Top non-fiction reads of '23

From Strength to Strength - Arthur Brooks

My favourite book of the year, and certainly a book in season.? Brooks confronts the topics of our mental decline, how we find contentment, and what it means to live well in the second act of professional life.? This book helped me to come to terms with the decline in some of my mental abilities that I was so proud of, and embrace the potential for other forms of intelligence that are available if we embrace the second curve. Brooks’s compassionate and vulnerable storytelling helped me to take an honest look at my desires and drives, my haves and my wants, and reconfigure my happiness equation, with an immediate change in my outlook and priorities. A huge recommendation for anyone in their 40s/ 50s that wants some good framing to think about creating a second curve of impact while being comfortable and aware about the inevitable decline of the first.

The Crux - Richard Rumelt

If there is one book you read on strategy it should be this one.? I was first confronted with Rumelt views on strategy in his initial book ‘Good strategy, Bad strategy’.? This latest book takes the initial principles and refines them with 10 more years at the coal face, and is more focused on the practical process of getting to a good strategy. Strategy is so simple but so hard! It is the answer to the question, how will we win.? This book had me going back to every piece of strategic work I was doing and asking: ‘Does this clearly state how I think we will win’.? The answer was often ‘not clearly enough’. Sometimes it was worse. I love that this book highlights the great creative moment in strategy (which many pretend does not exist) where, having considered all the facts, one must choose/ create/ design a strategy! Only after that is the deductive part where one must think through all the logical actions that must be put in place to support this.? Read this book and then challenge me when I fall short!

All my knotted up life - Beth Moore

I had an idea of who Beth Moore was. Wasn't she an American TV Christian? Her wonderfully honest, very funny, heart-wrenching autobiography completely floored me. It made me mad, it made me wanted aspire to be a low profile hero, and most of all, it reminded me that I must get better on reserving judgement and working harder to hear each person's story. This is an extraordinary tale of a gifted person trying to achieve her potential despite infuriating and unjust obstacles being put in her path.? For full value, get the Audio book and have her read it to you in her Southern Accent.

Titan: The life of John D. Rockefeller - Ron Chernow?

I love an honestly told biography, but be warned! You have to really love biographies to have the stamina for this one. This is the story of the man that made the oil system that became the energy complex we have today. This is the story of the man who invented the trust from which we get the concept of antitrust. This is the story of the man that was fantastically wealthy but meticulously thrifty. The man who became a public enemy while he truly believed that he was doing this for the benefit of the public.? This is a nuanced story of a fascinating life, and I find myself challenged to live according to my principals, not my circumstances.

The Myth of Normal - Gabor Maté

I have gained greatly from reading Maté's books.? My parenting is now much more focused being attuned to where my kids are at and what they are needing from them (They may not agree yet) I am way more aware of the offers my kids still continue to make so that I can receive them and respond.? Some of that came from ‘Hold on to your kids’ (Also a great book by Maté) and Scattered minds (His book on ADHD, See last year's list). ? The Myth of Normal feels like Gabor Maté’s attempt to summarise everything he thinks about everything.? The key thesis is that we are not in a normal context and so we can expect our bodies and minds to be misfiring in all sorts of ways. There is so much to take from this book.? I love the concept of your personality being a (normally successful) adaptation to a specific context, consistent with your intrinsic wiring.? This makes it neither unchangeable, nor easily malleable, and helps me to understand the transformation in my own life, and the potential for ongoing transformation (ENFP for life?!).? I love his broad definition of trauma and how it can continue to have an affect on us if not well dealt with.? ? I feel like I am more conscious of the impact of my own formative experiences, more empathetic towards others, and their journeys, and more aware that we are not in our natural habitat, and so we don’t need to pretend that what happens often is ‘normal’.??

Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson

It is to our great benefit that one of the world's best biographers was welcomed in intimacy with one of our time's most extraordinary people, to write this brilliant biography.? Told with that rare combination of access and honesty I think this will go down as one of the truly great biographies.? I thought I knew Musk.? But the clear and captivating storytelling left me with a new feeling: Musk is way more impressive than I ever realised and at the same time, way less enviable.? Having seen how organisations traditionally run, the intensity and madness of his focus is just breathtaking.? But man do I not want want he has. Never have I seen such a high level of performance and felt no desire at all to emulate it or be around anyone that does.? Isaacson brings out clearly the link between his trauma and his behaviour.? Perhaps it is good for the world that he exists and he pushes us forward. But it is terrible for him.? And note to self: Beware people with enormous morals goals (e.g. Saving human consciousness, making the species interplanetary) Any sacrifice is worth it to achieve such a goal, and you might be the sacrifice.

Brene Brown - Atlas of the heart

This is really two books. The first 80% is a fascinating compendium of definitions for various feelings with the goal of giving us the words to describe these feelings and so be able to better communicate them. This has some great insights to wrestle with e.g. “Narcissism is the shame based fear of being ordinary”? But the real treasure is the last section. For me this was when the book went from quite interesting to life changing. For the last 25 pages, Brown shares what she has learned about cultivating meaningful connection. Meaningful connection comes from approach another person with 1) Grounded Confidence (Removing your armour and being secure and vulnerable), 2) The courage to walk alongside (Just being present and supportive, without trying to fix the issue, or say the right thing) and 3) Honouring each person's story as sacred (Listening to understand, not topping the story, or minimising it).? I did not score well on these 3. I have immediately tried to apply this in my own stumbling way and seen huge payoffs especially in my parenting, but also in many other personal and professional relationships.?Listen more. Don't try to fix it. Don't try to build on a story by immediately telling your own slightly bigger story. Given I am at 3/10 max here at the moment, I am really excited about the impact of getting better at this.

Mating in Captivity - Esther Perel

This was one of those challenging books to engage with, knowing that the author and I were coming from very different world views.? But I really respected the fact that Perel has been a therapist for over 30 years, and had thousands of conversations with her clients about their relationships, so I was curious to see what she had to say sex, the erotic and making relationships work. The hardest and most interesting conclusion to engage in was this: Perel believes that love (which seeks to maximise safety) and the erotic (Which feeds off mystery and risk) are at odds with each other as the relationship matures. One must pursue them separately. One cannot just expect the erotic to be a natural outcome of maximising love and safety.? I am still wrestling with this one, but as someone who is pretty low in mystique I have challenged myself to not always be such an open book. Lets see :-)?

Thinking in Systems - Donella Meadows

I was somewhat aware of systems thinking but this book took me deep into the rigour of understanding flows, stocks, feedback loops and the counterintuitive impact of delays.? I feel like I have been given a whole new framework to understand the different organisational and interpersonal contexts that I was involved in.? I am now much more focused on understanding and impacting the linkages, applying my energy to structural change, rather than primarily applying my energy to the generation of flows.? Brilliantly simultaneously theoretical, practical and understandable.

Brick by Brick - David Robertson

I love Lego.? It's hard to say exactly why.? Maybe it is the ownership I fell over the extraordinary creations that emerge from my own hands, with just a few bags of pieces and some simple instructions. Maybe it is the low barriers to entry for creativity, once those pieces entere the ‘collective’ box.? Maybe it's just the joy and whimsy that seems to permeate every set. I have also long been curious about the company. The way they let their values drive their decisions. Their leadership playground that sets up Curiosity and Bravery in tension with Focus. I was aware that they had lost their way at the turn of the century, but had found a path to an extraordinary recovery. Brick by Brick is the story of how Lego got indigestion, not through a failure to innovate but through more innovation along more fronts than the business could handle or learn from. And it is the story of how Lego got it right, focused on the core, and slowly expanded innovation again. It is a well told story, that causes you to look again on all the lego themes and sets you remembered and loved.? This Christmas, as I built the Fender Stratocaster alongside my kids, each also building their lego set, I was a very happy Dad. And I could better feel the love the designers had for this 'Lego ideas' kit, as it burst through in the circuit board detail of the inside of the amp.

Honourable mention: The Acquired podcast.?

I find these long form podcasts absolutely intriguing and entertaining.? They fill your mind with components that allow you to piece together new strategies.? Start with LVMH, or Berkshire Hathaway.? Recommend 1.5 speed :-)

Happy reading in 2024!