Don McMinn

Has this ever happened to you? You’re in the midst of an argument, or you’ve held a certain position for a long time, when gradually or suddenly you realize you’re wrong. 

Initially it’s very off-putting and discombobulating. But it can be a learning and growing experience; sometimes even a pleasant one.

When was the last time you said, “I am wrong about this.” or “I have changed my point of view about this issue”? 

We’re all susceptible too early and first impressions. Things I was taught as a child are solidly ingrained (early impressions). And when an issue or incident is mentioned in the news, I tend to embrace the first opinion I hear (first impressions). Once the idea is planted in my mind, I gravitate toward confirmation bias (thoughts that substantiate the point of view) and eventually the issue becomes indelibly etched in my mind.

Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, once gave a talk at which Daniel Kahneman was in the audience. (Kahneman is a revered Nobel Prize winning psychologist who’s work transformed our understanding of the biases that cloud our thinking.) After Grant’s talk, Kahneman came up to him and said, “That was wonderful. Your research has proved me wrong.” Grant was dumbfounded. Upon later inquiring what Kahneman meant by his statement, Kahneman replied (Grant’s paraphrase), “No one enjoys being wrong, but I do enjoy having been wrong, because it means I am now less wrong than I was before. Finding out that I was wrong is the only way I’m sure that I’ve learned anything. Otherwise, I’m just going around and living in a world that’s dominated by confirmation bias, or desirability bias. And I’m just affirming the things I already think I know.”

Here’s a terrific article by Evan Nesterak on how to get better at changing your mind, including his interview with Adam Grant.

Here’s a good article titled Mastering the Art of Relaxation by Farhad Manjoo. It’s simple but effective.

My grandson, Benjamin (seven years old), learned how to read this year. I am so happy for him because he now has access to the world’s knowledge. He can learn anything he wants to. I hope he will be a lifelong lover of books. (I’ve bequeathed my library to him.)

If you’re not a reader, make that your number one goal for 2022. Reading just one good book a month will change your life.

Here are the books I read in 2021. The numbers in brackets represent how I rate each book on a scale from 1 (not good) to 10 (exceptional).

January

1. The Billionaire’s Vinegar – The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine – Benjamin Wallace, 2008, 323 pages [8] – On December 5, 1985, a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeux—allegedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—sold for $156,000 at Christy’s auction house. But was it a fraud? This is a fascination read, even if you don’t enjoy wine.
2. Fault lines – The social justice movement and evangelicalism’s looming catastrophe – Voddie Baucham, 2021, 249 pages [5] – Baucham makes an unusual argument regarding the social tensions felt in our society. 
3. Thomas Jefferson – Author of America – Christopher Hitchens, 2005, 188 pages [8] – A good, relatively short biography of the great man.

February

4. Intelligent Thinking – Som Bathla – date unknown, 163 pages [6] – I’ve never seen a book with this many typos. It’s self-published and it shows. However, there are a few good nuggets scattered throughout.
5. Call Sign Chaos – Learning to Lead – Jim Mattis – 2019, 249 pages [8] – General Mattis is an American hero. He speaks well on leadership because he’s done it well. Just the final chapter – Reflections – is worth the price of the book. 
6. Muhammad – A Profit for Our Time – Karen Armstrong – 2006, 202 pages [7] – Armstrong, a well-respected authority on world religions, writes about Muhammad, the founder of the world’s second largest religion. An interesting read, though I am skeptical when an historian writes with confidence something like, “For three years, Muhammad kept a low profile, preaching only to a selected people, but somewhat to his dismay, in 615 Allah instructed him to deliver this message to the whole clan of Hashim.” This happened 1,500 years ago; how does Armstrong (or anyone) know such specifics?

March

7. The God Equation – Michio Kaku – 2021, 210 pages [8] – Einstein solidified the General and Specific theories of relativity; many physicists have contributed to the theory of quantum mechanics. Now physicists are working on the unified theory – a theory that will unify and explain all physical properties of the universe. Kaku gives a brief history of what physicists have worked on and accomplished from the time of Isaac Newton to modern day. This is a great and accessible read. 

April

8. The Best of P.G.Wodehouse – An Anthology – [6] – Wodehouse (1881-1975) was perhaps the most widely acclaimed British humorist of the twentieth century. His writing is brilliant, but I lost patience and cherry-picked what I read.  
9. Fundamentals –  Ten Keys to Reality – Frank Wilczek – 2021, 241 pages [7] – As a graduate student, Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2004. He’s now a professor at MIT. In an accessible way, he discusses the fundamentals of the universe: time, space, matter, energy, complexity and complementarity. 

May

10. Think Again – The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know – Adam Grant – 2021, 257 pages [9] – Terrific book in which Grant examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people’s minds. 
11. Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain – Lisa Barrett – 2020, 166 pages [9] – Scientists have learned a lot about the brain in the past 20 years. Barrett brings us up to date. Her style is accessible and engaging. I appreciate when brilliant people communicate in a way that lay-persons can understand. 

June

12. The Bomber Mafia – Malcolm Gladwell – 2021, 206 pages [8] – In WW2 there were two approaches to bombing the enemy: precision bombing of facilities critical to a country’s war effort (factories, utilities, transportation) or indiscriminate bombing of entire cities. This book tells the story of both approaches.
13. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles – 2016, 462 pages [9] – A Russian aristocrat is put on house arrest in the Metropol hotel in Moscow, never to leave the hotel. The story starts in 1922 and ends in 1954. A wonderful novel.
14. Who Not How – Dan Sullivan – 2020, 172 pages [concept – 8; book – 5] – I wish I had internalized this thought when I was beginning my career: When something needs to get done, don’t ask how can this be done, ask who can to it. Learn to delegate work to people who already know how to do it. The thought is great, the book is not. I’ll write a post on the principle and save you having to buy the book. 

July

15. On Bullshit – Harry Frankfurt – 2005, 67 pages [6] – An essay written by Frankfurt – a professor of philosophy at Princeton University. He takes a deep dive into the etymology of this word. Fascinating approach, but little practical application.
16. The Secret Life of Books – 2019, 212 pages [8.5] – A fascinating tome on the world of books. The history of books, how they’re made, libraries, etc. If you love books, you will enjoy this one.

August

17. Rules of Civility – Amor Towles – 2011, 324 pages [8] – Towles first novel, the story is attractive and his prose is engaging. 
18. A Sense of Urgency – John Kotter – 2008, 194 pages [5] – I enjoyed Kotter’s book, Leading Change, but this book is not worth the read. It’s basically an expansion of chapter 1 of Leading Change. This book should have been an article.
19. Cleopatra – Stacy Schiff – 2010, 326 pages [8] – An incredible biography on one of the most intriguing women in history. Schiff is a good historian that writes terrific books.
20. Winnie the Pooh on Management – Roger Allen – 1994, 161 pages [5] – Because of the extended illustration, it took too much effort to get to the management principles.

September

21. The Golden Moments of Paris – John Baxter – 2014, 269 pages [7] – Before my five-day trip to Paris in November, I read two books (this one and number 22) about the decade of the 1920’s in Paris. It was a memorable decade.
22. When Paris Sizzled – Mary McAuliffe – 2016, 270 pages [8] – See above.

October

23. The Culture Code – Daniel Coyle – 2018, 259 pages [9] – Helping and engaging thoughts on building good culture in an organization. My staff and I processed the book together.
24. The Sentinel – Lee Child – 2020, 349 pages [6] – My least favorite Lee Childs book novel about Jack Reacher.  

November

25. What Would Keynes Do? How the greatest economists would solve your everyday problems – Tejvan Pettinger – 2018, 183 pages [7] – Interesting read on applying economic theory to daily life. It draws thoughts from many economists, not just Keynes.
26. Galileo and the Science of Deniers – Mario Live – 2020, 269 pages [7] – Starting with Galileo, the author discusses the problem of science denial. denying science.

Five best books I read in 2021

The Culture Code – Daniel Coyle – 2018, 259 pages [9] – Helping and engaging thoughts on building good culture in an organization. My staff and I processed the book together. Coyle focuses on three main points: Build safety, share vulnerability, and establish purpose.

A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles – 2016, 462 pages [9] – A Russian aristocrat is put on house arrest in the Metropol hotel in Moscow, never to leave the hotel. The story starts in 1922 and ends in 1954. A wonderful novel. It recently made the list of the 125 most important novels of the last 100 years. 

Think Again – The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know – Adam Grant – 2021, 257 pages [9] – Terrific book in which Grant examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people’s minds. His books are always engaging and approachable.

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain – Lisa Barrett – 2020, 166 pages [9] – Scientists have learned a lot about the brain in the past 20 years. Barrett brings us up to date. Her style is accessible and engaging. I appreciate when brilliant people communicate in a way that lay-persons can understand.

Call Sign Chaos – Learning to Lead – Jim Mattis – 2019, 249 pages [8] – General Mattis is an American hero. He speaks well on leadership because he’s done it well. Just the final chapter – Reflections – is worth the price of the book.

I saw the following statement on the front of a T-shirt (a notable and always reliable source of profound information). 

A goldfish is the happiest animal on earth because it has a 10-second memory.

The statement is false (scientific studies debunk the idea), but it does make a good point: There’s value in leaving the past behind and living in the moment. So let’s use this silly, humorous statement to discuss an important topic. 

We humans are, perhaps, the most unhappy sentient beings on earth because we continue to dwell on things we should let go of; things in our past continue to adversely affect us. In these instances we would benefit from a short memory. 

I’m not suggesting that we ignore, deny, or try to erase painful memories. But we can properly and thoroughly process past experiences so they don’t continue to handicap us. The troubling event is still there but it’s been diffused.

Sometimes, we need to simply “drop” minor offenses and inconveniences; such as: Your plane is delayed; someone makes a tacky comment about you; you’re cut off in traffic. Learn to simply dismiss these minor issues. Here’s a post I wrote about mastering the helpful skill of “dropping it.”  

More importantly, we need to properly process and manage major, painful issues from the past such as: a dysfunctional upbringing, getting fired from a job, a major illness, or failed marriage. It’s difficult to just “drop” these issues; they need to be processed, ideally with help from a professional counselor or a wise friend. These issues are often deeply impeded, sometimes difficult to identify, and complicated to resolve.  

One downside to the goldfish syndrome (if it was real) would be that favorable experiences in life—memories that we should remember, savor, and be grateful for—would be lost. So I’m not suggesting we wipe our memories clean; just mitigate the painful and embrace the positive. 

We will find ourselves in a place of quiet rest when we properly process recent and distant past experiences. Disempower the painful and savor the good.  

I have the privilege of working for an extraordinary man, Chuck Swindoll. He’s smart, kind, competent, fair, engaging…the list goes on and on. He’s the greatest person I’ve know personally. 

One of the things I love and respect about Chuck is that he insists on being called Chuck. Not doctor or president or chancellor (he held both positions at a major seminary), or even pastor; he wants his colleagues, friends, admirers, and even children to call him Chuck. I like that; it’s admirable and right.

Years ago I worked with a man who had an honorary doctorate and he insisted on being addressed as Dr., even by his wife when they were in public. Ugh…

In our culture we often overuse titles and postnominals. Why don’t we just use first names? Or, better yet, here’s a meaningful, egalitarian term that implies unity and solidarity.   

I like the term comrade. 

Because of its common usage in portrayals of the Soviet Union in Cold War films and books, the term has become strongly associated with Russo-Soviet communism, even though the Russian word is tovarisch, not comrade. Admit it: When you read the title of this post, what came to mind? Did you resist the term?

But the term comrade (which means “mate, colleague, ally, team member”) actually derives from the Spanish and Portuguese term camarada. Political use of the term was inspired by the French Revolution (following the Revolution, French titles of nobility were abolished), after which it grew into a common and preferred form of address between members of a group regardless of class, rank, or status. Indeed, in communist Russia, Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union, would greet a factory worker by calling him tovarisch, and the factory worker felt comfortable calling Khrushchev tovarisch.

But the word has been misunderstood and sullied by social and historical influences, so I’m going to use it sparingly. If I know you have read this post, I may, with a concealed smile, greet you as comrade. But when I stand before the congregation at my church, I’ll refrain.

Just call me Don, or comrade.