Wisereads Vol. 75 — The Sovereign Child by Aaron Stupple, Handle Hard Well by Ted Lamade, and more
Last week, we shared Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth. This week, we're sharing Aaron Stupple's book, The Sovereign Child, his breakout debut which challenges rule-based parenting.
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Most highlighted Articles of the week
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers
Comedy writer Rebecca Shaw takes aim at Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg—not for their tech or ideals, but for their attempts at looking cool. "Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe – but cringe all the same. His cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to turn inside out at my bellybutton."
Thoughts On A Month With Devin
Researchers at Answers.AI hoped the collaborative AI teammate, Devin, would lighten their workload but found its problem-solving skills lacking. "When it worked, it was impressive. But that’s the problem - it rarely worked. Out of 20 tasks we attempted, we saw 14 failures, 3 inconclusive results, and just 3 successes. More concerning was our inability to predict which tasks would succeed. Even tasks similar to our early wins would fail in complex, time-consuming ways. The autonomous nature that seemed promising became a liability - Devin would spend days pursuing impossible solutions rather than recognizing fundamental blockers."
Handle Hard Well
Drawing parallels between investing and football, Ted Lamade argues that pressure and hardship forge the best performers—whether on the field or in the market. The NFL’s last four MVPs, he notes, were underdogs who beat the odds, including Josh Allen. "[The Buffalo Bills] needed someone who had repeatedly beaten the odds. After all, the Bills hadn’t won their division or a playoff game in close to two-and-a-half decades, and had twenty starting quarterbacks along the way. So, why did the Bills think this unpolished 22-year-old quarterback who had not received a single scholarship offer out of high school could turn this beleaguered franchise around? Because Allen knew how to 'handle hard well.'"
Most highlighted YouTube Video of the week
The #1 Business Book Millionaires Won't Tell You About
British weightlifting champion, entrepreneur, and founder Ross Harkness assumes you've already read the bestsellers. Why not generate alpha with your next read? "You know the way people say, 'Oh, this book changed my life,' and then they show you Atomic Habits. And don't get me wrong, Atomic Habits is a good book; Deep Work is a great book... they have their place, but when people say they changed their lives, most of the time they're just saying that. It didn't actually change their lives. Thinking in Systems — from the day I read it, it has changed my entire life."
Most highlighted Twitter Thread of the week
If you're reading this, you probably have forward neck posture
Veritas’s viral thread offers step-by-step exercises to address poor posture and "nerd neck," which can trigger a domino effect of health problems. "Most people don't know this but for every inch of forward head posture, the force on the spine increases by an additional 10-12 pounds. If you have nerd neck, you're asking for knee pain, immobility, and a lifetime of chiropractor visits."
Most highlighted PDF of the week
Foundations of Large Language Models
A partnership between Northeastern University and NiuTrans Research produced this guide to LLMs, breaking down fundamentals across four chapters: pre-training, generative models, prompting, and alignment. "Large language models originated from natural language processing, but they have undoubtedly become one of the most revolutionary technological advancements in the field of artificial intelligence in recent years. An important insight brought by large language models is that knowledge of the world and languages can be acquired through large-scale language modeling tasks, and in this way, we can create a universal model that handles diverse problems."
Hand-picked book of the week
The Sovereign Child
Kids need rules—or do they? Father of five and board-certified physician Aaron Stupple sees a simpler approach than either free rein parenting or relentless policing. In The Sovereign Child, Aaron shares advice on how parents can collaborate with children to find "win-win" solutions that honor their intuition yet fits within real-world boundaries. Freed from rigid rules, his kids voluntarily brush their teeth, set aside screens, and even stay still for diaper changes.
"One thing I’ve learned to do is adopt an overtly playful and even goofy mindset. This worked amazingly with my son when he was a baby. He hated having his diaper changed. I would pin him down with one hand as he writhed and screamed, while I furiously changed him with the other... After a few trials, I made a simple discovery—he didn’t mind having his diaper changed if he was standing! Thereafter, I’d just walk him over to a low table, put a toy on it, and change him standing up. No screaming, no crying, no struggling to get away as his stern-faced father held him down 'for his own good.'
I would never have found the standing-up solution if I remained convinced that there was no fun way to change a diaper, because I wouldn’t have been open to exploring the space of possible win–win solutions. The trouble with rules is that they close off the search for better solutions and instead settle for a certain amount of suffering. Aren’t our kids worth that search?"
We’re thrilled that Aaron is sharing a three-chapter preview of The Sovereign Child. If you enjoy the excerpt, you can download the full PDF on his website for free—and if you’d like to show your thanks, we encourage you to subscribe to his newsletter or to purchase the paperback.
Handpicked RSS feed of the week
Mike Monteiro's Good News
Each week, designer and author Mike Monteiro answers a reader’s pressing question—whether it’s how to ride a roller coaster, make a grilled cheese, or enjoy being bad at something. From How to get your joy back: "When I say you’re not getting your joy back, I mean that you’re looking in the wrong direction. What brought you joy in the past might not be what brings you joy in the future. And looking to recreate the past holds the risk of speedrunning you right back to the present. So when you say that you now loathe what you used to love that might be your body telling you 'hey, can we not do that again, please!'"