"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, October 30, 2017

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win (Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, 2015)

(317 pp)

Book club selection (via POC; session held 29 October 2017).

While traveling with D'backs, POC had gone with a group to visit a Navy SEALs post in San Diego; they recommended this book.  The ex-SEAL authors run a consulting business - they try to translate SEALs training/methods to business clients.  That's what the book is about.

The consulting business stuff was so-so - while the case studies rang true, the too-tidy application of very general principles did not.  (But I'm not a fan of business books in general - typically an individual or an entity experiences some success, then looks back and tries to guesstimate what made the difference; then to monetize the advice.  Not a winning formula.)

The book's value to me was glimpsing a world that is so incredibly different from the lives most of us lead.  Setting aside the politics ("why are we sending soldiers to these countries") - the guys that go execute these misbegotten missions are exposed to dangers I cannot imagine. 

Some of it reminds of what one reads about training of elite athletes - but then you realize the SEALs-types execute their tasks in the face of live ammo sent their direction by entirely unfriendly folks - amazing. 
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