Unlike 2020 I didn’t have any goals around reading, but I did try to keep books around as much as possible. I listened to some audiobooks while running, always had a book in progress on my phone, and since we take our daughter to the library all the time I’d make sure to pick a […]
Looking back, I see 2020 as a year of re-establishing my principles. One of those was retraining a habit of reading. In March, my best friend Danny and I started texting each other everyday that we’d read at least 10 pages of a book. Any book counted: fiction/non-fiction, light/heavy, intellectual/dumb. In addition to the following […]
You Need a Budget by Jesse Mecham The creator of the You Need a Budget (YNAB) software, which I began using recently, wrote this book to publish his philosophy of modern budgeting. Both the software and this book do a good job of not making assumptions about what the user/reader want to do with their […]
Mike Monteiro’s new book, Ruined by Design, is an eye-opening take on ethical dilemmas facing/caused by designers. And by his definition even a typist like me is a designer. I was fortunate enough to get my copy signed when Mike was in town last month but it reads just as well unsigned. I re-read Deep […]
Actually read this book a while ago, but just now getting to the review. Some very good ideas here, in particular the quick reference material: The Hatrix. If I have one takeaway, its the value of recognizing the differing needs of ‘onstage haters’ and ‘offstage haters.’ Since I’ve worked in WordPress support both privately and […]
On the heels of Cal’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You comes Deep Work. If we agree with Cal that becoming good at rare skills is the way to build career capital – then how do we go about doing that? The answer is focusing on deep work, and mitigating shallow work.
Cal Newport’s rules for career building. I’ve never read a book that seemed more enlightened on the topic.
“The passion hypothesis is not just wrong, it’s also dangerous. Telling someone to “follow their passion” is not just an act of innocent optimism, but potentially the foundation for a career riddled with confusion and angst.” -Cal Newport in So Good They Can’t Ignore You
Another Audible listen by John Scalzi, narrated by Wil Wheaton. This experience was even amplified by Ber making her way through Star Trek (the original series) on Netflix. So every time I came back from the gym where I listened to Redshirts, she’d be watching Trek and I couldn’t help but laugh. Redshirts is to […]
Finishing a lot of books lately. This one was finished late at night in bed when I should’ve been sleeping. When I realized how close to the end I was though, I had to just keep going through the last 10% of the book. The whole thing reads like a dream. Not the “it was all […]
Alex Gustafson