Kyle Roth

Scientific thinking and religion go hand in hand, and help refine and give purpose to each other. Descartes’ approach wasn’t as good as Newton’s. Descartes relied on the soundness of his own reasoning. “The erroneous conception that revelation ended with the apostles promotes the misconception among sectarian religions that the Gospel is complete and that with a liberal admixture of human wisdom, all will be crystal clear.” God places messages in everything. We study the scriptures, but we also study each scientific field looking for the truth He offers us there.

In fact, I saw all kinds of parallels between finance and Big Data. Both industries gobble up the same pool of talent, much of it from elite universities like MIT, Princeton, or Stanford. These new hires are ravenous for success and have been focused on external metrics–like SAT scores and college admissions–their entire lives. Whether in finance or tech, the message they’ve received is that they will be rich, that they will run the world. Their productivity indicates that they’re on the right track, and it translates into dollars. This leads to the fallacious conclusion that whatever they’re doing to bring in more money is good. It “adds value.” Otherwise, why would the market reward it?

The main character of the first story slowly changed his attitude toward demands on his resources. “Can I actually fulfill this request, given the time and resources I have?” “Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?” “Just because I was invited didn’t seem a good enough reason to attend.” It’s important to pursue “less but better” in a disciplined way. Simply doing fewer things is not meaningful. Most things in the world are trivial noise, and my job is to sift through noise and find things that are truly valuable. This involves active consideration of responsibilities and trade-offs involved in making a choice. I think I often try to “force execution at the last moment”, which is a mark of a non-essentialist.

Chapter 1 permalink We are give the opportunity to have the Spirit as a constant companion! To take advantage, we need to sincerely desire it, invite it through action, and be worthy of it through obedience. Chapter 2 permalink Knowledge is the accumulation of facts. Understanding comes when we apply our hearts to knowledge, which lets the Holy Ghost testify to us of the truthfulness of it. Understanding comes by revelation.