REFLECTION: George Lucas’s story is a masterclass in creative conviction, how to stay true to your vision, build what doesn’t yet exist and trust people more than systems. From his earliest days tinkering with short films and comic books, to founding Lucasfilm and redefining cinema, Lucas proved that great ideas don’t need permission, they need persistence.

He didn’t trust studios because they stifled originality. Instead, he prototyped without money, negotiated ownership instead of salary and built companies like ILM and Pixar not to chase profit, but to pursue possibility. He believed in finding people with just enough skill to say yes and not enough experience to say no.

Lucas’s work ethic, paired with a deep commitment to fairness and family, underscored everything from the collaborative culture at Skywalker Ranch to the educational work of his foundation. He built universes not only on screen but behind the scenes, where maternity leave, mentorship and curiosity mattered as much as special effects.

He never aimed to be a hero, but he became one, because he dared to think differently, to trust deeply and to never stop learning. Lucas didn’t just reshape film. He reshaped how we see possibility. And when asked how he wants to be remembered, his answer says it all: “I tried.”

DIRECT QUOTES:

Build a prototype without any money, this is why Lucas didn't trust studios, they tell people what to do without any reason...

It was great to not be born a prince because you can do anything if you apply yourself…

All kids, from their point of view, feel depressed and intimidated at one point…

One of the best ways to learn is to attach yourself to someone older and wiser than you, learn all of the things and then go and try to achieve your own accomplishments…

Lucas’s favorite comic was one by Disney called Scrooge McDuck because its premise was that anyone could be anyone they want and people don’t need to all fall into one form…

Lucas was part of the first generation ever raised in front of a television set…

In elementary school, Lucas and his friend created the Daily Bugle and they printed it once per week…

Think differently, invest in yourself and pay your debts…

After making his first short film, he realized he was good at this and never doubted himself again…

Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai impacted Lucas the most out of any film he watched while in college…

Give people time with the mythology and the backstory will fill itself…

Because of a scholarship, Lucas stood there in the studio silently and the director went over to him and asked if he was seeing anything interesting… Lucas responded with “nope” and that was when he met 28 year-old Francis Ford Coppola…

When exhibiting boredom, Coppola treated Lucas like a mentee and told him “George, every day I need you to come up with a brilliant idea”...

Coppola told Lucas “if you want anyone in this industry to take you seriously, you’re going to have to learn to write movies”...

Don’t ever read what you have written, just go back in a week or two and keep fixing things…

Being fair was always a big deal to Lucas…

When trying something new George said “well we aim high and we may be going back with our tails between our legs, but at least we had fun while doing it”...

In this country, the only thing that speaks is money…

Be a hero that dares to go outside the ant hill…

For an actor, the less you have to do the harder it is…

Robert Duvall liked working with Lucas because he left you alone and trusted you…

Prior to American Graffiti, Lucas lived in a time where he wanted to focus on regenerating optimism…

By denying Lucas the rights to Flash Gordon, Lucas was inadvertently sent down the path for creating Star Wars…

Harrison Ford was doing so well as a carpenter, he almost didn’t take the role in American Graffiti…

Since meeting at the film convention at UCLA in 1969, Spielberg and Lucas’s relationship has always been good natured competition and warm admiration…

Lucas was the master at hiring the best, trusting them and leaving them alone…

Lucas doesn’t like the term art because it means pretension and bull shit…

For Lucas, things are never about profit, they are about principal…

Enthusiasm always trumped clarity…

R2-D2 derived from reel two, deck two during American Graffiti and while working on the second draft for Star Wars, Lucas began pondering a hero that would explore, and he called him Indiana Smith…

After the success of American Graffiti, Lucas didn’t go in and demand more money from Fox, he simply requested the merchandising rights…

Years later, Fox would marvel at the farsightedness of George Lucas, and it was his ability to know that the world was changing…

To Lucas, decision making was binary, either you do it yourself or you don’t have a say…

ILM built the first fluid motion capturing camera…

When designing the special effects team, the focus was on hiring people who were cooperative…

They were in an industrial park, building lights and for this to work, needed a lot of magic… Industrial Light and Magic is formed…

When it came to new ideas, Lucas looked for people with just enough experience to say they could do it, but just enough inexperience to not be deterred by the timeline…

Lucas had the foresight to not only accept the undervalued $8.3 million contract, but did negotiate 40% of ticket sales, the rights to sequels, the rights to television, the rights to advertising and the rights to marketing and toys…

Although the word Vader in Dutch means father, it is much more likely that Lucas got the name from a classmate named Gary Vader…

Lucas showed a screening to people he really trusted because when you ask someone for their opinion that you don’t really know, they give you dishonest positivity or just share how they would do it…

The only person who liked the raw footage of Star Wars was Spielberg and the producers called him later and he said the same thing, that they have a $50 or $60 million flick on their hands, and boy was he wrong…

Within weeks 80% of all Star Wars moviegoers were repeat viewers and theaters were burning out the film which Fox gladly replaced for $700…

Star Wars proved there is no corporate substitute for the individual filmmaker…

Marcia Lucas told him we will know you have a hit on your hands if the audience cheers when Han Solo comes back to save Luke…

Audiences liked Star Wars because it’s easy to be cynical, it’s hard to be corny…

Lucas could generally run with the best idea in the room, no matter whose it was, although history would prove that the best idea was generally his…

Lucas preferred to work with people that could be fast and cheap, but most importantly that liked to work with people…

In 1980 ILM bought an Apple computer to make filing all of the special effect shots easier, and that’s when Lus had the epiphany that movies will one day be edited digitally, and this was a great pondering to undertake at Skywalker Ranch, and that is when he hired Ed Catmull…

The hiring of Catmull led directly to the hiring of John Lasseter from Disney, and then they dubbed the new company Pixar…

Empire Strikes Back released in 126 theaters, breaking 125 opening records and no other film opened against it…

Lucas told Paramount that Indiana Jones could be filmed in under 88 days, knowing full well that he and Spielberg could do it sooner, but when the studio called they could always respond they were ahead of schedule and be left alone…

Due to a technicality, Lucas wasn’t permitted to direct Raiders of the Lost Ark because the film guild and union fined him $25,000 for not putting Kershner’s name on the front of Empire Strikes Back… and yet to this day most movie credits are at the end of movies…

After Return of the Jedi, his private life was beginning to get into shambles, and for George Luca, making movies would always be the other woman…

The Temple of Doom is dark, likely because of the divorce Lucas was going through during the writing and filming of it…

Lucas stayed hands off his game division, but always told them to stay small… be the best and don’t lose any money…

The Temple of Doom is what led the film ratings bureau to adding the Pg-13 category, even though the movie was PG…

At the end of every year at Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas gave out the Lucas yearbook to all staff highlighting everything they did…

Ed Catmull at Pixar didn’t feel disrespected, but he said the employees also did not feel embraced…

Although Pixar would go on to be worth more than $8 billion, at the time Lucas got what he needed out of it, and it was hardware that could create special effects and he wasn’t in the hardware business… a great idea is what makes a movie, not the hardware…

Always skeptical of studios, once Michael Eisner took over Disney, Lucas would collaborate with them and allow the parks to create Star Wars themed rides…

George Lucas continued adopting children, even after his next break up, because he realized your family is all you really have…

Following the passing of his parents, Lucas became extremely reflective about his upbringing and thought about creating a series The Young Indiana Jones, where Jones could meet historical figures, and it could be a way to educate children in a failing educational system…

Lucas’s foundation created curriculum for 18 elementary schools in California and he thought this was a great way to get kids hooked on learning because throughout your education a person might have only one or two teachers that truly inspire them…

Spielberg said “prove it,” and the day they did everyone at ILM had tears in their eyes… they made computer-generated dinosaurs look real…

Jurassic Park transformed a computer from being a tool and filmmaking to being the tool and filmmaking…

I’ve seen the Karate Kid, the underdog always has a chance…

At Skywalker Ranch, there are two daycares and everyone is entitled to maternity leave, and leave when someone in their family is sick… and Lucas said “we found we will find much more quality people when we focus on quality of life, not just salaries…”

I rule at the will of the people who work for me…

Some people are very loyal and some are going to feel disvalued, and you listen to every grievance and you do what you can to make everything fair…

Episode I was filmed at the same studio as Goldeneye…

When Lucas wanted to re-edit his original trilogy in 1997, they found the film reel of the Original Star Wars to be muggy and scratched, and it took ILM a year just to clean it up… and then they put the new edits directly on that film, thus making the original Star Wars now the original edit from today…

Samuel L. Jackson wanted to be in the movie, in any capacity, even a stormtrooper because he said “hell, as long as I know I’m in the movie, I don’t care if other people do…” And George Lucas went all the way all the way back to the script in 1973…

When shooting was completed, ILM was tasked with taking 2200 shots and adding the effects into all of them within a year and like Lucas often does when someone tells him they can’t do something or they don’t know how, he simply responded “well just think about it” and then walked away…

Even LEGO finally joined the toy licensing and in 2012 with the Star Wars line became the most valuable toy company on the planet…

20th Century Fox wanted to also distribute the movie and Lucas, always looking for an opportunity to stick it to them and already owning the rights to Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, said that they could be the ones to distribute Episode I if they gave him the rights to the original Star Wars, and it was in this moment that George Lucas became the sole owner of the Star Wars universe…

Episode II was the first mainline film created entirely digitally, filmed digitally and the actors were some of the first to act with no one else or no settings around them… but Christopher Lee had experiencing from fighting vampires 60 years earlier, was a master at hacking at nothing… and when Yoda was digitally inserted six months later, George Lucas finally saw his vision come to life…

Children are the key to life, to joy and happiness…

When asked about his tombstone while reflecting on his life, George Lucas simply said “I tried…”

REFLECTION: Reading Red Dead’s History offers more than a retelling of the Wild West. It reframes our understanding of American identity, land, race and justice. Set in the Gilded Age (1865–1911), it challenges sanitized versions of history and reveals the violent complexities of expansion, exploitation and exclusion.

The so-called “West” wasn’t always “the West.” To Native peoples, it was simply the center. Their way of life, built on bison, horses and resilience, was systematically dismantled. By century’s end, the great herds were gone, tribes were confined and myth had overtaken memory.

This era also laid bare America’s obsession with racial categorization. The artificiality of race, exposed through laws like the one-drop rule and contradictions in census labels, showed how power, not biology, defined identity. Even as race was proven a social construct, racism was (and still is) very real.

Through Reconstruction and its collapse, we see how freedom without enforcement is hollow. Black Americans gained emancipation, but not equity. Terrorism, through lynchings and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, became a political weapon to preserve white supremacy and undo progress.

The book reminds us that history wasn’t just shaped by presidents and generals. It was shaped by butchers in Chicago, railroad barons, poor farmers and everyday people caught between systems. It shows how laws, labor, violence and even plays gave birth to policies that shaped generations.

It’s a vivid lesson in nuance, contradiction and perspective. And it affirms that seeing a child learn, even through something like a game, can open the door to truth, if we’re brave enough to walk through it.

DIRECT QUOTES:

Mark Twain famously called the century following the Civil War the Gilded Age, the same era that this book takes place, 1865-1911…

Directional names are not neutral…

The eastern seaborn is the backbone of the nation and that is why Americans stem their directional labels from there…

It wasn’t referred to as the west until the late 1860s because the native Americans that lived there simply called it the center…

Many believe the Indians were a homogenous group, spread across the country, when in reality they were dozens of different tribes that were swallowed up by the United States by 1848…

The way of native life that thrived on the 30 million bison was partly due to access to horses and guns, thus revitalizing the nomadic way of life across Texas, Colorado, Montana and Oklahoma…

By the end of the century, there were fewer than a few thousand bison remaining…

Sitting Bull and Crazy horse killed General Custer and 250 of his men at Little Bighorn… but ultimately lost the war…

The first commercial railway was two miles of track in Massachusetts, but few were using it because hundreds were dying from explosions…

Likely in the back room of a smoky establishment, bigwigs came together from the railroad companies in 1883 to institute standard time…

Today the average American eats 60 pounds of beef per year, but before the Civil War, steaks, cattle and cowboys were exceptionally rare…

The disassembly line in the Chicago meat house was the predecessor to Henry Ford’s assembly line, where carcasses were hung and butchers stood stationary, removing the same parts over and over…

Most violence in the west was a political issue spurred by eastern corporations trying to tame the west…

The gun industry expanded because of the  Revolutionary War and The War of 1812… Samuel Colt invented the revolver and then during the Civil War, U.S. production was sponsored by the government…

In the early 1900s, the federal laws changed to match state level… from fleeing the scene when in immediate danger to you are allowed to defend yourself, which goes against the “back against the wall” analogy that Europe had been using, which then basically condoned killing in this country…

Alan Pinkerton died at the age of 65 when he fell off a curb, bit his tongue and got gang green…

We often use racial labels without thinking much about how those categories came about…

Society, with their administrative forms, having people check boxes, such as Caucasian, Black, Pacific Islander and on are not helping the paradox of the complexities of race… take for example why can a White woman give birth to a Black child but a Black woman can’t give birth to a White child…

Hypodescent is what scholars refer to when a member of a dominant group procreates with a member of the non-dominant group, then the offspring is automatically a member of the non-dominant group… the U.S. leaned into this philosophy with the one drop rule during slavery…

This hypodescent in the one drop rule was law in the U.S., even though there is no scientific backing…

In Latin America, where slavery was even more prevalent, people that were mixed race were given different treatment than those that were 100% African descent, leading to the question of when a person can in one day travel on a fast enough boat to different parts of the world and be considered a different race, then it is part of the social structure…

Race is artificial, this is the great paradox of it, that it is an invention… many scholars call race a social construct, which is just a fancy way of saying it is an imagined system…

One cannot simply tell the history from a colorblind view though, because although race might not be real, racism is…

Today there are tons of politicians, scholars and school officials who believe teaching about racism is divisive, when in reality it is threaded throughout the weaves of the country…

Since 1848 Mexican Americans have been recognized by the U.S. government as being White…

Following the Mexican-American War, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had one very strategic piece put in it and the Mexican government was fearful for the hundred plus thousand Mexicans that would be absorbed in the U.S…. and that is why they said they would be viewed as racially White…

The Mexicans wanted all of those people to be U.S. citizens but the U.S. government was in a pickle because of the 1790 naturalization act…

Perhaps one day we will not look at race and just view everyone in the entirety of humanity, but when looking backwards that is not possible…

Only about 30% of White southerners were slaveholders…

Always prepare yourself to counter the social beast that brings up the fact that the south succeeded for some political or economic reason because this is complete bullshit and it was in fact to preserve slavery…

Direct correspondence from politicians in the south and the passing of the fugitive slave act are direct evidence that the preservation of slavery is the sole reason for seceding from the union…

Areas in the mountains rejected the war, causing a rebellion within the rebellion because they viewed it as a rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight, especially because anyone that had 20 or more slaves was exempt from the draft…

Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877 is a bit of a misnomer because it wasn’t really about building things, but reconfiguring the understanding around citizenship and equality of life…

Reconstruction was not equally dispersed among the south and one historian noted that the only thing Black people got from Reconstruction was freedom…

1877 points out one of the greatest faults of reconstruction because the soldiers from the north returned home and this points out how they may have won the war, but lost the peace because now enforcement of the law was left to the southern leaders…

The purpose of the Klan was twofold, to promote the superiority of the white man, specifically over black men, and to enforce this through the use of terrorism…

Terrorism is defined as violence for the use of political ends…

The south attacking Fort Pillow in 1864 was to target Black, union soldiers, and after they won, it became known as the massacre of Fort Pillow because of the execution style of the Black soldiers, and the south’s goal was to instill fear so southern and black would submit, but sometimes instilling fear is a rallying cry for people to revolt even harder…

The purpose of the KKK was for southern democrats to eliminate southern republicans, primarily those creating policies around reconstruction…

The fall of the Klan in 1869 isn’t so much credited to the might of the military, but because democrats started taking over political seats and not honoring the laws that support Black Americans…

Following the film Birth of a Nation, the second iteration of the Klan contains somewhere between four and six million members…

The Great Depression pushed this iteration of the Klan underground, and it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Movement that the third iteration of the Klan rose to combat with violence… this version of the Klan has been in existence ever since…

Nathan Bedford Forest had a statue erected in 1969 in Tennessee and it wasn’t until 2020 that the statue was removed, and in 2021 the holiday was also removed…

As one goes across this vast country, it is not only the geographic landscape that changes, but the human landscape…

The 1890s were the bloodiest in terms of lynching in this ocuntry’s history, claiming 1500 Black lives…

Lynching is where a mob intercepts or intercedes the legal process and promotes itself judge, jury and executioner…

Lynchings were not to eradicate, but political warning against anyone going against the status quo…

The drive for women’s rights was often entangled with anti-black racism…

Joe Biden signed the anti-lynching federal bill in 2022, a welcome gesture but a century too late…

Between 1870 and 1920 the south leaned heavily on the 13th Amendment, especially the middle portion and utilized convict leasing… some examples of the laws created were loitering in public without proof of employment or stealing an animal worth over a dollar, and at this time poor Whites were poor southerners…

But the percentage of people incarcerated did not match the actual population and most were Black…

White people, especially politicians who spoke out against the chain gang and lease system were targets, and even the governor of Georgia, who was a Civil War veteran, ws killed for it…

Jim Crow was created and institutionalized by White people, starting in plays when White actors would cover their skin with burnt cork and Jim Crow was one of the fictional characters…

Politicians in the south in the 1890s could feel the regime changing and they were haunted not by the bond of Whites and Blacks, but because of the bond between being equally poor…

The populist movement, made up of southern poor farmers, who were both White and Black, was what instilled initial fear into the wealthy white politicians…

Following the war, a 700 page manifesto was written, called The Lost Cause, for promoting White supremacy…

Following the war, the south wasn't divided by culture, but by rich and poor…

Columbus Day was created to honor Italian Americans following the worst mass lynching of 11 Italians in 1900…

War is politics by other means…

The great loss of the 10 million acres of forest in the Appalachian was the great gain of the mining sector…

A blood feud is a hatred passed down from generation to generation with no substantial backing…

Most blood feuds are a zero sum game…

The nuance and organic way of receiving information from video games can lead to opening doors for greater learnings…

Seeing a child wonder as they learn about the world is a beautiful thing…

REFLECTION: 1776 reminds us that revolutions are never clean, and liberty is often forged in uncertainty. The American army began not as a united force but as scattered, spirited volunteers unused to orders and structure. Washington inherited not only an untested militia but the burden of aligning ideals with reality.

George Washington wasn’t the obvious choice. He was wealthy, owned slaves and hadn’t led troops in 15 years. But what set him apart was his humility, restraint and unshakable resolve. He led with quiet strength, accepting counsel without ego and standing firm when the cause seemed lost. His greatest trait was seeing things as they were, not as he wished them to be.

The Continental Army was held together less by tactics than by belief, belief in a cause greater than any individual. As fortune waned and troops dwindled, Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night, turning despair into daring. This moment was not only strategic… it was symbolic. A reminder that hope often hides in hardship.

The book also reframes how we view loyalty and leadership. Washington repaid loyalty with loyalty, knowing that morale, not manpower, would determine the outcome. He balanced politics and military command with rare poise, representing not just an army, but an idea.

1776 isn’t just about how America gained its independence. It’s about how character, conviction and courage win out when nothing else seems possible.

DIRECT QUOTES:

King George hoped these rebels would see that to be under Englas was actually to be the freest in the known world…

John Wilkes said the war in America was unjust, fatal and ruinous, and that we are going against the country that is gaining wealth and population every day and if we are to lose, it will be forever that we will be enemies with this nation…

Isaac Berry, in a past speech, was the first to refer to them as the Sons of Liberty…

Nathaniel Green believed one could learn anything through the close study of books…

At the start, there was no title for the army, and in a letter to George Washington, John Hanchock simply referred to them as troops under your command…

The first year volunteers would leave for weeks at a time and stroll back when it seemed fitting for them, and it’s not that they didn’t have spirit, it was that they were sim;ly not used to being told what to do…

Having volunteered to fight, they failed to see the fuss over having a lot of rules and regulations…

Seeing things as they were and not what he wished them to be, it was one of Washington’s salient strengths…

Every action done in front of company should be completed with some level of dignity and respect…

Fox hunting contains the images of war, but without the guilt…

People could view the paradox in Washington being chosen to be the leader, as he was extremely wealthy, had slaves during the mission of liberty and hadn’t been in charge or in the military for 15 years…

What truly separated Washington at the time from other potential candidates to be the general was his balance of leadership at war and leadership politically… because he knew he represented the 56 delegates who met in Philadelphia secretly…

Washington simply stated as men were looking to leave, when is the time for men to stand in support of liberty if this is not…

Christmas Eve, 1775, the day before the troops are permitted to go home, it was fate that the next morning a letter from King George ran through the camps as he declared he would be putting an end to this rebel uprising, which then sparked 9,000 troops to stay in the Continental Army…

George Washington was patient with Congress and accepted the judgment of his council of war with no ill temper…

The biggest fear by the British was that what if the American rebels chose not to fight, because if that was the case, their work would never be done…

With over 30,000 British at sea and no way to know if they were going to land at Long Island or go directly for New York, Washington broke the most fundamental rule of war when facing a greater army and he decided to split his… His thought was that if they were divided up in different sections as the war unfolded, he could get them swiftly across the river at different locations…

We want great me for fortune frowns will not be discouraged said Henry Knox…

Washington would repay loyalty with loyalty…

Two things were at play as Washington and his army retreated out of New York and he thought we could go to the mountains of Virginia because the enemy did not fully grasp how vast the country was, but the other was that there were actually plenty of troops in the 13 states, but states were reluctant to send them away from their own territory to join the army far from home…

This is a hard sell after starting with 20,000 troops in August and losing four battles, and now down to 3,500 troops by his side…

The capture of Lee was actually a blessing in disguise because he would not respond to Washington’s requests with haste and he ultimately told General Howe secrets that would help the British win the war…

General Green wrote that Washington never appeared so advantaged than in the hour of distress…

With Washington now the sole commander in chief and the army to be disbanded on January first, he planned to attack Trenton by crossing the Delaware on Christmas night and splitting his army into three, taking the bridge and the town…

REFLECTION: Energy is not just a story of scientific advancement. It is a story of tension, persistence and cultural resistance. It reminds us that today’s legacies are rooted in forgotten traditions, misunderstood innovations and inventions that often arrive before society is ready for them.

The evolution of energy, from steam to oil, from electricity to atomic power, follows a familiar arc: discovery, obscurity, then disruption. John Robison’s early attempts to power road vehicles with steam, the dragon-like carriage that spooked Londoners in 1803, and the overlooked potential of early electric cars all exemplify how ideas that later shape the world often begin in neglect. Even Fermi’s nuclear breakthrough occurred on an abandoned squash court, symbolic of how world-changing moments often happen far from the spotlight.

The book highlights how cultural momentum resists change. Entrepreneurs and inventors, like the steamboat creator who wrote to George Washington in frustration, often struggled to "force an advantage on the public." Even when progress was visible, like oil gushing the same day as Fort Sumter’s attack or clean-burning electric vehicles in the early 1900s, economic, political or social forces often redirected their potential.

Energy also reveals a deeper truth: technological innovation is rarely clean or linear. Pollution follows progress until society demands cleanup. Ownership of resources, like oil or water, doesn’t go to the landowner but to the one who controls them. And in systems like the free commons, unchecked use can lead to collapse. Ideas travel slowly, through cultural diffusion, not by logic, but by readiness.

This reflection ends on a personal note. Writers, like inventors, do their best work when their passion is personal. And every new technology, like every good story, begins crude, refined only by time, resistance and belief.

DIRECT QUOTES:

Today’s legacies are the stories of historic traditions…

Water takes up 1000 times its original volume when it turns to steam…

Who except a fool reinvents the wheel…

The term putting the cart before the horse came from moving coal on a wagon wheel because it was going downhill with gravity, then the horse would pull it back up…

John Robison was the first to try and use steam to create a road vehicle…

Steam plus cold created a vacuum…

In 1801, engine black smoke was burning coal and white smoke was steam…

The first steam engine carriage went around London in 1803 and people called it the dragon… those that had other businesses threw things at it because they recognized the competition… and the papers never covered it leading it to disappear to obscurity…

Starting in the early 1780s England’s iron production doubled every 10 years and was an early version of Moore’s Law…

The inventor of the steamboat wrote George Washington in 1785 saying I can’t believe it is so hard to force an advantage on the public…

The first successful hot air balloon flight was 1783…

August 1859, oil was struck…

April 1861, Fort Sumter is attacked in South Carolina igniting the Civil War… on the same day the first gusher of oil is created… ironically cutting off the South leads the North to utilizing more oil, giving them more money…

Water, gas and oil are not the property of the land owner, they are the property of the person who controls them…

Free in the commons brings ruin to all because whoever found the oil first would drill it all up, even if it was accessible in many areas…

Nearly all discoveries passed through a stage of neglect and obscurity…

Nearly all discoveries come during a time when society is not ready and view them as unnecessary…

Cities develop first, and then as the needs of people are met they clean up the pollution…

Henry Ford worked with Thomas Edison before he built his first car…

The first successfully functioning electric cars were in the 1900s and women preferred them because they didn’t have a crank start, they were quieter in cities and healthier because of the clean exhaust… but they could not go as fast or very far and there was almost nowhere to charge them…

In 1895 Pedro Salom predicted that electric vehicles would be superior and he gave a speech informing how great it would be to have clean air versus thousands of cars producing smog…

On an abandoned squash court on December 02, 1942, Enrico Fermi was the first to split the atom…

Uranium is the 92nd element and anything past that is man-made by bombarding neutrons…

Coal releases more radioactivity than any other substance when it is burned…

In 1946 the Atomic Energy Act made atomic energy a monopoly of the U.S. government and all of its discoveries wer in secret… sharing these secrets would result in imprisonment or death…

The U.S. went from 841 atomic bombs to 19,000, which was the equivalent of 10 tons of TNT for every single person on planet Earth…

Americans discovered pollution on Halloween weekend in a small town outside of Pittsburgh in 1948…

Writers write best when the passion they bring to their work is personal…

Society is a learning system and works with cultural diffusion, which is why it takes so long for ideas to travel…

A new technology is inevitably crude…

REFLECTION: The Making of the Atomic Bomb is not just a chronicle of scientific discovery; it’s a sobering meditation on human ambition, political urgency and moral complexity. At its heart are people… brilliant, flawed, driven… who reshaped the world with ideas few could understand and consequences none could fully control.

The book reveals how breakthroughs often emerge not from orderly systems, but from outsiders, those who function beyond the accepted framework. People like Einstein, who prioritized originality over convention, or Niels Bohr, who believed that true understanding came only through complementary perspectives and emotional connection. Their work wasn’t rooted in titles or obedience, but in passion, creativity and the relentless pursuit of clarity.

Education played a quiet but powerful role. Many of these scientists came from schools that prioritized solving real-world problems over memorizing textbook answers. They learned to think independently, skills that would later fuel one of history’s most dangerous innovations.

But discovery outpaced readiness. While science thrives on consensus, the world around it often resists. Bohr warned early that the atomic bomb was both opportunity and threat, and that secrecy would only lead to arms races. He saw that the old rules of war… flexible, nationalistic, negotiable… could not contain a weapon that functioned as absolute power.

The book also surfaces moments of haunting irony: oil struck the same day as Fort Sumter; Marie Curie died on the day nuclear reaction was confirmed. In a grim twist, the jetstream, unknown before, was discovered only when it blew B-29 bombers off course. Such moments remind us that history is often shaped not by intention alone, but by unexpected forces.

The scientists themselves were not immune to internal conflict. Oppenheimer, who combined unmatched intellect with emotional warmth, carried the burden of turning theory into devastation. Some feared becoming fools; others feared becoming monsters. Most never imagined their pursuit of knowledge would end with the blinding flash of Trinity.

And yet, they pressed forward. Not because they wanted war, but because they feared the consequences of not acting. Roosevelt saw beyond the battlefield, understanding that the bomb’s true power lay in its political weight. But with every decision, the paradox deepened: security became indistinguishable from insecurity. Deterrence became a necessity. The line between defense and aggression blurred.

In the end, The Making of the Atomic Bomb asks us not just to remember how the weapon was built, but to reflect on what it means to live in a world where it exists. It challenges us to value clarity, connection and humility. Because, as Bohr understood, survival in the atomic age depends less on domination and more on cooperation, understanding and trust.

DIRECT QUOTES:

Einstein preferred originality to repetition…

The Nazis proved that to get ahead in this world you don’t always need to be clever, you just need to be one day earlier…

Science has no ultimate ruler… consensus does…

Niels Bohr didn’t just want attention for others… he wanted their emotional conviction and connection…

The Germans believed that a scientist belongs to the world during times of peace, but to their country during times of war…

We can teach everything by showing its connection to everyday living…

These young scientists attended schools that didn’t focus on problems from books, but focused on solving problems they created themselves…

Man must assume responsibility for the direction of their life and destiny…

Even though Oppenheimer hated being in the lab, he appreciated listening to other people and learning about them and their ideas…

Einstein said it is the theory that lets us decide what we can observe…

Niels Bohr believed that things can only be accepted within believable terms…

Only wholeness leads to clarity…

Niels Bohr believed in complimentary, where things need to fill up and compliment each other… two concepts are complementary when one imposes restriction on the other…

Theorists and conceptualists had higher IQs than experimentalists…

It’s not always about being ahead of the time, but functioning outside of the existing framework…

Through discipline and charity, we can value what is better for our existence and more likely get rid of things that are not…

July 04, 1934 confirmation of the atomic reaction is published… same day Marie Curie died…

What’s the point of criticizing unless you give some valid points for making the criticism…

Life need not be easy as long as it is not empty…

Niels Bohr noted that without complimentary it is dangerous to evaluate other cultures from the standpoint of our own… but when they are being complimentary, we can recognize that each culture benefits having another culture bringing a balance to the world…

Bohr believes science can be used politically to remove prejudices of the world…

Most scientists fear making a fool of themselves, but Einstein didn’t care, which made him perfect for alerting the queen that Belgium should not give uranium to the Germans…

Busy people see so much paper that they tend to dismiss the printed word…

In the hands of one side things are seen as defensive and in the hands of another they are seen as aggressive, but they are the same idea…

The way the military currently existed would never produce an atomic bomb…

As bombing unfolded over Britain, the confident beginner began to unfold as the fearful one learned to overcome it…

When plutonium was discovered, it was realized that a nuclear bomb was possible, and some country would put it into practice…

Don’t compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative…

A nation that develops something first has an advantage that will grow as the application multiplies…

Roosevelt wasn’t thinking about the creation of the bomb for a war that the U.S. had not yet entered, but he was thinking about the creation of a bomb for the political impact on the change of the entire world…

Heisenberg gave Bohr a drawing of a nuclear bomb he was working on that used water as the base and it is not known if he did this to steer the Americans wrong or if he was trying to help them…

General Groves has a saying when leading operations… his formula was there is no objection to a wrong decision with quick results…

If there is a choice between two methods and one looks good and one looks promising, do both…

Three things in the mid 1930s got Oppenheimer thinking about society and what he could do to support through science… treatment of Jewish people, Jean Tatlock and polio…

General Groves believed that the right man in charge could govern or sail even the most ungovernable of boats…

The Japanese didn’t think a bomb was possible during the war, but something was at play after Pearl Harbor… they underestimated the dedication and industrial might of America when those are put together Americans will do anything…

When General Groves decided to shift all of the funding and the materials into one factory for getting materials into one factory for getting materials for the bomb, this demonstrated to the scientists and the British that the U.S. was not just trying to build the bomb before the Germans, but it was making nuclear bombs a permanent fixture in the U.S. arsenal, because the shift went from $100 million to half a billion dollars…

Before anyone else, Niels Bohr recognized that the bomb was opportunity and threat, and would always be opportunity and threat… he encouraged the Americans to tell the Russians because if they discovered it on their own it would lead to a nuclear arms race…

The bomb represented paradoxical hopefulness…

Niels Bohr believed that accuracy and clarity are complementary so communication needs to be that way…

Niels Bohr was frustrated because after his meeting with Churchill, he realized that these politicians are not understanding that the bomb will change the rules…

Niels Bohr realized that eventually every country would have nuclear bombs and that would lead to a spasm of nuclear bombs, which in theory would end all wars, because it would be mutual destruction…

Because of the atomic bomb, total security would be indistinguishable from insecurity…

Niels Bohr realized early on that nations of the world functioned in anarchy and they could choose when and when not to negotiate, and when it came down to enforcing their will, it would be war… but the nuclear bomb didn’t work that way and it was God…

World war would be historical, not the precedent, because nuclear bombs would swing the pendulum between peace and absolute death…

Oppenheimer has the ability to take new information, understand it and fit it into the larger scheme of what they were working on… no one even came close to his intellectual ability…

Oppenheimer had a certain level of human warmth in each person… it was felt that he cared what they were doing…

The first time the B-29s went on a mission over Japan to blow up a factory, 130 mph winds blew them off course… this is when the Air Force discovered the jetstream…

The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust them…

What these scientists were trying to persuade the U.S. government wasn’t that the bomb should be viewed from present evidence of what is known in the monopoly that the U.S. has, but from the potential future use and the significance that can have on the planet…

The arguments for not using the bomb were met from the domestic and political lens of we just spent $2 billion researching something with nothing to show for it and if we drop the bomb, it gives Russia an example and they will stop invading other areas…

REFLECTION: In Give and Take, Adam Grant redefines success through a powerful lens: not of competition, but of contribution. At the heart of the book is a simple but profound question… when we work with others, do we aim to claim value or create it?

Givers, as Grant describes, focus on lifting others up without the expectation of immediate return. Whether it’s offering a five-minute favor, sharing ideas without hoarding credit or taking on tasks that benefit the group, givers create environments where collaboration, trust and innovation flourish. They listen, support and build relationships based on empathy, not transactions.

Interestingly, while takers may rise quickly, they often do so at the cost of others. In contrast, givers succeed in more sustainable and meaningful ways. They shape teams where people feel safe to take risks and try new ideas. They communicate with humility, invite advice and engage others by knowing their world, what they care about, the stories they live in and the values they hold.

But giving isn’t about becoming invisible or being taken advantage of. Grant emphasizes the importance of being an otherish giver, someone who helps others while still protecting their own well-being. Recognizing agreeable takers and setting boundaries allows givers to thrive without being exploited.

The book also explores how communication style matters. Tentative language, genuine questions and advice-seeking open doors to influence more effectively than forceful speech. True leaders, Grant suggests, aren’t those who dominate, but those who include, and their impact lasts because people want to follow them.

Whether in negotiation, teamwork, teaching or leadership, the principle remains: generosity paired with discernment builds better relationships, better communities and better outcomes. Leaving a place better than we found it, even in small ways, matters. And when we pay more attention to what others need than what we can get, we don’t just change their story… we change our own.

DIRECT QUOTES:

When working with others we always have two choices, do we try to claim as much value or do we contribute…

In close relationships, most people act like givers without keeping score…

When takers win, that usually means that there is someone else that loses… where giving success creates value rather than claiming it…

The goal is to give and focus on the people that we can help the most…

Kindness and compassion are strengths…

Pay more attention to what people need rather than what we get from them…

The aim of the network should be to help everyone without the need for reciprocity…

The five minute favor… you should be willing to do anything for anybody that will take five minutes or less.

When a high performing worker moved by themself, their productivity dropped significantly, but when they moved with their team, they maintained or improved…

Givers take on the tasks that are in the best interest for the group…

The code of honor… showing up, working hard, being kind and taking the high road…

Givers build a reputation that when they share ideas, others listen and when you come off as being tough, it is because it is perceived that you want to get it right…

When it comes to receiving credit, there is room for everybody and you all shine together…

Be aware of overvaluing your contributions and undervaluing the contributions of others because this can lead to a failure in collaboration…

Givers are good at creating environments where people can take risks and innovate more…

Interest and motivation proceed talent… people do better at things they want to do…

When one does not have hands-on experience, they can lean into their motivations for driving them to learn the skills quickly…

If you want to engage your audience, you have to know the world they live in, the music they listen to, the movies they watch…

Teaching at any level or subject is one of the most rewarding things a person can do…

When people are failing at something they invest more because of three principles: regret, threat to their ego and the need to complete something…

It is psychologically proven that people make better decisions when they are making them on the behalf of someone else rather than for themselves where there’s the threat of ego…

When our audiences are skeptical, the more we try to dominate them the more they resist…

Powerless communication… the more you talk the more you “think” you know about the group…

Flattery can be seen as manipulation or being someone with a taker mentality…

People like making their free choices and do not like the feeling of being told to do something…

Questioning tends to avoid resistance and results in someone reflecting…

Questions only work in the realm of persuasion if it is a desirable activity, such as what are your plans for eating healthier this month versus when are you planning on eating a chocolate covered grasshopper…

Talking tentatively shares a good idea rather than promoting a good idea, resulting in other people adopting it…

Givers often fear that they will become invisible when in reality they tend to thrive because others enjoy working with them…

Takers make group members think that they are smart and powerful, but it stifles information sharing…

It is a paradox because people view an inclusive leader as one who is not strong enough to lead the team, when in fact they are more effective at leading the team…

There is a time and place for powerful speech, such as when employees lack the skills and thrive being told what to do versus a company where people are generating new ideas and approaches to work… these people should be given the opportunity to do so…

Powerful communication discourages proactive employees from communicating and working…

Seeking advice is actually a strategy for influencing other people…

Asking someone “if you were in my shoes what would you do” is research based advice seeking that is extremely powerful…

Advice seeking has four benefits… learning, perspective taking, commitment and flattery…

Teaching has the highest rate of all careers of emotional burnout…

100 hours a year of volunteering increases self esteem and any amount over that has no other benefits…

Leaving a place better than the way it was found, even in a small way, matters…

Giving and taking are often based on our motives and values…

There are disagreeable takers and disagreeable givers, and there are agreeable takers and agreeable givers…

Being able to identify agreeable takers is what prevents givers from being exploited…

When it comes to negotiating pay, a simple strategy is asking the person “imagine you suggested this job to a friend, how would you help them”...

Example from above: “I don’t just have rent, I have a family, and loans… Can you make this more palatable for me”...

Otherish giving flourishes in an environment where it is low cost to oneself and a high benefit to the other…

A reciprocity ring is a social group where one person asks a question in regards to helping or gathering information and then everyone has a chance to respond…

A lot of times you can learn more by knowing what to ask than by knowing what to say…

REFLECTION: The Mountain Is You invites us to stop seeing our internal struggles as obstacles and start recognizing them as the very terrain we must climb to grow. The real mountain isn’t out there, it’s within us. And the journey upward begins with understanding that imperfection is not failure; it’s evidence of our humanity.

So much of our self-sabotage comes not from lack of ability, but from the unconscious stories we believe, stories shaped by fear, doubt and the need for approval. We try to impress people who don’t value us, overwork to prove our worth or let intrusive thoughts become invasive ones that cloud our judgment. But transformation begins when we choose progress over perfection, presence over anxiety and curiosity over criticism.

Growth doesn’t always feel good at first. Even the most positive changes feel uncomfortable until they become familiar. But when we stop avoiding discomfort and start embracing it, we move from reacting to life to consciously creating it. We learn that criticism is not a reason to shrink back, and that our value isn’t something to be proven… it’s something to be realized.

The Mountain Is You reminds us to stop giving more weight to our doubt than to our potential. It challenges us to live in the now, to release assumptions and to trust that our purpose is not something we must invent, but something we uncover. After all, the two most important days in our lives are the day we are born and the day we find out why.

DIRECT QUOTES:

Imperfection doesn’t mean you failed, it simply means you are human…

A circumstantial problem is a reality of life, but a chronic problem is one within ourselves…

Self sabotage comes from unconscious negative associations…

Criticism comes with reating anything for the public, and isn’t a reason to not do it…

What you believe about your life is what you will make true about your life…

Human beings are guided by comfort and reject what is different…

Instead of perfection, focus on progress…

Practice non-judgement through non-assumption…

People will respect you much more if you acknowledge that you are imperfect…

An easy way to combat self sabotaging is stop trying to impress people that don’t like you, and spend time with those that do…

Don’t value your doubt more than your potential…

You do not have to prove your value… there’s a difference between being passionately compassionate about something and overworking to prove who you are…

Intrusive thoughts solve problems and invasive ones cause them…

All change, no matter how good, will be uncomfortable until it is familiar…

We are better off channeling our energy into the now because the past and future are illusions of the present…

The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why…

REFLECTION: Originals challenges us to see creativity not as a rare gift, but as a choice, a decision to question the default, explore alternatives and act on values rather than expectations. At the heart of originality is not just the spark of a new idea, but the courage to pursue it despite resistance, rejection or risk.

Original thinkers don’t just make things, they unmake assumptions. They understand that justifying the status quo is a comfort, not a solution. Whether it’s Copernicus delaying truth out of fear, or students punished for coloring outside the lines, the pattern is clear: society often resists what it needs most. But those who lead change do so not by breaking rules recklessly, but by reshaping them through purpose, persistence and insight.

The book reminds us that creativity flourishes in quantity, diversity and curiosity. More ideas, even failed ones, lead to better ones. Exposure to different cultures, fields and perspectives expands what we believe is possible. And while expertise can entrench us, openness keeps us innovative.

Originality also comes with paradox: we must act boldly while embracing doubt, argue like we’re right but listen like we’re wrong. Humility, not bravado, builds trust. And successful leaders are often those who don't shout their authority, but earn it by standing for something real, even if it means standing alone.

Perhaps the most powerful lesson from Originals is that values, not rules, drive meaningful change. Whether it's parenting, leadership or persuasion, appealing to people’s core beliefs creates deeper, lasting motivation. And when people resist change out of fear, we must help them see not just the dream of what’s possible, but the danger of what will remain if we do nothing.

Originality is not about being first or flawless. It’s about daring to think differently, persist through criticism and choose action when silence would be easier. As Grant reminds us, when we care deeply, not just for ourselves, but for others, we stop seeking revenge and start seeking justice. That’s how revolutions begin.

DIRECT QUOTES:

A friend is someone who sees more potential in you than you do yourself…

Justifying the default system is like a painkiller…

The hallmark of originality is rejecting the default and exploring if a better option exists…

When we begin to recognize defaults that we do not agree with, we start to recognize that they were created from a social aspect…

Practice makes perfect, but it doesn’t make new…

Teachers tend to discriminate against highly creative students…

Most people reach an intermediate level of creativity and then they stop, so they are not at risk of disrupting the status quo…

Copernicus stayed silent for 22 years after discovering that the Earth revolved around the sun because of fear of rejection…

Creating something original often means demolishing the old ways and many live in fear of rocking the boat…

Thomas Jefferson said “in matters of style swim with the current, but in matters of principal stand like a rock…”

Sometimes it’s okay to procrastinate because leaders guide transformation efforts while creators maintain their originality…

Failing will lead less regret than failing to try…

It’s not about chanigng the behaviors... it’s about changing what they value…

Act by doing right, not always by what we are told…

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, and art is knowing which ones to keep…

The biggest barrier to originality is not the creation of original ideas, but the acceptance of them…

If you want to do something original, then do a large volume of work…

When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality…

The more expertise a person gains the more entrenched they become when viewing a particular thing against new ideas…

Always recognize the bias of evaluating something versus being in the role of experiencing it…

The most open people experience the most aesthetic chills…

It has been found that more creative people move cities more frequently, exposing themselves to different cultures and ways of thinking…

When we diversify our knowledge base, we are more likely to accept novel ideas…

Passionate people don’t wear their passions on their sleeves… they have it in their pocket…

We shouldn’t track whether people were successful, but rather look at how they were successful…

When we judge geniuses and creators, we do not focus on their averages, but their peaks…

When we climb up the moral ladder, it can be rather lonely at the top…

Leadership cannot be claimed, it has to be earned or granted…

People are more likely to get on board if they see that you stand for something rather than viewing you as just going against the status quo…

You need confidence to be humble and frontload your weaknesses…

Disagreeable managers have a bad interface, but great operating system…

Creative people and disagreeable managers care more about making the organization better, rather than defending it as it stands…

Most people regret censoring themselves and if they could do things over they would express their ideas more…

You don’t have to be first to be an original, and most originals don’t arrive on schedule…

People of genius often produce the most when they work the least because it takes time…

Moving first is a tactic, not a goal…

The more experiments you run the less constrained you become by your ideas from the past…

When trying to promote a new idea to an expert, it is sometimes smart to conceal the final product, and just share the parameters of what is needed to get you there…

Shifting people from why to how can help them become less radical, and it provides smaller steps for others to get on board…

Start with a small request to acquire commitment before leaning into the larger one…

Parents of average children tend to have six or more rules, while parents of exceptional children have one or fewer…

When things aren’t adding up, people tend to rely on their internal values rather than external rules…

Thinking of oneself invokes the logic of consequence (when I get sick, I will be late), but thinking of others changes it from a cost benefit equation to one about values…

Moral standards are built after what people say when someone does the right thing rather than the wrong thing…

It is better to praise someone’s character rather than the actions because they can internalize it… for example, it was so great that you shared, you must be a kind person, vs good job sharing your marbles with others…

Having a role model elevates aspirations…

Companies look for three types of people when hiring: the professional (who is good at a particular skill), the star (who might not have the skills yet but has potential to get there), and the commitment person (who fits the system of the values of the company)…

Original ideas come after more criticism, not less…

Argue like you are right, and listen like you are wrong...

The more principles you have, the more likely others are to focus on different values or interpret the same values differently…

When leading a revolution, you can build membership by going against the status quo through humor… an example of this is the medical journal that has been circulating for over 20 years in a medical program where students take notes on the asshole of the week…

When people are somewhat excited about change, it is important to showcase all the great things that will happen with that change, but if they are fearful about change that approach won’t work, and it s better to highlight the negatives of staying with the status quo…

If you want people to take risks, you first need to show them what is wrong with the present…

Infuse so much anger toward the status quo that one simply cannot not act…

When we are angry at others, we tend to seek out revenge, but when we are angry for others, we tend to seek out justice…

Banning words like “love” and “hate” when discussing new ideas is a way to force people to provide critical analysis…

REFLECTION: Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk presents a portrait of a complex and controversial figure, one whose life reminds us that dreaming big isn’t always clean or comfortable, but it is often essential. At the core of Musk’s story is a relentless pursuit of what’s possible, even when the rest of the world says it isn’t.

Original ideas don’t often arrive with applause. Musk’s journey highlights how difficult it is to believe in something that others can’t see, and how easy it is to doubt yourself, especially when your vision doesn’t match the status quo. But if the future doesn’t look like the future, maybe it’s because no one has dared to build it yet.

What’s clear is that big dreams require more than intelligence. They demand resilience, humility and a willingness to break things… ideas, expectations, and processes… until what’s left is something better. Musk’s own design philosophy reflects this: delete what isn’t essential, simplify, question everything and only then automate. In this model, even the “smart” requirements must be challenged.

The book also explores the tension between being driven and being difficult. Musk’s confidence often offends; his standards are unrelenting. But behind the intensity is a belief: that problems aren’t just meant to be solved, they’re meant to be transcended. That space travel, renewable energy and the open Internet aren’t luxuries, but necessities for sustaining humanity.

Yet, Isaacson doesn’t ignore the shadows. Insecurity can breed cruelty. Camaraderie, if unchecked, can dull feedback. Confidence without competence is dangerous. And leadership must be earned through trust, precision and the courage to challenge not just ideas, but the people who hold them.

Ultimately, Elon Musk is about the paradox of progress. You can admire brilliance and still critique behavior. You can build a future that is bold without being reckless. And in the end, the most powerful ideas, like doing good even when it goes unnoticed, aren’t technological at all. They’re human.

DIRECT QUOTES:

Always be a good person and someone that people can rely on…

When you have a new idea, believe in yourself, because most people see the world as black and white and many believe what the media tells them… Even more if people don’t believe what you do and think you are wrong…

When Johnny Cash was starting out, someone told him to play that one song the way you would if it were intended to save the world…

It' is easy to doubt yourself, and it is even easier to doubt yourself when what you are working on is at odds with the way the rest of the world views it…

Experts in their own industry still have difficulties predicting more than a year out…

Everyone is trying to live up to their father’s expectations or make up for their mistakes…

Some people want to make global change… Others cosmic…

It is extremely difficult not to be shaped by what we grew up with, even if that is not what we want…

Things that will sustain humanity are the Internet, renewable energy, and space travel…

When someone is insecure, they can be very mean…

People are mistaken when they think technology just improves on its own…

Life cannot be merely about solving problems, but can also be about pursuing great dreams…

When designing something, Musk follows the algorithm, a five step checklist… question every requirement and know the name of the person that made it, and question it anyway because requirements from smart people are less likely to be questioned… delete any process that you do not need and it is okay to add it back in later… in fact if you do not add back 10% then you did not delete enough… always simplify and optimize… automate any processes that you can, but only after everything is deleted…

Optimism and pessimism, F that, just make it happen…

Pair designers with engineers, because it is better to have engineers that think like designers and designers that think like engineers…

Designers in the factory can always figure out the root cause of a problem…

Don’t let my confidence offend your insecurities…

You don’t need to worry about advertising when you have a good product…

All requirements are somewhat wrong and dumb, so figure out which ones are and delete…

If conventional thinking makes completion of your task impossible, then unconventional thinking is necessary…

All technical managers must have hands-on experience, therefore the manager of engineers must continue engineering 20% of their day… otherwise you become a general that doesn’t even know how to use a sword…

It is okay to be wrong, just don’t be confident and wrong…

Camaraderie is dangerous because it creates a tendency of people not wanting to challenge other people’s work…

When there is a problem, don’t just meet with the managers… do a skip level and meet with people below them…

When hiring, look for people with the right attitude, because skills can be taught, but changing an attitude requires a brain transplant…

The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics, and everything else is a recommendation…

Why doesn’t the future look like the future…

If you do not have buy in from the people around you, then it is hard to get things done…

Precision isn’t about cost, it’s about do you care… if you care to make it precise, then you will make it that way…

Value the other person’s presence, but respect their space…

Like Machiavellli said, you have to have love and fear for the leader…

Trying and failing is faster than analyzing for months because if it doesn’t work, you can fix it…

Nothing is sacred, delete and simplify…

No good deed goes unpunished, but even so we should still do good deeds…

A Coke that costs too much does not taste as good…

There is a difference between freedom of speech and freedom of reach…

It is a better world if we are all less judgy…

When your brain is full, it will take a night of sleep to turn the information into data…

Be wary of those hose confidence is greater than their competence…

Some friends share the limelight at events, but little intimacy…

Qualities to look for… excellence, trustworthiness, and drive…

It is possible to admire a person’s good traits and decry the bad ones…

REFLECTION: iWoz offers more than a behind-the-scenes look at the rise of Apple. It’s a story about how staying true to your values, being honest and finding joy in what you create can shape a meaningful life.

Steve Wozniak’s reflections remind us that integrity matters, not just in what we do, but in how we carry ourselves. To him, lying about doing something wrong is worse than the mistake itself. Being real, open and honest builds trust and keeps relationships strong, even when there’s disagreement or change.

Wozniak also believed in joy as a driver. He followed his childhood dream with a kind of quiet intensity, not for fame, but for fun. Happiness, he suggests, isn’t a reward we wait for, it’s a choice we make, and when we make it, we’re better equipped to help others find their own.

Creativity and intelligence, in his eyes, aren’t about repeating what others know. They’re about building what hasn’t been built yet. And the best designs? They’re simple, efficient, and elegant… making the most with the least.

The book also shares lessons in leadership and humility. Don’t assume you can do someone else’s job better than they can. When people are tired or stuck, don’t push harder, shift their focus. Trust people who truly know what they’re doing, even if you’re skeptical. And foster environments, like HP’s coffee and donut gatherings, where connection and ideas can grow naturally.

iWoz is a gentle, grounded reminder that innovation doesn’t have to be loud or showy. It starts with being honest, staying curious, and letting passion… not ego… lead the way.

DIRECT QUOTES:

It is worse to lie about doing something bad, than actually doing something bad…

Even as a kid, Steve Wozniak, focused on the dream i a single force, driving him toward accomplishments…

You can’t teach somebody two cognitive steps above where they are at…

Those who say things others know come off as intelligent… But I view intelligence as being able to think of new and original things…

Be happy and satisfied with your life… So you can help make others happy and satisfied with theirs…

Whether you’re happy or not us your choice, and your choice only…

HP put coffee and donuts out every morning to encourage people to meet and talk…

It would seem most people with day jobs like to do something completely different when they get home…

You can disagree and even split from a relationship, but you don’t need to hold that over a person…

When you have an employee that is tired of working on something, but really productive, then put them in a position to work on something else…

Do not talk like person that is hiding things, be real because people appreciate that…

It is okay to b skeptical, but if someone really know what they are doing and talking about, they should be trusted in their judgments to do it…

The best designs typically make the most with the least…

Never pretend you can do someone’s job better than them, especially if they have been doing it for years…