I think the only books I've ever re-read were the Hobbitt and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, John Adams by David McCollough and Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Those two biographies were so dense I needed to re-read them.
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Double Bass DB forum "what books are you reading" thread
- Thread starter Chris Fitzgerald
- Start date
I think the only books I've ever re-read were the Hobbitt and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, John Adams by David McCollough and Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Those two biographies were so dense I needed to re-read them.
It's always been the way I rate books. I read Tolkien's about once a year give or take and King has quite a few that I've read several times over
Part of the obfuscation on what the book about is my fault (I didn't want to give it away). Sorry.
@Chris Fitzgerald: The diff here is Pink talks about motivation itself. What's a successful way to motivate vs. unsuccessful for a company. Talent Code was more about myelin, spaced repetition, and getting into a flow state. Things that you can do to create talent, but more on the individual. Pink is talking about hundreds of people at a time.
@Treyzer: Pink breaks down successful motivation into 3 elements in a nutshell - Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. (I'm at the section where he describe purpose)
1. Autonomy - Once basic needs are met (see Maslov's Hierarchy of Needs), people have a strong desire to feel self-directed and that they're not told what to do. Micromanagement is the antithesis of this. People have a need for psychological safety - that mistakes can be made without being penalized. Even if it's an illusion of freedom, there's that strong desire not to be boxed in.
2. Mastery - the natural desire to become good at something, regardless of what it is. The point is that people love and get attracted to being in the flow state.
3. Purpose - that what we do has meaning (I'm guessing here).
So how would you apply this to, say teaching music students? I'm guessing possibilities would be:
* Let them choose from a small set of subjects on what they want to learn next
* Allow them to screw up and not get frustrated or penalize them for when they don't practice
* Guide (not direct) in their exploration of what music is. Let them solve puzzles for themselves.
* Do not use rewards whatsoever
* Teach in a way where small bits of flow state can be achieved readily (easier said tahn done?)
* As a teacher, avoid the temptation to micromanage. Allow mistakes and allow constructive mistake making. Teachers often fear bad habits but I think they often overblow it.
* Keep them aligned with their own goals and why they're learning certain concepts - big picture thinking.
Looking back to my own personal history, I find all of it rings very true. I only took a liking to music because I discovered the flow state at an early age and got hooked - even tho my mother forced me to take piano lessons. Had she baited me with a reward, it would easily turn into a chore and I wouldn't have stuck with it. And over and over again, these ideas repeat even to this day where I eschew any teacher who has a prescriptive approach to teaching. Regular lessons don't work for me, it's like me having to hand in a status report to my boss.
@Chris, if you don't mind, can you separate all this stuff related to "Drive" into a separate thread?
@Chris Fitzgerald: The diff here is Pink talks about motivation itself. What's a successful way to motivate vs. unsuccessful for a company. Talent Code was more about myelin, spaced repetition, and getting into a flow state. Things that you can do to create talent, but more on the individual. Pink is talking about hundreds of people at a time.
@Treyzer: Pink breaks down successful motivation into 3 elements in a nutshell - Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. (I'm at the section where he describe purpose)
1. Autonomy - Once basic needs are met (see Maslov's Hierarchy of Needs), people have a strong desire to feel self-directed and that they're not told what to do. Micromanagement is the antithesis of this. People have a need for psychological safety - that mistakes can be made without being penalized. Even if it's an illusion of freedom, there's that strong desire not to be boxed in.
2. Mastery - the natural desire to become good at something, regardless of what it is. The point is that people love and get attracted to being in the flow state.
3. Purpose - that what we do has meaning (I'm guessing here).
So how would you apply this to, say teaching music students? I'm guessing possibilities would be:
* Let them choose from a small set of subjects on what they want to learn next
* Allow them to screw up and not get frustrated or penalize them for when they don't practice
* Guide (not direct) in their exploration of what music is. Let them solve puzzles for themselves.
* Do not use rewards whatsoever
* Teach in a way where small bits of flow state can be achieved readily (easier said tahn done?)
* As a teacher, avoid the temptation to micromanage. Allow mistakes and allow constructive mistake making. Teachers often fear bad habits but I think they often overblow it.
* Keep them aligned with their own goals and why they're learning certain concepts - big picture thinking.
Looking back to my own personal history, I find all of it rings very true. I only took a liking to music because I discovered the flow state at an early age and got hooked - even tho my mother forced me to take piano lessons. Had she baited me with a reward, it would easily turn into a chore and I wouldn't have stuck with it. And over and over again, these ideas repeat even to this day where I eschew any teacher who has a prescriptive approach to teaching. Regular lessons don't work for me, it's like me having to hand in a status report to my boss.
@Chris, if you don't mind, can you separate all this stuff related to "Drive" into a separate thread?
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Just finished Blake Crouch's "Dark Matter" I'm conflicted on this guy. He can write pretty good books and this was one but a LOT of his stuff is more what I would call torture porn (like the movie hostel but in print). You never know which you will get from him.
Currently "A brief history of time" I've been meaning to read it for years and since Dark Matter had a fair amount of a multiverse plot, it got me in the mode to read some actual science. It's a great book..call it "Physics written for idiots, such as myself, in a way they can almost understand".
Currently "A brief history of time" I've been meaning to read it for years and since Dark Matter had a fair amount of a multiverse plot, it got me in the mode to read some actual science. It's a great book..call it "Physics written for idiots, such as myself, in a way they can almost understand".
After reading a few cold war espionage books from the 70's, finally found a book that's got both a plot and a literary voice:
Has nothing to do with music or jazz, but a lot to do with depression era Kentucky and the strange combination of superstition, ignorance, and hard-life-wisdom of families on farms during that time.
Has nothing to do with music or jazz, but a lot to do with depression era Kentucky and the strange combination of superstition, ignorance, and hard-life-wisdom of families on farms during that time.
I'm glad this reanimated thread is still going!
I'm reading George Lewis' A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. A friend has graciously loaned it to me.
It is an incredibly detailed and fascinating history (despite Lewis' tendency to sometimes use an arcane word when a simple one would do).
A Power Stronger Than Itself
I'm reading George Lewis' A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. A friend has graciously loaned it to me.
It is an incredibly detailed and fascinating history (despite Lewis' tendency to sometimes use an arcane word when a simple one would do).
A Power Stronger Than Itself
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I'm glad this reanimated thread is still going!
I'm reading George Lewis' A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. A friend has graciously loaned it to me.
It is an incredibly detailed and fascinating history (despite Lewis' tendency to sometimes use an arcane word when a simple one would do).
A Power Stronger Than Itself
Wow, i hadn't heard of this, thanks. Right now i'm in the middle of Annie Cohen-Solal's book about Mark Rothko, a big favorite of mine. To be honest she's not that great a writer but at just over 200 pages it's a good entry level way to learn about Rothko
A (hopefully) funny story about Rothko: Many years ago I was with my (then fiance') wife in D.C. perusing the Smithsonian museums. We found ourselves at the doorway to a Rothko exhibit and ventured in. The first room continued maybe 10 pictures, all with 3 stripes of color from top to bottom. The second room was the same. When we got to the third door we looked in and saw a similar arrangment.
I liked the paintings for what they were, but then I'm sort of in the "arts" world and my wife is a southern girl with little to no arts experience. At the third door I asked her what she thought. Her reply: "I think these paintings display a remarkable economy of effort".
The moral of the story, I believe, is that Rothko is not for everyone.... but I still have a Rothko print hanging in my reading corner.
I liked the paintings for what they were, but then I'm sort of in the "arts" world and my wife is a southern girl with little to no arts experience. At the third door I asked her what she thought. Her reply: "I think these paintings display a remarkable economy of effort".
The moral of the story, I believe, is that Rothko is not for everyone.... but I still have a Rothko print hanging in my reading corner.
A (hopefully) funny story about Rothko: Many years ago I was with my (then fiance') wife in D.C. perusing the Smithsonian museums. We found ourselves at the doorway to a Rothko exhibit and ventured in. The first room continued maybe 10 pictures, all with 3 stripes of color from top to bottom. The second room was the same. When we got to the third door we looked in and saw a similar arrangment.
I liked the paintings for what they were, but then I'm sort of in the "arts" world and my wife is a southern girl with little to no arts experience. At the third door I asked her what she thought. Her reply: "I think these paintings display a remarkable economy of effort".
The moral of the story, I believe, is that Rothko is not for everyone.... but I still have a Rothko print hanging in my reading corner.
Yeah, people tend to be all or nothing with him, I love him and have since the first time i encountered him but I've met plenty of people on the other side. My wife came to D.C. with me earlier this summer when i was working there and we visited the Phillips Collection (where i got the Rothko book), she was excited to show me the little Rothko room they have there -
I'm going to be working in London in November and with all the gigs being in London my wife is coming along and she's really excited about going to the Tate modern to see the Rothko Seagrams Room, which is really amazing. There's a great Simon Schama series called the Power of Art and the last show is about Rothko and the Seagrams paintings
Yes, it's my first time through; and yes, I'll be working on this one for a while. I was told that I would want to throw the book across the room the first 30 pages, but I find Proust's writing style very entertaining. So far so good.
It's been a minute since anyone posted here, but wanted to see if this old thread could be revived because the one upstairs has a different vibe than this one had when it was running - not, bad, but different.
Anyway, have read a ton of books since this one went dormant, but to hit a couple of the highlights:
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: A really great book stops you in your tracks with universal truth periodically. This one stopped me often. Also read Home, the second book in the series, and am saving the third one for a rainy day.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf: Much like the above. Simple folks dealing with life in simple ways, blundering about it ways that most people will recognize. Also like above, part of a series where I am saving the third one for a rainy day.
It has not been raining much in my book world, it seems. Almost finished with this one after reading two of her books previously, and they are all excellent.
Anybody else have some good stuff to share?
Anyway, have read a ton of books since this one went dormant, but to hit a couple of the highlights:
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: A really great book stops you in your tracks with universal truth periodically. This one stopped me often. Also read Home, the second book in the series, and am saving the third one for a rainy day.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf: Much like the above. Simple folks dealing with life in simple ways, blundering about it ways that most people will recognize. Also like above, part of a series where I am saving the third one for a rainy day.
It has not been raining much in my book world, it seems. Almost finished with this one after reading two of her books previously, and they are all excellent.
Anybody else have some good stuff to share?
Somebody gave this to me for Christmas. Ha! I burned it...in my wastebasket, indoors, and then dumped the ashes on the floor.
John Goldsby
Supporting Member
- Mar 4, 2003
- 1,172
- 2,160
- Disclosures
- Bassist @ WDR Big Band Cologne, Discover Double Bass, Conservatorium Maastricht, NL
LOL. Hey John, good to see you here. Your book cover had a typo on it, though. Here's the corrected version:
Been reading quite a bit for entertainment lately. Much more enjoyable than much of the fare that is either on the tube or streaming, although are exceptions. Just read a great book that is both scholarly and entertaining about the rise and fall of the Comanche Nation titled "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne. Evidently it was up for a Pulitzer. The book not only chronicles how the Comanche's became superb horsemen and one of history's great light cavalry's, but also delves deeply into the life of their great chief, Quanah Parker who's mother was abducted the Parker family when she was 9 years old. Fascinating!
Currently I'm reading "A Legacy of Spies", the new John LeCarre' tome. A very entertaining read if your a fan of his work. All the Best.
Currently I'm reading "A Legacy of Spies", the new John LeCarre' tome. A very entertaining read if your a fan of his work. All the Best.
Completed thus far in 2020.
Recursion - Blake Crouch
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Not my normal genres but they were enjoyable.
Recursion - Blake Crouch
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Not my normal genres but they were enjoyable.
