I’m back with another set of books I read this year. I’ll be finishing a few more by the end of the year.
- Walkable city: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time – When I travel, I love to use the public transit of a city and walk as much as I can. This book captures why the cities that are easy to travel in will continue to be and how you can transform your difficult to travel city to be walkable.
- The hard thing about hard things – Ben Horowitz talking about his companies experiences from the dark times to the less dark times.
- The Devil In the White City – It takes a bit to get moving, but once we’re moving this book switches beautifully from the World’s fair to one of the worst serial killers in the US.
- Programming Phoenix and Programming Elixir – I’ll be writing more about how much I’ve been enjoying learning Elixir, but these are great books to get started with it.
- Holy Sh*t: A Brief History Of Swearing- I swear a lot. I felt good to know that my behavior is as old as the written word. I enjoyed how what we concern to be a swear has changed over time – from religious swearing to obscenity.
- Ha! The Science of Why We Laugh and Why – Any book that references the Aristocrats is a good book.
- TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking – TED is full of helpful hints to engage the people you’re speaking to. If you want to step up your speaking game this is a good place to start.
- Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivation – A short read about motivation by Dan Ariely. He brings forward more studies to prove the things that get people to do the things they do.
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class In America – Before our forefathers got to shore they already had identified white trash in England. For the last 400 years, our politicians and most influential Americans have criticized and manipulated poor whites. Hearing the uncensored cruel words that our presidents and founding father’s said about the poor of all races was disturbing and enlightening.
- Weapons of Math Destruction – Algorithms aren’t clever yet, they lack nuance and context. Could you imagine if they determined your ability to go to college, how long you’ll be sentenced in jail and making important financial trades without context or based on too few inputs? Well don’t imagine it, it happens every day.
- Blue Ocean Strategy – Sara read this in college and suggested it to me. While I hate the word “value-innovate,” it creates a gameplan on how to create a business that creates its own market.
- On Writing Well – I will write shorter sentences. I will be a strong voice. I will write what I care about and make people care about it.
- Between The World and Me – This is a beautiful book. This is an important book. This is a book you should read.