From Forming the Right Habits to Deep Work - First half of 2022 Readings

If you have been following my book reviews and reading recommendations over the last few years, you might have picked up a theme from many of my reading recommendations. What makes someone exceptional - consistently?

To unpack that mystery, I would recommend books like Mindset, Drive, Outliers, Peak, Thinking Fast & Slow & The Power of Habit, all of which I have mentioned in my previous posts. My journey continued this year with two exceptional books on the same theme - Atomic Habits and Deep Work. I have to admit, I was sceptical of Atomic Works for a few months. It was everywhere across my network - from mentions by members of common platforms to Audible offering me a free audio version of it. After a trusted recommendation, I got myself a copy and I am so glad I did - more on it below.

Without further ado, in reading reverse order, below are the twelve books I read in the first six months of 2022:

1. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, Clear, James?
2. Before the Coffee Gets Cold?(Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1), Kawaguchi, Toshikazu
3. Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction, Thompson, Derek
4. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Newport, Cal
5. Siddhartha, Hesse, Hermann
6. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Gladwell, Malcolm
7. Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers, Neufeld, Gordon?
8. Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It, Tzuo, Tien
9. A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, Hawkins, Jeff
10. The Lincoln Highway, Towles, Amor?
11. Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, Block, Peter
12. Project Hail Mary, Weir, Andy?

To me, each book I read is a personal experience. At the end of a workday, when I pick up the current paperback I am reading, jogging my memory to take me back to where I left it off and then letting myself be taken on a journey by the author. It's "my time". So, while there are always standout books, it remains a hard task for me to create a set of top recommendations from my readings. That said, here is my attempt at it:

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, Clear, James?

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

..and the systems are what you set up with your habits. A follow-on quote from the book that applies here is: "Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity." - gotta love it.

After reading Duhigg's The Power of Habit last year, I found this book more of a practical guide to forming habits as opposed to a theoretical approach to what habits are. I particularly liked the aspect of habit forming where you make the outcome a part of your identity.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Newport, Cal

“Two Core Abilities for Thriving in the New Economy 1. The ability to quickly master hard things. 2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.”

Many of you might know that a year back, after two decades in technology product leadership roles, I moved into a pure consulting leadership role. The ability the teams around me have "to produce at an elite level" is inspiring and humbling.

Since reading Newport's Deep Work, I have been intentionally creating habits where I take time to think through new learnings and create my points of view on what they mean so I can grow from them personally and professionally. The book talks about the ability to focus on cognitively deep tasks which lead to high-quality outputs and is particularly relevant in today's world of distractions.

Project Hail Mary, Weir, Andy?

“Good. Proud. I am scary space monster. You are leaky space blob.” He points to the breeder tanks. “Check tanks!”

It is hard to quote this imaginative, scientifically authentic page-turner without providing context - something I cannot do without giving away the plot. I won't try.

I loved every page of this wild tale of a high school teacher who wakes up in a spacecraft in space with no memory of getting there. The story unravels page by page as he remembers details and the role he has. It remains the best fiction I have read this year so far! When you read it, say hello to Rocky for me, will you?

A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, Hawkins, Jeff

“..the Thousand Brains Theory: knowledge of any particular item is distributed among thousands of complementary models.”

In my own non-technical way I am fascinated with the human brain. What it has created, the potential it has and what stops us from achieving that potential. Hawkins' Thousand Brains is a compilation of his team's research and theory of how the brain works and extends it to AI.

Hawkins and his team have discovered that the brain uses maplike structures to build thousands of models of everything we know using cortical columns. These models are independent, using all the senses and integrating them as a cohesive whole. It is a fascinating read if you are interested in how brains (might) work and AI.

Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It, Tzuo, Tien

“..subscriptions are the only business model that is entirely based on the happiness of your customers. Think about it—when your customers are happy, then they’re using more of your service, and telling their friends, and you’re growing.”

The author, Tien Tzuo was the Chief Strategy Officer for Salesforce and then co-founded Zuora - a multi Billion dollar company that helps organisations with their subscription-based services. There would be no better person who would have a more credible and experienced viewpoint on the subscription economy than Tzuo. In Subscribed, Tzuo uses multiple organisational examples to show how to use subscriptions to build lucrative, ongoing one-on-one relationships with your customers. An excellent read.

Before wrapping up, I would like to make a special mention of Peter Block's Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. As mentioned earlier, last year I moved to a consulting leadership role. This book opened up the world from a neutral guide's point of view. If you approach it more as a textbook as opposed to a casual read, and you are looking at moving into the consulting industry - please do have a read of Flawless Consulting.

Well, that's it for me this time around. Please leave your messages below if you have read any of the books above and your thoughts on them. If you haven't read them but would like to just share your reading recommendations - I look forward to them too.

Happy readings!