The Gift of Violence - Matt Thorton

[Saluki]

I'm halfway through this very interesting book that has nothing and everything to do with investing, in the same way that "Fearless Golf" does.  He grew up with a mom who was a Jehova's Witness and a Dad who was a police officer.  After relentless bullying in school he realized that his church teachings of non-violence weren't doing him any favors (even the principal told him that he needed to fight back) he stopped turning the other cheek.  Thorton opened one of the first MMA gyms in the US and trained with the first person who brought Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the US, Fabio Santos.  When Fabio left for California to help the Gracies try to get UFC 1 off the ground, he trained under Rickson Gracie (the Muhammad Ali of jiu jitsu).  He has gyms all over the world and many successful MMA fighters, including Conor McGregor. 

 

There are lots of endnotes and the assertions he makes are based on data, not philosophy, which I appreciate as a numbers guy. I appreciate the reality based approach to risk and probability instead of the usual snake oil salesmen peddling fear.  My dry cleaner is a retired policeman and after car jackings and murders more than doubled last year he told me numerous times that I should get a gun if I am going to be walking my dog at night. So I looked at the data, and decided that what I needed right away was...more fire extinguishers.  Your lifetime odds of being in a house fire are 1:10. So I decided to start there.  He takes a similar approach and criticizes the "grossly out-of-shape paranoids" who go to self defense seminars (some are hand-to-hand but many are involving guns and unrealistic situations like clearing rooms in a house like John Wick) to train for the improbable without focusing on the obvious.  If your concern is personal safety, you are attempting to survive so that you can live longer. If longevity is the goal, then you don't need another gun or a few Krav Maga lessons.  You are better off being in shape, eating healthy, wearing a seatbelt when driving, and quitting smoking and excessive drinking or drugs. There's an old joke that was going around when River Phoenix died and it fits here.  He was a strict vegan but when he died the autopsy found massive amounts of several drugs in his system.  The joke was that found everything but red meat in his system. What difference does being a vegan make if you do other things that are much worse than eating red meat? 

 

A lot of the other points are obvious but usually overlooked or not talked about at all.  You won't learn to fight in one four hour seminar on a Saturday.  That will take years.  What you can do is learn to focus on situation awareness and to make conscious decisions to reduce the odds of something bad happening. A former co-worker of mine was killed in a car-jacking recently in broad daylight in the part of town where all the office buildings are.  He was waiting to pick up his wife from her office and the car-jacker opened the passenger door, and got in and shot him. If he had been waiting with the door locked, or noticed that someone stepped off the sidewalk and was heading to his car, that might have bought him enough time to drive off.  

 

The title of the book is terrible.  My better half said it sounds like the memoir of a serial killer. But it's an interesting book and the discussion reminds me of when I hear Sam Harris talking about jiu jitsu.  

 

 

[DooDiligence]

Yoga and calisthenics (regularly), similar results but better for the head. Get's you on a dance floor too (which has other benefits).

[james22]

Thanks.

 

Ordered.

[rkbabang]

On 3/25/2024 at 12:08 PM, Saluki said:

What you can do is learn to focus on situation awareness and to make conscious decisions to reduce the odds of something bad happening. A former co-worker of mine was killed in a car-jacking recently in broad daylight in the part of town where all the office buildings are.  He was waiting to pick up his wife from her office and the car-jacker opened the passenger door, and got in and shot him. If he had been waiting with the door locked, or noticed that someone stepped off the sidewalk and was heading to his car, that might have bought him enough time to drive off.  

 

Great point.  Situational awareness is the best thing most people can improve on.  I learned this early in life.  I had an incident in my teens where I was stopped at a stop sign  in a city and someone opened my passenger side door and started getting into my car.  I popped the clutch and hammered on the gas and the guy with only 1 leg in my car up to about the hip went flying head over heels.   I never drove with my doors unlocked again.

 

I'm buying this one.  Thanks.

 

[Blugolds11]

Sounds like a knock off of a book I read years ago.”The Gift of Fear”

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Fear-Survival-Signals-Violence/dp/0440226198

 

Was required reading for State Patrol academy at the time I read it and recommended by someone I knew attending. 

 

There is something to be said about listening to that “little voice” in your head that whispers something isnt right. I credit this book for a few things, one of which was noticing abnormal behavior of a fella standing behind an elderly lady on the street in Rome, after I walked past him I turned to watch him crawl up behind the woman and reach in and take her cellphone from her pocket. I’ll just say, she got her cellphone back…I dont speak Italian, and he didnt seem to speak English..but there is a “universal language”….

[Charlie]

I liked this book regarding fears

 

 https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Fear-Survival-Lessons-Wild-ebook/dp/B08C3W3KVJ

 

 

Cheers!