What I've Read in 2019
My to-read list tends to grow quickly, so I prune it mercilessly several times a year. The reading method remained unchanged as in 2018, with liberal abandonment of non-engaging books and great help from Notion and Bear
This year I’ve abandoned only two books, with 36 making it through the filter — an unexpectedly higher number compared to 24 titles in 2018. Two main parts of my content filter are how useful is it for my work and whether I’d like my kid to know it.
There are no summaries here, with a few first-impression takeaways from each book. I’d love to share thoughts on each of these books, so if you’ve read them please reach out.
Kids Are Worth It!
Raising kids with a backbone using empathy, as opposed to jellyfish or brick-wall parenting — in short, validate their emotions instead of suppressing them. Easily applicable for communication in business and politics, as there’s less difference between kids and adults than we might be comfortable with.
Neither harsh punishment nor full pardon will heal the victims or the perpetrators of the mayhem. It is nonviolent engagement that is at the heart of true reconciliatory justice: the willingness to confront the wrongdoing and reach out to the wrongdoer.
Autobiography and Other Writings
Life and its lessons from one of history’s most interesting characters.
At his table, he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children [Franklin’s father].
Circe
A beautifully woven story, bringing together all of the greats from Greek mythology. Storytelling at its finest.
I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer. Then, child, make another.
Folsom Untold
The story of Johnny Cash’s most infamous act and record, what preceded it and its aftermath.
Storynomics
Starting with the premise that emotional manipulation and rhetorical persuasion no longer trigger a positive reaction from customers, McKee builds the idea that the remaining tool for brands is — story.
Many assume that because they’ve seen and heard a lifetime of stories, they could easily create one. But that’s like thinking you can compose music because you’ve been to concerts.
This is Marketing
Plenty of insights scattered around, better than expected.
It’s entirely possible that your work isn’t as good as it needs to be. But it’s also possible that you failed to be clear about who it was for in the first place.
Atomic Habits
Another one I did not expect much from, yet it is a great resource for understanding how habits work — even better if applied afterward.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Bigger Than This
A condensed primer on ways in which a commodity can be converted into a brand.
Just a metaphoric exit down the freeway from Heritage lies a place called Nostalgia.
Designing Your Life
Two of the people behind Stanford’s Design Program on using design thinking for crafting the architecture of one’s life. Several good exercises for envisioning, more than planning.
…people waste a lot of time working on the wrong problem. If they are lucky, they will fail miserably quickly and get forced by circumstance into working on better problems. If they are unlucky and smart, they’ll succeed — we call it the success disaster — and wake up ten years later wondering how the hell they got to wherever they are, and why they are so unhappy.
Finite and Infinite Games
There are games played for the win, and games unwinnable. Latter matter. Former matter if they contribute to the pursue of the infinite ones.
Infinite players understand the inescapable likelihood of evil. They, therefore, do not attempt to eliminate evil in others, for to do so is the very impulse of evil itself, and therefore a contradiction.
They only attempt paradoxically to recognize in themselves the evil that takes the form of attempting to eliminate evil elsewhere.
Get Backed
The most comprehensive guide to pitching out there.
The basic anatomy of a pitch deck is surprisingly simple. It aligns with the critical questions investors ask themselves when looking at a potential opportunity.
Illuminate
An inspiring read on internal communication and staff alignment.
Step inside their minds to explore how they see things, to understand what they’re feeling, and to anticipate what they might do (or resist doing) at each step of your venture.
How to Launch a Brand
As the subtitle says, it is a step-by-step guide to getting the brand right prior to launching it in public — from positioning to naming and identity.
If you’re opening a coffee shop, ask yourself, “So what? Isn’t there a coffee shop on every corner? What makes my coffee shop different?”
On Shortness of Life
There’s a growing backlash against modern “stoic” philosophy (much of it rightly so), and it’s always a good idea to go back and read the sages themselves.
It is the mind that creates our wealth, and this goes with us into exile, and in the harshest desert places, it finds sufficient to nourish the body and revels in the enjoyment of its own goods.
ReWork
Quick and easy, distilled writing on down-to-earth personal and business development.
Don’t shy away from the fact that your product or service does less. Highlight it. Be proud of it. Sell it as aggressively as competitors sell their extensive feature lists.
Building a StoryBrand
Don Miller is a very generous guy as the framework he lays down is on par with McKee’s — perhaps even more applicable in business. His is one of the three podcasts I follow regularly.
The fatal mistake some brands make, especially young brands who believe they need to prove themselves, is they position themselves as the hero in the story instead of the guide.
Creative Confidence
From the creators of IDEO, on creativity as a muscle that needs strengthening through exercise instead of an innate ability.
We didn’t know as children that we were creative. We just knew that it was okay for us to try experiments that sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed.
Make Time
From the creators of Design Sprint, a down-to-earth collection of actions to take for — well, making time.
Asking yourself “What’s going to be the highlight of my day?” ensures that you spend time on the things that matter to you and don’t lose the entire day reacting to other people’s priorities.
Flip the Script
Pre-ordered due to his Pitch Anything — Klaff is a great storyteller, delivering valuable lessons on pitching through fiction.
…today, everyone can find, research, and buy anything online — so high-pressure sales scripts are not just unwelcome, they are hated.
Alchemy
One of my favorite thinkers out there, a most lucid character able to make behavioral insights applicable in business. Didn’t think twice about getting the audiobook as he narrated it himself — ended up getting the hard copy and gifting it after giving a talk on applied behavioral science.
It is much easier to be fired for being illogical than it is for being unimaginative. The fatal issue is that logic always gets you to exactly the same place as your competitors.
The Fellowship of the Ring
Knowing the movies almost by heart, this was my first insight into the brilliance of the most famous of Inklings.
Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
Silmarillion
The complex mythology behind the world he created, followed by wonderful stories.
There befell the battle of Huan and Wolf-Sauron, and howls and baying echoed in the hills, and the watchers on the walls of Ered Wethrin across the valley heard it afar and were dismayed.
But no wizardry nor spell, neither fang nor venom, nor devil’s art nor beast-strength, could overthrow Huan of Valinor; and he took his foe by the throat and pinned him down.
The Business of Expertise
On building expertise, and as important — communicating it.
Remember Dr. House on that TV show? The only possible reason you’d seek him out is because you were dying, because at that moment, his expertise was irreplaceable. There were no substitutes.
The Elements of Style
Not something to be read, but to be kept close for reference.
A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
Mere Christianity
Probably the most polarizing reviews I’ve encountered — either loved or hated. I love it.
“…hate the sin, but not the sinner.” For a long time, I used to think this is a silly, straw-splitting distinction. How could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later, it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I have been doing this all my life — namely, myself.
On Suicide
The Penguin’s short collection of essays along with the one by which it is titled — not the easiest writing, yet there’s something wonderful about his style and thinking.
Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.
Blue Ocean Strategy
Cues to uncover new markets and position beyond the competition.
…noncustomers tend to offer far more insight into how to unlock and grow a blue ocean than do relatively content existing customers.
The Choice Factory
The best intro to applied behavioral science (ie behavioral economics) I laid my hands on.
When faced with an outbreak of bubonic plague, the French colonialists offered a small fee for every rat’s tail handed in. The tactic seemed successful at first…
The bounty encouraged entrepreneurial spirits to feed rats, lop off their tails, and set them free.
The Advertising Effect
A good intro to advertising and powerful lateral thinking examples for applying behavioral insights within the industry.
The only way to influence behavior change is to provide a motivating reason for doing so. It comes down to naked self-interest. That, of course, is where the psychology and artistry come in, locating and communicating that self-interest.
Company of One
Much needed perspective on why not to scale and how to succeed while staying small.
Start by helping one customer. Then another. This puts your focus on helping people immediately with what you’ve got available to you right now.
Endurance
Epic storytelling. A 20th century Odyssey of ice.
Their plight was known only to the six men in this ridiculously little boat, whose responsibility now was to prove that all the laws of chance were wrong — and return with help. It was a staggering trust.
The Messy Middle
Two people came to mind immediately after putting it down, as to whom I should gift it to. On volatilities and dynamics of running a business.
Having empathy for your customers should come before falling in love with your solution.
The Brand Gap
A two-hour read on the fundamentals of a brand.
It’s not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.
Zag
A framework for being different — building a brand.
Between hitting ’em where they ain’t (differentiation) and getting in front of a parade (finding a trend), you have the keys to finding your zag.
Etymologicon
A hilarious stroll through the origins of everyday words and phrases — some illuminating, others making me go “whaaat?!”.
Naughty used to be a much more serious word than it is now, but it has been overused and lost its power…. If you were naughty it used to mean that you were a no-human. It comes from exactly the same root as nought or nothing. Now it just means that you’re mischievous.
Storm in a Teacup
The complexity of physics digested into everyday things. An excellent example of teaching big concepts well and a source of metaphors.
When we say “heat rises”, that’s not quite true. It’s more that “cooler fluid sinks as it wins the gravitational battle”. But no one thanks you for pointing that out.