Notes

Reading, lessons, and recurring themes

A curated page for the books I return to, the lessons I keep noticing, and the themes that influence how I think about risk, discipline, work, and decision-making.

Themes I’m Exploring

Recurring themes I keep coming back to across work, markets, learning, and personal development.

Technical depth vs. broader ownership

I’m increasingly interested in the shift from pure implementation toward work that includes direction, judgment, communication, prioritization, and shaping outcomes.

Markets as a mirror

Trading is not just about charts or setups. It exposes impatience, ego, fear, greed, inconsistency, and the gap between what you say you believe and how you actually behave.

Learning through action

I trust learning more when it passes through action, implementation, friction, and correction — not just passive consumption or abstract understanding.

Macro cycles, crowd behavior, and hype

I’m interested in how narratives spread, how sentiment shifts, how people get carried by cycles, and how hard it is to stay rational when the crowd becomes emotional.

Building a stronger life

Beyond work, I’m thinking a lot about discipline, self-respect, money, identity, and what it means to build a life that is more intentional, stable, and earned.

Lessons From Experience

A few short lessons that keep repeating — from technical work, personal growth, and especially from environments where reality gives fast feedback.

If you can’t explain the reason, you’re probably gambling

This applies beyond trading. If I can’t clearly explain why I’m doing something, what I expect, and what would prove me wrong, then I’m acting on impulse more than judgment.

Losses are expensive teachers only if you learn from them

Pain by itself does not create growth. Reflection does. Repeating the same mistake ten times is not experience — it’s avoidance dressed up as effort.

Focus is not automatic; it has to be protected

Good work usually needs distance from noise, enough time to get mentally locked in, and the discipline to stop splitting attention across too many things.

Delayed results are still real results

Some things need time before they can be judged properly. Effort, systems, learning, and habits often reveal their value later than emotion would prefer.

Respect for money is really respect for consequence

Money is not just a number. It reflects choices, freedom, risk, discipline, and whether I’m treating resources carelessly or with intention.

Reality is better than self-deception

Whether in work, markets, or personal growth, clean feedback is more useful than a comforting story. It may hurt more in the short term, but it creates better decisions.

Reading Shelf

A selected shelf of books that have influenced how I think about risk, discipline, systems, business, performance, and personal judgment.

Markets, risk, and decision-making

15 books

These books shaped how I think about uncertainty, probability, risk, execution, emotional control, and the difference between having an opinion and making a decision under consequence.

  1. Trading in the ZoneMark Douglas
  2. Market WizardsJack D. Schwager
  3. The Little Book of Market WizardsJack D. Schwager
  4. Hedge Fund Market WizardsJack D. Schwager
  5. Reminiscences of a Stock OperatorEdwin Lefèvre
  6. What I Learned Losing a Million DollarsJim Paul & Brendan Moynihan
  7. The Art of ExecutionLee Freeman-Shor
  8. Thinking in BetsAnnie Duke
  9. The Mental Game of TradingJared Tendler
  10. Mastering Trading PsychologyAndrew Aziz
  11. The Alchemy of FinanceGeorge Soros
  12. The Black SwanNassim Nicholas Taleb
  13. A Random Walk Down Wall StreetBurton G. Malkiel
  14. The Second Leg DownHari P. Krishnan
  15. The Hours Between Dog and WolfJohn Coates

Life, mindset, and meaning

4 books

This shelf reflects a broader interest in identity, mindset, inner narrative, emotion, adaptation, and the human side of performance, ambition, and change.

  1. The AlchemistPaulo Coelho
  2. The Four AgreementsDon Miguel Ruiz
  3. Outwitting the DevilNapoleon Hill
  4. How AI ThinksNigel Toon

Money, business, systems, and power

10 books

These books pushed me to think more seriously about incentives, systems, macro forces, power, wealth, institutions, and how financial reality shapes freedom and decision-making.

  1. PrinciplesRay Dalio
  2. Changing World OrderRay Dalio
  3. The Big Debt CrisisRay Dalio
  4. The OutsidersWilliam N. Thorndike Jr.
  5. The Lords of Easy MoneyChristopher Leonard
  6. Too Big to FailAndrew Ross Sorkin
  7. The Creature from Jekyll IslandG. Edward Griffin
  8. Secrets of the Millionaire MindT. Harv Eker
  9. The Richest Man in BabylonGeorge S. Clason
  10. The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli

Discipline, ownership, and execution

5 books

This group influenced how I think about responsibility, self-management, focus, execution, habit formation, and the standards required to move from intention to action.

  1. Extreme OwnershipJocko Willink & Leif Babin
  2. The 12 Week YearBrian P. Moran & Michael Lennington
  3. The One ThingGary Keller & Jay Papasan
  4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleStephen R. Covey
  5. Psycho-CyberneticsMaxwell Maltz

My reading tends to sit at the intersection of markets, psychology, discipline, power, systems, business, and personal growth.

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