Summary of my 2022 reading list

Continuing a personal tradition that I started 5 years ago, this blog summarizes the books that I read in 2022. Yes, I am a tad bit late posting this one.

Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji

Manu S. Pillai is a young historian who speaks as well as he writes. I heard an interview of his on some social media platform and liked how he provides a clear explanation about certain aspects of history. This prompted me to research his work and I ended up buying this book. This is a well-researched history of rulers of "Dakshin". For those looking at a quick read, this isn't one.

Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

This was a book that I got as part of one of the certificate programs that I had enrolled in the previous year. Donald Miller elaborates on a technique that companies can use to, “organize their thinking, reduce their marketing effort, obliterate confusion, terrify competition, and finally get their business growing again.” Miller compares building a StoryBrand to writing a story for a screenplay. He breaks it down into seven plot points.

A Character, ?Has a Problem, And Meets a Guide, ?Who Gives Them a Plan, And Calls Them to Action, That Helps Them Avoid Failure, And Ends in a Success,

What The Heck Do I Do With My Life? How To Flourish In Our Turbulent Times?

Ravi Venkatesan has written this much-read book and chances are very high that you would have seen several reviews about it on many of your social networks. Lucid and imminently relatable, this book is for all kinds of people - first-time job seekers as well as experienced folks. Some of the concepts in this book tied very well to another one that I read this year - A 100 year life. More on that later in this article.

Here are a few links that you can look at to get a quick snapshot of the concepts from this book.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Cal Newport's book needs to be made compulsory reading for every professional :)! Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. This is a superpower in the times we live and how can you get this superpower is elaborated in this book and again there are tons of sketchnotes and stuff related to this book. Here is a short youtube video on the concepts from this book.

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

Adam Grant is an author that I admire. In Originals, he examines how people can champion new ideas in their careers and everyday life. A fantastic read for ideators and innovators. Link below the TEDX video on concepts related to "Originals"

ONLY THE PARANOID SURVIVE

From the time mankind engaged in business, there have been moments when massive change occurs, when all the rules of business shift fast, furiously, and forever. Andy Grove calls such moments strategic inflection points (SIPs). Having lived through many such inflection points, in this book Andy reveals unique insights into the management of change. Yet another great business book for leaders.

The Right Choice: Resolving 10 Career Dilemmas for Extraordinary Success

Shiv Shivkumar discusses 10 career dilemmas with twenty-four highly experienced professionals. A great technique for presenting varied perspectives and these are career dilemmas each one of us can relate to.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

In this book, Daniel Pink reveals the three elements of true motivation: AUTONOMY - the desire to direct our own lives; MASTERY - the urge to get better and better at something that matters; PURPOSE - the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.?

The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity

I came across this book on Deepak Jayaraman's Play to Potential podcast. Interestingly after reading a few chapters of this book, I lost the book on a business trip and felt bad about it. My wife surprised me with another copy and I finished it in a few sittings. This book is topical. Many of us have been raised on the traditional notion of a three-stage approach to our working lives: education, followed by work, and then retirement. We have seen our parents and grandparents follow this path. However, this well-established pathway is already beginning to collapse as life expectancy is rising. Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott?show us how to rethink our finances, our education, our career, and our relationships and create a fulfilling 100-year life.

Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life

As a parent of a toddler, I am interested in what kids need to feel fulfilled. A year or 2 ago, Bill Gates mentioned about this book in his annual book summary list. So, I picked it up this year. Diane Tavenner cofounded America’s most innovative public school "Summit". Through personal stories and the hard-earned lessons of Summit’s exceptional team of educators and diverse students, Diane Tavenner shares the underlying learning philosophies and unconventional wisdom that lead to all children being prepared for school and life.

Design Your Thinking: The Mindsets, Toolsets and Skill Sets for Creative Problem-solving

Serendipity for the book lover! I met Dr. Pavan Soni, the author of this book as part of a Deloitte Partner Event. He was running a design thinking workshop for folks involved in Customer Experience. I was lucky enough to be part of that workshop. While the workshop itself was a phenomenal experience, the icing on the cake for me was an author-signed copy of this book. Dr. Pavan Soni makes design thinking concepts very relatable to the reader by keeping his narrative simple and relatable using industry use cases in the Indian context.

The Effective Executive

This book by Peter Drucker was given as part of XLRI's CXO programmer that I enrolled in 2022. Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can, and must, be learned: Managing time, Choosing what to contribute to the organization, Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for the best effect, Setting the right priorities,Knitting all of them together with effective decision-making.

Do Epic Shit

Ankur Warikoo's book was the year-end gift at our workplace. Think of this as all of the content he posts on social media readily available in one place.

Rajini's Mantras: Life lessons from one of India’s most-loved superstars?

One of our partners visited our workplace and presented this book to each of us. The author uses Rajinikanth’s iconic speeches, public interactions, and performances right from his early days in the film industry to elaborate on some life lessons. An interesting read for the "Thalaivar" fan.

Ditching my top 5 and using a different metric this time.

Best Reads -

• Deep Work
• What The Heck Do I Do With My Life? How To Flourish In Our Turbulent Times
• Only the paranoid survive
• The 100 year life
• Design your thinking

Good Reads -

• Originals
• Drive
• Prepared
• The Right Choice
• The Storybrand
• The Effective Executive

The OK reads -

• Rebel Sultans
• Do Epic Shit
• Rajni's Mantras