This is a book that I highly recommend.
I admire the way that Ed Thorp thinks and share his values on the way that we should spend our time.
A few quotes from the book:
I felt then, as I do now, that what matters is what you do and how do you it, the quality of the time you send, and the people you share it with.
We value each additional unit less than the last. I apply this to the trade-offs among health, wealth, and time.
I think of each hour spent on fitness as one day less that I’ll spend in a hospital
Education builds software for your brain. When you’re born, think of yourself as a computer with a basic operating system and not much else. Learning is like adding programs, big and small, to this computer, from drawing a face to riding a bicycle to reading to mastering calculus. You will use these programs to make your way in the world. Much of what I’ve learned came from schools and teachers. Even more valuable, I learned at an early age to teach myself.
To preserve the quality of my life and to spend more of it in the company of people I value and in the exploration of ideas I enjoy, I chose not to follow up on a number of business ventures, although I believed that they were nearly certain to become extremely profitable. Once I worked out the major concepts in a subject and proved them in action, I liked new mental challenges, moving on from gambling games to the investment world, with warrants options, convertible bonds and other derivatives, then statistical arbitrage.
Whatever you do, enjoy your life and the people who share it with you, and leave something good of yourself for the generations to follow