My reading list from 2022

Here is my reading list from 2022, the top of the list being my favorite reads of the year! As usual, a mix of fiction and learning books. Thanks for the ones who provided me with book recommendations along the year!

Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir), by the author of "The Martian" (yes, the Matt Damon movie). One of the best sci-fi books I read. It's a science-based thriller (yes, there are one or two equations in this novel, but still with amazing story), can only recommend!

Never (Ken Follett). A novel describing how, small step by small step, superpowers are going towards nuclear World War III .Read this in February 2022, there was an astonishing parallel between the fiction I was reading and the real-life news...

Measure what matters (John Doerr). A book about how setting objectives using the OKR (Objective and Key Results) method. Helped me to formalize something I had in mind, and I am now progressively introducing it in my management toolkit.

Cixin Liu graphic novels: The Wandering Earth, Yuanyan's bubbles, The village teacher & Nourrir l'humanité (did not find the english version of that one). I was suggested last year to take a look ar graphic novels, so did I. Made-me-thinking sci-fi graphic novels about potential (extreme) future of humanity, worth the read.

Doughnut economics (Kate Rarworth). Mind-provocative thoughts challenging the basics of economic theory main assumptions. Eg: is it realistic to build economic theory on infinite economic growth or consider that humans really act as selfish individual agents? I have an economic degree and it's true that some critical review of this kind of economic assumptions should be more debated at university. The doughnut comes from the author's concept of having the right balance between "too much" (exploiting more than available natural resources) vs. "too few" (do not provide basic education rights to all people on the planet).

The five dysfunctions of a team (Patrick Lencioni). Written as a business novel, it shows how to work on dysfunction teams based on 5 characteristics (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoiding accountability, inattention to results). Easy reading, easy remembered and useful concepts.

The dawn of everything: a new history of humanity (David Graeber, David Wengrow). Also a mind-challenging book, this time about prehistory. The book shows that, while we tend to think of them as basic & primitive semi-animals/semi-humans, prehistoric people were biologically not so different from us and built up different and sophisticated forms of society with much more diversity that we have today (for example societies where the roles & social organisation was depending on seasons). It's quite disruptive vs. the linear standard history of "hunter-gatherers" who evolve into farmers and then create civilisation. By showing civilisation was possible also for hunter-gatherer form of society, the authors challenge the uni-directional way of building up our societies.

Four thousand weeks (Oliver Burkeman) - a book about productivity and time management... starting by telling you no matter what you do and how organized you are, you will not be able to do everything and that you should organize your lifetime (limited to 4000 weeks for an average life) on making choices and avoid feeling guilty of not be able to do everything.

How to avoid a climate disaster (Bill Gates). A good book to give an helicopter view on challenges in front of us. Not a surprise, Bill Gates is a true believer in technology as a way to solve the climate crisis.

Managing to learn, using the A3 management process (John Shook) is detailing about the A3 problem-solving process (or how to visualize on a single sheet of paper a systematic way to solve problems and share learning). I was curious about this topic, as a kind of personal recurring topic is how to find the right way/process/tool to share learnings within my organization and find the right balance between too-few and too-much reporting. A3 looks the way to go.

Learning to see, value steam mapping to add value and eliminate muda (Mike Rother & John Shook). Introduction to lean concept of value stream mapping. Simple but straight-to-the-point and practical book. Part of my personal journey to learn more about Lean.

Other reads but not really worth commenting:

• Le loup des cordeliers & Le mystère de la main rouge (Henri Loevenbruck): historical novels
• The book you wish your parents had read (Philippa Perry) - a book about parenting
• Visez le sommet (Christine Kerdellant, Vincent Desportes) - a book showing the importance of the strategic thinking. I am trying to reconciliate with long-term strategy and its importance, this book helped to some extent.
• SAFe distilled [5.0 version] (Richard Knaster, Dean Keffingwell) - Detailing the "agile at scale" SAFe model
• Connect, building exceptional relationships with family, friends and colleagues (David Bradford, Carole Robin)
• Brèves de vie (Michel Denisot) & Absurdie (Stéphane De Groodt)
• La prophétie des abeilles (Bernard Werber), quite disappointed by this new novel from Bernard Werber, even if I was a huge fan of his first books ("Les fourmis" series) when I was a teenager.
• Le lean aujourd'hui, satisfaction client et reconnaissance personnelle alliant digital et green (Jean-Claude Bihr). Was interested to read about about lean + digital + green, but disappointed: digital and green are barely touched in this book...