Introducing the Blink Challenge
Blinkist is a website and service platform that condenses leading non-fiction books into 15 minute, bite-sized "blinks". It extracts all the core parts of the book and makes it quick to consume. I have been using it for a couple weeks, and I am completely hooked. It is educationally sound by following the microlearning paradigm, supports life-long learning patterns, and encourages a polymathic lifestyle.
Personally, I have an intense focus on helping people craft daily learning habits. The GitHub Challenge for example, has been a tremendous success with the graduates at Prime Academy. So when I discovered Blinkist and its awesome content, I HAD to start a new challenge with you all. However this time, its meant for everyone, not just developers.
So here we go, 7 days, 7 blinked books!
Each month is a sprint. Each sprint we will blink 7 new books as a group.
For this first sprint, I have laid out 7 great / well known books that have been 'blinked'. The challenge is to listen to, or read the blinked version of the book, then hop into the Slack Channel created for this challenge, for discussion as a community around that book.
Gathering other peoples insights from the same blink will offer new perspectives as well as strengthen your own understanding of the topic of the book. Once the challenge is done, we will open up a submission form to recommend books, and then ultimately vote on the next blinked books for the next sprint. The cadence of the challenge will follow the 1st of the month, to the 7th. Then we will continue the conversation of the month's books while voting on the next the rest of the month. This is subject to change in future sprints, but the first challenge fits into the trail period of Blinkist.
What do you think?
Here is the November Sprint Book List:
- Nov 1st - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
- Nov 2nd - You Are a Badass - Jen Sincero
- Nov 3rd - Grit - Angela Duckworth
- Nov 4th - The End of Stress - Don Joseph Goewey
- Nov 5th - How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less - Nicholas Boothman
- Nov 6th - Resilience - Mark McGuinness
- Nov 7th - The Upside of Stress - Kelly McGonigal
(Note: The use of Blinkist is unlimited during the trial period. Feel free to branch off to other books. The above list is just where the groups center of gravity will be on the given days. Additionally, if people stick around after the first week, I would be interested in doing a mid-month, small group challenge. This would be where the group could break out into smaller groups and do their own book list. More info to come.)
Blinkist costs:
- $79.99 / year, or,
- $12.99 / month
- Free for 7 days, but you HAVE to cancel before the end of the trial or you get billed for the year!
(Note: I am a Blinkist Affiliate. Links included in this post let Blinkist know I recommended you.)
Want to sign up? Awesome.
Three things I need from you:
- Sign up with this form here. It helps me keep track of who is engaged with the challenge and helps me connect you with Slack.
- Sign up for a Blink Challenge Slack account. That is where the action happens! You could obviously Blink books on your own, but significant traction in retention can happen if you chat about what you learned with others. Join the community! Come hang with us!
- Finally, sign up for Blinkist on the first day of the challenge (November 1st, 2018)!
- Optional: Sign up for the Blink Challenge Facebook Private Group for some async conversation!
Further directions will be communicated on our Slack and Facebook groups!
Questions? Email me @ [email protected]