Author: Gabriel Coarna

Maximum Effort

(How to make big, tough decisions that you’ll never regret.)

I have, thus far in my life, made quite a few decisions for which —at the time and, then, in retrospect, even more so— the extensive counter-arguments were many and the sometimes-irreversible consequences were clear.

I quit high-school. I didn’t move to the US in my twenties. I got married. I accepted jobs I maybe shouldn’t have. I got divorced. I moved to the US in my thirties. I rejected jobs I maybe shouldn’t have.

Some of those decisions were the right call, some weren’t, some I’m still not sure about, and some I’ll never be sure about. But I regret none of them.

Whenever I’m faced with a big decision, I think about it. A lot. In fact, I think as hard as I’m able to, for as long as is feasible.

In exchange for consciously and deliberately forcing myself to agonize over the (big) decisions I make, I get to never regret those decisions. Because I know for sure that I did my best. Because I know for sure that, at that time, given those circumstances, knowing what I knew, I made the best decision I could’ve made.

PS:

(1) This only works properly if one keeps in mind three things: (a) not all decisions are “big” decisions; (b) “not regretting past decisions” isn’t in any way the same thing as “not learning from past mistakes”; (c) for most issues, most of the time, “I’m not going to make this decision right now” is a valid decision — we too often force ourselves to make definite, definitive decisions at times when we don’t, in fact, have to do so.

(2) I somehow stumbled across this idea when I was 15 or 16. Following it ever since has —I’m pretty sure— saved me from nearly-insurmountable amounts of regret.

Sapiens

Sapiens

By Yuval Noah Harari.

Sapiens is a fantastic —and fantastically-readable— summary of our history.

If —like I did, when I saw this book being recommended by others— you’re now asking yourself “Just how ‘fantastic’ could a summary of our history be?”, here’s why you should start reading:

(1) It’s not just a summary of things you know. It is peppered with some of the latest research results, study findings, and archeological discoveries — and it presents the really novel/interesting (re)interpretations that result.

(2) It is, I’m pretty sure, the most well-written and most-readable history book I’ve ever read. The story’s arc ebbs and flows effortlessly; and, throughout, the author’s narrative voice is just exquisite.

Me

Becoming Steve Jobs

Becoming Steve Jobs

By Brent Schlender & Rick Tetzeli.

I was almost angry, a few years ago, when I finished reading Walter Isaacson’s official biography of Steve Jobs.

The book was well-researched, yes. But Isaacson only used that research to “prove” well-known cliches that he —and, sadly, many other people— already believed about Jobs. On top of that, the book’s tone was stark and cold and distant; and, most striking of all, it was almost mean. Overall, I kept feeling like I was reading about the myth of “Steve Jobs, the evil warlock” — Isaacson uses the term “reality distortion field”, in a serious way, an upwards of 20 times throughout the story.

“Becoming Steve Jobs” isn’t perfect. But it’s so much better than Isaacson’s book that I can’t even find an analogy that would capture the difference. If you read that book and you don’t read this one, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. 

Me