STG's

The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life, by Thomas M. Sterner is an interesting book, that mostly focus on how to approach learning in a way that is pleasurable. Overall, though, it seems to me that the advice is a little too generic to be truly useful. Still somewhat interesting, but much less helpful than it could have been.

The Little Book of Talent , by Daniel Coyle, cover 52 tips to improve your skills. The book is short, clear, and to the point, and the tips are usually actionable and very useful. Research shows that just practicing isn't enough - practicing at the edge between what you can do and what you can't do (yet) is where you can get the most improvement. And many of the tips cover just this. Well worth checking out.

I recently finished Shadow of Mordor. One thing that took me a while to figure out is how to finish the mission "Brand the Warchiefs". That is because two of my branded chiefs had killed one while I was away. This is very easy to solve, though. Just go to one of the towers of light and speed up time, the problem will correct itself with some other chief taking the warchief's place. If you brand all chiefs before that is even better, as you might just have the mission complete itself automatically (as it happened to me).

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life - by Scott Adams - is a very interesting self-help book/biography by Scott Adams. The book is full of interesting advice in how to approach projects - and how to learn from failures and accept them as part of learning. One piece of advice that I have seen in many places and that I feel deserves some attention is the idea of not relying on goals, but on a process. For example, if your goal is to lose N pounds every day you didn't reach the weight you are failing at it.  However, if your process is exercising a little daily and eating right, you can succeed on a daily basis.  The book is filled with useful advice like this (and much more specific), plus interesting stories from Scott's life. Recommended.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open world game based on Middle Earth stories. You are a ranger that got melded with an elf wraith through a blood sacrifice, and now you have powers that will help you kill a whole lot of orcs. The last game I played was Far Cry 3, and it feels really, really similar in many ways. Besides the main missions, you go around attacking places - not bases, though, mostly small interventions where you kill captains in interesting ways. The most interesting part about captains is that you can interrogate other orcs to get information on them - and it is immensely helpful. For example, a mission that I gave up was killing a particularly warchief, as I couldn't figure out how to kill him and his escort. Then on a second time I just managed to sneak up on him, and as he was vulnerable to stealth attacks, I killed him in seconds. There are also plenty of abilities and upgrades you can buy - either with Experience or cash. Really fun stuff, includin...

Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is shaping our Future - by Ashlee Vance - is a very entertaining biography about Elon Musk (which as the title says, is the biggest drive behind SpaceX and Tesla, and is also involved in SolarCity - all companies with possible huge effects in the world).  The story half reads as a bigger-than-life fictional account of what a genius industrialist goes through to save the world from pollution (with Tesla and SolarCity) and to get us into space. The fact that it all happened makes it even more interesting. It also made me really want to get a Tesla. Well, kind of... The triumphs really do, but the listings of problems don't (irrelevant either way as they are not available here)... Less revisions and "free" gas would be great, though. I'd also love to get cheap solar from SolarCity! Overall, very entertaining, and pretty much recommended for anyone interested in any of the companies.