Jake's Updates

Jake wants to read 'Yearbook'

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 08:44:55 -0700

Jake wants to read Yearbook by Seth Rogen

Jake added 'The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion'

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:23:17 -0700

Jake gave 5 stars to The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (Hardcover) by Jonathan Haidt
This book is an incredible introduction to the human mind and human nature. It encompasses a lot of human history and the origin of many thought patterns.

It took me a bit longer to read this book through and through, mostly because I wanted to comprehend what I was reading, but also because it is very dense at times.

The parts are split into very digestible segments of a greater idea. This idea was one that has fluidity and applies itself uniquely to the reader. I felt personally, that this book gave me an opportunity to explore myself and my own thoughts and experiences with the world, and the people that inhabit it. We are more connected while being equally polarized in the modern world and this book (published almost a decade ago) really gives a pertinent insight into “the other side��. If you have ever questioned “how can somebody think that way�� I think this book is a great step towards understanding your question more than it is about answering it.

The parts in the book have overarching themes: the rider and the elephant, the tongue with six taste receptors, and the 90% ape 10% bee; all sound crazy to type out and hard to explain to a friend, but they are some of the best examples of how the human brain works its way through life that I’ve ever read. It’s been great trying to get to know this moral psychology side of things, and it’s intriguing to read this book now more than ever. We live in a wild world of crazy opinions, so finding some empirical data for where those opinions may come from and how they are justified so easily is a great aid.

Overall I think this book gave me a mirror for myself and the way I approach things, I don’t think this book is a “self help�� book at all, but with an open mind it definitely helped me understand myself and others a bit better

Hoping this gentleman writes another book soon (I’m avoiding the one about my generation being anxious, I already know that!)

Jake started reading 'Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation'

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:22:59 -0700

Jake started reading Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye

Jake added 'The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion'

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 07:16:24 -0700

Jake is on page 218 of 419 of The Righteous Mind

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 07:21:02 -0700

Jake Mathis is on page 218 of 419 of The Righteous Mind.
Jake wrote: I’ve finished part 2! 🎉
This part was slow at first and then ramped up towards the end!! Part 1 talked about the first principle of moral psychology “intuitions come first, strategic reasoning comes second�� and Part 2 expands on that idea and details those intuitions. Part 3 is next! 🤝🏻

Jake added 'It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life'

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:07:09 -0700

Jake gave 5 stars to It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (Paperback) by Lance Armstrong
This was a great read! I believe it was even more entertaining to read because I read Tyler Hamilton’s “the Secret Race�� beforehand. I went into this book trying to keep as open of a mind towards Lance as I could! He was somebody I watched with my mom growing up, and then his cancer foundation also played a big part in my mom’s own cancer journey. SO when I read Tyler Hamilton’s account of these events, I was interested to see how Lance’s perspective would be different.

To start, Lance really loves his mom and he’s super into being from Texas. If you’ve never been to/lived in Texas, you may not understand the feeling, but if you know you know. They do the Texas pledge before the pledge of allegiance, just an example of the pride down in the lone star state. But anywho, Lance talks about his upbringing and how he ended up cycling, he talks about his mom a lot and their relationship, especially how close they were. If you love your mom, this book will hit your soft spot, and I feel like Lance gets vilified by the media for his antics, but nobody can be THAT EVIL and love somebody like that.

Eventually the book gets into his success as an endurance athlete and then turns to his cancer diagnoses and journey. As I was finishing this book, it seemed like they could’ve made it longer? The beginning felt chalked with detail and the end was like the book wanted me to finish already.. BUT the stories about his cancer were really amazing to read, they reveal a side of the human condition that not many people experience, and interestingly he talks about how he is the lucky one for having said experience.

I really liked his approach to his recovery and how cancer became his Tour de France. He was working with his doctors and nurses like he would with his cycling specialists and sports doctors. But instead of a yellow jersey, he was trying to stay alive! I dont know how somebody could read a book and hear his accounts of his suffering and then feel like he should be demonized or vilified for his *alleged* abuse of performance enhancing drugs. In that respect, I was grinning and giggling to myself reading him talk about PEDs and drug abuse in his “deny, deny, deny�� way. And knowing that riders and teams were able to beat drug tests during that time made the, “all I had to do was take drug tests and be clean�� lines a lot funnier to read.

All in all, great book! He is a high level athlete that has done questionable things throughout his career, and a lot of those things he’s been held accountable for�� and others maybe not as much.

One thing is for sure, if you want to read a book about somebody coming to grips with their own fate and REALLY trying to mind over matter something like cancer, you should read this book! Lance fought everyday like hell to beat his cancer, and I feel like that empowered him to win something like the Tour de France 7 times in a row way more than the PEDs could.

There’s more to sports than taking drugs to enhance your performance, and there’s more to life than judging people who do! Lance talks a lot about his personal struggles and experiences and it’s a great view on somebody who was on the top of the world. The first American to win the tour and basically make cycling cool for a little bit.

TLDR: great book about the human condition! I feel like I can run through a wall after reading Lance’s accounts, but there’s also harrowing truths to his message! Great ego death book so to speak. Even though the person who wrote it is notoriously known for his large ego lol

If you’re reading this, read Tyler Hamilton’s the secret race and then read this book, it’s like watching a director’s commentary version of a film

Jake Mathis liked a userstatus

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 16:27:49 -0700

Jake Mathis liked Kate's status update

Kate is 75% done with The Duke at Hazard: What a stupid break up reason.

Jake started reading 'It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life'

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 21:26:52 -0700

Jake started reading It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong

Jake added 'The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs'

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 11:08:44 -0700

Jake gave 5 stars to The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs (Hardcover) by Tyler Hamilton
This book is interesting to say the least. I really love Tyler Hamilton’s ability to account the stories and experiences from his time within the pro scene. Watching lance Armstrong win the Tour de France didn’t feel scandalous at the time, but now I can go back and truly see the drama and the tension within the peloton.

Lance is hard to place, at times while reading I felt the classic phrase of “don’t meet your idols�� cropping up, however Hamilton’s account for the reasons behind doping and using the PEDs within the scene seem to apply to every cyclist.

I think the problem lies with lance’s public approach to the allegations and eventual prosecutions. He is like a soldier who hasn’t been told the war is over.

I love lance’s approach to work ethic and focus, but it’s obvious that high level athletes have a serious empathy/sympathy problem, I’ve always struggled championing someone like Micheal Jordan/Kobe Bryant because of similar leadership attributes that lance is given in this book.

Hamilton’s “truth will set you free�� and his attitude towards humility were really great to read about, and I think it’s reassuring to see high level athletes who aren’t willing to lose themselves in their craft.

Above all else, this book was great! The high stress recollections of blood transfusions in shotty French hotels accompanied by real accounts of depression and imposter syndrome were really amazing to read and I was able to fly through this book.

I don’t think lance armstrong should be vilified for his partaking of PEDs but if somebody wanted to judge him for his behavior or personality��/that/ I would have harder time getting in the way. He went from being a miracle story for cancer survivors, to being Trump adjacent with his lack of accountability and attacks on oppositions, but the man was INSANE on the bike, and that’s one thing that you can’t take away (even though they kind of did)

ALSO, as somebody with a heart condition and hated being skinny my whole life, it’s pretty insane learning some of the lengths these men will go to when losing weight and changing the way their blood flows. It has honestly given me some ideas to ask my doctor lol, but also is wild to think of a 136 pound “professional athlete�� as somebody who hates being in the 150’s
And then learning the way they monitor the oxygen in their blood and their red blood cell count, it’s all so ingrained into the sport and I think the obsession with numbers and stats has obviously bled (ba dum tss) into the consumer markets.

TLDR: Great read, if you’re into the 00’s era of the tour and grew up with the LIVESTRONG yellow band on your radar. Lance may have helped my mom when she was surviving cancer, but man does he check a lot of the “standard white Texan man who can’t be wrong�� but it’s also a great story of the human condition, and how the secrets that we keep will hold our truths hostage, under great pressure, and those truths will find a way to set themselves free. People also find themselves way too high and mighty for judging these athletes who have doped. The virtue signaling is strong in the sports crowd because it’s easy to cast judgment from the couch ¯\_(��)_/¯

Jake finished reading 'Lord of the Flies'

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:04:56 -0700

Jake finished reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding