u/DemoGoGuy

Had this on my bookshelf for a while and it took my fancy yesterday. A good story about how a nationalist in Belfast ended up working for the British police as an undercover informant while he moved up the ranks of the IRA.

By his reckoning he saved the lives of 50 men (hence the name) who were either working for the police or army.

It is an amazing achievement and the steps he took at the end to save himself. I don’t know if I could have done it. That I found fascinating.

The one thing though is that he didn’t convince me on was his reasoning behind his betrayal. One minute he was fighting side by side with his nationalist buddies ‘battling the Brit’s’ and the next thing he was informing / spying without really providing a convincing narrative as to why he changed sides.

I haven’t seen the movie, might watch it tonight but the author is highly critical of it and said ‘it’s as close to the truth as Earth is to Pluto’.

I enjoyed the book but I don’t buy his moral compass. IMO he did it for the money though he was only a kid when he started informing.

Read these 2 books over the weekend as there are on every top list.

Love into thin air which I had avoided because i seen the movie but it was brilliant. So well written and it left me in deep thought about the value we place on things and what they are willing to sacrifice of their character and risk to achieve it.

The wager, didn’t reach me in the same way. Good story, nothing surprising though. Informative on certain things but I didn’t buy in to the social order collapse. When shipwrecked, a sailor is no longer paid or employed so why would they continue to follow the orders from a captain who only wanted to continue to pursue their ex employers objectives.

A lot of similarities though on the risks people are willing to expose themselves and others to in order to pursue their own goals.

I bought this as I thought it was by Matthew Syed who wrote bounce which I really enjoyed and I’d read his other book, the serialisation of his times articles on sports stars which was ok.

Anyways liked this. Like this it defines talent as nurtured more so than nature and examine the science, psychology, upbringing, training environments, and life experiences that shape world-class performers.

It looks at factors such as deliberate practise versus innate talent, the role of parents and coaches, relative-age effects, resilience, the impact of adversity

Having read outliers, bounce and this, and as a coach of junior soccer and athletics I’d be interested in hearing others thought and recommended reads on this

I hear everyone here mention The Wager

I’ve read all the shahs men which covers Iran up to the British and US backed Coup in 1953 and interested in finding out about 1979

Came across 1177 BC and never heard of the ‘first civilisation’ collapse

What to do, what to do!

What an important book! Just started it yesterday and couldn’t put it down. Couldn’t recommend this enough. 200 pages. It was the perfect weekend read.