Ask IH: What are you reading this month?
I picked up this book DotComSecrets out of curiosity. Its a really slick sales letter of sorts as are most books by online marketing people. But am still getting a few gems out of it on value ladders, characters, stories, and email sequences.
What are you reading / listening to this month and what have you learned from it?
Trying not to read. I've read tons of book this year so far. At some point, I need to spend time working, reading is a great way for me to procrastinate while feeling busy/productive. :D
Here's what's currently in my to read/finish list for the year. I'll be much happier if I didn't read anymore and had customers/revenue instead. :D
Startup Owner's Manual
Executive Function
Lean customer development
Black box Thinking
Traction
Hooked
A Random walk down Wall Street
Internet Marketing
The Personal MBA
Lateral Thinking
Finished "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand, an amazing book about healthy egoism, believe in yourself, staying true to your own principles and etc. I really like Ayn Rand's work, especially Atlas Shrugged.
Now reading "The Lean Startup", finished about 40%, so far disappointed by it.
I read these back during the financial crisis of 2008. They are pretty interesting. She definitely has a knack for a good hero plot. Her philosophy Objectivism can easily appeal to analytical minds as it is essentially the mental model of first principles.
"It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work"
by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson 👍
What was your biggest takeaway from this book?
Just finished "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck." It has some good ideas. It's helped me with some things I was stuck with because of fears, etc.
Currently reading "The Personal MBA" and deciding whether to continue or not. Because of the title I thought it was going to be about how businesses are run and all the different functions (I was looking for a book that describes—among other things—bookkeeping). But so far it's all about starting a business and in that respect this is very basic and superficial (like many blogs out there).
I have the Personal MBA on the kindle. I have found the latter section on developing business processes invaluable for companies that are starting to scale. To be honest, I pick and choose sections in the book as I need them.
That's probably the best way to make use of it.
I think I just had different expectations :)
How to Make Friends and Influence People.
I read this years ago when I first graduated college. I think it is still very relevant today. It gives you the general ideas but not too many specifics. There are a few other books in this category that get into the details. What is your biggest takeaway so far?
Win friends and influence people, right? How are you finding it? I couldn't finish it. The ideas are sound but it felt so dated. It read like a 1930's infomercial
yes, that one. sorry. I'm reading the more recent edition, but plan to read the older 1930s as well, just for comparison.
I like it and I'm already applying some things to my daily life. It doesn't feel like an infomercial to me as it doesn't try to sell any product to me beside a better and happier life. This approach of being a better person towards others so it reflects back isn't totally new to me (having (very) loosely grown up as a catholic before naturally leaving the church).
Just finished The outsiders and Start Small, Stay small currently reading/listening to the following:
Audible: Financial Intelligence
iPad: Blitzscaling and Atomic Habits
iPhone: Measure what matters
Also studying Mastering Postgresql 10 and release it.
The outsiders is a collection of stories about CEOs that were great at capital allocation and techniques they used. I really enjoyed it even though a lot of the stories were fairly dated.
Start small, Stay small would be good for someone new to all this and I enjoyed reading it but I didn't really get much from it.
A friend of mine mentioned Atomic Habits. How do you like it? What is your biggest takeaway?
Haven't finished it, chipping away at it quite slowly since it honestly just seems like every other habit book and about 50% of the way through and I've not gotten anything new. Still hopeful for the last 50% given the reviews but not overly hopeful hence the slow pace. From what I can see is he took the habit cycle and renamed one of the steps then wrote a book about it. It's not independent discovery either since he name drops the habit cycle.
"Purple Cow" by Seth Godin.
'Bout time for this introverted developer to learn some marketing.
How do you like it?
I enjoyed the read, but I think the TED talk he gave was enough to absorb the important bits. https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread?language=en
The books fleshed things out of course and gave tons of concrete/fun/thought-provoking examples.
I just finished the third door by Alex Banayan (interesting read) and have started expert secrets by russel Brunson.
The third door is a story about how the author, Alex, interviews some of the most successful people in the world. Bill gates, lady Gaga, etc etc and the challenges he’s experienced along the way.
Expert secrets is about building a following - a real culture - and selling like it’s going out of style.
I’ll end up reading bad blood before the month reads out.
I am about halfway through expert secrets. What is your biggest takeaway?