Hi friends,

Here’s this week’s list of what I’m exploring and thinking about. Feel free to forward this along to friends and family.

Book I’m reading

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson is one of the greatest biographers of this century. Thus far, I’ve read his biographies of Ben Franklin, Steve Jobs, and Albert Einstein. The common trend among these prolific innovators is their ability to combine knowledge and expertise in many subjects to come up with novel ideas. Leonardo was fascinated with combining the sciences and engineering with the humanities. He went on to create two of the most revered paintings of all time: the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.

Journal I’m testing out

Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook. By far the highest-quality journal I’ve used. It is a bit expensive, but I think that our thoughts and ideas should be treated with respect, and having a quality journal makes writing them down that much easier.

Book I finished

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease by Daniel Lieberman. The central premise of this book is that we have ancient bodies and genes that aren’t adapted well to modernity. We have maximized convenience in all domains of our lives leading us to become underexercised, overnourished, and overstimulated.

What I’m thinking about

For the majority of my life up until now, I have been in formal schooling. One year ago, I finished the last of my formal schooling and thought, “What next?” But then I realized that school is only the beginning of our education. The real learning starts when we are in charge of what we want to think and learn about. I see many people who finish school and become complacent with their knowledge, but that is a disservice to themselves and others. We should all try to foster a childlike curiosity about the world and never cease learning till we die.

Quote of the week

“Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers.”

— President Harry Truman

Until next week,

Kevin