Cory Brickner

Actionable advice on improving all relationships

Revisado: 09-06-23

First, let me say that I do agree that the narration by Douglas is not the best. He mumbles and his tone is generally soft, so it becomes hard to understand what he's saying -- he's not incomprehensible, it just takes more effort to actually assimilate what he's saying, Sheila is not an issue for me to comprehend. Overall, Douglas does take away from the performance but I don't think it's enough to not recommend the audio version.

This book was recommended to me by a few people -- both at the company that I work for and by service providers providing performance and improvement training. I think it is a worthwhile addition to performance improvement specifically because it has given me insight as to how I approach giving and receiving feedback. The authors have painted a pretty accurate picture and comparison of a "growth" mindset versus a "test" mindset and that really resonated well for me so that I can catch myself reverting to previous defensive behaviors when receiving feedback from all of my relationships, both personal and professional.

I think it handles an uncomfortable topic for most of us in such a fashion that you're going to take away something new. I think you'll have at least one "ah ha!" moment, and for me in this category of book, that makes it a worthwhile purchase. I'm a better person because of it and to me the concepts are important enough that I will listen to this again to make sure it makes a good imprint.

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Do you want humanity to flourish?

Revisado: 03-27-23

I absolutely love the terms he coins for the perspectives in the book — either you’re about “human flourishing” and cost-effective hydrocarbons that efficiently and cheaply power human progress and improvement or you’re about minimizing the impact humans make on planet earth, regardless of what that means to the benefit of species.

Alex does an extremely thorough job of analyzing the complete cost-benefit analysis of hydrocarbons vs. alternatives.

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Seriously the best book I read in 2022!

Revisado: 02-17-23

Every six months or so the dork that I am totally forgets that fasting and low carb causes electrolyte issues -- PVCs, higher pulse rate, etc. -- if you're not getting enough salt. That was happening to me around the Thanksgiving holiday while I was reading Dr. Kendrick's new book. It literally is a Monty Python skit that explains the thrombogenic theory of coronary heart disease. The dude needs to do stand-up. Seriously, this book is fantastic! It shreds the cholesterol hypothesis. You cannot read this book and think about food, sugar, carbs, fat, nor salt the same way again. Yes, the same BS about Covid-19 and the pharmaceutical industry has been going on for decades with statins and cholesterol.

However, to circle back to my issue with fasting and electrolytes, I have been trying to investigate a statement that I read during my Covid-19 research in 2021: “It should be noted that any intervention may need to be timed correctly given that REN levels rise on a diurnal cycle, peaking at 4AM which corresponds with the commonly reported worsening of COVID-19 symptoms at night …”

Why is that so important to me specifically? Because what I have associated with food/ingredient sensitivities just so happens to impact me the worst at 4AM when it does happen -- waking up having to urinate followed by a rapid heart rate -- sometimes tachycardia. Since I read this, I've been trying to find a tie to what the hell goes on at 4AM with REN (renin) levels and why. Yes, I attempted to search the internet and came up with zilch. My medical provider at the time was not helpful. He basically said that doesn't apply to you because you don't have blood pressure issues.

So, to make a long-story short, I'm reading "The Clot Thickens" and Dr. Kendrick hands me the holy f'n grail. He starts talking about the RAAS (Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System) and how it plays a part in cardio-vascular disease. The kidneys regulate the electrolyte system and reduced sodium intake causes vasoconstriction via the endothelium which stimulates the pituitary gland and in turn sympathetic nervous system to basically put your body in "fight or flight" stress response! (Perpetual stress that can damage your endothelium and create clots.) A 40 - 100 millimoles reduction in 24 hours creates an aldosterone and renin response from the kidneys! Basically low salt in plasma increases the renin level 3.6-fold (P<.001), and the aldosterone level increases 3.2-fold (P<.001). Yes, low sodium actually causes increased noradrenaline, cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels!!

As the human guinea pig that I am, I increased my salt intake to see if this would work on me. For someone who has never added salt to anything, this was quite the challenge for me. The denigration of sodium is a medical shibboleth that kind of approaches the realm of Moses destroying the 10 Commandments in Exodus 32:19. We’re talking a few grains here and there of Celtic Sea Salt in my water or when I cook. Holy crap on a stick! Within hours my diastolic pressure drops from 78 to 71 and my pulse pretty much does the same thing. Un-freaking-believable.

“The Clot Thickens” is so detailed (and footnoted with fantastic research) about what happens to your body when, and so well written, that I can find the answer to a question your normal "educated" medical "professionals" suckling at the big-pharma teet had no idea how to answer for an issue that's been causing problems for me, at least in part, for probably close to 15 years.

You won’t take the cholesterol hypothesis seriously again. This book is seriously a must read! Not only will you laugh out loud, but you'll be healthier and live longer.

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There’s excellent information here!

Revisado: 01-20-23

First, let me say that I think [Cu]re is extremely important. It would be an oversimplification for me to say that it’s about the impact of the imbalance between iron and copper in your body, but that’s the main idea, and I think there’s a lot of merit in that hypothesis. Morley hits on some current cultural nutritional norms that many “healthy” laymen are going to have a hard time with. One is about how ascorbic acid (synthetic Vitamin C) interferes with — actually chelates — copper helping to create iron buildup in the tissues and organs, essentially rusting them out over time. This resonated with me because one of those sensitivities I had identified in the past but didn’t make sense to me was when I ingested ascorbic acid or citrate ingredients. Synthetic Vitamin C, and other supplements that contained synthetic citrates or ascorbates — they would eventually create arrhythmia issues. This was an epiphany I only had because of reading [Cu]re. I have switched to taking food based products for my Vitamin C and to Magnesium Glycinate supplementation, as well as removing any other synthetic citric and ascorbic acid ingredients from my diet and the arrhythmias have all but disappeared.

Some of the chapters in [Cu]re seemed more like a used car sales shpeil than trying to provide helpful information about the copper / iron relationship in your body. The writing style irked me. There were a whole lot of “it’s an absolute / scientific fact” and statements like that. It’s akin to when people tell you to “wake up.” I take it as condescending approach to communication that throws barriers up instead of inviting you to hear what someone has to say. Persuasion is an art, especially with controversial topics. The book has very important information that everyone should know and some decent editing could have made a good book even better. Fortunately, the “hard-sell” type language that is prevalent in the beginning of the book is used much less frequently beyond the first few chapters.

Iron overload in our tissues and organs is a very real issue in all males and post-menopausal women. Morley Robbins presents a very compelling case that it manifests itself in a variety of chronic health related problems. [Cu]re does a pretty decent job giving the layman all the tools you need to get your body back to a healthy copper-iron relationship.

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This is fantastic!

Revisado: 03-17-22

The author has some great data and the narrator has a very clear and pleasant voice. There was so much relevant information, especially with respect to what's happening now with NATO and the Ukraine and Russia that this is literally a must read! I have one complaint and that is the last chapter. Its about financial institutions and derivatives with a very tenuous tie to the theme of the book -- almost like it was an afterthought. The information wasn't bad nor uninteresting -- I just kept wondering how this was tied to the military industrial complex the whole time and I never saw the connection other than some brief mentions of Malaysia and no longer supporting North Korea.

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Author is totally "woke" and biased

Revisado: 02-26-21

First, the narrator is just plain dull and monotone in comparison to Paul Woodson on Fred Anderson's fantastic "Crucible of War."

Second, the author's injects a "woke" as well as a nationalist bias throughout the whole book. If I hadn't read other authors who just present the historical aspect of events (like Fred Anderson), I would totally think Daniel Howe's perspective was the only way to view these events during the period. Eg., Just one aspect of this, Howe puts one line blurbs in about Thomas Jefferson in how he didn't support anti-slavery efforts without any context. But TJ tried to free slaves via the Virginia Legislature in the early years following the revolution: "A Bill concerning Slaves, 18 June 1779" and was thwarted by "the public mind would not yet bear the proposition…” It was the states that had to modify the 3/5ths clause of the constitution via the compact theory in which Jefferson helped to create. The nationalist perspective was an aberration to Jefferson, who believed "These United States," where states are plural and sovereign over the Federal Government. Howe also canonizes John Marshall and "judicial review" as well, which Jefferson found to be a complete power grab by the Supreme Court. “You seem . . . to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so . . . and their power [is] the more dangerous, as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots.” -- Thomas Jefferson to William Jarvis, Sept. 28, 1820

In short, there are much better unbiased historical authors. This book gets you a feel for the period, but it is quite slanted, and if you didn't know any better, could greatly skew your perspective on events.

For examples of Jefferson's perspective, Gutzman's "Thomas Jefferson - Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America" is excellent as well as Basani's "Liberty, State, and Union: The Political Theory of Thomas Jefferson."

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The "red pill." See how far the rabbit hole goes.

Revisado: 08-25-20

I just finished reading "Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault" by Stephen Hicks. Let me just get this out of the way now: It is absolutely a must read book for anyone that wants to understand the historical context of how we've come to where we are today with respect to the nonsense coming from the ashes of the marxists and other collectivists on the far left.

“Postmodernism, Frank Lentricchia explains, ‘seeks not to find the foundation and the conditions of truth but to exercise power for the purpose of social change.”

When I say "must read," I mean stop reading what I've posted and click on the link now! This is the best resource for unpacking what's happening in our universities, the BLM protests and riots, and the COVID-19 lockdowns. Basically the Marxist derived ideologies lost intellectually against the Western European market and trade system. I'm not going to call it Capitalism as that word was created by Marx to disparage the way of life that has brought so much wealth to humanity all across the globe over the past 2+ centuries. The proletariat revolution never came because the proletariat has been made wealthy beyond anything Marx and Engels could imagine.

“Postmodernism’s essentials are the opposite of modernism’s. Instead of natural reality—anti-realism. Instead of experience and reason—linguistic social subjectivism. Instead of individual identity and autonomy—various race, sex, and class group-isms. Instead of human interests as fundamentally harmonious and tending toward mutually-beneficial interaction—conflict and oppression. Instead of valuing individualism in values, markets, and politics—calls for communalism, solidarity, and egalitarian restraints. Instead of prizing the achievement of science and technology—suspicion tending toward outright hostility.”

What we're seeing now is a new breed of collectivists hell bent on destroying Western European civilization by any and all means possible. This typically means "divide and conquer" by implying bogus notions of "systemic racism."

The overwhelming, super-majority of people in this country are not racists. To attempt to further polarize skin color or country of origin or religious affiliation is to actually desire to force associations of people into superficial groups that have nothing to do about the character of the individuals and who they are as human beings. It is solely an attempt at creating strife, anger, and jealousy where you should judge your "group" to be significant to your identity and that other people's opinions about it should have meaning to you.

How can Western European society be deeply racist when it was the society that actually ended slavery for the first time in the history of our species?

"It is only in places where western ideas have made inroads that racist ideas are on the defensive."

How can Western European society be sexist when it was western women that were first granted the right to vote? Look at what countries still do not treat women as equals and none of them are of the west.

"When some men fail to accomplish what they desire to do they exclaim angrily, "May the whole world perish!" - Nietzsche

The postmodernists are absolutely miserable people. They hate what they cannot have and there is a "burn it all down" mentality. By sewing class warfare -- either via skin color, nationality, religion, or now mask-wearing vs. not, there is a desire to create a social atmosphere of fear. When you create this environment of fear, you "interfere with an individual's ability to perform the basic cognitive functions he needs to act responsibly in the world."

Stephen Hick's book is essential to understanding how postmodernists view the world and their desire to mold it. If you value our way of life and wish to preserve it for our posterity, "Explaining Postmodernism" is mandatory reading. Do yourself a favor and take the "red pill." You need to visit Wonderland and see how far the rabbit hole goes.

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Puts the Seven Countries Study in the trash

Revisado: 06-07-20

Chances are you've never heard of John Yudkin. He was a British physiologist and nutritionist whose seminal work is on how sugar is the main cause of diabetes, heart disease, weight gain, tooth decay, and ulcers. That was in 1972. That was also what he felt he could pin on sugar based on what data he had and experiments he conducted. There were correlative hypotheses for certain cancers (like breast), myopia, and a host of other issues because of the hormonal changes that sugar creates in the body aside from insulin production, like estrogen, but he just didn't have the resources nor time to do the appropriate research on.

So why has John been regulated to the dustbin of history? Two reasons: Sugar producers and Ancel Keyes. The first one is obvious. The second one, maybe not so much. Ancel Keyes was an American physiologist who authored the Seven Countries study. In particular, he hypothesized that dietary saturated fat causes cardiovascular heart disease and should be avoided. He is the reason we have the "Food Pyramid" where grains are at the bottom that you should have the most of, and fats and oils and sweets are at the top you should have least of.

John Yudkin vehemently disagreed with Ancel Keyes, namely because coronary heart disease was a fairly recent phenomenon and human beings were hunter gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years eating plenty of dietary fat and protein from animals, seeds, and nuts. Given that heart disease being the leading cause of death has only been so for the past 100 years, give or take, John felt that Ancel was discounting the evolutionary changes that would need to happen in order to make the animal fat hypothesis viable. Those changes just didn't exist, which means something recent had to have changed externally in our food consumption.

That change has been sugar. Sugar production in 1800 was 250,000 tons. In 50 years, it grew to 1.5 million tons. In 1900, it was 11 million tons. In 1950, 35 million tons. In 1982 (the last update of the book) it was 101 million tons.

Your average colonial citizen in the US consumed 15 grams of sugar per week. Now teenagers consume 150 grams per DAY.

I urge you to seriously consider the health and longevity ramifications of eating sugar. It is literally killing us.

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The tail wags the dog

Revisado: 02-05-20

I think this is probably one of the best books I've read. The epiphanies I had while reading this were numerous. The research he performed and conclusions reached had always felt innate to me, but I neither had the ability to concisely form a hypothesis, nor knowledge to explain it. Jonathan as the narrator is also clear and easy to listen too. The book flows well and I appreciate after every chapter he reviews what he set out to do, and how he accomplished that goal.

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This should be required reading for everyone.

Revisado: 01-23-20

This is honestly one of the most fantastic books I've ever listened to! Sowell pretty much takes on all of the current social taboos we have in the country. From blacks, Jews, Germans and Nazis, slavery, and education, his research is eye-opening and myth-busting, and his conclusions are prophetic.

To me, it was an intensely interesting and the narrator was very easy to listen to. The facts and documentation are incredible! Probably the most surprising information was that southern culture came from the Scottish Highlanders and that black slaves learned their behaviors emulating that culture from their white masters.

This book contains so much valuable insight, the world would be a much better place if everyone could learn what is presented here. I cannot recommend it more highly. I would also recommend reading Charles Murray's "Losing Ground" as a compliment to this book for more detail on the subject of welfare and how it has destroyed black society in the USA.

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