Book Reviews 2018

I've read a lot of books over the past year. Each has been interesting,
and I think they've each helped me grow in different ways. I should
have done a better job of recording what I've read and what I've taken
away from each book. Here's a brief summary of some of the more
interesting books.

Daring Greatly

I was encouraged to listen to Brené Brown's TED talk about
vulnerability. It's an easy to consume presentation, and I encourage
you to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o. This
presentation was a glimpse of the main content of her book "Daring
Greatly". This is an easy to
read book, in a fairly conversational style, but filled with interesting
clinical analyses. Brown is a researcher, so the bulk of her book is
based on real research, rather than just anecdotal evidence of things.

I actually don't remember much of the details, and I didn't take any
notes, but I do recall this as being a good book for me to read. It was
a helpful starting point for me for where I was emotionally at the time.
It might not be super useful to you, but it's a book of which to be
aware.

Learned Optimism

Learned Optimism was extremely
interesting and directly helpful to me, personally. Dr. Seligman studied
what made some people fundamentally positive, and others fundamentally
negative. The answer is "the stories we tell ourselves". He used a lot
of experiments, and shares many of them in the book. The book, at times,
ran a little long, or a little more clinical, than I would have liked;
so I found myself skimming the later chapters, which were his attempt to
provide actionable guidance for different kinds of life situations. The
first half of the book had the most meat, for me.

Wikipedia has a decent overview of the concept of leaned
optimism, and its
opposite learned
helplessness.

I found this book very helpful in learning to adjust my internal
monologue. It didn't come naturally, or easily, but over the last year
I have used what I learned from this book to actively adjust how I
handle my internal responses to situations. My personal explanatory
styles of personal,
pervasive, and permanent tended toward the negative end of the spectrum,
but Learned Optimism gave me a framework for making conscious decisions
to at least acknowledge possible alternative explanations. This
awareness slowly enabled me to intentionally choose alternate
explanations for events. It's still not natural for me; and my default
style is still often more negative than I'd like; but I am aware of a
dramatic difference between how I think about things now versus how I
did last year.

I highly recommend this book for all pessimists. I also recommend it for
optimists, so that they might learn a little of how pessimistic people
view the world.

Radical Candor

Radical Candor is a great book.
I read it not because I am a boss, but because the skills necessary to
be a boss are also generally useful to individual contributors, too. The
primary content of this book is about interpersonal relationships, and
how to view them within the context of a grid of options: Ruinous
Empathy, Manipulative Insincerity, Obnoxious Aggression, and Radical
Candor. Plenty of real-world examples of each are provided. The latter
half of the book kind of veers away from the primary content and
provides a little more thought on how to be a boss, how to manage your
calendar, etc.

There is a Radical
Candor website
with some introductory content.

I highly recommend this book. It's easy to read, and provides useful
information. The big secret is that to be radically candid you actually
need to care about the person with whom you are interacting. It seems
obvious, but the book does a good job of exploring the nuance of what
this means, and how to operationalize it in different contexts.

Start With Why

Start With Why, by Simon Sinek,
is the long-form book of this TedX
talk. It's a little long
winded, and I think it could safely be abbreviated without reducing the
value. The primary argument is "People don't buy what you do, but why
you do it." Sinek presents a number of examples that support his
theory. It's a very conversational book, and easy to read. The examples
at times feel a little contrived.

It's not a bad book, and I do recommend reading it if you have the
time. I didn't have any major takeaways, but it has expanded the way I
view business decision making, and personal motivation.

Some people really like Sinek and his message; while others
don't.

Search Inside Yourself

Search Inside Yourself is a
book that grew out of an internal Google program for staff development.
It's extremely casual and conversational. The author has a definite
sense of humor and employs it liberally throughout the text. I didn't
finish this book, but I really liked it and I highly recommend it. The
first part focuses on personal awareness, and offers a number of
easy-to-learn meditative practices. It sounds a little hokey when
presented without all the context in the book, I know. But the book does
a good job of exploring personal mastery of one's emotional state, and
provides real world examples of people with great control.

I didn't finish the book because the later chapters really focus on
group interactions. The exercises in the book require multiple
participants for interactive sessions. I would love to work through this
entire text with a book club, if anyone is interested! There is also a
formal training program whereby trained instructors can come onsite to
facilitate classes. I'd love to do that, too!

This book, combined with Learned Optimism, seems like a real winning
combination to me. Learning to adjust (or at least be aware of) one's
explanatory style is greatly helped by this book's focus on personal
awareness, and compassion.

More to Come!

I'm still reading books! And I'm making a real effort to take notes of
the things I find most interesting or useful. I'll be sure to write
summaries of them when I finish!