15,000 Pg's: 2020 Reading Challenge

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved reading — but somewhere down the line, school, extracurriculars, social media, and the hustle and bustle of life got in the way. But it wasn't only the finitude of time that became problematic — as a student, the conceptualization of reading moved from "strictly entertaining" towards that of "labor". In other words, reading became a means to an end — to achieve good grades and to do well in school — rather than an avenue for personal and external discovery.

This summer, I had the impactful experience of starting "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari. One fascinating concept he shared was that in the natural world, homo sapiens are limited to a group size of 150 members — and it's only through culture that we're able to expand our collaborative capacity to where we are today. In other words, our social fabric itself is built on the foundation of culture and shared fiction (i.e. laws, corporations, etc.) and the zinger is, there's no intrinsic objectivity to society, only what we perceive it to be.

Reading, I've found, is so incredible as it allows us to access some of the most influential minds and how they perceive the world — something that sounds a lot more exciting to me than reading for the sake of passively finishing projects!

Therefore, I've challenged myself with the following New Years Resolution: reading 15,000 pages, or about 35 books. If you're compelled to join me, please reach out and shoot me a message! I'm definitely looking for others to share this journey with. If not, here are some of the most engrossing books that I've been recommended if you're interested in looking for a handful of good books to read and don't want to scour the internet endlessly.

JANUARY, 2020

Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) — this book talks about "FLOW", which is the optimal state of productivity in which the activities you engage with perfectly balances "Challenge" and "Skill" to lead to sustained excitement and personal development.

The Virgin Way (Richard Branson) — I'm currently about three-quarters done this book, and it's an amazing compilation about how Branson built his empire of Virgin businesses while prioritizing fun, empowering employees to become true leaders, and building businesses that are bigger than yourself.

Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari) — one of my most engrossing reads so far, this book elucidates the entire history of mankind with digestible prose and extraordinary scope, and how we are able to ascend from the middle-of-the-pack of Earth's species to where we are now.

FEBRUARY, 2020

Principles (Ray Dalio) — Ray Dalio, one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the world, boils down his life and management lessons into principles, which he parallels to the systematic working of machines — Dalio grew up as an ordinary kid in the burbs', and accredits his success to principles, rather than innate genius or talent.

The Denial of Death (Ernest Becker) — I'm really looking forward to this. Becker talks about how nihilism stems from the conscious acknowledgment of our mortality, thereby propagating a need to leave a legacy to create immortality. This book is a reflection of humanity in the face of mortality.

Why We Sleep (Matthew Walker) — this book will probably put you to sleep.

MARCH, 2020

Atomic Habits (James Clear) — in Navy Seal Training, there's a saying that goes, "in war, you won't rise to the level of your goals and expectations, you'll fall to the level of your training." Clear takes the same principle, but replace "war" with "habit formation", and "training" with "system".

Elon Musk (Ashlee Vance) — pretty self-explanatory.

A Room of One's Own (Virginia Woolf) — one of my all-time favorite classics, this essay elucidates the fact that female writers in that era needed their own room and money in order to write fiction, with the underlying premise of escaping constricting social norms. The prose is spectacular.

APRIL, 2020

The SNOWBALL (Alice Shroeder) — Warren Buffett has numerous biographies, but this has been recommended as one of the best.

Gifted Hands (Ben Carson) — this is an account of neurosurgeon Ben Carson's compelling journey from inner-city Detroit Johns Hopkins Hospital, and how he beat the odds.

My Stroke of Insight (Jill Bolte Taylor) — if you haven't seen her TED Talk, this book describes this neuroscientist's experience with having a stroke and how it's led her to adopt a dramatically different perception on life.

MAY, 2020

Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) — one of the world's most influential books, this details the stoic ideologies of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and how he found inner tranquility, discipline, and peace in the midst of chaos, i.e. war, natural disaster, etc.

Letters from a Stoic (Seneca) — as one of the guiding hands of the Roman Empire, Seneca shared his stoic principles and values in a series of letters.

Crushing it! (Gary Vaynerchuk) — Gary Vee dissects every social media platform that you're probably familiar with and discusses how to leverage them towards building your personal and business brand.

JUNE, 2020

Homo Deus (Yuval Noah Harari) — Harari postulates the possibility that in the future, the current drivers of evolution (e.g. natural selection) will become gradually replaced by AI and intelligent design, as homo sapiens become human deus.

The Book of Why (Judea Pearl & Dana Mackenzie) — this book builds on top of the age-old mantra of "correlation is not causation", exploring the world as it is and as it could be and have been.

Moonwalking with Einstein (Joshua Foer) — never judge a book by its cover but wow, this is an aesthetically pleasing cover. This book presents the idea that "we are the sum of our memories", and explores all aspects of human memory and how it's unique.

JULY, 2020

The Happiness Hypothesis (Jonathan Haidt) — Haidt poses several "Great Ideas" on happiness espoused by thinkers of the past – Plato, Buddha, Jesus, etc. – and examines them in the light of contemporary psychological research and how it's relevant in our modern lives.

The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell) — this book describes the moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

Moral Tribes (Joshua Greene) — if you've seen the YouTube series "Middle Ground", it's kind of like that. Greene aims to coalesce neuroscience and philosophy to talk about finding common ground in an increasingly "Us vs. Them" society.

AUGUST, 2020

Enlightenment Now (Steven Pinker) — Pinker evidences that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, and happiness are actually rising worldwide as a product of Enlightenment, which is a mixture of reason and science.

Business Adventures (John Brooks) — coined by Bill Gates as his "favorite business book", this details the stories of some of the world's biggest and most successful businesses and their commonalities.

10% Happier (Dan Harris) — ever wonder how weird it is to have that little voice in our heads? Harris, after suffering a nationally-televised panic attacked stemming from this voice, set out to explore how to harness it, and recounts his findings in this book.

SEPTEMBER, 2020

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) — one of my favorite books when I was a kid, this tells the story of a young shepherd boy's journey in search of worldly treasures. Pure nostalgia.

How to Win Friends & Influence People (Dale Carnegie) — one of the best-selling books of all time in any category, Carnegie discusses clear strategies for (a) getting people to like you, (b) winning people over to your way of thinking, and (c) being a leader without incurring resentment.

Creativity, Inc (Ed Catmull) — this talks about the story of Pixar and talks about how Ed Catmull and partners Steve Jobs and John Lasseter cultivated the creative culture that makes films like Toy Story so inticing.

OCTOBER, 2020

Swipe to Unlock (Mehta Agashe Detroja) — Authored by 3 Product Managers at Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, this book captures the behind-the-scenes, under-the-hood workings of major technology businesses and their best prevailing strategies.

Deng Xiaoping (Ezra F. Vogel) —  in 1979, when China was one of the poorest companies in the world, Deng Xiaoping came into power and catalyzed a cascade of political changes that brought cultural stability and economic growth. About Xiaoping, it's been said that "No one in the twentieth century had a greater impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping."

Mountains Beyond Mountains (Tracy Kidder) — this book talks about Paul Farmer, who was raised in a bus and boat, and his charity "Partners in Health", spanning from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia.

NOVEMBER, 2020

Shoe Dog (Phil Knight) — a memoir, Knight uncovers the early days of Nike, and how he transformed a $50 lend from his dad to one of the world's biggest brands.

Permanent Record (Edward Snowden) — in 2013, Snowden shocked the world by whistleblew the US government's plan to collect every single text message, phone call, and email, to develop an unprecedented system of mass surveillance. This book details how Snowden was involved in building the system — and what motivated him to take it down.

Hot Lights, Cold Steel (Michael J. Collins) — this memoir details Dr. Michael J. Collins' early years at one of the most prestigious medical centers in the world, the Mayo Clinic, and the disparity between people's perception of surgeons and doctors relative to the unglamorous truth.

DECEMBER, 2020

Python Machine Learning (Sebastian Raschka) — I've always wanted to learn to code, but always found some excuse or another to delay and avoid it. This comprehensively provides an account of how to understand Python as a language and has a sub-focus in artificial neural networks.

Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl) — one of the most influential books of all time, Frankl describes his experience inside of Nazi concentration camps. He presents his theory called "logotherapy", essentially acknowledging that we cannot avoid suffering, so we must learn how to cope and find meaning from it, as our primary human drive is not happiness, as often conceived, but meaning.

Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson) — my favorite biography, this details the incredible story of Steve Jobs and his quest to "make a dent in the universe", which he achieved in disrupting eight industries, and through creating a "reality distortion field" that made his leadership both controversial and powerful.

Thanks for sticking with me!

If you'd like to reach you, please shoot me a message on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].