Cody Hall

I’m continuing to work my way through The Crux by Richard Rumelt. It’s the most practical, helpful book on strategy I’ve read to date. I’ve already put into practice several learnings at various leadership levels in my ministry at SonSet Solutions.

Here’s another book I’m reading as part of my biblical counseling certification through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. Jim Newheiser is one of the ACBC OGs. This book is well done, rooted and grounded in Scripture, and practical in its application. It will remain a resource for me as I move forward in counseling folks, especially those dealing with anger.

I’ve read a few things from Patrick Lencioni and generally would give his stuff 4/5 stars. In this book, he writes in a story/fable format which makes his lessons easier for some to grasp. A fable approach tends to make me impatient; I’d rather just have the lessons and his rationale.

Overall, his Six Types of Working Genius system has potential and makes sense. But, these systems are only useful to the degree they actually unlock deeper relationships with your teammates and increase effectiveness on your team. Implementing systems requires an investment of time. Often, leaders who try to move toward systems/frameworks like this encounter resistance in the form of, “How is this going to help? Just let us do our work!” I’ve run into similar barriers on the engineering team I lead while exploring other systems.

My wife and I have four children: one boy and three girls. After we had our twin girls, my in-laws gave me this one. It sat on my dresser, then got promoted to my nightstand, where it sat for a few months while I was finishing a few other books. Finally, I cracked this one open. I’m glad I did!

It has an excellent message. The writing is driven by anecdotes and stories, and lessons are masterfully woven throughout. There have already been several things I’ve noted and begun to put into practice.

It’s a privilege to be able to raise my girls…may God help me do the best I can.

I’ve been following Jason Lowery on X for a few years. So I was excited to see when his masters thesis was published by MIT. I grabbed a copy on Amazon and have been working my way through it. At the time of writing, Jason was an active-duty US Space Force astronautical engineer and US National Defense Fellow at MIT.

Since then, the Department of Defense forced MIT to stop publishing it and Jason had to pull the book. My pristine copy would fetch a pretty penny now! Why would the DoD do this?

From the Goodreads summary:

In this thesis, Lowery presents a novel theory to the US Department of Defense that Bitcoin doesn’t just represent a peer-to-peer cash system, it also (and more importantly) represents a new form of digital-age warfare that will transform national security, cyber security, and possibly even the base-layer architecture of the internet.

Using scientific concepts from biology, evolution, anthropology, political science, and computer theory, Lowery summarizes the dynamics of power projection in human society and provides an argument for why emerging proof-of-work technologies (namely Bitcoin) will have a dramatic impact on how humans organize, cooperate, and compete on a global scale by empowering populations to project physical power in, from, and through cyberspace.

Major Lowery concludes that Bitcoin represents a national strategic imperative that the US should support and adopt as quickly as possible, else it risks losing its lead as a global superpower in the 21st century.