Tag: Chapter 1

October 23, 2026 – The Fountainhead; Part 1, Chapters 1-5

October 23, 2026 / / 0 Comments

This series has been long anticipated by me. As I mentioned last week, I have been reading this book for quite a while. This particular section I read months ago and so I had to go back and refresh my mind about what specifically happened. As always, this is not going to be a book report but an analysis about how this book is relevant in our current lives. That is what makes a true classic anyway. In case you are not reading along, I will start with a short summary.

The book starts with the introduction of the two main characters. One by the name of Howard Roark who is an idealistic, architecture student and the other is the Peter Keating who is the star pupil. It is recognized that Roark is the more talented of the two however he refuses to modify his ideals regardless of the consequences. This leads Roark to get kicked out of school and have difficulty finding employment without credentials.

Keating on the other hand seems to have no qualms about delivering what is asked. This includes a propensity to go against his grain even if it is in contrast to his own inner compass. Keating recognizes that Roark is in fact better at his discipline than he is and it drives him crazy that he will not apply it to the ‘common good’. That is winning project work regardless of his design sensibilities and principle.

As they both begin their careers, Keating move up at a rapid pace. Some of that is his ability but there is also a component of win at all costs. This manifests itself as deceit and manipulation. Roark on the other hand stays attached at the hip with his mentor Henry Cameron. Because his aesthetic sense is not popular, it becomes his financial ruin and Cameron gives up his practice leaving Roark out on a limb with no job or prospects.

There are a number of other characters that are introduced into the story that I will simply just introduce the primary ones for now for possible reference at a later point.

  • Guy Francon – Peter Keating’s benefactor and employer
  • Catherine Halsey – Peter’s Girlfriend and safety net
  • Ellsworth Tooney – Catherine’s uncle and renowned art influencer

At one point in my life, I was a member of the Brewers Association. I was having an issue with my chemistry career and I was seriously thinking about opening some kind of craft beer establishment. It came with a magazine and industry information and I remember reading a opinion piece. It went something like this.

I am a degreed and experienced brewer that owns and runs a brewpub establishment. When I make beer using malt extract it comes out better than starting with grain. So this is what I make and serve. Does this make me any less of a professional beer maker?

For those of you not in the know, malt extract is the condensed form of wort (or sugar water). It is considered a short cut in the brewing process and it very common in homebrewing because it reduces the amount of equipment and time required to brew beer. Suffice to say, I could read the angst in the question because it was clearly a chink in the questioner’s ego.

Keep in mind that this kind of dilemma is pre internet forum or social media. This would be the kind of thing that today you would read about in Reddit or similar. It is also the kind of question that would come up in a new or isolated or enthusiasts environment. Rest assured that if SAB Miller thought it would save them money, they would start with malt extract as well. Mind you, I know nothing about their operations and so this is not an accusation. I am simply saying that working with the largest food companies in the world, there is no room for ideals such as starting point conflicts.

For a lot of my career, I have had the distinction of working with and mentoring many younger associates. What I have observed is that school is full of ideals. That could be the ‘best’ way to program or engineering means to do things in this way. This often times leads those associates to end up having a conflict between what they believe to be true and the way that things really are. Academia often is oriented towards research and the purity of the process whereas business is primarily about the bottom line.

I myself have never had these kinds of moral questions mentioned above because I don’t really think that they matter. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have principles it simply is the result of my pragmatism. Does the code do what it is supposed to do? Is it reliable? Is it supportable? After that, technology choices and ways to do it are preferences, not principles.

One last anecdote. I was a year in with a former company and another co-worker of mine was lamenting that every day working here he was losing his programming skills because the technology curve was several years behind. What I said to him was that he would have to make a choice. In our current field, this was cutting edge; not the technology but the application of it. If being at the bleeding edge of technology is important, then it would be best to find someplace better to apply skills.

End Your Programming Routine: I want to make sure that I am not misunderstood, principles are very important. I think that many times people confuse principles with preference. It really depends on how you frame those principles and I am not advocating for justification. That often translated to a failure of leadership but that is a totally different story. Know what you believe and why. Then you can apply what you are doing against that lens.

March 27, 2026 – Surprised By Joy, Chapter 1-5

March 27, 2026 /

Long time coming, I know. It seems like I have been talking about this book forever. That is what it feels like to me anyway and I wouldn’t be surprised if you feel the same way. “Surprised by Joy” is a memoir of sorts. It is self described by Lewis as his life journey that made him a unwavering Christian.

I wouldn’t have gotten here if my moving plans hadn’t changed. While not fully packed, I am as packed as I am going to get until we get some more certainty. You can listen to Monday’s podcast for more information on that subject. But the new found free time gave me the chance to spend a couple of evenings reading.

Lewis didn’t start out without faith. His grandfather was even a clergy man. But, like so many, the parents didn’t take to religion and it lost its place in their family. It probably didn’t help that they were academics and therefore preoccupied by their own interests and pursuits. It has been my observation that academics are the least likely to have deep faith.

There isn’t a ton of context in the book but by Lewis’s description, it seemed like he grew up a little feral. It could be that he was pre-school age, I don’t know. But he also goes onto relay that he was home schooled by his mom. While at the same time, they sent his older brother away to school. Maybe it was a money thing? Maybe they saw something in one and not the other? Maybe that was just the culture of the time?

That only lasted a couple of years until his mom developed cancer. When she eventually succumbed, it broke his dad. It also changed Lewis’s life from an academic standpoint. He was now shipped off to boarding school, just like his brother. Because faith was not a strong component, it really was neither here nor there related to his mother’s death. It just wasn’t a thing.

The first school that Lewis went to went kaput in a couple of years. It was no wonder because from his description, they were mercilessly beaten for no real reason. They also got no real education. He said that his day consists of doing math problems while the other students were grilled over subjects that they had no instruction and subsequent beatings. He brother said that he just kept doing the same math problems every day. Thus, he always got the right answer and no beating.

Numbers of students kept dwindling for obvious reasons causing the school to close. It was off to a new school. Once again, the experience was agnostic as it relates to faith. The second school was a short stint and so I will dismiss it completely here. It was the third school that really made it’s mark. It was here where Lewis proclaims that he lost his faith.

It seems like the turn of events was related to sexual abuse at school. I can see that, it seems like traumatic events can be galvanizing. How can God allow this? Conversely, I would have never made it through this without faith. But, when you start from a weak position to begin with, it is not surprising that Lewis turned away from God. It takes a pretty firm grasp of faith to go the other direction because it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

I have to admit that in my own life, I have had similar questions. Thankfully, I really haven’t had anything that I would consider traumatic happen. But, the fact remains is how can a good and loving God permit such things as the Holocaust? At the same time, how could there be such rampant abuse by priests themselves?

What it really comes down to for me is that following strict doctrine, you cannot have good without bad. You should recognize that from “Mere Christianity” that we covered last year. I have always intuitively known that, but reading it codified it for me. It is also one of the best philosophical arguments that could be made.

End Your Programming Routine: Right now, we know the trigger of the loss of faith, we will have to see what the trigger is to solidify it. The plan is to read another five chapters for next week. With my newfound free time, I should be able to keep things on track.

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.

May 2, 2025 – In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection, Introduction (Chapter 1)

May 2, 2025 /

If you own a firearm with the thought that you could possibly use it for self defense and you have never heard of Massad Ayoob, stop right now and go find this book. Unfortunately, it is out of print but I bought it reasonable priced/used on Amazon. So, it is still available. While the book is dated for reasons I will talk about a little later, the fundamentals of this book are rock solid.

Ayoob started as a police office and morphed his career into expert witness for criminal trials. His information is based on real life situations and trial information. I would say that he is recognized as the preeminent subject matter expert in the legal aspects of self defense. He offers some of the most well respected and sought after firearms training in the country through his company Massad Ayoob Group (MAG) as well.

There is a reason that this book is out of print. It was published in 1980 and a lot, I do mean a lot has changed in 45 years. The extremely affordable, polymer framed, striker fired, double stack magazine Glock had not yet been invented. The FBI had not yet had the Miami shootout the lead to the creation of the 10mm cartridge followed by the 40 S&W that spawned the resurgence of the 9mm that killed all of them using better bullet design.

In 1980, Indiana became the first state to change their approach to concealed carry. At that point, only Vermont had no concealed carry regulations or restrictions. They adopted a ‘shall issue’ stance meaning applicants no longer had to justify a need for concealed carry permit (known as may issue). By the late 1990s, 30 states were shall issue and by 2006, 39 had shall issue or no restrictions. A second wave of concealed carry changes started in 2003 with Alaska no longer requiring a permit to carry (known as constitutional carry). As of time of this writing 29 states have a form of permit less carry.

For those of you that have not gone through the licensing process, every state is different and the laws vary quite widely. Some require a shooting test but at the core of all is a very basic overview of the law. For example, some states do not recognize other states permits. A very convoluted affair.

One of the most significant tactical changes since 1980 has been the prevalence of adoption of Stand Your Ground laws (now 30 states). In all states, stand your ground removes the requirement of retreat until deadly force can be employed. A more extreme version of this is called the Castle Doctrine which exempts the fear from imminent harm as a requirement for deadly force.

I say all of these things not to necessarily give you a history lesson but to highlight how much has changed since the book was written. You cannot just read something and take it as gospel. That being said, if you take the more conservative advice, you are likely going to be the safest under the circumstances. You absolutely need to be up to speed on the laws of your jurisdiction if you are considering self defense.

Chapter One is three pages long, so there isn’t a ton that I can distill from there. The one thing that I can pick out that I agree with is that self defense has two key components, knowledge and skill. This book can help fill in the knowledge gap. Books can point in a starting point direction for skill but you also have to get out there and practice.

Fundamentals for hitting the target are necessary. But can you do it under stress? What about if it is dark? Maybe flipping on the light switch is not the smartest idea, but maybe it is. You can probably spend your whole life working on this. I say this, starting somewhere is a good idea, even if you decide this is not your life’s work or passion. It is not going to be mine, but I know that I need to do a little more than what I have done.

End Your Programming Routine: This is a short book. I am going to group this study into similar concepts as I cover the book. That means next week will be Chapter two which is all about the different definitions of lethal force. I will certainly point out where things have changed since its publishing because that is also important to know where the gotchas are.

March 10, 2023 – Animal Farm, Chapter 1

March 10, 2023 /

We have a new book this week, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. I know that this is a short book and originally I was thinking that I was going to cover it in four sessions. Once I started reading, it became very apparent that each chapter is it’s own subject. Or said another way, I don’t think that chapter one has that much to do with chapter 3 in terms of concepts. They are interrelated but they are also very standalone.

Unlike 1984, we do know from Orwell (Blair) that this was deliberately written as a precautionary warning against Communism. It’s a cutesy little tale some might call a parable or a story with point. This isn’t my first time through the book, I read it in 2019. But, it definitely fits into my Friday genre.

It is no small consequence that Orwell picked the pig to be the instigator. They are among the smarter domesticated animals and they have a penchant for breaking the rules. In farm terms, that means destroy things, escape, etc. They can be brutal, killing other animals that they perceive to be weak. And finally, if they truly do escape they become feral within a generation.

Major, the pig had a dream. He dreamt that there was a place that the animals were in control of production and therefore their lives. The animals would band together and work in lock stock together to perform all the tasks that they have been forced to do throughout their lives.

Along with working toward the common goals, they would also reject all things that are seen as human. These would be things like wearing clothes, sleeping in beds living in houses, using money, drinking/smoking, use money or trade. Major died a few days after revealing his idea. I believe that Major was a caricature of Lenin.

It is perfectly natural for beings to want to own their own production. The opposite of that is actually defined as slavery. I think that is is also natural for an oppressed group to reject all trappings of their oppressors. It’s either that or the trappings become appropriated.

As with all ideas, they are just that. When attempted to be put into practice, it is often times more complicated that it would be seem. In addition to that, when things are large it can take more than a lifetime to come to fruition. When others assume the tasks, they may not take them in the same direction as the visionary intended.

I was reading about Lenin and while he was no Stalin, he certainly was not afraid to make some heads roll. It would seem like his galvanization into the ways of Marx was the execution of an older brother in 1887. But in reading about his first government apparently he was not the most radical. I had never realized that the Bolsheviks were not one and the same as Lenin. They wanted total conversion of all private assets to be redistributed while Lenin was a more reserved socialist.

My point with all of this is that a Visionary sets the path and the tone. But, no one lives forever and once that power has transitioned, the vision will be molded or adapted to the person succeeding. Therefore, the manifestation of the original vision may be far from what the founder intended.

End Your Programming Routine: I will take this week by week. As it stands, this will be a ten week series, one per chapter. But if it makes sense, I will combine chapters in the course of this study. This chapter was only an introduction. The lesson this week is a revolutionary has an idea of something different than what is. It’s not hard to persuade a population that understands and identifies with the benefits of the revolution.