Accidentally in Code

Tag: books

  • Book: How to Sleep Well Every Night

    Book: How to Sleep Well Every Night

    the sleep bookMy abiding memory of my teenage years is being sleep-deprived and exhausted. Being awake at 4am. Eventually, age 22, I trained myself to sleep with sleeping pills and ever since I’ve been mostly free of insomnia. It’s come with certain rituals though. When I travel, I get to be free of those rituals and do things I would never do at home, using electronics in bed being the big one. And I still sleep OK.

    But having had insomnia I do fear it coming back. Lying awake feels terrifyingly familiar. If it happens a couple of nights in a row I will get anxious. If I feel like I haven’t been physically active enough I will go to bed expecting not to sleep… and then I won’t.

    Anyway, The Sleep Book (Amaz0n) was refreshing because it’s not about how to arrange your life around rituals for sleeping, but about sleeping normally which means – doing nothing. About reclaiming your life from insomnia and living it again. It’s a 5 week program, so I read a chapter a week.

    Even though I now mostly sleep fine, I still found it helpful – and one of the things it clarified for me was that my sleep rituals? I don’t need them when I travel. I don’t really need them at all. But I’ll keep some of them anyway because I like them for their own sake, now.

  • Book: Thinking in Systems

    Book: Thinking in Systems

    thinking in systems
    thinking in systems

    I found Thinking in Systems (Amazon) via @jessitron’s excellent post Systems Thinking about WIT. I had been aware of some of the concepts of systems thinking for a while, but it was great to have a book that really explained it.

    I really enjoyed it. It articulated things that I intuitively understood but couldn’t explain, but also covered things that I didn’t – like the way that trying to influence a system can backfire. Do you try and exert force on the thing you want to change? Or on the things that result in that thing. Also, trivia! Jimmy Carter was a systems thinker, and wanted to not invest in border control with Mexico but on boosting the Mexican economy until there was no longer such a differential between them.

    It’s a relatively short book, and written in a readable way. I got a lot out of it, and I definitely recommend it.

  • Book: How to Invest Your Time Like Money

    Book: How to Invest Your Time Like Money

    41zOzd9WEiL._SL250_ One of the things I really liked about How to Invest Your Time Like Money (Amazon) is how short it was. There are plenty of lengthy books written about time management, I know I’ve read a bunch of them, and some of them have been very helpful. This book though, is short and strategic.

    Two key points, one of them similar to 168 Hours (Amazon) – which I also really liked. We all get 24 hours in the day. Your time budget is that 24 hours, minus necessary things like sleeping, eating etc. Whatever is left is what you have to work with. You need to be strategic about what you put in it. What are your priorities? Work, relationships, exercise, etc.

    The other point I really liked was about layering, which is about fitting more in. This is combining things that use different channels – like listening to podcasts whilst walking, or talking on the phone whilst cleaning. This is what I do when I combine my workouts with watching TV.

    For me this book was a <30 minute read. Well worth fitting into my time budget!

  • Book: Women in IT: Inspiring the next generation

    Book: Women in IT: Inspiring the next generation

    women in IT In the way of a lot of books that are a collection of blog posts, Women in IT (Amazon) is a bit disjointed and the writing varies. It’s also very promoting of the BCS which is not an organisation that I am involved with – I had to take a course at uni for accreditation which I found completely pointless and vowed never to join (never let it be said that I can’t hold a grudge).

    That being said, it’s great to see my friends Hannah and Anne-Marie in a book! And they are both very inspiring. And as a Brit, it’s nice to see more highlighting of British women in tech – most media on this is pretty US-centric.

    Other than that, my favourite was the entrepreneurship section, which included Dame Steve Shirley – with the hilarious story of how the equal opportunities act meant they had to start employing men!

    It’s a free book, and a pretty short read. So if you’re interested and have time? May as well.

  • 5 Books to Read Instead of Wadhwa

    5 Books to Read Instead of Wadhwa

    book
    Credit: Pixabay / Hermann

    I’m quoted in this New York Times article, which is awesome. And one of the things I like about it, is that it calls out that the published research doesn’t actually back up some of the points Wadhwa has been making. So it seemed timely to write up some books that I think would be a better read for people who want to learn more about this topic.

    Unlocking the Clubhouse [Amazon] [my review]: Thorough exploration of why women don’t study CS at university, and what are effective ways to improve that. Notice the publication date.

    Whistling Vivaldi [Amazon] [my review]: The definitive work on the effects of stereotype threat, and how it effects women and people of colour.

    Delusions of Gender [Amazon]: Breaks down the difference between genetics and socialisation, explains how little of the difference between men and women we can attribute to gender, hormones etc.

    The Male Factor [Amazon] [my review]: One of the most depressing but helpful books I have ever read, analysis of a mass survey that helps us understand how women are perceived in the workplace.

    Women Don’t Ask [Amazon]: On women and negotiation, explains why it’s not always viable to just “ask for more”.

  • Book: The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life

    Book: The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life

    61z2upEqVmL._SL250_I enjoyed The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life (Amazon), partially as a travel junkie (is it weird that his deportation from Eritrea makes me want to go?) and also as someone who is usually striving after some sort of goal.

    The book is about people who persevere for a long time in pursuit of a goal, maybe a slightly crazy one. The author visited every country in the world. A guy walked across America. A woman cooked a meal from every country in the world. A girl of 16 sailed around the world alone. It’s not just inspirational stories, the stories are woven into a narrative that asks what is quest? Why do we do it? How? And what happens after?

    I made me ask myself if I have a quest? And having concluded no, ask should I have one? There are places I want to go (notably this list, and maybe this one – alternate version – although so far I’ve only been to one from each). It would be cool to visit every country in the world, but for the last few years I have contented myself with going somewhere new each year. This year, Sweden and Romania (maybe I can fit in one more!). 2013, Thailand, New Zealand (x3!), North Korea, India, Indonesia (Bali), Iceland, Portugal, Prague. 2012: Australia, Singapore, Denmark. 2011: Prince Edward Island, California.

    Anyway, so far I haven’t found a quest of my own. But I did enjoy the book, and if you, like me, love an adventure, you might like it too.

  • No Novel November (2014)

    No Novel November (2014)

    Credit: Pixabay / OpenClips
    Credit: Pixabay / OpenClips

    Like last year, I felt like I had been reading too many novels, and so as November approached I challenged myself to repeat last year’s experiment: No Novel November. It went less well than last year for a couple of reasons.

    1. I actually cracked and read a novel (Nov 26).
    2. I watched the entire of The OC (Amazon).
    3. I didn’t read as much non-fiction (only about 4 books to last year’s 8).

    I did:

    • Get through a bunch of my online reading backlog (my Twitter favourites are my “to read” list).
    • At least start on books that I had not got around to.

    What made this year harder?

    Main thing, I think, I was not relaxed. Whereas last November I was taking a break and seeing the world, and No-Novel November took place in Barcelona, Canada, Iceland, Portugal. This year it took place in Denmark, Sweden, and Romania, but mostly the UK. The nearly 3 week period in the UK was the hardest, especially as I was struggling with a knee injury which restricted my movement.

    The other thing was that I made a mistake, and having started on a book that I couldn’t read more than 2-3 chapters of a day, opened another book that was also quite hard going (the next chapter will apparently take 28 minutes to read, I saw that and could not begin it), and ground to a halt. Eventually, I bought a new book that was a lighter read, and interspersed it with one of the others, which helped, but I didn’t do that until the end of the month (at which point I had already cracked).

    Was it still worthwhile?

    Yes! I think it’s good to be mindful about habits of media consumption, and it has at least given me a break from the Georgette Heyer kick I was on prior. Also 4 nonfiction books in a month is not impressive, but it’s at least more than the 1-2 I manage normally.

    Next year?

    Probably. Hopefully I’ll look back at this and be a bit more mindful about what books I pick, though!

  • Book: How to Deliver a TED Talk

    Book: How to Deliver a TED Talk

    how to deliver a TED talkHow to Deliver a TED Talk (Amazon) is packed with some solid and fairly standard public speaking advice, which was good, but the most interesting parts for me were the deconstructions of TED talks. When prepping talks personally, I think a lot about my narrative, and taking notes during other peoples helps me see theirs better, although this guy takes it to a whole other level!

    All in all I thought it was worth a read. From the perspective of a public speaking nerd and as a speaker (although less so the latter).

  • Book: Gravitas

    Book: Gravitas

    gravitasI read Gravitas (Amazon) really slowly, and part of the reason for that was that I wanted to take the time and process each chapter. The “gravitas” eqation of

    Knowledge + purpose + passion (- anxiety) = Gravitas

     is what I think of as “poise”, and as I’ve mentioned before is my goal as a speaker.

    There were a couple of tips I found particularly helpful. The first, on being present. FOFBOC, or feet on floor, bum on chair. It’s about being where you are, getting out of your head and back into you body and being where you are. With your feet on the floor, and your bum on the chair.

    The other answered a question I had been asking myself. I was wondering why I wasn’t as charismatic in certain situations as I am in other areas of my life. Why is it in some areas people open up to me and tell me things, and in others… the opposite? I wondered if I less able to project warmth in those situations.

    So the second thing that I found helpful was the section on gremlins. One of which is the gremlin of feeling threatened, or got at. And I realised, that my charisma was sapped, yes because I feel less warm, but really, because I feel braced for threat.

    All in all, I recommend it. I think women need help walking that fine line between being a bitch, and being a pushover. This book, I think, helps us walk it.