The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

 

Do you want to be world class at something?  Playing an instrument?  Computer programming?  Writing? If Charles Duhigg is right - and his argument is quite convincing - you can.  All you have to do is get into the right habits and then put in the hours.  How many hours?  About 10,000.  To save you the mental arithmetic that is about three and half years at eight hours a day.  Take weekends off and it is about five.

Aristotle's Three Components of Rhetoric

I have been listening to the excellent podcast series on critical thinking by Jonathan Haber.  I have no idea who he is but I can recommend the podcast.  I have a drive to work of about 30 minutes, and each episode fits that gap quite nicely, leaving me with a warm feeling of having learned something of value.  One of the things that came up was Aristotle's three modes of argumentation.  I have been using this concept quite a bit since I picked up on it and it is having some surprising benefits.