#305 Robert Caro on power, poverty, ruthlessness, & obsession

What I learned from reading Working by Robert Caro.  ---- Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best: Sam Hinkie: Find Your People  ---- [3:40] You can't get very deep into Johnson's life without realizing that the central fact of his life was his relationship with his father. [8:00] It was the hill country and his father's failures that taught him how terrible could be the consequences of a single mistake. [8:45] Lyndon Johnson wouldn't understand. He would refuse to understand. He would threaten you, would cajole you, bribe you or charm you. He would do whatever he had to do, but he would get that vote. [9:00] What mattered to him was winning because he knew what losing could be. What its consequences could be. [9:50] Robert Caro books I've read:  The Power Broker  The Path to Power Means of Ascent Master of The Senate (currently reading)  [11:00] About what I wanted to do with my life and my books (which are my life) [11:40] I am a reflection of what I do. — Steve Jobs [23:20] There are certain moments in your life when you suddenly understand something about yourself. I loved going through those files, making them yield up their secrets to me. [24:10] Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamn page. [27:50] Robert Caro snaps: No, that's not why highways get built where they get built. They get built there because Robert Moses wants them there. [28:15] Robert Moses had power that no one understood. Power that nobody else was even thinking about. [29:50] There are sentences that are said to you in your life that are chiseled into your memory. [34:00] Three of the editors took me to some fancy restaurant and told me they could make me a star. Bob Gottlieb said, Well, I don't go out for lunch but we can have a sandwich at my desk and talk about your book. So of course I picked him. [37:15] Robert Moses was a ruthless genius with savage energy. [38:30] Ambitious people are rare, so if everyone is mixed together randomly, as they tend