As a kid, my idea of a good time was being in the hammock in the backyard of my house in Dallas, Texas, reading a book. My parents supported this, letting me read anything I wanted from their bookshelves (I read The Drifters at much too young an age). I loved buying books, and today, I have an infinite number of unread books on my Kindle. I vary my reading diet and log it all in Goodreads (ignore the stars).

One of my “book heroes” is Ryan Holiday. We met at a dinner at SXSW in 2007 or 2008, and I’ve been a fanboy ever since. I’ve read all his books, happily get his monthly reading newsletter (which motivates me to buy a book or two he recommends each month), and am inspired by his Painted Porch Bookshop.

His op-ed in the New York Times on April 19, 2025, titled The Naval Academy Canceled My Lecture on Wisdom stopped me in my tracks. Nothing much is surprising me daily anymore (per my long-time philosophy about my business life, that now applies to a much broader range of things, that I wrote about in Something New Is Fucked Up In My World Every Day.)

The first book I remember reading about censorship was Fahrenheit 451. I remember being repulsed by the idea that a government would ban (and burn) books. I was young (probably less than ten) and followed it quickly with 1984. Yeah, I read a lot of dystopian sci-fi as a kid.

Thoughtcrimes, Newspeak, and Doublespeak were grotesque ideas to me. I hated the idea of the Memory Hole. I grew up feeling like it was important to read everything, even if I didn’t like it or disagreed with it.

I still try to do that in today’s world, but I limit it to reading. I don’t apply the same concept to watching videos or TV. I don’t learn verbally and have trouble synthesizing information when visually stimulated. While my retention from listening is fine, I don’t effectively incorporate ideas unless I read or write something about them. I’ve tried to address this by taking notes when listening to a video or a lecture, but that doesn’t work for me, so I’d rather just read the transcript.

Ryan described a story about James Stockdale, which he would have discussed in his canceled Naval Academy talk on Wisdom. The story aligns exceptionally well with the meta-level of his talk’s cancellation and includes a great ending.

“Compromises pile up when you’re in a pressure situation in the hands of a skilled extortionist,” Mr. Stockdale reminded us. I felt I could not, in good conscience, lecture these future leaders and warriors on the virtue of courage and doing the right thing, as I did in 2023 and 2024, and fold when asked not to mention such an egregious and fundamentally anti-wisdom course of action.