2018

blur book stack books bookshelves — Photo by Janko Ferlic on Pexels.com

Happy Friday, folks! Here are five reading-themed links for your perusal as you prepare for your weekend!

How I Read & Remember What I Read — The Internet is full of articles and blog posts about how to read more, but Shay Howe gives us some handy tips about how to read so that we recall more. This is a punchy and practical 3-minute read.

How to Retain More of Every Book You Read — James Clear shares his ideas about how to benefit more from reading, and his suggestions dovetail with Shay’s pretty nicely as well. It may be worth it to try combining ideas from both pieces!

A Simple Plan to Read More — I’m going to steal Shane Parrish’s term “anti-library” (mainly because it makes my shelves of unread books sound so much cooler that “utterly unconquerable To-Be-Read shelf” or “Tsundoku to the extreme”). And when it comes to reading more, the simplest solutions really are the most elegant.

Party Where We Read Things — This is the GREATEST IDEA EVER, y’all. I love this. Someday I’m gonna do this. Now I’m trying to think of what my selected piece(s) would be.

Why Reading 100 Books A Year Won’t Make You Successful — Aytekin Tank provides a (balanced? contrarian?) perspective on why reading more isn’t necessarily better, why speed reading boosts your page count without necessarily boosting your knowledge, and why some books need to be savored slowly. This definitely makes me feel slightly better about my 25 or so books completed this year. Slightly.

=====

There you go. Five articles about reading well, reading deeply, and reading with others. I hope you enjoyed these links and are feeling inspired to crack open a book or two this weekend!

In fact, if you did find this content useful and/or interesting, do me a quick favor and click *Like* on this post, so I know that these kinds of links are helpful to you!

YOUR TURN: Comment below and share what you’re reading lately! Here are a few of the titles on my shelf at the moment:

What is Reformed Theology, by Dr. R.C. Sproul
Wingfeather Tales, edited by Andrew Peterson
The Exemplary Husband, by Dr. Stuart Scott

What about you? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back next week!

#FridayFive: 08/31/2018

Here are 5 posts to inspire and challenge you over this long holiday weekend!

=====

The Secret to Networking? Stop Trying to network. — This piece by Brad Stulberg reminds us not to treat “building a network” like its a competition or game. Those contacts aren’t points on a scoreboard but people we have the opportunity to serve and bless.

The Answer is This: Give It Away for Free. — Tim Denning puts his finger on a powerful principle that I’ve seen play out in my own life: in a world of salesman, being a giver makes you unique and influential. As Seth Godin says, giving your work away produces loyalty with your audience. This is an idea I’m really trying to take to heart and implement in the coming years.

How to Use Your Tools so They Don’t Own You — Bryan Collins reminds us that getting a shiny new “tool” or gadget doesn’t mean much if we aren’t able to put the work in. Sometimes, going simple is the best way to do our best work.

The Top 4 Mistakes Every Writer Makes (And How To Avoid Them) — It feels like I can’t make one of these lists without including a Jeff Goins piece. Here, he points out four simple but powerful concepts that can help anyone write more compelling and meaningful work.

I Want to Quit. Right Now. — Jon Westenberg’s writing is visceral, searing, and insightful. This piece is a prime example, and every single word of it resonates with me. He gives us a peek into his inner battle over whether to persevere or give up on his passions, and in so doing, reminds us that all of us face that same battle. (Content warning: some strong language.)

=====

There you go, friends. Five posts to fuel your creative efforts on this Labor Day weekend.

May your labor be satisfying and your rest be refreshing, and we’ll see you back here next week!

#FridayFive: 07/20/2018

You know the deal–let’s do it:

Teens are Flocking to Youtube to…Study?: If you’re a computer-based office worker like me, one of the most important elements of your workday is background music to drown out the sound of your coworkers loudly calling out to each other. Especially your boss, who has no sense of–oh, that’s just me? Sorry. So yeah, background music is essential. I sometimes listen to podcasts, but when I need to focus just a bit more on the less-data-entry-like aspects of my work, it’s distracting. That’s why this article turned me on to what is becoming a lifesaver in my particularly slammed workdays: lo-fi streams on Youtube.

The Trophy: An Essay on Fatherhood: As the daddy of an…almost-one-year-old [*choking back tears*], essays about fatherhood hit me hard. Goins’ posts are always a good read, including this one.

5 Weak Words that Make Your Writing Less Effective: Another Goins post, this time on the weak/filler words that creep into our writing and water it down.

Why You Don’t Need to Read Those Productivity Guides: Although the author drifts dangerously close to “not having an act is your act” territory, he makes some good points here about “enough,” a word that is almost anathema in productivity discussions.

A Choose-Your-Path Twitter Fairy Tale: This is SO GOOD that I furious with myself for not thinking of it. Every so often, there’s a moment–one shining moment–where we all stop and realize, “hey, social media is actually a pretty cool invention that can bring people together in an interesting way.” I think this is one of those moments.

=====

Your Turn: Any cool stories or blog posts you want to recommend? Throw ’em in the com-box below!

#FridayFive: Five Fitness-minded Finds from (mostly) Medium!

Two weeks ago, my wife and I “traveled back to Ecuador” (it’s a dumb joke, but I’m sticking to it) and restarted a low-carb/”keto”-ish eating plan again. It’s had its ups and downs so far, but I’m hanging in because I really want to succeed in this and get healthy for my family. In that vein, then, are a few articles I’ve enjoyed recently about food/diet-related topics:

Dr. Stephanie Estima debunks 7 myths about intermittent fasting (a subject I’ve heard more and more about, and it has me intrigued). Here, she talks about the effects of fasting for 24 hours every week.
Jason Cormier gives some suggestions for how timing of exercise and food choices interact to help you burn fat.
I’ve completed one half-marathon (eight years ago, weighing in at 471 pounds–it was a hard, 5 1/2-hr walk that I wasn’t physically prepared for) and have always wanted a do-over that I could prepare properly for and enjoy more. Stories like this by Drake Baer make me want to get outside and start walking again so I can get back on track.
Brad Stulberg gives us a quick reminder that a consistent “good enough” is better than an inconsistent “great”–a lesson I need to remind myself of, as I seek to change my eating patterns.
And finally, an article that I didn’t find on Medium, but have enjoyed lately: If you’re not familiar with the ketogenic diet, this article from Nerd Fitness is a fun introduction that gives you the basics of the science behind it and how it works in real life.

There you go, folks. Have a great weekend, and I’ll be back on Monday!

#FridayFive: Another 5 Interesting Medium Posts

Hey folks! Back this week with another group of Medium posts that I found informative and/or challenging, and that I think you may appreciate:

Confessions of A Failed Female Coder – Caroline McCarthy tackles the topic of women in STEM (specifically in Computer Science) and provides some perspective on the infamous “Google memo” by James Damore. McCarthy’s insights on how education and learning style influence the way girls interact with STEM subjects gave my wife and I some good things to discuss regarding how we will raise and educate our daughter.

Las Vegas, Murder, and Gun Control – Rick Thomas wrestles with some of the political/cultural conversation around the latest mass shooting in the US. Most helpful for me was his breakdown of the 3 arguments used by cultural evangelists, in regards to guns.

You Weren’t Very Persuasive Today – Cody Libolt provides some good ideas on how to have productive and persuasive discussions with people with whom you disagree. In an age of people screaming past each other into the digital abyss, this post is worth some consideration.

Killing Television – Michael Marinaccio cites a few Pew Research results about the demographics of news consumption and media trust, as he considers the possible effect of a generational shift from visual news back to print news as a more trusted resource.

Why You Should Quit Reading Paper Books – I disagree with Andy Sparks’ premise entirely*, as do apparently ALL of the commenters (the answer to your problem, Andy, is a combination of marginalia, pocket notebooks, and highlighters), but I’ll admit he has some useful tips for how to capture and review ideas and quotes from your digital reading. So take that for what it’s worth, and leave the rest, I guess.

=====

There you go, gang. Some fun reading for the weekend.

If you’re on Medium, let me know! I’d love to check out your work. I’m on Medium, too, if you want to follow me there–though I haven’t produced much of anything in that forum. Yet.

Have you read any useful or challenging articles online lately? Post the link in the comments below!

*Much to the possible dismay of Mr. Sparks, I’m actually playing around with the idea of reading EXCLUSIVELY print books in 2018, and limiting myself to books I actually own as of January 1. I figure it’s a good way to battle my tsundoku tendencies.

#FridayFive: 5* Interesting Stories I’ve read recently on Medium.

So I have a confession to make: I use the “bookmark” function on Medium entirely too much.

If you aren’t familiar with it, Medium is a free public blogging platform in which anyone can submit articles. (And I mean anyone.) If you subscribe to certain people’s feeds or click that you are interested in certain topics, you can get a daily (or weekly, I imagine) digest email from the site with links to articles that might interest you. And you can even “bookmark” things you want to read later.

What happens when you bookmark a whole lot and don’t actually read that much? You get a backlog of articles that may number into the several hundred. Or so I’m told.

So I figured, at least for a few weeks, I was going to go through this backlog and pull stories to tell you about that I found interesting, informative, funny, and/or generally worth reading.

Disclaimer: I will try to warn you in advance, but in these posts I will link to articles with bad language from time to time. I’m going to trust that you and your conscience will make good choices, based on your convictions. If I link to the article, it’s because I think the content is worth reading, despite objectionable verbiage.

So here you go–5* stories I’ve read recently that I thought were worth sharing:

I Envy Your Fake Life — Stephen Altrogge talks about the confluence of social media and comparison. I appreciated his honesty, and the reminder of how God’s sovereignty speaks to our contentment.

The Only 3 Types of Writing People Actually Want to Read — Okay, so a lot of the stuff I read on Medium has to do with content creation, writing, publishing, etc. This piece by Ayodeji Awosika was a very useful and direct reminder about what people want to get out of online content (or really, any written content).

Read Like You’re on a Diet — Okay, this one hit a little close to home, as Cody Musser describes the glut of reading material online, the temptation to try to catch it all, and how overwhelming it can be. He’s also frank about how writers’ motives can cloud how good or useful content is. And he emphasizes the need for creating, not just consuming. Worth considering. (NB: language)

23 Ways to Immediately Get more Traffic to Your Blog — Okay, this post is SEO’d to the max. Unsurprising, since it’s Jeff Goins, who’s a pro at platforming. BUT it’s also got some good and useful ideas for boosting the number of eyes that land on your writing, so if you’re into such things, this is a good one to read.

Reading to Learn: Why You Shouldn’t Read Beginning-to-End and What You Should Do Instead — Michael Motta discusses what looks like a very effective method for reading non-fiction (especially textbooks) with an eye to better retention and comprehension. If you’re in school, this may especially be worth a look.

BONUS:

Jesus Took Away My Freedom of Speech… — Couldn’t wait until next time to include this one. Billy Schiel reminds us in this great article about the implications of being servants of Jesus Christ, including how it affects the way we speak (or blog or tweet). Don’t miss this one.

=====

There you go: the first “Medium” edition of the #FridayFive. If you are already on Medium and are so inclined, you can follow me there. No, I don’t have much content up at this point, but I will be rectifying that in the next few weeks–both with cross-posts from this blog and some Medium-exclusive content as well. Looking forward to that!

Have a great weekend, do something fun, be with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s Day if you’re a believer, and I’ll be back next week (hopefully).

Here are 5 Medium posts to boost your writing/blogging this weekend!

One more thing before you go: Can I ask you for a quick favor?

Here are 5 posts to inspire and challenge you over this long holiday weekend!

There you go, friends. Five posts to fuel your creative efforts on this Labor Day weekend.

May your labor be satisfying and your rest be refreshing, and we’ll see you back here next week!