Last updated June 15, 2024

2024

24 books
  • Strong Product People by Petra Wille
    Finished: December 29, 2024

    Really in depth guide to being a Head of Product. Lots of good tools to add to your PM Toolkit, like the PM Wheel assessment.

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  • Building Material: The Memoir of a Park Avenue Doorman by Stephen Bruno
    Finished: December 15, 2024

    A quick, enjoyable read about a lifelong New Yorker and his career as a doorman.

  • Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
    Finished: November 13, 2024

    I've seen a lot of quotes from this author, but haven't read anything from him. This book - about the adventure of being one of the first pilots - has no business being this well written.

  • Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders
    Finished: November 5, 2024

    Interesting short stories. Thanks for the recommendation, Patrick!

  • The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
    Finished: September 30, 2024

    Really amazing connections between Buddhist philosophies/Zen and how to create.

  • Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
    Finished: September 15, 2024

    Over 500 pages, but it keeps you engaged the entire time. Leonardo was a fascinating person, and I learned how important it is to sit, observe, and be curious.

  • Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
    Finished: August 21, 2024

    It's amazing to think about the nomadic world Genghis Khan was born into, and the empire he left. Who knew Mongols were proponents of free speech, free trade, and religious freedom.

  • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks
    Finished: August 16, 2024

    Stories are about a 5 second moment that changes you. I generally think this was helpful for a specific type of story, but it was helpful nonetheless

  • The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell
    Finished: July 6, 2024

    I love old WWII bombers, and this was a fascinating look at how they were developed under the premise that you could win a war through the air alone.

  • Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen Ambrose
    Finished: June 15, 2024

    Not bad, but the miniseries was better. The story is interesting, but I didn't take a lot away from the book.

  • Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
    Finished: June 10, 2024

    Opportunity Solutions Trees! I found this book right when I needed it, so it resonated.

  • To Risk It All by Admiral James Stavridis
    Finished: May 15, 2024

    9 easily digestible naval leadership stories.

  • The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
    Finished: May 31, 2024

    Entertaining airport pickup. Don't think too much about it and the story will surprise you.

  • Transformed by Marty Cagan
    Finished: April 28, 2024

  • Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman
    Finished: April 20, 2024

    It's pretty baking heavy, but these are basic things that people should know as they become better home cooks.

  • We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole
    Finished: April 10, 2024

    Fairly long, but it was an interesting look into the collapse of two big pillars of Irish culture - Catholicism and the conservative politics of Fianna Fail.

  • Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Shrier
    Finished: March 8, 2024

    I'm probably pre-disposed to agree with a lot of the thoughts in this book. But from a science perspective, it stayed very high-level, not getting into details of how studies rely on flawed methodology (despite a few pages on biases).

  • On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
    Finished: March 24, 2024

    Enjoyable backstory and some very different suggestions on how to write well. His philosophy: stories are like fossils; you need to uncover as much of the story intact as possible. He also is big on picking characters and putting them in situations to discover the plot

  • Uncertain: The Wisdom of Being Unsure by Maggie Jackson
    Finished: March 8, 2024

    Maybe closer to a 4. The first part has some beautiful prose, but it strays from uncertainty a bit and ends without some strong conclusions about how to deal with uncertainty more effectively (although this is probably the point.)

  • Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross
    Finished: February 13, 2024

    TBD

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  • Think Faster, Talk Smarter by Matt Abrahams
    Finished: January 28, 2024

    Quick, easy read full of useful frameworks and tips for conversing better. I learned a lot from this book.

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  • The Rise And Fall Of The Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
    Finished: January 23, 2024

    Really interesting if you're into dinosaurs. Among the things I learned: fossils can tell us what color the dinosaurs were; the asteroid wiped out most dinosaurs within a day; dinosaurs evolved wings before they knew how to fly; birds are definitely dinosaur descendents.

  • Blind Man's Bluff by Sherry Sontag
    Finished: January 19, 2024

    Submarine espionage - sort of cool. Also, a lot of 'close calls' coupled with 'not much happened.' Sort of amazing to know what was technically feasible, even back in the 60s (like landing a submarine on the ocean floor and having divers tap a phone cable), and the lengths the US went to spy on the USSR.

  • Immunity To Change: How To Overcome It And Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization by Robert Kegan
    Finished: January 10, 2024

    I really appreciated the science that went into the beginning, as well as the 4 column framework. Lots of examples in the middle chapters make this a bit tedious.

2023

11 books

2022

15 books

2021

16 books

2020

12 books

2019

1 books
  • The Art of Action by Stephen Bungay
    Finished: Sep 9th, 2019

    Amazing book for understanding mission-type tactics, and how to be a better executive.

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