I really enjoyed Steven Pressfield's The War of Art so I decided to read the short follow-up, Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way. It really kicked my butt and made me realize how important the drudgery and hard work really is to any creative endeavor. I loved the concrete examples and memorable language describing resistance as a dragon and evil force that will never go away but which can be (and must be) defeated every day you work.

​Introduction
Orientation
Enemies and allies
Enemies
Any act that derives from our higher rather than lower nature elicits resistance
The more important a call to action of our soul the more resistance we will feel towards pursuing it
Fear doesn't go away
Rational thought is worst enemy of fight against resistance
The deeper the source we work from the better
Friends and family are enemies of unmanifested u
Allies
Stupidity: ignorance and arrogance best states of mind
Don't allow self to think or doubt or hesitate
Don't doubt, act
Be stubborn once start
In till the finish
Blind faith is mighty ally
Passion

1 beginning
Start before ur ready
Don't give brain time to find excuses
Begin it now
Research diet: only allowed to read 3 books on subject before beginning
Better to be primitive than sophisticated
Birth takes pain between chaos, pain, and blood
Don't overthink or overprepare
Quick single page outline is enough to start
Break it up in 3 sections: beginning, middle, end
Start at the end/the finish
Answer the question: what is this about
Thoughts vs chatter
Chatter is resistance
Stay primitive
Trust the soup
Swing for the seats
Be ready for resistance

2 middle
Resistance can never be defeated permanently. Will always be there. Must be respected. Can be outwitted with lots of work. 
Fill in the gaps
7-8 major movements/parts to something
Do research now but stay on diet
Never do research in prime working time
Soak up what u need to fill in the gaps only
Killer opening sequence, killer climax, killer couple scenes in between
Finally fill in the gaps between the gaps
Cover the canvas
Get to first full draft asap. Speed and completion, not quality. Don't stop, don't think, suspend self-judgment. 
The crazier the better. Liberate self from conventional expectations. Violate rules. Stay stupid. 
Ideas do not come linearly. Record ideas the minute they come. 
Action and reflection separate steps of process of idea creation
Never do both together
Never doubt the soup
The answer is always yes
Momentum is everything. Keep working every single day.
Ignore false negatives and positives. Keep working. 
Act then reflect
Keep asking self what is this thing about
Everything must serve theme
Ask set what's missing and fill in that gap
Then u hit the wall in the middle of the work
Principles
There is an enemy
Recognize there is evil force in world
This enemy is implacable
Its aim is to kill
This enemy is inside you
Not external person or force you can escobar
The enemy is inside u but it is not u
U r not to blame or have done anything wrong for the resistance u feel
The real u must duel resistance u
Knight vs dragon
Only intercourse possible is battle
Resistance arises second
What comes first is idea and passion 
First urge is love, life, creative force
Remember and draw strength for it
Opposite of resistance is assistance
Can align ourselves with universal forces against dragon
Resistance’s two tests
How bad do you want it
Scale of how much ur interested in something: from dabbling to interested to totally committed
If answer not totally committed then stop what ur doing
Why do u want it
Power fame or for vision are not enough 
If anything other than “because I have no choice” or “for fun or beauty” then need attitude adjustment
Attitude adjustment chamber
Check ego at door and anything else acquired at birth or through work
Only things to keep are love for the work and will to finish

2 middle the big crash
Will always be major setback at some point
Will we quit or not
Crash doesn't mean we are losers
It means we need to grow
Creative panic is good
Greatest fear is fear of success
Panic is a sign we are growing
Allies: stupidity, stubbornness, blind faith
The problem is not us. The problem is the problem. 
Work the problem. Rewriting. 

3 end
Finishing is critical part of any project
Fear of success makes us stop
Exposure is created when we ship
Start again before ur ready
Begin the next one tomorrow

I kept hearing Tim Ferriss talk ​about Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, so I wanted to pick it up. The book focuses on repeatable mistakes of how we predict our future and the psychology of happiness. It reminded me a lot of other psychology books I've read like those of Dan Ariely and Daniel Kahneman, so it wasn't a ton of new material (for me), but it was a nice read and overview.

Part 1 prospection

Ch 1 journey to elsewhere
We think about the future like no animal does
We are only animal that truly thinks about future
Ability to imagine world as it isn't
Nexting: Brains constantly predicting what will see next
Surprise is when see something unexpected
Frontal lobe latest brain development
Controls ability to add plan and anxiety
Forestalling pleasure creates pleasure of anticipation
Anticipating unpleasant events can lessen their impact
Brains want control over future experiences
Feeling of control gives happiness

Part 2 subjectivity: experience is unobservable to everyone except the person having it

Ch 2 the view from in here
Emotional happiness, moral happiness, judgmental happiness 
People bad at noticing visual discontinuities
Experiences of our former selves foreign to us as if of someone else
Forced to rely on our memories we are not effective

Ch 3 outside looking in

Part 3 realism: The belief that things exist in reality as in the mind

Ch 4 in the blind spot in the minds eye
Very hard to imagine what it would be like if
Memory changed by info after it
Perception affected by mind not just senses

Ch 5 the hound of silence
Hard to think of what is missing

Part 4 presentism: the tendency to have current experience affect views of past and future

Ch 6 the future is now
Prefeeling
Reality around u affects real feelings and imagined feelings
Hard for imagination to transcend present
Time share between perception and imagination

Ch 7 time bombs
Starting points have a big impact on ending point
Can't just imagine event in present and translate to future
Brain detects changes and relative not absolute
Comparing with the past vs the possible (both yield mistakes)

Part 5 rationalization: the act of causing something to seem reasonable

Ch 8 paradise glossed
Negative events aren't as bad as we are afraid they may be

Ch 9 immune to reality
Unconscious cooking of facts
Most regrets are from things we didn't do
Intense events trigger our defenses more than mild ones and so they are overcome by us better by rationalizing or interpreting reality differently 
Mild negative events are more annoying
We don't anticipate that psychological immune system will protect when have bad experience 
Unpleasant events are explained away
Explanations also lessen pleasant events
Irrepressible urge to explain things but also diminishes happiness 

Part 6 corrigibility capable of being corrected or improved

Ch 10 once bitten
Tend to recall items at end of series or experience far better than those in middle

Ch 11 reporting live from tomorrow
Transmission of beliefs
False belief is joy of money
Seek others who had experience you're considering and ask them about it

Afterword

I read John Gottman's What Makes Love Last because I really enjoyed his famous Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. I didn't find What Makes Love Last to be as useful as its focus on trust and trust issues seemed kind of out of place or random and disconnected logically from the very general idea of making love last ([mis]trust seems like only one of the ways love can fail). I didn't end up getting much practical value from the book, though the discussion of the Zeigarnik Effect was interesting.

​Intro
Betrayal cause of love failing
Trust is antidote 

1 assessing your trust level
Having each other's back
Trying to help your partner get value

2 the 3 boxes
Nice box: repair attempts
Neutral box: happiest couples spend more time in neutral during disagreements 
Nasty box: flooding
Sliding door moments: can turn toward partner at bids or away
Zeigarnik effect: we have better recall for issues that are unfinished or unresolved than those that are finished or closed
Negative sentiment override: viewing positive or neutral things with suspicion
Positive sentiment override: giving benefit of doubt
Gentle start: opposite of criticism (words like always and never)
Accept responsibility for some of the problem
Negative comparisons to others bad
Positive comparisons create us vs world attitude
Describe feelings
Ask open ended questions
Reflect back partners feelings
Deepening statements
Express compassion or empathy
Don't offer opinions or problem solving
Understanding must precede advice
Be an ally more than problem solver
Express needs in positive
What else are you feeling
Enduring vulnerabilities 
State of the union meetings
Transform criticism into a wish