Some things I learned from some books I read in 2019

In order of how much I liked the book. Note, these are just the books I liked, so every book here is recommended. If you want to see what other books I read this year, they are on my Goodreads.

• Exhalation → AI that can re-write its reward systems is interesting. Humans do this through psychiatric drugs, this, too, is interesting. Also, this author is incredibly creative and mind-blowing. I will read everything he writes, and I totally bought this for a half-dozen people for Christmas.
• Deep Work → The most important book I read this year. Teaches productivity blah blah blah. But the real importance was about how it teaches you to value your productivity in the knowledge economy. Don't judge yourself by your busy-ness, you will manufacture busy-ness. Think of yourself as an artisan. 
• Creative Quest → "A creative person is a person who creates". Really just do. Don't worry about being good, derivative, influential, that will come later. Also, a really interesting non-business book on productivity.
• Avidly Reads Theory → Theory is hard, and can make you feel stupid or silly. Don't worry about that. Try to learn from it anyway.
• Walden → Sometimes the solution to a problem can be more complex than the problem. If so, try change. Also, Walden wrote beautifully about economics and relatively badly about nature.
• Becoming → Pivoting from the "successful" path is hard, but it is less hard if you reflect on what you really want to achieve in your life.
• One Giant Leap → What the Space Race did not usher in for a "Space Age" it did usher in as a Digital Age. 
• Digital Minimalism → Being a digital minimalist is not about not using technology. But, rather, using the technology consciously, for what you want to use it for and nothing else. Also, good, but not as good as Deep Work by the same author, which remains THE book for me on productivity.
• Einstein → Being interdisciplinary, being stimulated and open-minded. That's where genius is. 
• Rise and Kill First → Tactical victories often have unintended strategic consequences.
• Motherhood → Don't judge a person's choice to have children. A life with children should not be compared to a life without children, but a life where the passion of parenthood is redirected to some other outlet.
• No One is Too Small to Make a Difference → We should be budgeting carbon into our projects, not just dollars.
• Drive → Using money to influence productivity more often than not fails (but there are specific work-patterns and structures that this works for. People just want agency, really.
• Ways of Seeing → Object, representation, context.
• Dear Girls → Diversity is critical in all forms. In your social circles. In your co-creators. Even in your audiences. Also, Ali Wong remains hilarious.
• Girt → Australian history is a lot more mafiistic than I recall from history class. Also, what the British thought was happening in Australia was very often not at all anything like what was actually happening, because of the speed and infrequency of communication.
• Homo Deus → What do we want to want? Also, humanity's relationship with mass extinction is much older than I thought. Also, this author's books really run into each other.