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Ask IH: What books do you recommend reading once every year?
By
Abhishek
August 23, 2018
They don't necessarily have to be business, startup, or even non-fiction. Just good books.
How To Win Friends and Influence People, get an older version if possible.
By the way, the design for your website is very nice. Did you do it yourself?
Thank you! I did it myself yes. I still feel like it could be improved quite a bit, especially in terms of showing off the product, but I've banned myself from working on design/product for now to focus on actually getting customers.
If it wasn't printed in the 30's, it ain't legit!
I actually haven't read a newer version but my understanding is that a lot of good advice was removed because it was also accompanied by some casual sexism/racism that you might expect from a book published in the 1930s.
The older version also provides some interesting insight into the attitudes of the interwar period and the magnates of the time.
That kind of censorship is a real shame. I have my grandfather's original copy, and while yes there are parts of the book that may be offensive or outdated (ie: the final chapter on performing as a good house-wife) there is still so much to be learned from the good and the bad. At most, I think publishers producing older books should add a preface to disclaim if they feel necessary.
Although this is immensely popular, haven't read it yet somehow. But I usually try to avoid self-help books.
4 hour workweek
Nice! What's your best takeaway from that? How has it improved your life/productivity?
I want to get to the point where I'm owning the business, and not running this business. and theres a path forward for that.
create a "muse", outsource as much as i can.
the strategies for breaking out of the office 9-5, and working remote.
the 80/20 principle has been really helpful.
Thanks for sharing!
Flow Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
I first read it a couple of years back when I was studying design. It was mandatory as part of the curriculum.
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Finished reading it just a couple of weeks back after being heavily bombarded with recommendations from numerous people. It's a simple read yet very powerful and very much against Freud's concepts.
That book is brutal. It's just so unlike anything I've ever read.
Rework (by Basecamp)
How to Win Friends and Influence People
How to Get Rich (by Felix Dennis)
Hackers & Painters (Paul Graham)
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering (Richard Hamming)
some more recs at https://tristan.readwise.io :)
Despite the name, How to Get Rich is not a get-rich-quick book at all!
It's a "you probably don't want to get rich, but if you do here's the slow and really hard way to do it" book. It's actually closer to a no-BS memoir of this amazing entrepreneur than any sort of how-to. As the saying goes, I would highly recommend you check it out, and not judge the book by its cover ;)
Will definitely check it out then. Thanks a tonne for the recommendation.
Tyranny of the Urgent
Looks interesting. Will definitely give it a try.
The Obstacle Is the Way, by Ryan Holiday
I usually try to avoid anecdotal books. Ryan Holiday seems to excel in it. Ego is the Enemy being another example.