🧠 Thought of the Week

Largo

One of the more frustrating aspects of adulthood is that your life is no longer structured, guided, and laid out for you by other adults. If you want something done, the onus is entirely on you. The conversations, relationships, and opportunities you seek need to be initiated by someone. I usually find myself waiting to be on the receiving end of those opportunities. But it all must come from within.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is one of those books I consider required reading. At one of the lowest points in his life, Pressfield describes a vivid dream that changed how he understood struggle, creativity, and resistance. The dream goes like this:

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I was part of the crew of an aircraft carrier. Only the ship was stuck on dry land. It was still launching its jets and doing its thing, but it was marooned half a mile from the ocean. The sailors all knew how screwed up the situation was; they felt it as a keen and constant distress. The only bright spot was there was a Marine gunnery sergeant on board nicknamed “Largo.” In the dream it seemed like the coolest name anyone could possibly have. Largo. I loved it. Largo was one of those hard-core senior noncoms like the Burt Lancaster character, Warden, in From Here to Eternity. The one guy on the ship who knows exactly what’s going on, the tough old sarge who makes all the decisions and actually runs the show.

But where was Largo? I was standing miserably by the rail when the captain came over and started talking to me. Even he was lost. It was his ship, but he didn’t know how to get it off dry land. I was nervous, finding myself in conversation with the brass, and couldn’t think of a thing to say. The skipper didn’t seem to notice; he just turned to me casually and said, “What the hell are we gonna do, Largo?”

I re-read this story often as a reminder that my fate is entirely in my own hands. All I have to do is believe it.

You are the captain of your ship. So what are you gonna do, Largo?

📚 What I’m Reading

The Tiger — John Vaillant

This was one of the most fascinating non-fiction books I’ve read in a long time. Ryan Holiday often cites this as one of his most recommended books, and within the first 25 pages, I understood why.

John Vaillant takes us on a journey into arctic Russia in the mid-1990s. On the Pacific coast, bordering China, North Korea, and the Sea of Japan, this stretch of Siberian territory is as remote and isolated as one can get. He describes an unforgiving landscape that’s a mix of forest, jungle, coastline, and boreal tundra with wildlife extending from tigers, leopards, deer, wild boar, Himalayan bears, sea lions, crocodiles, moose, snakes, badgers, and hundreds more. Out here, the only role for humans is survival. Armed with tea, cigarettes, and homemade bullets, the small population in the Primorye region lives on very little.

While the book is filled with rich history detailing post-perestroika Russia and the lives of the stoic bunch inhabiting this land, it’s really a story about a tiger.

The Amur Tiger is one of the largest cat species on the planet. The size of a station wagon, Amur tigers evolved to grow thick coats to survive the rough winters in northern Siberia. With night vision six times stronger than a human’s, they stalk their prey as solitary hunters, staying hidden and totally silent right until the moment they pounce. For decades, the people of Primorye lived somewhat peacefully among the tigers in their territory. There was a mutual agreement that as long as they weren’t bothering each other or disrupting their environment, they lived in harmony. That is, until one particular tiger began attacking the villagers — not out of starvation, but out of vengeance.

At the core of the story is the investigation of a unique mauling in 1997 and the team that is dispatched to look into the killing. The author delves into Soviet and new Russian politics, ideas towards the environment, science, and conservation, the biology and psychology of both the tigers and the humans, the wealth of myths and stories about tigers and other "monsters" throughout human history, the study of predator-prey biospheres, and the economics and black market demand for rare animals by superpowers like China. So, while the isolated incident of this one tiger in this one village is where the story starts, it is much bigger in context and ramifications.

Recommending this one to anyone searching for a fascinating tale rich in history, lore, and drama.

Rating: 5 / 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🐯 More Books Like the Tiger

It’s rare to come across a true story so remarkable that it reads like fiction. I’ve been lucky enough to read a small handful of these narrative non-fiction adventures. In light of my excitement for The Tiger, here are a few books that fit that criteria:

Endurance — Alfred Lansing
Into the Wild — Jon Krakauer
Into Thin Air — Jon Krakauer
Unbroken — Laura Hillenbrand
Devil in the White City — Erik Larson
Killers of the Flower Moon — David Grann
The River of Doubt — Candice Millard
Born to Run — Christopher McDougall
Shadow Divers — Robert Kurson

A handful of authors specialize in this genre, so if you’re hungry for more variety, check out anything by Erik Larson, David Grann, S.C. Gwynne, Nathaniel Philbrick, Candice Millard, Robert Kurson, or Jon Krakauer

📺 What I’m Watching

Marty Supreme

Holy shit, what a rollercoaster of a movie. Timothee Chalamet continues his tour de force in the movie world with a film that sucks you in at full speed. The adrenaline never lets up, and neither does Marty.

The film centers around Marty Mauser, a wily hustler with a dream of becoming a table tennis world champion. Based in 1950’s New York City, we follow Marty as he goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.

Chalamet’s performance was incredible. And I must admit that this was one of the most anxiety-inducing movies I’ve watched in a long time. It’s like a combination of Uncut Gems and Catch Me If You Can.

🎵 Music I’m Listening To

Blood on the Tracks – Marcus King [Spotify]

💭 Quote I’m Pondering

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The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort: their delight is in self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second natures, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it it to them a recreation to play with burdens that would crush all others.

— Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist