February Book Binge

Another month has passed, so it’s time to recount what I’ve been reading.

Admittedly it was kind of a busy month for me, so I decided to mix up some of my book habits with podcasts.  To reflect that – I’ve decided to share a mixture of both.

 

First up is Rhinoceros Success by Scott Alexander

This is a short read designed to ignite fire and passion into whoever reads it. It walks through how a big burly rhino would approach every day life, and how you as a rhino should follow suit.

I read this one while I was transitioning between jobs and found it to be a great source of humor during the process. It helps to articulate out ‘why’ you may be doing certain things and puts it in the context of what a rhino would do. This got me through some rough patches of uncertainty.

The next book was Made to Stick by the Heath brothers

This was another recommendation and one that I enjoyed. I will caveat and say that this book is really long. I struggled to try and get through a chapter at a time (~300 pages and only 7 chapters). It is chocked full of stories to help the reader understand the required model to make ideas stick.

I read this one because often times a big part of my job is communicating out a yet to be seen vision. And it is also to try and get people to buy-in to a new type of thinking. These aren’t easy and can be met with resistance. The tools that the Heath brothers offer are simple and straightforward. I think they even extend further to writing or public speaking. How do you communicate a compelling idea that will resonate with your audience?

I’ve got their 2 other books and will be reading one of them in March.

Lastly – I wanted to spend a little bit of time sharing a podcast that I’ve come to enjoy. It is Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

This was shared with me by someone on Twitter. I found myself commuting much more than average this much (as part of the job change) and I was looking for media to consume during the variable length (30 to 60 minute) commute. This podcast fits that time slot so richly. What’s awesome is the first podcast I listed to had Seth Godin on it (reading one of his books now) – so it was a great dual purpose item. I could hear Seth and preview if I should read one of his many books and also get a dose of Debbie.

The beauty of this podcast for me is that Debbie spends a lot of time exploring the personality and history of modern artists/designers. She does this by amassing research on each individual and then having a very long sit-down to discuss findings. Often times this involves analyzing individual perspectives and recounting significant past events. I always find it illuminating how these people view the world and how they’ve “arrived” at their current place in life.

That wraps up my content diet for the month – and I’m off to listen to Seth.

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