Feldman's Faves: January 31, 2022

GOOD MORNING BL5

If anyone is interested in joining me in forming the Maui office of Goodmans please let me know. I think I am officially done with winter (yes I know I am a bad Canadian). It is a great time to be alive if you are a sports fan. Ash Barty, the home town hero won the Australian Open this weekend as did Rafa taking his 21st (record breaking) Grand Slam Title (ha, ha Novak…). The Raps beat the Lowry-less Heat in a thriller on Saturday night. I got my Peloton Tred. Joe Burrow (aka the new Tom Brady) is going to the Super bowl for the first time and today at 7 pm on Mad Dog Radio, TB-12 will let us know if the rumours about his retirement that broke the internet over the weekend are true. What a legend.

No theme this week just interesting stuff.

Cloud Cuckoo Land By Anthony Doerr – I will be honest – I had never heard of Anthony Doerr but when his most recent novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land came out, there was a HUGE buzz in anticipation of this book as a result of how much people loved his Pulitzer Prize Winning novel All the Light we Cannot See (more on that next week). With Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr does not disappoint. Beyond the accolades, which were intriguing, was the description on the book cover about why he wrote this book, which he says is a love letter to libraries and to books - something that resonates with me. Doerr is fascinated by our ability to use technology to communicate whether it be through radio (a major theme in All the Light) or through the written word, as is the focus of this book. The words on the page outlive the author and the ability to preserve stories over the centuries that have meaning to all people is what drives this amazing story – he wants us all to be “good ancestors” and the preservation of books and the existence of libraries is one key way to achieve this objective. In this book, Doerr creatively weaves together three interconnected people with stories taking place in the past (Constantinople in 1500s), in the present (Iowa in the 2020s) and in the future (on a spaceship). The basic premise of this novel revolves around how these three children, with very different lives, are impacted by the story Cloud Cuckkoo Land, which is written by Diogenes in the first century AD (according to the book but in real life) that tells the story of Aetheon, a sheppard who leaves home in search for Cloud Cuckoo Land and all of his adventures along the way. As one reviewer explains the plot, “Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross. Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. She has never set foot on our planet.” It is a very unusual story with very clear and easy to read language. You could read this in one sitting and probably should to make sure you are keeping all of the story lines straight. I enjoyed it a lot and it led me to read some of Doerr’s other books, which are great. Here is a good review from the Guardian:https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/24/cloud-cuckoo-land-by-anthony-doerr-review-a-joyous-epic-of-love-and-survival

The Next Big Idea - Book Bite #18: Would You Pass the CEO Test? – I love this PODCAST. It finds the best non-fiction books and provides the five key takeaways that the author wants the reader to learn. In this epidoe the key question revolves around what it takes to be a great CEO, which I will summarize for you: 1. Simplify Complexity - distill strategy into a simple plan that everyone can understand (think of Bob Eiger at Disney) 2. Make Culture Real - avoid off-site words and phrases that are vague and forgotten and then promote the jerk vs choosing specific values and use at every touch point (e.g., hiring, promoting, etc.)

3. Build True Teams - learn how to incentive people to work together and create a culture of people having each other’s backs

4. Learn to Listen - an essential skill of leadership since leaders live in a bubble and need to fight to get out of it. Sounds obvious but not often done.

5. Master the Inner Game of Leadership – leaders are faced with many contradictions and it is very confusing and you need to be able to navigate through a series of paradoxes (urgency vs patience, empathy vs toughness, etc.) I found this talk to be very insightful – albeit all statements of the obvious…. Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself: “Today, #18 in our countdown of last year’s top 22 books: “The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders.” In the decade he spent writing the “Corner Office” column for the New York Times, Adam Bryant interviewed hundreds of CEOs and learned what separates good leaders from great ones. In "The CEO Test" Adam and his co-author, Kevin Sharer, the former CEO of Amgen, share what they’ve learned about staying nimble, handling a crisis, and creating cultures that work. We’ll be back with a new season of interviews in February, featuring Jill Lepore, Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Ray Dalio, David Chalmers, Paul Bloom, and a bunch of other brilliant thinkers” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-next-big-idea/id1482067226?i=1000549040207

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon