Migo Aguado

The Art of Insight: How to Have More Aha! Moments

The Art of Insight argues that insight is not a product of forceful analysis or memory retrieval, but a fundamentally different mode of thinking. Charles Kiefer & Malcolm Constable, principals in an innovation consulting firm, argues that modern education and work environments condition people into “memory thinking,” where solutions are sought by interrogating past knowledge, often disconnecting them from their natural capacity for fresh insight. True insights arise in an “easygoing, open, and unpressured” state of mind, where thinking is relaxed rather than fixated on problems. This state cannot be forced through rigid techniques but can be cultivated through awareness and practice. Ultimately, insight is framed as an art—something innate yet improvable through attention to how thought itself operates.

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide For Trying Times

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times explores hope as an active, rational response to the world’s harsh realities rather than a passive or naive belief. The highlights show that hope extends beyond personal desires to collective aspirations, such as improving communities, protecting the environment, and electing better leaders. Jane Goodall, a primatologist and anthropologist, frames hope through four key sources: human intellect, nature’s resilience, the energy of young people, and the indomitable human spirit. The book also emphasizes that humans are uniquely capable of both great evil and profound altruism, making our choices central to shaping the future. By grounding hope in action and responsibility, it becomes a tool for confronting global challenges rather than escaping them.

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal

Mark Bittman traces the history of food from early human societies to modern industrial agriculture, showing how the shift from diverse hunter-gatherer diets to grain-based farming fundamentally reshaped societies. Agriculture enabled surpluses and population growth but also produced inequality, elites, and systems of labor exploitation, while monotonous diets, disease, and environmental degradation became widespread consequences. Early societies were often cooperative and relatively egalitarian, but the accumulation of surplus created hierarchies and ruling classes, tying control of land and food directly to political power and social stratification.

Man vs Markets

In Man vs Markets, Paddy Hirsch explains financial markets by breaking down the mechanics of debt, derivatives, swaps, securitization, and capital structure, showing how these instruments allow risk to be shifted, priced, and traded. His highlights emphasize that borrowing is not inherently harmful; leverage, private equity buyouts, and derivatives all serve practical economic purposes when used responsibly. Markets, in this view, are systems built from institutions, contracts, and policies that structure how money flows between banks, corporations, governments, and consumers.

Bullets, Basketballs, and Boardrooms

Three different authors from different domains present leadership lessons drawn from three disciplines—military, business, and sports—showing how principles from each domain reinforce one another. From the military perspective, the book emphasizes discipline, prioritization, contingency planning, and preparation before crises occur. Leaders are encouraged to train rigorously, anticipate scenarios through tools like wargaming, and understand that in high-pressure situations people fall back on their level of preparation rather than improvising new skills. These lessons highlight the importance of structure, foresight, and consistent training as foundations for effective leadership.

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus is an examination of history and the forces that have steered humanity along particular paths at critical junctures. The book draws attention to the recurring tension between conflict and cooperation. Harari’s central thesis is that, despite the violence and division that have marked much of human history, the arc of history bends toward ever-increasing collaboration and interdependence—provided this trajectory is pursued intentionally. He offers a cautious optimism about what lies ahead, particularly in the age of artificial intelligence.

CliftonStrengths® Top 5 for Migo Aguado

Test taken last 09 September 2024

Learner®

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

The Hour Between Dog & Wolf: Risk Taking, Gut Feelings, And The Biology of Boom & Bust

Capital markets post-industrial revolution demand intense biological processes that can surpass natural limits. John Coates, a neuroscientist trader and author of The Hour Between Dog & Wolf (2012), argues that the biological storm associated with our work and lifestyle is too much for a human’s biochemical makeup. This is especially true with traders in financial markets who experience winning and losing streaks. Financial risk-taking, he argues, is a biological activity with corresponding medical consequences.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Growing up, I was exposed to Wyeth’s successful marketing campaign for their formula milk, Promil. The Promil kids seemed to have become a benchmark of an entire generation in having a head start and are expected to be successful in their respective fields. Some kids, now all grown-up, have chosen a path different from how they were depicted in the television commercials, albeit still thriving in their own right. While I don’t know what transpired during their teenage years, the Promil kids might have the chance to do other endeavors, termed the “sampling period” by American Journalist David Epstein in his book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (2019).

Wilful Blindness

When I knew that a colleague shared the same birthday as mine, I suddenly felt an urge to befriend him even though I had virtually zero knowledge of who he was and what he was like. Familiarity, after all, doesn’t breed contempt–it breeds comfort. The book Willful Blindness (2011) by University professor Margaret Heffernan described more “comforting shortcuts” our brains make: we tend to donate more to victims of typhoons where the typhoon names are similar to ours or choose a profession with starting letters that are the same with ours. Although these phenomena feel like novelty and harmless, Heffernan described serious, deadly, and long-lasting repercussions of our shortcuts and comfort in family, business, and politics.