Tag: books
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Book: Taming Your Gremlin
Taming Your Gremlin (Amazon) is basically Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – and I much preferred The Happiness Trap because I found the cutesy “gremlin” metaphor really annoying. Basically: the voice in your head that tells you what’s wrong with you and what you need to do, that’s your “gremlin”. And you don’t have to pay attention…
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Book: First Break All The Rules
I spend a lot of time obsessing about: 1) how to be a good manager, and 2) how to have any idea if I am doing a good job. So I was happy to discover First Break All The Rules (Amazon), because it contains (data driven!) information on how to be a good manager, and also…
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Book: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
I really enjoyed Switch (Amazon), it’s a book about behaviour change. The metaphor of the rider and the elephant is used throughout to illustrate that whatever you think you want to do, you (the rider) have less influence than the environment (the elephant). It covers how to motivate the rider, but then make it really easy…
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Book: Beyond Blame: Learning From Failure and Success
I’ve been meaning to read Beyond Blame: Learning From Failure and Success (Amazon) ever since we started planning the Technically Speaking webinar with Dave. Finally got to it! It’s a story about moving from a culture of blame – and the costs of a culture of blame – to a culture of blamelessness. What does that…
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Book: Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person
I absolutely loved Shonda Rhime’s Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person (Amazon). It’s a book about being a strong woman, and making your own choices. About being open to life. About being who you want to be, and living the life you want rather than…
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Book: Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking
I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking. It was a helpful collection of tips for preparing and giving presentations, including the why and how of psyching yourself up to do it! As someone who reads a lot about giving good presentations (hello have you seen the newsletter)…
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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…