Breakfast Notes #82 (Oppenheimer, Gladwell,Revision)

Insightful Links of The Week

• American Prometheus. Nolan's cinematic masterpiece, Oppenheimer will draw crowds of moviegoers this week. Beyond his brilliant casting and directing, part of his sure-hit box-office success must be attributed to the hard work of two men - Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird. These two men took twenty-five years of intense research and toiling to craft the definitive biography that Nolan based his film on. The gestation process of this book is a stark reminder that great culture-defining work takes time.
• Writing Like Gladwell. There is this myth that in today's ADHD world, we must always aim for brevity. That may be true for day-to-day decision-making but if you want to create ideas that shape the world, you must master storytelling. Henry Oliver asserts that Gladwell 'is the epitome of the way non-fiction has replaced fiction as a transmission mechanism for important new ideas.' Think of a Gladwell book you have read and recall any example he raised in that book, you will instinctively remember the thesis of the book.  Why? Gladwell competes with the novelists, the Youtubers, the Netflix series, he tells you a story. As he puts it, "The story catches your attention: the science persuades you of its relevance."
• Revision and Refinement. Don't be happy with your first draft. Don't expect to get it right the first time you write a document. Rewrite, rethink and rework it. In doing so, you refine your thought process and actually solve the problem you were aiming at in the first place. Read this article to see how a memo improves in real-time.

Visualization of The Week

"The world is growing more equal than it has been for over 100 years."

Don't believe me?

Read this.

May the sun shine upon your face and may you stay curious,

Keith