Looking for book recommendations

[MarkDillon]

As I prepare for 2013 I want a list of management, self help, business books to read over the year. Do you have a recent favorite?

[Oogiem]

As I prepare for 2013 I want a list of management, self help, business books to read over the year. Do you have a recent favorite?

Here are ones I read in 2012 that I really liked:

Power of Habit Charles Duhigg
The Millionaire Next Door Thomas J. Tanley
Paperless David Sparks
Hacker Crackdown Bruce Sterling
The First 20 Minutes Gretchen Reynolds

There were others that are business for me but probably not for you ;)

Kick the Hay Habit Jim Gerrish
Writing a Novel in Scrivener David Hewson
Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius
Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft patterns Carol Strickler

I finished 92 books last year, a new record for me. :)

[MarkDillon]

I finished 92 books last year, a new record for me. :)

Thank you for the recommendations. Wow...92 books...I can't imagine reading that much. You've inspired me.

[CJSullivan]

Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. Still one of my all-time favourite "corporate culture" books.

[vbampton]

I'd second Oogie's The Power of Habit recommendation.

I rather like The Now Habit, although it's not recent.

I liked Switch as well.

And now for something completely different - Alan Sugar's biography.

[vicve]

I'm in the process of reading the 4 hour Chef by Tim Ferris. Love this guy! While the book does have some cooking in there, it's not only about that. It's more about his rapid learning techniques. One of the examples provided in the book was around shooting better baskets in basketball. In fairness, I'm already a decent play but after reviewing his 2-3 page breakdown of what makes a good shot, I hit 19/20 free throws in a row! Even at my peak, I don't think I ever did that.

I also loved the Power of Habit and anything by Marshall Goldsmith is also great.

Hope this helps.

[Barb]

I'm in the process of reading the 4 hour Chef by Tim Ferris. Love this guy! While the book does have some cooking in there, it's not only about that. It's more about his rapid learning techniques. One of the examples provided in the book was around shooting better baskets in basketball. In fairness, I'm already a decent play but after reviewing his 2-3 page breakdown of what makes a good shot, I hit 19/20 free throws in a row! Even at my peak, I don't think I ever did that.

I also loved the Power of Habit and anything by Marshall Goldsmith is also great.

Hope this helps.

Funny, as I was just looking at a sample of this on my Kindle. The table of contents is VERY strange! :p Are you far enough along to recommend it?

[Oogiem]

I can't imagine reading that much.

I try to read for half an hour every night. Consistency means the books just fly by.

[Tado]

Past books i've recently read that i recommend:

5 Dsyfuntions of a Team
The Lean Startup
Built to Last
Good to Great
The Goal: Theory of constraints
Everything from Tony Buzan - He's the mind mapping expert
What Got You Here Won't Get You There - Goldsmith
Back of the Napkin - its a 'good' book, if you dont already draw out your ideas visually.

[artsinaction]

Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. Still one of my all-time favourite "corporate culture" books.

I LOVED this book all three times I read it. He's on my list of people I wish I'd had the privilege of working with... it's a fairly short list.

You have excellent taste. ;)

Dena

[H@ns]

Not linked to GTD but valuable on different levels:
"Antifragile, Things that gain from disorder" from Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Black Swan)

[TesTeq]

Clutterfree [Kindle Edition] by Courtney Carver & Leo Babauta

Clutterfree book about making your life clutterfree.

[vicve]

Funny, as I was just looking at a sample of this on my Kindle. The table of contents is VERY strange! :p Are you far enough along to recommend it?

You are so right! It is strange but it is a great book. I'm far enough into it to recommend it but also to say that I think his Four Hour Work week is still my favorite of his three. I wasn't crazy about The Four Hour Body.

[vicve]

Not linked to GTD but valuable on different levels:
"Antifragile, Things that gain from disorder" from Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Black Swan)

I just saw this one on the Times bestsellers list. I wrote it down to check it out. Thanks!

[John Forrister]

Not linked to GTD but valuable on different levels:
"Antifragile, Things that gain from disorder" from Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Black Swan)

Someone I passed in the park had "Antifragile," and I almost stopped to ask what it was about. Intriguing title. H@ns and vicve, please let us know what you think.

[MarkDillon]

These are terrific...thanks. My original plan was to read just one book a month...I may need to increase that a bit!

[CJSullivan]

I LOVED this book all three times I read it. He's on my list of people I wish I'd had the privilege of working with... it's a fairly short list.

You have excellent taste. ;)

Dena

Why, thank you! And I agree - I would have loved to work with him. I was working at Polaroid, in a group of "change agents," and I really found myself envying Hallmark for having someone like him!!

[S-Tolland]

A few years old now, but I really enjoyed Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham. Definitely highly recommended.

[cwoodgold]

Not linked to GTD but valuable on different levels:
"Antifragile, Things that gain from disorder" from Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Black Swan)

Thanks, I'll have to read that!

I liked "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder - How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and on-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place" by Eric Abrahamson. He comes up with all sorts of examples where a certain amount of disorder is actually preferable to order: for example, what's the first thing you do when you pick up a deck of cards that are all in order? You shuffle them, because they're more useful in a random order. He admits that order is also useful; he's just pointing out that in many situations, the optimal amount of order or disorder is something other than perfect order.

[Tado]

Not to hi-jack this thread, but does any know of any other business books written similarly to "The Goal" or "The 5 dysfunctions of a Team" ? Case studies written like a novel.

[vicve]

Someone I passed in the park had "Antifragile," and I almost stopped to ask what it was about. Intriguing title. H@ns and vicve, please let us know what you think.

Definitely will, John!

Additionally, I posted a recent blog post (http://adareaday.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-three-book-dieti-cant-do-it.html)with my "If-I-Could-Only-Read/Reread-Three-Books-This-Year" list. Of course, GTD was #1! I've read all of David's books but only once and have heard so many state how beneficial it is to reread them. Definitely something I plan to do for the coming year!

[TesTeq]

He comes up with all sorts of examples where a certain amount of disorder is actually preferable to order: for example, what's the first thing you do when you pick up a deck of cards that are all in order? You shuffle them, because they're more useful in a random order. He admits that order is also useful; he's just pointing out that in many situations, the optimal amount of order or disorder is something other than perfect order.

I don't agree with his statements that you quote and I think that "deck of cards" example is demagogic. I can give you many similar examples - you put trash in the trashcan in a random order, you use tennis balls in a random order etc. but it does not prove anything. Does he give any logical example?

[mak2011]

How will you measure your life - Clayton Christensen
Nudge
Succeed - Heidi Grant Halvorson
Mindset - Carol Dweck
Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
No shortcuts to the top - Ed Viesturs
Endurance - Alfred Lansing
Predictably Irrational - Dan Aierly
To sell is human - Dan Pink

Enjoy ; )

[cwoodgold]

I can give you many similar examples - you put trash in the trashcan in a random order, you use tennis balls in a random order etc. but it does not prove anything.

I put trash in a random order because it takes less effort -- not because a randomly-ordered trash container is actually better than an ordered one. Randomly-ordered trash could be better because you'd be unlikely to end up with one light-weight trash bag and one heavy back-breaking one, or because small objects might often go inside large ones and take up less space; or ordered trash could be better because similar objects might stack and take up less space. Some stuff gets recycled or composted, requiring some sorting.


Does he give any logical example?

He gives both types of examples: where it's not worth the effort to impose perfect order, or where a degree of randomness is actually preferable to perfect order and sometimes worth spending effort to obtain, as with the deck of cards.

[TesTeq]

He gives both types of examples: where it's not worth the effort to impose perfect order, or where a degree of randomness is actually preferable to perfect order and sometimes worth spending effort to obtain, as with the deck of cards.

I am really sorry but I cannot accept this "perfect mess" concept and I consider this idea to be a ridiculous marketing trick to sell a book with a controversial title.

You once again gave the same "deck of cards" example which - in my opinion - proves nothing. Randomness is the element of many games. It gives us fun of unpredictability in games. And that is all. Do we need such unpredictability in our projects? Do we need it when we are looking for our car keys or socks?

I've read first paragraphs of the book available from amazon.com. The authors describe an example of two magazine stores on Broadway in Manhattan - messy and tidy. The messy one wins and it is meant to be a "proof" that messiness can be good. I think that authors know nothing about running a business and about a complicated nature of factors that determine if you win or lose.

[cwoodgold]

I've read first paragraphs of the book available from amazon.com. The authors describe an example of two magazine stores on Broadway in Manhattan - messy and tidy.

Those paragraphs are part of the Google Book preview; here's a link to it for anyone interested.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=GWjfLAwlDawC&pg=PT5&lpg=PT5&dq=broadway+manhattan+messy+magazine+store&source=bl&ots=AnDNBFdaFC&sig=qOPjOxPYcvEI_uooK9BtnRrlIn0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_SX8UKGHB5SE8ATDuYHYBw&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAg
This magazine store example is one of the ones where (apparently) order is beneficial, but the cost of maintaining that much order is greater than the benefits gained from it.

[jsreed]

Not linked to GTD but valuable on different levels:
"Antifragile, Things that gain from disorder" from Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Black Swan)

Actually, I think "Antifragile" is linked to GTD. The whole point of GTD is to keep your personal system from being fragile - from crashing when it is subjected to the various inputs that hit it.

Taleb's point is that some things are fragile, and some the opposite of fragile, which he calls "antifragile". The human body can be fragile but in some cases - such as exercise causing damage which results in muscle growth, or a vaccine of some kind introducing a small amount of disease designed to force the body to react and strengthen its defenses against that disease - it is antifragile.

I don't know that GTD would make your system antifragile - that it would grow stronger as it handles various inputs, but it is certainly designed to make it robust - something that will not break no matter how hard it is hit.

Though I doubt I'm good enough at GTD to really say. Maybe a personal management system using GTD does get stronger as it is tested. I'm certainly getting better at handling things that hit me without having a meltdown...

[maxleibman]

Well, two quickies come to mind:

One is self-serving--I have a book called Higher Process that's about evaluatin self-help and productivity advice via paychological research. GTD is featured in several chapters. (http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Process-Personal-Productivity-ebook/dp/B007Z739BS/).

I also started the year reading Susan Cain's QUIET. Very good book on introversion with implications for business, work style, education, productivity, etc. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0307352145/)

[liamhrory]

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Tanley is one of the best one I read and I would definitely recommend it to you.

[Foxman]

As I prepare for 2013 I want a list of management, self help, business books to read over the year. Do you have a recent favorite?

order from chaos is a great self management book, I've been trying out the Air Traffic Control system and it's fantastic. It is a built in Weekly Review and project management system which works.

[jmsmall]

1. The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. Based on a course at Stanford.
2. Willpower: rediscovering the greatest human strength. Baumeister. More research than (1) but also very good.

Anything from Brene Brown, especially if you find yourself hampered by perfectionism, guilt, or shame. (Look up her TED talks if you want a nice intro to her work.)

The Most Important Lesson No-one Ever Taught Me is fascinating; the subtitle is, "How I feel matters." (a favorite book of Peter Attia, MD at eatingacademy.com.)

jim (jmsmall)