Category: Review

March 6, 2026 – The Talent Code: Part 3

March 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I am sorry about this one. I should have just bit the bullet and written Part Three in a timely manner. I finished this book in early February and it was just my life getting in the way. Now, I have to go back to the time machine and try to remember what was going on in the book because now it is packed up in a box somewhere. Fortunately I took some notes weeks ago to kind of jog my memory.

Since it has been so long, I could spend a few words trying to summarize where we have been. Part One was all about how greatness is built. Part Two is about where to find talent and now Part Three is about harnessing it. Or said another way, it is coaching greatness.

I think the timing on this is pretty good. It would have been even better if I was actually writing this to come out during the Olympics like I should have. Nevertheless, I was watching one of the twenty something, American, gold medal athletes talking about how it is a dream come true and that this is what they have been working their whole life for this when it hit me. This is where this Part of the book comes to life.

Actually, what really hit me is that these athletes were enabled by choice or by circumstance. Circumstance is what the book talks about but I have to think choice is just as helpful. What I mean by choice is that a gold medal may be an athlete’s dream but it started well before this moment. The winners didn’t just show up to the Olympics and win. There was years of practice going into this moment. And to be frank, an eight year old is not getting to the mountain alone. Somebody opened the door and kept it open at least until emancipation.

OK, I was talking about the parents and not exactly the theme of today. But, coaching is what Coyle asserts as the third component of greatness. Chapter nine deals with a study of John Wooden and his habits. For those of you that weren’t around in the 1960s and 70s you don’t know how UCLA won ten of twelve championships. That is dominance.

What did Wooden do? He had two traits that were effective. The first one was that he did not treat players equally. The ones that needed riding got that treatment and the others were left alone, even if it seemed crazy. The second trait was constant but short feedback. Those two things were his keys to success.

Chapter ten was different but the same man. A good coach is able to navigate the matrix of relationships and performance. They are some how able to figure out what is important in the big organic blob called a human being. They are able to get to the root of motivation and correction. And they do it with theatrical honesty meaning that it is load and very readable.

Chapter eleven is one of those that probably would be re-written today. It was all about the (Las Vegas) Raiders evaluation of Jamarcus Russell prior to drafting him as the number one pick in 2008. I hope that they are reading this book this year as well. Russell had tremendous physical ability, it was said that he could throw a seventy yard pass on his knees with precision.

I think today we would look back and say that while there was no doubt Russell’s athleticism was unparalleled, however he was a terrible quarterback only lasting two seasons. The second of which he was benched early in the season. He had no ability to lead the team resulting in poor performance. After being dropped by the Raiders, he never played professional football again.

This book was written as that was all unfolding and I suspect that Coyle (as we all did) thought that he was going to be one of the greats. However, something so poignant was said in the book by the pro scout. Even greats need coaching. And, this is why Russell failed, coaching with the Raiders has been abysmal (mostly).

You know, you don’t have to look very far to find coaches and success. Think about who is considered one of the greatest current quarterbacks, that would be Patrick Mahommes of the Kansas City Chiefs. And yet, who is the coach, Andy Reid someone that has been perennially successful wherever he has been employed. Coincidence? I don’t really think so.

End Your Programming Routine: So, this is the book. It makes a lot of sense to me. Next week I am going to wrap up “The Talent Code”. Looking forward to what is next I am planning “Surprised By Joy” by C.S. Lewis. It seems to be a memoir from what I can surmise. I will plan to cover three chapters per week. I am relatively certain that next week is going to happen but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a gap after that.

March 5, 2026 – Eating India: An Odyssey Into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices

March 5, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Five years ago, I worked for a North American company. We were a specialized outfit that did specific work with primarily North American clientele. That all changed when I signed on with a multinational, conglomerate service company. It seems like these days nearly all of my interactions are from people in India or from Indian descent.

Eating India was the February Left Coast Culinary Book Club selection. We chose it because in our eight years of existence we have never looked at Indian food. But secretly, I wanted to learn more about this culture that I interact with every day. This book is not a cookbook but a book about food (and culture). The author makes deliberate trips to different regions of India and then writes about it. It is kind of a targeted and less sensational Parts Unknown.

After reading about half of the book, I began to realize that India is way more diverse than I originally thought. When we go to a ‘Indian’ restaurant, we are getting an amalgamation and interpretation of the entire country. The largest factions of India are the Hindus and Muslims. I thought that the Muslims of historical India were in the north (and became Pakistan) and to the west which became Bengal leaving India largely Hindu which is not the case at all. India is very much still a mixture of the two.

Hindus are by default vegetarian. For that reason, much of Indian food is actually vegetarian. The Muslims are not, so any meat dish has at it’s roots in that side of the culture. While not prevented, generally Muslims in India do not eat beef as a cultural nod and why most meat dishes are seafood, goat, lamb or chicken.

The Portuguese colonized India in the 1600s. They brought with them new world foods such as potato and tomato. More so than that, they brought the mechanisms to transform sugar into desserts and confections. I never really realized it but I have noticed many a prolific, sweet tooth among them.

The latest colonizers, the British added very little to the cuisine. But, what they did do was take and promote Indian cuisine throughout the world. It was said that one queen had a propensity for tea. Because of that, it popularized tea in Briton and the western world. I would say Indian cuisine to a lesser point than tea. However, I was stricken by how popular Indian restaurants were in London. It kind of reminded me of how prolific Mexican food is in the southwest.

Those were the well known factions and influences. What about the Jains and the Sikhs? Or how about the Indian Jews? I suppose that in today’s world, anybody can be anywhere. I remember that when I was working in China one of my co-workers is Latter Day Saints and he found an active church. I found it interesting that the Indian Jews are amongst the most orthodox observers of religion. The Sabbath and Kosher are two examples. It actually struck me about how similar Jews and Muslims are when it comes to religious practice.

To me, the book was pretty interesting. I am not sure everyone would feel this way as it strays away from our traditional titles in the book club. It wasn’t a cookbook or even a fictional story with an plot. It was someone’s travel observations. I have one criticism and that is the author Banerji writes as if the layman knows all of the vocabulary. There were a lot of food names that quite honestly, I have no clue about.

I think that it would also be helpful to read this book with a map in hand. In terms of spatial relationship, I have no idea about the places that were mentioned. Yes, I have heard of Bombay and Calcutta but I couldn’t point to where they were in India. A book all about regional differences should have some context about where those regions are in proximity to each other.

This book is for people that want to know more about India, particularly the nuance of culturally influence food. It would be a good one to read the e-version so that you can constantly look up definitions of unfamiliar words. I was entertained and educated but I could really only read one chapter a night. There was a lot of information that I was digesting.

End Your Programming Routine: I heard while I was watching the Olympics a few weeks ago that India is now the most populous country in the world with 1.7 billion people. I had no clue that China had been overtaken. I think this makes it all that more important to start learning about the world’s largest country. That is not to say that Indian food is extremely delicious too.

February 6, 2026 – The Talent Code: Part 2

February 6, 2026 /

OK, so we know that deep practice is the key to building myelin. Myelin is the key to performance. But, what is the trigger for this phenomenon. Yes, I am certain that there are cases where it is just dumb luck. I think about my own situation and areas that I perform and I didn’t get there by reading a book and then putting it into practice or going to elite academies. It was just luck. But then there are simply hotbeds that cannot be ignored.

Coyle uses the example of why there are so many Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic. The DR is a hotbed of baseball. I am sure that you can find that some players went to the same school or played in the same leagues. There is a phenomenon called ignition. Certain teachers, coaches possess the ability to get the best out of people. More on ignition next week.

Going back the the nature versus nurture argument, it can be said that there is some of both in high performers. Following the theory, anyone can build myelin, but some build it more intuitively. For instance, there is a high correlation to birth position and performance. The more kids in the family, the more likely the younger ones are going to naturally accelerate.

I think that we can all see why. It is the younger children that are trying to keep up with the older ones. They want to prove that they can do it too. This is the motivation for deep practice. Also a little oddly, children that lost a parent at an impressionable age also accelerate faster. I guess that they are trying finish what was started or prove that they are worthy of head of household status or something.

Hotbeds seem to be more pervasive in underprivileged areas. I suppose maybe we tend to remember them more because they are remarkable. That is really not the reason, the real reason is that people in those socioeconomic demographics tend to be more singly focused. They do not have the distractions of outside influences to take away from the ability to do deep practice.

Something that I believe is that the best primary school students, straight A’s through high school are not generally high performers. They are good citizens, probably good at their careers and probably make good incomes. But, they are not disrupters more so they are good rule followers. If you follow the rules, you will get good grades. Good grades translate into college completion and ultimately professional and monetary success.

To follow that strategy does not take deep practice. Do what you are told, play the game and you will be rewarded. It is that combination of struggle, failure and striving to master that makes up deep practice. Growing up upper middle class like I did has very little struggle. I followed the rules, got good grades and stayed out of trouble. There is nothing wrong with that but I doubt that I am going to be labeled remarkable for those things.

I wouldn’t exactly call my town a hotbed. That being said, there have been several NFL players that came out of our high school. It is a low socioeconomic level, there is relatively nothing to do and football season is anticipated and important in the community. You have all the conditions to meet the definition of hotbed.

Hotbeds of success are born of assimilation. What does the US military do? Assimilate. When you are the coach, you want a team that is selfless and mission oriented. Yes, The Dream Team clobbered the Olympic competition when they first appeared on the scene since there was such a disparity of skill. But a couple of cycles later, they found out that they could be beaten by an average team that didn’t let ego get in the way.

Assimilation breeds an attitude of us versus them. It seems to make the participants care more about the team mates which in turn causes them to put out more effort and sacrifice. Everyone would want a team of LeBron James (at his prime) but only if that means that they all are willing to contribute equally. LeBron 1 could take a contested three point shot or he could pass it to LeBron 2 who is open under the basket and will slam dunk the ball.

Michael Jordan is arguably the best basketball player of all time. He had phenomenal fifty plus point games where it seemed like he was unstoppable. However, without Scotty Pippen feeding him the ball, Jordan’s career wouldn’t be quite as stellar. He still would have been a super star, but at what level? Imagine if there were three other Scotty Pippens on the floor how much better would Jordan have looked? Pippen was no slouch himself but he was the ignition source.

End Your Programming Routine: Hotbeds themselves are born out of chance and the right environmental conditions. There is nothing saying that the source of the best baseball players couldn’t be Indonesia instead of the Dominican Republic except that it isn’t. I think what is more important is to be able to recognize the factors that play into talent. It makes it much easier to make up for those deficiencies with deep practice.

January 30, 2026 – The Talent Code: Part 1, Chapters 3-4

January 30, 2026 /

Alright, alright, alright as Matthew McConaughey would say. I am starting to get into this book a bit. Chapter Three examines hot beds of excellence and Chapter Four is about how to get the benefit of deep practice. This is both the facts and the myths about what we think we believe about life if we are paying attention.

Coyle starts off chapter Three with the Bronte sisters. Now, I am pretty well read including a lot of the classics but I had never read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights or heard of the likes of any one of the three Bronte sisters. I recognize the titles and I am peripherally aware that they are considered amongst the best literature. I guess I always perceived them as a little too feminine for me. Even though I will admit I don’t know anything about the plot so I could be dead wrong.

That being said, Coyle asserts that they became great authors by starting out writing quasi-nonsense. Poor spelling, poor sentence structure, poor punctuation and stories that were almost plagiarized from popular magazines is where the development of greatness occurred. This is the attack on the gene theory that some people are simply born great and hence three sisters are the best authors of the mid 19th century.

It would seem like nurture has a much stronger connection to greatness then nature. Renaissance masters were connected to each other via apprentice to master and master to master within the Florentine guild structure. I suspect that this is why college athletes are frequently from the same high school. Professional athletes are often from the same colleges. The athletes are in proximity to deep practice.

Recently Indiana beat Miami for the college football championship. It was said that prior to two years ago, Indiana was the losingest Division I football team in history. I can bet you that at the beginning of last year the new coach did not go out and replace the entire team. No, he worked with what he had. This year’s success will certainly make it easier for Indiana to remain on top with better recruiting and retaining top talent, but what shifted was mindset.

Nobody thought that a 3-9 team in 2023-4 would become an 11-2 team in 2024-5. In fact, when it came to playoff selection, they were deemed a fluke, had a soft schedule and not really worthy. Yes, they did lose their one playoff game to Notre Dame who went on to play in the championship against Ohio State (Indiana’s other loss on the year). You might say that they probably earned a number three ranking for 2025 based on those results. This team stayed together and became a juggernaut. The way they dismantled Oregon in the semi-finals was embarrassing for all of my Ducks fans (I only accept family in that category). Not used to losing badly like my Beavers, most of them gave up by halftime.

I strongly suspect that Coach Cignetti has unlocked the ‘Talent Code’ at Indiana. I wish that I could say that about my team’s coaches. Enough of football though, Chapter Four are the three elements of deep practice. They are chunk it up, repeat it and feel it. I will explain.

To chunk it up, you have to look at the whole picture and figure out where logical breaks can occur. Then you set about mastering any one of the chunks, that is the repeat part. Once you master a chunk you move on and combine the chunks, that is the feel it. It is that kind of thing where when you are right handed and you try to do something with your left hand.

I have tried this with several things like batting, shooting and writing. The first time is comically awkward. Then after hundreds of repetitions, it starts to feel normal. Keep practicing after that and all of a sudden, it is not just natural but intuitive. I sometimes try experiments like that when I am struggling because of bad habits. My logic is that if I relearn it on my other side I can start fresh and hopefully get away from the limitations I have on my primary hand.

While reading this book it has started to occur to me that there is a reason why I was a mediocre to poor high school athlete, musician andcollege student. I always thought that my super power was never give up. Sure, I would outlast the people that would give up and if I stayed long enough I would be the longest tenured and probably the best in comparison. But in those areas, I never did deep practice following the three rules.

But when I look at my success in other areas like leadership, I kind of do that intuitively. I am always more successful when I am allowed to to see the whole picture and I pretty much flail when I only have a myopic understanding. It leads me to speculate on the order or importance of certain aspects.

It is the reason that I always write with so much context. I want the reader to understand the why this thing is so important. Sometimes I even look at my podcast notes and wonder if I have put enough emphasis on the topic over the context. The punchline can sometimes be so subtle that it gets lost in the story. I should work on that but I see why this works for me. It is my talent code process.

End Your Programming Routine: I am glad to find out that we are strictly bound by our genes to our destiny. Yes, I will never be an NBA player and I have come to terms with that but it doesn’t mean that I could be the best at 95% of other things in life. I think I would rather be the best steelhead fisherman than and NBA star anyway. Next week, we will cover all of Part Two.

January 23, 2026 – The Talent Code: Part 1, Chapters 1-2

January 23, 2026 /

Admittedly, I did not know anything about this book before I purchased it. It came from a co-worker recommendation a couple of years ago. If I remember this conversation correctly, I was telling him about my former position at another company. I believe that he said something like, you should read this book that I just read. I wrote the title down and then I just waited until I had some time to fit it into my reading.

Honestly, I was expecting the book to be about techniques to get the best out of people as a leader using teambuilding skills. At least, that is the conversation I was having with my co-worker. I didn’t even read the dust jacket and just jumped into reading the book. To my surprise, it has nothing to do with that. The book is all about how the individual masters skills.

Because I was expecting something different, I was puzzled when I read the introduction. What do high performance teams have to do with a middle schooler practicing the clarinet? It is no surprise there, nothing really. OK, I am going to change my paradigm now, we are going to get educated on how to learn skills well. This is up my alley.

This is going to sound a little spacy but Coyle’s assertion is that the way we master skills is by something called deep practice. That act of deep practice in turn causes a bio-chemical reaction for the body to build a compound called myelin. This is the material that wraps nerve fiber. The more the deep practice, the thicker the myelin gets. This then causes the message transmissions to become faster and more precise. That is mastery.

The phrase deep practice has a specific implication. Deep practice is the act of working until a mistake is made, stopping and analyzing the problem and starting again at that point. Coyle uses a word exercise to try and prove a point. If you struggle with something then you are more likely to recall it and in turn master it. The list of words that he provided with missing letters was more memorable then the list where everything was filled out.

Coyle’s also asserts that there is a phenomenon out there that seems to line up with the theory anyway. Why do so many major league baseball players come from the Dominican Republic? It is because the culture has mastered deep practice when it comes to baseball. They are not a super race of baseball phenoms and certainly pound for pound when you look at Olympic medal totals it not because of genetic athleticism and deep population pools.

He also maintains that poorer demographics are more likely to use deep practice because they don’t really have any other options. They are less likely to have analytics and coaching, not discounting those things but they are making mistakes and learning from them which is what then leads to greatness.

If that is then true, I am reminded of several misguided coaches that I have had over the years. They boldly assert that the phrase “practice makes perfect” is wrong. It should be “perfect practice makes perfect” when in reality the first statement is actually more true. Someone cannot get to perfect practice without practice. And it should also be noted that using this theory, repetition holds no value. If you are not trying to do it faster or better or some other variation then likely you are actually repeating the same mistakes in your ‘perfect’ repetition.

Another novelty to me is the 10,000 hours theory does not play a role but not as big as you would think. Remember that is that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. But, combine Deep practice with 10,000 hours and you will be a master. That make sense for me because when I think about certain things like reading, sometimes I have a difficult time remembering what I read. I am sure that I have probably read that many hours in my lifetime and yet that information is only temporarily available. It goes into my brain and then six months later I would have to read the book again to even know what that is about.

And yet, I think that I am a pretty good programmer. I struggled and struggled to get it. After months of debugging I sometimes found that the program did not work like it should. Things that technically were correct did not execute in ways that they were supposed to. I learned from that particularly to be a better programmer and test my work in smaller chunks to the point that I didn’t need to do that anymore because I had mastered the nuance.

End Your Programming Routine: Despite the fact that this is not the book I was thinking that it was going to be, I actually think that it might be better than that. Sometimes, things that matter are comfortable and familiar, but sometimes they are stretching us and making us better. While a business book is interesting, this may not be the right forum. Next week, we will cover chapters 3 and 4.

January 16, 2026 – Mere Christianity, Conclusion

January 16, 2026 /

We have made it to the end once again. I have to apologize that my focus has not been nearly as good as it should have been. This is only a 220 page book that took me over four months to read. On one hand, when something is dense and thought provoking, speed is not a good metric. But, my plan was not to read and ponder each word but to read a reasonable length block a week. This should have been approximately one short chapter a day.

I think what is pretty telling is that I read about a third of the book before I even started writing. I had a huge jump start at the beginning of fall which lagged and lagged. On both fronts it is telling about how I approached things. One being how late I am and the other about what I thought about the book.

I started out with pretty high hopes. Not only did Lewis attempt to do something nobody else has ever done, but he went about it in a way that was disciplined and secularly approachable. After a quick and spectacular start, the book and the argument got bogged down. That is as good a place to start as any.

In the introduction to this book, it was stated that this was originally a radio broadcast to the British people during World War II. The stated purpose of the broadcast was to provide hope to a nation under a looming cloud of war, specifically the early German bombing London. I think that it is a pretty good strategy to reassure everyone that there is something better than this life if things don’t go well.

I think where I got stuck on a hump is after book one, it is pretty much assumed that the point was sufficiently made. From Book 2 forward, it is all about doctrine. I suppose that if you were a brand new convert you might be at that point of tell me more, tell me more. It is probably a pretty good bet that this radio broadcast landed best with the non-believers followed by the conservative Protestant denominations. That more than likely is the majority of the British citizenry.

I definitely don’t want to argue theology. One, I could get my behind whipped by someone educated and prepared. And two, I don’t really care. I might not agree with doctrine such as the trinity but you can be darn sure that I am open to it and I respect your right to believe differently. I also strongly agree with the better good position rather than pick at nuance.

Despite what I said above, the rest of the book didn’t do that much for me. I am aware of biblical virtues and the supposed way to eternal salvation. I am aware of theology and beliefs and where they differ from mine. I think also that we have to look at mindset. Because I am already a believer and this does not reinforce my beliefs already, the whole things kind of fall flat.

The way that Lewis presented his case, he of course took from his own line of belief as defacto truth. Sitting from where I am, I would have been more interested in going deeper into the justification for those items. I am not opposed to challenging my own beliefs, in fact I would welcome that. But, then again I guess this is not the intent of the work in the first place.

OK then, who is this book for? I would say that it would appeal to Lewis fans, historical fans and people questioning the existence of God but are open for the possibility. I am not going to say that I didn’t get anything out of it but where it started and where it ended were disappointing for me. In that vein, I am glad to say I read it and I can recommend it circumstantially.

End Your Programming Routine: This is one of those books that I should come back to in a couple of years. Now that I know what to expect, it is likely that I will come back to a different opinion. It is short enough to read pretty quickly and I wouldn’t be surprised to have a more favorable outcome or at least new perspective. When something is labeled one of the greatest at anything, it is only an opinion. Just like this.

January 15, 2026 – Good Things

January 15, 2026 /

Good Things by Samin Nosrat is the January selection of the Left Coast Culinary Book Club. I have to admit that I groaned slightly on the inside when it was decided that this was the book that we were going to pursue. I guess for me I much more enjoy culinary fiction more so than another cookbook. I also kind of get a little of worn out of celebrity cooking personalities that put out cookbooks frequently

Several years ago, we covered Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. In fact, we did a month on each subject. I have to say that if there was one thing I took away from that was to salt beef early. But, I really did not put too much stock in the book. We also watched the Netflix series. But, after reading this book, I wonder if I got it all wrong.

Yes, I would call Nosrat a celebrity chef. I have seen her on Anthony Bordain’s No Reservations as well as well as other places. That being said, I do not see her putting out content like The Pioneer Woman, Bobby Flay or Emeril. This is her first book that she has published since Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. When starting this book, she admits that this is a very different book in that her first one was all about how to create something using what she calls the key elements with no recipes. Now that you have all of the tools you should need to be successful, this seems counterintuitive.

This one starts off with building some fundamental sauces or condiments or what have you. It then moves into techniques for cooking ingredients and then you would layer those sauces into the recipes. This book builds on dishes using a matrix. So, you can pick one or two or three vegetables that you have and then the sauce and a few sprinkles or spritzes and you have a finished product.

It is kind of a ground up approach or a reverse recipe. While most recipes show a picture and then a list of ingredients to make it, this book starts with an ingredient and then it provides three to ten recipes that can be made with that ingredient. Typically, you kind of look a category and then try to pick something that is appealing or read to see if you have everything. Whereas this book, you pick a vegetable and see what options you have to make something appealing.

This is the way that I cook and I suspect that this is the way many of us approach meals, especially for people with gardens or deep pantries. “I have a lot of such and such, what can I do with it”? It is so revolutionary, that it made me consider going back to Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat because I suspect that I missed the significance of it.

If there is one knock on the book to me, it is that I feel like the book uses a lot of semi-exotic ingredients. Nosrat is middle eastern born and it highly influenced her cooking. As an example I don’t know where I would find a Persian cucumber or labna. I would say that if you are going to use this book then it behooves you to do some research on sourcing middle eastern ingredients. The beauty of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat would be using whatever cucumber you can find.

I will also admit that I haven’t done much cooking from the book either. Part of it is because I have not finished reading it as of the time of writing. I have gotten through 75% which I feel qualifies me to be able to comment at this point. I am also somewhat dubious of grocery store produce and so things like eggplant need to wait until a better time of the year. I did broil some cauliflower the other night because I was feeling the pull of Nosrat.

In my opinion, this isn’t the first cookbook you should buy. I feel like this cookbook is for someone that already has some skills and desires to learn more. From there, you can really elevate things with the knowledge that Nosrat can impart. But, it is not too bad either. I suspect that if you knew nothing, you might come away wondering why they all are not organized this way.

End Your Programming Routine: Before Christmas, my son sent me a picture from Barnes and Noble. Good Things was the 2025 gift book of the year. He knew that it was on my bookshelf to read. It very well could be, it is that good.

January 9, 2026 – Mere Christianity, Book Four: Chapters 7-11

January 9, 2026 /

Read along: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

This section concludes “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. Next week I will do a complete review of the book per my usual methodologies. I also want to introduce that the next book is going to be “Then Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle if you want to get a jump start on reading that book. I am doing my best to keep up considering all of my free time is directed toward packing and moving.

In case you weren’t reading along, below is a one bullet summary of each chapter.

  • The Lords Prayer is to be spoken by the son of god.
  • Following Christian rules is not good enough because we will never be able to execute perfectly. Only once we accept that will Christianity work and we will be on our way to perfection.
  • People would prefer to be good enough rather than perfect. Perfect is only achieved through strict adherence to Christianity, see above.
  • If Christians are supposed to be nice than why aren’t all equally perceived as that? Think of where they would be without Christianity. All traits are gifts regardless of believer status or not.
  • Evolution can only take us so far and it is God’s plan to evolve us into better humans

The thing that I found interesting in this week’s reading was Lewis’ argument using evolution. In fact, I find Christianity’s general stance on evolution just plain wrong. It seems like it has been positioned so that you can only be on one side or the other. While I absolutely do not believe that humanity came from an amoeba or something, I see no reason why all life has not adapted to the environment. We even apply the same principles to livestock, pets and food with selective breeding. We even see the results in our lifetime.

The fact that Lewis acknowledges evolution at all seems novel. Not only that, by his writing he has accepted evolution as scientifically viable and uses it in a debate about Christianity is certainly unique. The idea that if we pick a point in time and think about evolution was an astute point. His point was that if we were guessing what evolution would lead to in dinosaur times is bigger, stronger and better dinosaurs. Nobody saw that the brain would be the better weapon then claws and spikes.

Lewis is a proponent of humanity evolving more toward godliness. I think my view is a little myopic but it seems like it is a hard stretch to say the Hitler is an evolution of Ceaser. I am more than sure that Ceaser was racist as he was brutal, making him and Hitler pretty much on par, just with different body counts and abilities to execute their vision at scale. The difference I see is that Ceaser was a product of his culture which was universally racist and brutal where as Hitler rose to that position.

I think that if we buy the evolution argument, it didn’t start at the birth of Christ. It should have started with creation. As a matter of fact, we started with near perfect beings that were of God. All the Moses, Solomon, David or pick your old testament hero had some character faults as we all do. But my point is that we should be much closer to the evolvement into Godly beings and I just don’t see it.

Another point that I mostly agree with was Lewis’ evolution of species argument. I think where this works is the time frame of the human life. He states that no matter low long we wait, a field of grass will not evolve into a field of wheat. The only way to get wheat is to plow up the field to start over. The point being is that we need to make drastic changes when we want drastic results.

My problem with that argument is the actual comparison. I think a more effective argument would have been you can’t get wheat from an apple orchard. Because both grass and wheat are grasses and I suspect that they diverged from one another at some long, distant point. But, the message is still clear and said by Einstein in a little more effective way. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”

End Your Programming Routine: Many of those other points I didn’t talk about today are standard Christian doctrine. Maybe if you are Atheist or Agnostic then discussing those items might do more than the impact on me. However, subverting a dyed in the wool non-Christian argument to support your argument is brilliant. Finding common ground is a surefire way to persuade someone to your argument.

January 2, 2026 – Mere Christianity, Book Four: Chapters 1-6

January 2, 2026 /

Read along: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

I think I am on the wagon again. Maybe it is just that the holidays have actually provided a little bit of downtime and so I have been able to find a little time to read. That being said, I only have twelve more chapters to go. I am going to do my darndest to see this book through, in successive weeks. This week makes six out of twelve, so only one more week to go.

So far, I admire Lewis’ attempt to do something that has seemingly been impossible over 2000 years of history. That would be make a logical argument for the existence of God. Although I am already a believer, I cannot say that this book would have done it for me, yet. This section might tip the scales one way or the other. What I can say is that theology from an Anglican point of view probably won’t get it done.

Before I get ahead of myself, I want to throw a super quick summary of this week. Once again, this is a chapter per bullet Point.

  • Introduction to Lewis’ take on theology
  • The terms Bios – earthly life and Zoe – spiritual life
  • Lewis chooses the idea of predestination over free will
  • An introduction to the trinity – father, son and holy ghost
  • Jesus is of God, man is from god.
  • Salvation takes work. This is on purpose given that god could have created a perfect species, like Jesus.

I grew up going to church in a moderate, protestant denomination. In contrast, the Anglican church is a highly nuanced slice off of Catholism. This means that there are some relatively significant differences in Theology between the Christian belief poles of Catholics and Protestants. I would say now I lean toward more evangelical Protestantism which is probably even more different. One of those beliefs is in the trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Conservative sects treat each one of the trinity as individual units whereas the contemporary Protestants consider them one and the same.

I would say that is not worth going to battle over. But it is illustrative of something that is so fundamental in one interpretive of Christianity. For that reason, it is going to be difficult for a non-Anglican to take theology from an Anglican.

My family on my mom’s side is French. My grandfather was the son of two French immigrants. That makes me one quarter if you are doing the math. But the point being is that he was a dyed in the wool Catholic, church every Sunday no matter where you at. He even refused communion for almost forty years because of his divorce. I took a church official in Europe to re-instate him.

My mom has explained that the family felt that attending church was punitive growing up. It didn’t mean that she didn’t believe, it meant that she wanted to go about it in a different way. For that reason, she got caught up in the early 1970s crusader movement of the likes of Billy Graham. That is when she moved from Catholism to Protestantism. It never struck my Grandfather well as leaving the one and true religion. In fact, when I introduced my girlfriend as of Mexican descendance, he was over joyed that we might come back into the fold. He kept giving me Catholic publications to read and get educated. Sadly for him, her family also switched to Protestantism in the same time frame.

This is no slight at Catholism. I have a ton of respect for what the church continues to do for society, I just don’t quite go along with all of their beliefs. I would also be remissed to say that this is an organization that is made of people and has done a ton of bad things as well. That doesn’t take away from the potential to do good by acknowledging bad and working to be better. That is true Christianity.

All those words above are to say the it is difficult to take theology from only one perspective, especially one that I am already not totally jiggy with. Again, I should reiterate that Anglican is not Catholic, but it is so darn close. But heck, I should be giving Lewis props for attempting something so high brow.

There is more to this week than disagreeing over theology. I found some of his arguments very intriguing. Specifically over the word beget. God beget Jesus, meaning Jesus was of God. Whereas man is from god. This is why we are imperfect. If we were of God, then sin would not be an issue. The challenge to live a godly life is the test for immortality and it is not easy.

End Your Programming Routine: Some day, we will all know the answer to all of this. Rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water, I think it is best if I just read on and form my complete opinion after I have gotten the whole context. That is the fair thing to do. I had never considered that God could have just made a world of him and then none of this would be a discussion. I wonder why? I think we will find Lewis’ answer this week.

December 19, 2025 – Better Late Then Never

December 19, 2025 /

This is just another sign that I am over my head. Typically Fridays would be a book review or nothing at all. That being said, I have not had a single chance to read in the last couple of weeks. My typical day lately starts work at 5 AM and my head hits the pillow around 9:30 PM at the earliest. I am packing, wrapping or attending social obligations. However, this post was supposed to happen some time in October.

I probably have enough content to do two posts, so I will probably do something next week on my hunting trip. I really wanted to talk about the binocular harness and how it did so that is today. I invested pretty significantly in this setup based on hearsay from Meat Eater and you might want to know if it is worth the money. You can also tell that I am no good at selling things because I don’t even show the product in my picture. Here is a link to my previous article.

Today I won’t rehash the previous article but my thoughts on how the product worked. We are talking about the Badlands Bino Harness that I used every day for my week long hunt. First and foremost, I would put it on first things in the morning as we were getting ready to leave camp. When you try to put the harness on with the binoculars in them, gravity tends to pull the harness down making it difficult to snap together. It would be helpful to have a second set of hands when trying to get the apparatus on. Another added issue I had was that with my shoulder pain, I had some mobility problems reaching around. I never tried to put it on dry or empty.

Once I got the harness on, it was comfortable. I never really felt constrained when driving or sitting at the table for lunch. I also never felt any weight strain on my back or neck. I had no issues putting my coat on and my backpack after that. Some of the early days were in the upper seventies so I didn’t need a coat but only in the early morning and late afternoon. Due to the fact that it was difficult to get rigged up, I left it on from sunrise to sunset.

Later in the week, it started raining. The harness is water resistant but that doesn’t mean that I am. I was able to zip my coat over the the whole thing without problem. Another indication that it is not too bulky. If you are out of shape and hence a sweater, Wearing a bino harness is going to cause addition perspiration due to its padding and footprint on your chest.

It was comforting having my best pair of binoculars handy. Previous to owning this, I would carry a compact set of binoculars around my neck. This worked OK, except that sometimes I didn’t wear a shirt with a front pocket. There is no way I would walk around with loose binoculars banging around as I step over logs and such. The visual quality of my full size binoculars was certainly an upgrade.

I actually have more attachments/pockets for my harness then I used. I had it setup with the rangefinder and the utility pouches on the harness. I can say that I used my rangefinder for the first time where I wasn’t sitting still because I didn’t have to dig it out of my backpack. The utility pouch held my phone securely enough and I would be able to access it to look at maps while I was hiking. There is also room for my compass that I kept for backup and navigation purposes. One caveat is that the utility pouch is not waterproof. If you phone or whatever you put in that pouch is not, keep that in mind.

Did I like it? Heck yes. Here is my review.

ScoreScoreAdvantagesDisadvantages
Value2/5Badlands have lots of accessories to customize your rig how you want it.Of all the choices out there, many are significantly cheaper with the same configuration that I used
Quality5/5This is a well built rig that fits binoculars snugly
Performance4/5All the gear you need in a place to easily get at when you want it.It is not the product’s problem that it is difficult to put on but maybe there is a better way.
Because of the semi-custom sizing, sometimes the flaps (magnets) would come open dug to snug fit
The small amount of MOLLE led to a compromise placement of the rangefinder pocket.

End Your Programming Routine: You may think that based on my scores, I didn’t like the product. I did, I really did. That being said, I probably should have purchased the cheaper option based on how much I am probably going to use it in the future. I would recommend this for a multiple season hunter. They can take advantage of the modularity based on multiple uses. I am one of those guys that has more money than time. No problem buying the best, just be aware that there are suitable alternatives.