In the Distracted World, Cultivate These Superpowers #LeadersAreReaders January 2022

I was with a student-turned-friend when I asked my usual question, “What book are you reading now?” He said with a sound of disappointment, “I haven’t read any book consistently since last year.” I raised my eyebrows to signal him to say more. He continued, “I have been very busy with my works, and I’m addicted to social media and games too.” He needs encouragement. So I tried to spark his interest, “Do you know that there are two superpowers that are very valuable today?” (I use the word superpowers because we just came back from watching the Spiderman movie). Actually, I asked intending to answer my own question: “Focus and depth.” I told him since most people are easily distracted, if he wants to be different, he must learn to improve his focus and sharpen his attention. And since the major outcome of continuous distraction is shallow thinking, he needs to strive not to be a zombie but a person of depth, especially as a Christ-follower.

“There are various ways to exercise these superpowers,” I said as I concluded our lengthy discussion from the rise of TikTok to the Facebook Metaverse controversy to spiritual disciplines with now a friend-turned-student again, “and one of it is by cultivating the habit of reading widely and deeply.” Almost every time I asked my usual question to a student or a friend (last week was with my friend, George), it will lead me to this one passion: promoting literacy and fostering a love for reading, especially, the Scripture.

I see the urgent need to encourage our young people today - and you! - to redeem and use these superpowers (we called graces) in a distracted world for the glory of God. It's not just about our minds but also our souls. May this encourage you to think about all these things... Please consider this message ya #ServeToLead #Focus #APersonOfDepth #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

To read my book reviews of #LeadersAreReaders JANUARY 2022, CLICK THE TITLES below:

1) Education, Free & Compulsory (1999) by Murray N. Rothbard

2) The Lord from Heaven (1958, 1974) by Leon Morris

3) The Notebook: A Novel (1996) by Nicholas Sparks

4) Cracking Philosophy: You, This Book and 3,000 Years of Thought (2016) by Dr. Martin Cohen (this not a review but more to an encouragement to study philosophy)

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THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

BOOK REVIEW The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (2008) by Ravi Zacharias

The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (2008) by Ravi Zacharias

In 2004 & 2006, Sam Harris, an atheist scientist, wrote two anti-religious books entitled, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason and Letter to a Christian Nation. Before and after that there were other books also published such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great, Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell, and more (Harris, Dawkins, late Hitchens, and Dennett are called the Four Horsemen, main spokespersons of the New Atheism Movement, I think Lawrence Klaus should be the 5th Horse. These are fascinated read except for Dennett's, his books are too philosophical).

So in this book, Ravi Zacharias, a well-known Christian apologist, the founder, and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministry (RZIM), response to Harris' utterly bankrupt worldview and hatred toward anything religious and faith-based. Ravi in this short book (only 128 pages) eloquently - with his over 30 years of experience in the apologetic, vast amount of knowledge in Christian doctrines, world philosophies, and religions - explain the true nature of evil, the foundation of morality, the meaning of life, the important of hope and love, the necessity for God, the Creator, and more.

The strength of The End of Reason, in my opinion, lies not only in Ravi’s debunking of Harris’ core arguments, but in uncovering the path down which new atheism leads its followers. Ravi exposes the reality that the atheist worldview is inescapably bleak, with no basis for love, hope, morality or the value of human life – that “the emperor has no clothes, and through his verbal magic Harris is trying hard to cover him up.”

My favorite quote from this book: “The worldview of the Christian faith is simple enough. God has put enough into this world to make faith in him a most reasonable thing. But he has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason alone.” Amen!

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THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

The Persuaders: The Hidden Industry that Wants to Change Your Mind (2016) by James Garvey, Book Review

The Persuaders: The Hidden Industry that Wants to Change Your Mind (2016)
by James Garvey

Brought this book (worth RM79.90) for RM19.90 @ BookXcess PJ. I'm one happy customer! Now, about the book, if you're new to the world of persuasion, this book is a good way of learning the basics. If you're already familiar with it, there's not much here that you haven't already heard before. Because I've read Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, Robert Cialdini's Influence and parts of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow - must-read books - some of the information, scientific researches and arguments stated in this book are not new to me. Not to say that it's a bad book (it's not) just that it's a primer. By the way, his historical and current examples are superb, scary, and mind-boggling. His view from philosophical perspectives is refreshing, deep and thoughtful.

If I were to retitle this book, I will put it as "The Persuaders: How We Let the PR Industry Control Our Minds." James Garvey shows that we are no longer thinking, reasoned and argued (well) - instead, our opinions and behavior are manipulated by advertisers, lobbyists, marketers, politicians, companies, organizations and more, especially in the way they go about selling their ideas and products. Persuasion is now big business and big politics. In the technological era today, you'll never see the world in the same way again after reading this book. For example, in the case of near election periods, Google might change its algorithms and support one candidate rather than another. And because those algorithms are secret, the people wouldn’t know. And they wouldn’t be able to tell that that was going on. When people search for more information about the election on the internet, they thought they have come to their own conclusions, having read the different articles that they searched for, even though they didn’t know that those articles were slanted in one direction or another. They thought that it was their own conclusion they were arriving at, so they believed (presumably) it in a way – in a sense – rationally (this also happened when we were persuaded to buy a product or to respond to an idea).

If you've ever wondered how the hell we ended up in the post-truth world we inhabit today, this is the book that you want to read. You see, we are constantly manipulated in our everyday lives. We were nudged, anchored, and incentivized in barely noticeable ways. Whether the ability to reason is something we've lost or something we've never really had, being at least vaguely aware of the methods used to make us spend our money or distract our attention or cast our votes gives us some small defense against them. This book makes a great service to its readers by explaining how powerful individuals and groups take advantage of the natural irrational weaknesses of human beings. By reading this book you will learn how to be more aware of them. You will also be more prepared to advance the discussion about the ethics of Public Relations.

"[If] you are now asking yourself what you can do about modern persuasion, its sometimes enough to think that if a critical mass of us learns to listen to reason again, maybe then we'll realize that there's power in the simple but very difficult act of withholding assent and insisting on good reasons. Sheer numbers can change things. They always do," writes James. Thanks man!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Angelus' Quote: You Can Run Faster... When the Dogs Chasing You

I remember when I was in primary school, I and my friends use to walk from SRK Sg. Stutong to Kpg Stampin. These were our favorite things to do: ring the doorbells at BDC area and hide, stealing fruits that creeped out of the residents' gates, climbing the walls, plugging flowers, went to the drain to catch small fishes and tadpoles, destroying ants with plastic-fire meteors, etc. You get the idea. Inevitably, dogs would bark as a warning; double barks with staring eyes as a second warning, and chased after us if we still don't get the warnings (cats would run first). If you had had this experience before - chasing by the dogs - you would not be surprised when I say that we run faster than we normally would. Adrenaline rush, muscles tighten, breathing fire. Once, on a normal day, I tried to climb a high wall, but I couldn't. But when these dogs chasing us, I can easily climb up!

What happened? Almost everything is possible for us. What we need is a little (or massive) push. You can climb higher, you can run faster, you can endure longer. You can work harder, you can be bigger, you can expand wider. All you need (maybe not only) is the motivation and the will to do so. Your 'dogs' can be #1 Fear/Shame: For example, you fear of failure, so you study hard for exams; #2 Desperation (or matters of life-and-death): For example, a mother can lift a heavy car in order to save her baby who is stuck underneath it; #3 Love: For example, Jesus endured the horrible cross due to the Father's love and His unconditional love for the sinners; and, not least, #4 Commitment: For example, a faithful soldier will stay on his post regardless and follow orders during wartime even it will cost him his life.

What is your motivation and the will to 'run faster'? What stopped you from 'climbing the walls'? How can you find the reason to 'endure one more day'? May wild dogs chasing you! May you run faster! May you know how capable you are! It is possible.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

John C. Maxwell on Leadership #7 The Power of Self-Discipline

Author H. Jackson Brown Jr. equipped, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backward, or sideways.” If you know you have talent, and you’ve seen a lot of motion – but little concrete results – you may lack self-discipline.

Sort Out Your Priorities. Think about which two or three areas of life are most important to you. Write them down, along with the disciplines that you must develop to keep growing and improving in those areas. Develop a plan to make the disciplines a daily or weekly part of your life.

List the Reasons. Take the time to write out the benefits of practicing the disciplines you’ve just listed. Then post the benefits someplace where you will see them daily. On the days when you don’t want to follow through, reread your list.

Get Rid of Excuses. Write down every reason why you might not be able to follow through with your disciplines. Read through them. You need to dismiss them as the excuses they are. Even if a reason seems legitimate, find a solution to overcome it. Don’t leave yourself any reasons to quit. Remember, only in the moment of discipline do you have the power to achieve your dreams.

A nursery in Canada displays this sign on its wall: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty-five years ago… The second best time is today.” Plant the tree of self-discipline in your life today.

[The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow (1999) by John C. Maxwell. Published by Thomas Nelson]

Begin a routine regularly scheduled actions of self-discipline.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Simple Book Review: "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" (2014)

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004)
by Sam Harris

In this book Sam Harris (one of the very vocal atheists today together with Richard Dawkins in which his book The God Delusion I have read) makes the compelling argument that "human beings can no longer afford the luxury of major religious belief systems." In a world in which we now have the capacity to kill millions of humans at one time, belief systems that are intolerant of non-believers and emphasised life in the hereafter over the present are simply "too dangerous," said Harris.

Harris claims that even moderate members of a religion are to blame for extreme acts committed in the name of their faith, because the moderates help to legitimise the acceptance of beliefs that can be easily used to support violence.

His arguments cut to the heart of the concept of faith itself, and will be unpalatable to many. But Harris does not seem to be advocating a switch to an atheist or even agnostic view (at least in my reading). He is primarily against subscribing to unexamined beliefs. As an alternative, he offers a discussion of a rational, experience-based spirituality.

This is a highly provocative book that offers many important ideas to the debate about the role of religion in modern life.

As Christian, I encourage you to read something else unless you are willing to be challenge by intellectual atheist like Sam Harris. This is a heavy stuff... I recommend you listen/watch his talks on YouTube to begin with.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.