says the “fact” is that 65% of people have credit card debts. That’s just simply a sad fact, not necessarily a contrary defense of his belief that credit cards are bad. Yes, I understand that there are people that have very bad habits of spending and use of credit, and for those people, credit cards might not be an option. But to just say that all credit cards are bad, despite them being a great tool for good deals and extra income if used correctly, again makes his entire book and set of ideas seem like an attempt to gaslight people and have them mindlessly follow his teachings which continues to add to his influence and personal wealth.

When he begins to talk about his debt snowball method, where he believes the way to pay down debts is by paying the smallest debts first, he never even mentions the other widely used method, the debt avalanche. I understand the benefit of his method, especially for people that need more of a mental boost or motivation to pay off debt. But to not even mention a more optimal, and mathematically “better” way of paying off debt, seems very disingenuous. Using the debt avalanche method, where debts are paid off in order of largest interest rate to the smallest interest rate is a better financial decision in almost every scenario. Sure, using the debt avalanche is useless if someone gives up, and that’s the advantage of the snowball method for those that need that boost, but to just not even mention a method that objectively saves more money over time continues to rub me the wrong way.

I discovered some other insane things for the first time, and my wife is probably glad I’m done with this book so I’ll stop sharing my rants with her as I read. There is literally a point in the book where Ramsey suggests not contribute to a company-matched retirement fund because while “the 100 percent match is sweet [he has] seen something more powerful - focused intensity.” He is advising that people pass up on free money that will compound over time in order to pay off even small, low-interest debts.

Once again, I realize the audience that is ideal for Dave Ramsey’s ideas, but I just wish more people would realize they’re leaving so much on the table when taking his process literally. While it is a good start, and a needed start for a lot of financially irresponsible people to get away from drowning in debt, there are so many better ways to maximize and actively build wealth along the way, while still ultimately getting out of debt with the same discipline that Ramsey says is needed.

I won’t continue to go into all the little things that I disagree with and how much of a disservice I think a lot of his ideas do for a lot of people, but it really is worse that he presents just his one side and makes any other options seem awful because he never accurately presents other ideas or even the downsides to his suggestions.

This book was looking like it was about to become my lowest rated book, but I’ll admit, he saved the score a little bit by having generally good advice on investments, even if I think they come way too late in his plan. He covers the importance of mutual funds and which different types can have different benefits when combined with others. He mentions the massive benefits of compounding interest over time but never manages to let people know that they could have even more if they did it from the beginning, even if in smaller amounts, instead of waiting until all debt was gone to start generating returns.

At the very end, I also really enjoyed Ramsey’s mindset on using wealth once someone has it. He makes it clear that enjoying your wealth is a good thing, but it needs to be balanced with giving as well, which can bring even more fulfillment in the end.

I’ll end this by saying that if you have only ever read or listened to Dave Ramsey, please take the time to read a few other personal finance books and get a better idea of general strategies. You may decide after reading or listening to other resources and learning more about the math and structure behind other personal finance habits that Ramsey’s steps are still best for you, but I don’t think purely following his advice is good for anyone, especially once you’re past the first few steps.

Dave Ramsey has made a ton of money, and he is generally good with money, but my issue is that his strategies still leave a lot of opportunities for even more growth off the table.

I could probably continue to pick apart aspects of this book that I like, dislike, or just totally disagree with, but this is already much longer than my usual reviews, so if you’d like to talk more about my thoughts, you probably know where to reach me.

I’m sure Dave hates that I made money (or spent less money) by buying his book with my Amazon credit card.

Moonwalking with Einstein

2021-03-09T00:00:00-06:00

There were points in the book that it got a little slow, repetitive, and dry, but overall, I like how it combines scientific information about memory with Foer’s story of learning from the best on his journey to compete in competitive memory competitions. I wish it would have covered the actual strategies of memory a little bit more, but as it’s pointed out throughout the book, a lot of them are not very practical with everyday things, so I understand why they’re not covered in greater detail.

Foer does a good job of covering the talents and quirks of several mental athletes that he gets to know as well as going into a few key case studies on memory that have been performed by various psychologists over time. The description of the memory championships (and the people that competed in them) brought back memories of my math competitions when I was in school, which gave me a pretty good visual for all that was going on. The coverage of the competitions was one of my favorite parts of the book, and certainly more exciting towards the end when Foer is giving a first-hand recollection of his shot at the US Memory Championship.

While the book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, it was a break from the style of book I typically read while being enjoyable and a fairly easy read. It piqued my interest enough that I might do more reading on the memory techniques mentioned throughout, but it didn’t sell them enough to make me immediately want to start learning them, mostly because they don’t seem practical but require a lot of practice and time.

The Color of Compromise

2021-02-26T00:00:00-06:00

This book does a fantastic job of covering a lot of the history of racism in America in a very quick read while tying almost everything back to Christianity and the white church, including times of actual support for racism or just complacency. This book does not cover as much ground as Stamped From the Beginning, but it comes closer than any of the other books on race I’ve read in the past year. It starts with the “discovery” of America, discusses the church’s role in slavery, and then even spends a good amount of time talking about the modern civil rights movement and how it relates to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

I typically don’t write or mark up any of my books, but this book really made me reconsider that policy. At some point, I need to go back and write some of the quotes from this book down, because there were several times where I had to stop and read power statements over again. Tisby has a very good way of making strong points and covering a lot of ground while being succinct, to the point, and still leaving room open for opposing views more than most books on race do. After reading this, I’ve definitely added his other newly released book to my reading wishlist.

There were three chapters and topics in this book that I especially enjoyed and I think they’re each pretty unique compared to other books and resources I’ve enjoyed over the last year.

First, Tisby does a good job of covering the disdain for Martin Luther King Jr. from within the church and America as a whole that is often overlooked as everyone now wants to see him as an easy-to-digest figure that just said “I have a dream.” Ever since high school where I was fortunate to have had an English teacher that set aside a large portion of time to highlight more of Dr. King’s less known works and really read them in their entirety instead of just covering the same surface level quotes, often taken out of context, that are always shared on MLK day each year. Tisby is very direct in calling out those performative acts from churches today but also links it to the long history of many churches and entire denomination organizations being against and unsupportive of King at the time.

Next, which is a point that I don’t think I’ve ever seen made, was Tisby’s many moments of calling our Billy Graham and other popular evangelists. Before really making his strong point, Tisby is clear to “say what he’s not saying” and clarify that Graham was not a racist, but rather could have done a lot more and sided with different kinds of powerful people. Graham had an elementary view of how to “solve” racism, and it mostly mirrors similar views in the church today that revolve around just being kind to those that are different. While Graham never used his massive influence to support protests, major laws like the Civil Rights Act, and other helpful actions on racial reconciliation, he had plenty of time to stand boldly against things like communism and “law and order.”

One of my favorite quotes in the book comes from a Black journalist reflecting on Graham’s position, and lack of support, for the Civil Rights Act where he says “Graham did not walk with protestors or call for open housing or desegregated churches because he’s too busy praying.” This quote summarizes the problem of one of the church’s biggest influences and the church’s complacency with racism very well in my opinion. A majority of people are not actively supporting racism, but they are too busy ignoring major issues to instead just pray that it gets better without taking action.

Tisby wraps up the book with his own guide for what Christians, and all people, can simply do to continue to always push for progress on race, particularly in America. He calls it the ARC of Justice in his chapter “The Fierce Urgency of Now.” ARC stands for awareness, relationships, and commitment, and all can be done simultaneously or in any order.

Awareness covers gaining more knowledge and context on issues of racism including reading books, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries, and diversifying the commentary you take in. Relationships focus on going out of your way to join more diverse groups and genuinely building quality relationships with people of different races and backgrounds, not just to have them answer all of your questions and give you a social alibi, but to actually learn their experiences. Commitment goes into the continued work and adding to the fight for racial equality through things like writing blog posts, donating to organizations, speaking with local politicians and influential people about issues around race, and also voting with racial progress in mind.

There aren’t many books that I truly plan to go back and read again, but this book covers so much ground in a short amount of time, that I might consider re-reading this every now and then. I think this is a book that everyone should read, but Christians and a particular need to read it and start to accept the long history of the church’s role in racism, even if it is just complacency at times. I can’t cover everything in my review and even thought of other key passages like Lecrae opening up about the doubts of his faith and the church that supposedly supports him after recent events, but I may go back and take better notes for myself as well as the ability to share with others. Even if I get to that, this is still a book that I highly recommend everyone read. Sooner rather than later.

A Promised Land

2021-02-16T00:00:00-06:00

At some point early in the book, Obama mentions that one of his “weaknesses”, when he was campaigning and starting out in politics, was that he tended to go into way too much information when talking about a policy or topic. That was mostly due to him being a person obsessed with information and knowledge himself but could lead to a lot of “get to the point” moments. That quirk was pretty apparent in the way this book is written. I enjoyed the detail and depth of knowledge for the most part, but there were certainly points where it made things feel disjointed or that it could have been more concise.

It’s still hard to believe that at over 700 pages, this book still barely makes it past the first two years of his presidency. A lot of the added detail and content in the book is because of the added benefit of Obama sharing his thought process and emotions at the time along with the first-hand account of major events and plans. I don’t think it was intentional, but there were even times where his thoughts on an even during his presidency felt especially meaningful with the current and recent political landscape.

When starting this book, I was sort of expecting it to be written in a similar style as Michelle’s Becoming, but other than the very early portion of the book, it tends to be more about his detailed account of his political career and less about his life overall. I have not read his other books yet, but I imagine they already cover some of the stuff that I was originally expecting to find in this book.

Despite being very long and detailed, there is still enough personal voice and lighthearted comments throughout the book that make it enjoyable to read and feel like a true window into the mind of Barack Obama.

As someone who was a little too young, and certainly didn’t pay as much attention to politics, during the Obama presidency, especially the early part, this book was a good “refresher” on major events that I either didn’t remember or just remember them happening and didn’t understand the significance at the time. Whether you’re in the same boat or remember these events more clearly, I think the added information coming directly from probably the most pivotal source makes for a good read.

Other than being really long, this book was an enjoyable read. I wish some of the order was a little more sequential, but I understand why some topics were shifted around or mentioned in multiple areas in order to truly tie his thoughts together.

Work Less, Make More

2021-01-25T00:00:00-06:00

This book really covers a lot of bases and seems like the combination of “business school at-a-glance” and more modern performance improvements. The book is written at a very high level and almost feels like the summary of a much longer, in-depth book, which makes for a very easy and quick read.

There is a little bit of a vibe of the “get rich quick” schemes, but I think that’s more because it’s written at such a high level and the author has found success with so many different ventures and he tries to cover all of them.

Some success strategies seem to be a little oversimplified, but that might just be because there isn’t a ton of mention of the things that don’t work or didn’t work for the author.

I think if I was to try and explain this book most succinctly, it seems like a combination of The 4-Hour Work Week and High Performance Habits.

Why We Sleep

2021-01-22T00:00:00-06:00

There is a lot of good information in this book, but it was a little bit boring to read, especially as I got further into it, because it reads a lot more like a textbook. That’s a good thing in terms of how much information is presented and it makes me trust the expertise of the author even more, but can be a little dry at times.

I would have liked to have more of the practical lessons and things I or anyone can do to improve their sleep, but a lot of that was hidden in long explanations of experiments and scientific details. Again, those things are great to know, but make for a more dull read and just not what I was looking for in this book.

Overall, the facts presented in this book are eye-opening and sort of depressing because the author points out that a lot of the “ideal” things we should be doing for our health regarding sleep are not very practical in today’s society. For instance, early school start times and the traditional 8 to 5 work schedule are not the best scenarios for us to get good sleep.

The author makes it very clear that there are a lot of health problems that stem from poor sleep and this book really made me more hyper-aware of how lack of sleep and poor sleep quality can lead to health issues that I previously would have never linked back to sleep. Mental health, cancer, and other things are all directly or indirectly linked to the quality of sleep we get, and that can be a sobering and scary realization while reading this book.

Lastly, the book made me look at myself and realize some of the common things I enjoy negatively affect my sleep. I don’t think it’s practical for me to give all of them up, but there are habits that I should probably change and at least I now know the tradeoff that I am giving up when I don’t prioritize my sleep.