How to Read 5 Impactful Books in 2 Months' Spare Time
Yiyang Ma, MS IT, MS MKT, PMP, CSA
Steering strategic IT projects for peak performance.
My New Year resolution is to read a book every two weeks or so. Thanks to Audible and Running “dual play” lol I am on the right track, at the right pace – five books between Christmas and Valentine’s. This “lunch break article” really is to share my learning so far, like I did in How to Become An Ironman: My Triathlon Story . Busy readers can jump to the third paragraph, where I challenge my succinctness to one-sentence book summaries.
Why read books as busy working professionals? We are already swamped with work and life obligations, on-job training, structured learning such as certificates and online courses. The short answer is that independent learning (including reading) is vital to your career health. Today’s working professionals face the dual challenge of developing depth and width, as coined in the term “T-shaped talents”. The reason is that our work environment increasingly demands “doing more with less” (efficiency) and also “game-changing” technologies and operating models (innovation). Both are often from adjacent or foreign fields. One man’s trash is another’s treasure. Convention in one field may be innovation in another. Numerous examples have shown that – insurance companies and hotels use Toyota’s JIT and lean. Tennis coaches now find jobs from Uber-like apps. On-job learning, certificates, courses add much value however imply a set course of learning and a relatively static body of knowledge. Innovation comes from free minds. Reading frees minds.
How do we find good books to read? Practically you can start with one most interested subject (book), then find the next best book by discussing/ applying the learned. The principle at play is the adjacent possible. According to Stuart Kauffman, biological systems are able to morph into complex systems by making incremental changes. Revolution is exceptional; evolution is common. Get in touch with like-minded people during this process and put the ideas at practice.
My journey in last two months. I started with a question “How people reach excellence in their field?”. My friend and professor Dr. Kendall Giles recommend a book So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love. Author Cal Newport echoes Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule of purposeful, progressively difficult practice to reach excellence. Also thanks to Dr. Giles, I found a “contrarian book” lol - Range Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Author David Epstein reasons that early and lonrg practice is key in a "kind" learning environment (rule-based, with immediate feedback), howeer your range of experience is most valuable in a “wicked” environment (dynamic, confusing, without near-term feedback). My reading of two contradictory books encouraged me to find a few empirical examples to put them under test.
It turned out both David Epstein and Cal Newport made good points. My friend Peter Knox suggested INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love. It reveals that in the “wicked learning environment” technology product managers operate, only the products that meet “value, usability, feasibility, and business viability” survive and prevail after numerous rounds of practice to reach “product market fit”. In other words, both product depth through numerous iterations, and a wide range of customer experiments underpin a prevailing product.
I decided to find a book similar to Inspired but gave practical advice for the non-tech audience. I found The Start-up of You, co-authored by LinkedIn Cofounder Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. Authors provided an entrepreneurial system to concurrently monitor a range of interesting projects worth investment, and only prioritize those survived a period of intense focus. Finally I finished my 2-month learning with HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Innovation so that I learn systematic/ organizational innovations from Fortune 500 examples.
Path forward. Ideas produce experiments. Experiments, failures. Failures, learning. Learning, successful innovations. I regard reading as thought experiments that trigger learning. And learning matters most if converted into impactful innovations. I appreciate the last two months’ learning and the phone/ Zoom discussions with my learning circle. This short lunch break writing is to give back. In the appendix, you will find my book recommendations. I welcome any ideas/ questions.
Glass is half-full and half-empty. We need depth and range. Hope everyone a prosperous year of exploring your next possible!
Check out Dr. Giles’ podcast and above books here:
领英推荐
My writing can also be found on https://www.healthtechnologist.org/blog/