Harry offers a taxonomy of five "social traps" that can keep us from gaining traction.

Show notes:

• Social Traps by John Cross and Melvin Guyer
• Steve Jobs Stanford commencement address
• Matthew Perry
• Frequency Illusion (the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon)

A reading from a famous director's memoir sparks a discussion about a key trait for gaining traction: boldness coupled with the ability to get things done.

Show notes:

• Every Man for Himself and God Against All (audiobook) by Werner Herzog
• Aguirre, the Wrath of God
• Comedian
• The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance by Rich Diviney

Harry offers a short reading from a surprising source about an important question: How do you decide when it's time to let go?

Show notes:

• What Would Harry Do? by Juliana Sharaf
• Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud
• The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
• Kodak
• Harry’s newsletter

Jorge and Harry discuss how to proactively shift your mental models to get unstuck.

• Framers by Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, and Francis de Véricourt
• Breakneck by Dan Wang
• Precision questioning
• Iceberg model

Jorge and Harry discuss a classic book about how to avoid getting in your own way through overthinking.

Show notes:

• The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
• Stick (Apple TV show)
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
• Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
• Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Esther Dyson

Harry and Jorge discuss the implications of John Boyd's work beyond its original military context.

Show notes:

• The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security by Grant Hammond
• John Boyd
• OODA loop
• Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram
• Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd by Francis P.B. Osinga
• Hoyt Ng
• Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths
• How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

Jorge and Harry discuss a book focused on using AI to lead better — and has underpinnings that align with the show's themes.

Show notes:

• More Human by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
• The Mind of the Leader by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
• The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr

Harry reads a passage from a book by Robert Pirsig that raises questions about what authentic effort looks like — and the traps inherent in its trappings.

• On Quality by Robert Pirsig
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
• Lila by Robert Pirsig
• Traction Heroes Ep. 11: Gall’s Law
• Atomic Habits by James Clear