Tag: Book Summaries
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The Mom Test – Rob Fitzpatrick
This practical book is for anyone who’s had an idea for a business and wants to talk to possible customers. The most useful idea for me was “you always need a list of your 3 big questions”. Market research is finding out about people’s needs and pain points. In reality, it’s about preparting good questions,…
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The Glass Bead Game – Hermann Hesse
The Glass Bead Game is a book that works on several levels. It’s in five sections and is (on the surface) about the life of one central character – told from a biographer’s view. The Myers-Briggs personality test is based four dimensions (extraversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, and perceiving-judging) which originally came from Jungian psychology. Hesse…
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The Checklist Manifesto – Atul Gawande
This book is a call to action to use the humble checklist. Written and researched by a surgeon in the US, Gawande supports his idea with numbers from research including: at least 60 percent of patients with pneumonia receive incomplete or inappropriate care from their doctors. A checklist is a list of actions to be…
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The 5 Love Languages – Gary Chapman
This book is by a marriage counsellor – but do not let that put you off. The author suggests that each of us has one of five ‘Love Languages’. Our primary Love Language is our preferred method for giving and receiving love. I discovered these concepts after being married over ten years – and they…
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Happy – Derren Brown
Derren Brown – best-known as an illusionist – outlines the rigorous application of stoic philosophy to increase our happiness on an everyday level. In one psychology experiment he references, the mortality rate of a group of residents in a nursing home was twice as high when they had all their decisions made for them.…
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Man's Search For Meaning – Viktor Frankl
This book is a reflection on the author’s time in concentration camps, and its deeper lessons for life. During his three years in four camps, and given his background in neurology and psychiatry, he created a new approach in psychotherapy. Logotherapy is Frankl’s theory that finding meaning in life is our primary motivator. He…
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Rest – Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
This book proposes viewing rest as an active lifetime requirement. Across two parts (Stimulating Creativity and Sustaining Creativity) the author uses meticulous research and detailed case studies of the strategies used by wildly creative people across history. Rest is when the brain switches on a Default Mode Network (DMN) and cognition becomes inward focused.…
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Essentialism – Greg McKeown
This book is an invitation to simplify. Greg McKeown outlines three principles that get underneath the tactics of time management: explore, eliminate, and execute. Essentialism is developing our self-awareness and clarity to allow us the disciplined pursuit of less. Using personal stories (the author shares how he interrupted the birth of his child to…
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Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach
This book is about a seagull who explores what it means to fly – but it’s actually a fable about life. Early on in the book Jonathan teaches himself to fly at 214 mph – terminal velocity for a seagull. Learning can be seen as the willingness to explore and go beyond our limits.…
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Getting Things Done – David Allen
This is a book for building productivity habits – from the ground up. David Allen outlines five steps: capture, clarify, organise, reflect, and engage – that detail the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. The approach defines productivity as owning your attention, being present in the moment, doing exactly what you ought to be doing. Reading…