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The Observe and Rapport Newsletter
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A weekly guide of my favorite books, articles, products, and lifestyle habits.
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April 21st, 2023 | by Kyle Brennan
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1) Reading for 20 minutes a day exposes you to roughly 1.8 million words a year
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As Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
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2) "The press lost its monopoly on the news when the internet democratized info. To save its business model, it pivoted from journalism to tribalism. The new role of the press is not to inform its readers but to confirm what they already believe."
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The internet has made crowdsourcing more reliable than filtering through one "trusted" news source. Between Substack, podcasts, independent journalists, twitter, IG live streams, and Reddit, we don't need to rely on major news sources for factual information anymore. We have more resources than ever to form our own opinions and contextualize information from various experts with different vantage points.
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3) LIFE HACK: If you forget someone's name when exchanging numbers, ask them how they spell their name instead of asking them what their name is again.
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If you're like me and instantly forget people's names, this trick comes in clutch.
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What I'm Reading
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What can I say? I’m a sucker for a lone gunman on a mission to take down the bad guy.
The Kill Artist is the first of the 23 books in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva.
Silva kicks off the series with a fully-formed Allon, a spy who has already lived the enviable James Bond lifestyle, had a family and great success, but lost it all. [Description from Amazon] Immersed in the quiet, meticulous life of an art restorer, former Israeli intelligence operative Gabriel Allon keeps his past well behind him. But now he is being called back into the game—and teamed with an agent who hides behind her own mask...as a beautiful fashion model.
For anyone who loves heavy doses of exotic locations and political intrigue with pinches of real-world conflicts, as the Jack Ryan show on Amazon Prime, this series looks to fit the bill phenomenally. It’s espionage and terrorism through the eyes of an Israeli operative.
I look forward to reading the next couple of books in the series to see where Allon takes us next.
Rating: 3.7 / 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Cormac McCarthy is considered a key figure in modern American fiction. His novels, most famously No Country for Old Men, are known for their grotesque vision of the South, mythical interpretation of the West, and cryptic rendering of such themes as violence, death, and redemption.
I first read Blood Meridian a couple of years ago. His writing style is certainly unique, but personally, I was not a fan of it. He uses run-on sentences lacking punctuation or quotation marks to signify dialogue beginning and ending.
After a number of people persuaded me to read it (and a thanks for those who voted in my poll!), I finally came around to reading what is considered his best novel, The Road - a story about a father and son wandering and surviving Earth after an apocalypse event. McCarthy depicts a world without law, a fruitless, loveless world where survival means a struggle to death.
In short, I didn't love it. McCarthy's writing style just isn't for me. I imagine it's like when your friends try to convince you to listen to a musical artist they really like but it just doesn't jive right with you for whatever reason. Throughout the whole book, I was waiting for the moment when it would suddenly click and I would be fascinated by the plot but it never quite came.
After reading two Cormac McCarthy books (which generally received praise from most major syndicates) I can say that his storytelling just doesn't suit my taste.
Rating: 2.8 / 5 ⭐️⭐️
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What I'm Writing
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We all have secrets. We all have mental and emotional struggles. And we all have a friend we wish we could confide in but we’re too nervous about the embarrassment or shame that may come from admitting our vulnerabilities to someone you usually joke around with 24/7.
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What I'm Watching
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If you didn't know already, I decided to join my town's Volunteer Fire Department. I've been in Firefighter 1 night school for the last 8 weeks and have been learning a ton on the job. Last weekend we did a drill at the firehouse where I had to scale up and down the aerial ladder (the big rotating on top of the truck). It was a bit scarier than I expected, especially since I had to carry a rotary saw in one hand.
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One of the captains mentioned the infamous Boyd Street fire that took place in Los Angeles in 2020. He said to watch the video on YouTube to learn how quickly an innocent-seeming building fire can turn into a flashover disaster. In the video footage caught on camera, you can see the firefighters descend down the aerial ladder to get out of dodge, eventually, the flames get so on top of them that they are forced to dive head-first down the ladder to avoid disaster.
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I typed "Boyd Street Fire" into YouTube and saw that there is a documentary about it, which was fascinating to watch. Boyd Street recounts the 2020 Toy District Fire that injured eleven Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) members. It's an hour-long documentary about events that only took 42 seconds to transpire. It taught me a ton about the dynamics of fire and just how fast things can go wrong. The important thing is to trust your instincts, follow procedures, and communicate everything.
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What I'm Listening To
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This podcast was endlessly fascinating. Paul Rosolie is a conservationist, explorer, author, filmmaker, real-life Tarzan, and founder of Junglekeepers which today protects over 50,000 acres of threatened habitat. When he was a teenager, he moved from where he grew up in New York down to the Amazon Rainforest, to live among nature. His stories are incredible.
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Follow My Wife's New Instagram Page!
@observeandrapport: Meet my lovely and talented wife @themasonsdaughter_
Last November, Lauren started a page dedicated to our home renovation projects as well as her absolute obsession with John Mayer (who she may or may not actually love more than me…)
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Podcast Episode #7 is Out Now!
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Keith and Kyle sit down to discuss Long Island's roster of celebrities, the potential consequences of Artificial Intelligence, Cormac McCarthy, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
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Books discussed in this episode:
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Quote I'm Pondering
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“The only real failure is the failure to try… The measure of success is how we cope with the disappointment.”
- Danny Meyer on The Tim Ferris Show #665
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Reminder to share this newsletter with friends and family! Subscribe link here
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What's on My Reading List?
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Kyle's Published Work
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33 Life Lessons on My 33rd Birthday
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Thirty-three was a big one. Mostly because I became a dad. Our daughter was born on New Year’s Eve — a fitting arrival for a kid destined to reset everything. It’s been a beautiful, if slightly sleep-deprived blur ever since. I’ve only been “Dad” for less than ten months, but if I’m being honest, I’ve been preparing for the role for over …
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Depth Over Downloads: Why Spending Time with Books Still Matters
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Everyone wants faster information. But no one asks if faster information leads to better understanding — or a better life. In the age of AI and tweet-sized wisdom, we’ve confused information with transformation. But there’s a massive difference between knowing what a book says and being changed by it. The Delusion of Instant Learning In a recent interview, political journalist Ezra Klein admitted he once believed …
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The Jack Reacher Approach to Never Being Caught Off Guard
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There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, ‘Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,’ and an optimist who says, ‘Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine anyway.’ Either way, nothing happens.” —Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia I don’t read much fiction, but I’ve always been hooked on Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. He’s not your typical …
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