#118: Zen Meditation, Most Recommended Books, Competitiveness and Know Thyself with Richard Reis
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My guest today is Richard Reis). He is the co-founder of Most Recommended Books), a voracious reader and a blogger. Richard also enjoys finance and building stuff.

We discussed:

• Richard recently has done a three-month Zen Meditation retreat and shared his experience.

• What’s so unique about Zen Meditation compared with other meditation (e.g. mindfulness and TM)?

• Why should we focus on cultivating our intuition?

• What’s the motivation to build the Most Recommended Books?

• What’re the most recommended books in common?

• What’s Tim Ferriss’s effect?

• How to deal with self-doubt when building something new or running a startup?

• What traits of Larry Ellison worthy learning?

• Where does people’s competitiveness come from?

• What are the benefits of speaking multiple languages? Do people change personalities while speaking different languages?

• How to deal with loneliness and lack of community support while moving around very often?

• Is personality test the way to help Know Thyself?

Books and links mentioned in this episode:

• Mountain Cloud Zen Centre)

• A conversation between Sam Harris and Henry Shukman)

• The Mysterious/Unsolvable Zen Koans - Henry Shukman, Associate Master of Sanbo Zen)

• Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy)

• 10% Happier by Dan Harris)

• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio)

• Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley)

• Steve Jobs on Intuition)

• Most Recommended Books)

• The Tim Ferriss Show)

• Derek Sivers)

• The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick)

• If it's not a hit, switch)

• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss)

• Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Larry Ellison and Matthew Symonds)

• The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing’s Greatest Race, The America’s Cup by Julian Guthrie)

• Founders Podcast) (Highly recommend!)

• How to think like a programmer — lessons in problem solving)

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