Category: Books
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Book – Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
I thought Slack (Amazon) was just about time management, but actually it is a book about organisational dysfunction. I found it eye opening. At the heart of it is the idea that trying to optimise for efficiency is problematic, and the various dysfunctions that result. Dysfunctions such as: busywork (need to appear busy, otherwise you’re…
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Book: The Truth About Burnout
I found the Truth About Burnout (Amazon) from this article, which I think gives the main takeaways from the book far more succinctly. I did find the book interesting and I’m glad I read it, but I wouldn’t necessarily encourage other people to. It’s a little dated in places (it was published in 2000), and…
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Book: Mental Traps
Mental Traps (Amazon) is like… a taxonomy of the unhelpful mental behaviour we regularly engage in. One of my friends recommended it to me after I admitted being a completionist, saying it was so helpful she hadn’t needed to finish it. I did actually make it to the end, take that as you will. As…
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Book: Essentialism
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Amazon) is about what you don’t do. It’s about accepting the reality that you can’t be great at everything, ruthlessly prioritising, and saying no. I found it a useful book to follow Better Than Before with, because it dived into the thing Better than Before made me think about most: what was…
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Book: Better than Before
I’ve been reading Gretchen Rubin‘s blog for a long time, including (I think) the whole time she was writing this book, so wasn’t sure how much I would get from reading Better than Before. A lot of the ideas in it I’d seen in her blog, but actually having it all in one place at one time…
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Book: Data Driven
Data Driven is about how to fit Data Science into your company. It’s strategic rather than tactical. Has a brief overview of the history of Data Science, including facts like Walmart was the first company to embrace data science starting in the 80s. One of the most interesting aspects I found was stories from turning…
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Book: Just Fucking Ship
In this spirit of “just fucking ship” Just Fucking Ship, the book, was written in 24 hours (although it has been edited and updated since then). There’s a dinner party metaphor worked throughout which I didn’t connect with because I don’t cook. But essentially it’s about: break things down, work backwards, and don’t make your…
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Book – APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur
The main thing I got from APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book (Amazon) was that writing a book was much more possible than I had thought. This was mainly the “publisher” section which breaks down how to get your work into people’s hands, what self publishing entails, and what the options are. I don’t remember…
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Book: Wear Sunscreen: A Primer for Real Life
Of course I had heard the song “Sunscreen” and thought that it was advice from Baz Luhrmann himself, but I came across this book – Wear Sunscreen: A Primer for Real Life – by Mary Schmich. Who it turns out was the author. It opened explaining what happened, and how she was erased from her creation and how…