Quick read. Does a great job of using research-backed studies to surface the complexities of working within systems. Gives the reader a good foundation to understand how to improve their own systems. Personally, I found it lacking in practical implementation advice, though I think that's understandable given that there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "... when you change the way you work, you change the routines, you create a different culture."
• "For people to bring their best to the work that may, in face, eliminate their current job, they need complete faith that their leaders value them——not just for their present work but for their ability to improve and innovate in their work."
• "A good leader affects a team's ability to deliver code, architect good systems, and apply Lean principles to how the team manages its work and develops products."

I've always been interested in death and end-of-life perspectives, which brought this book to my attention. Many of the insights Becker shares about life, loss, and love resonated and aligned with my own experiences as a volunteer hospice worker.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "Die before you die. This is how you come to life."
• "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is."
• "We can do extraordinary things when we lead with love."

Ironically, I read this book end-to-end but have not read all of Larson's book on management, An Elegant Puzzle. Highly recommend this book to those interested in learning what defines this role, what skills are needed, and how to navigate the challenges that come with it. Offers a good balance between theory and practice.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "I think this is the most important lesson I've learned over the past few years: the most effective leaders spend more time following than they do leading."
• "Well run organizations value you for what you're good at."
• "... culture + good psychology has often been the hidden x-factor that turns organizations from good to great."

Listened to this twice within the span of a week, which is highly unusual for me to do. Also, I generally don't do audiobooks. Appreciate the way it playfully addresses the paradox and nuance of living a meaningful life. Will be adding this to my favorites and picking up a print version.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "Information doesn't stick without emotion. You learn better when you're having fun."
• "Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare."
• "If you avoid pain, you avoid improvement. Avoid embarrassment, and you avoid success. Avoid risk, and you avoid reward."

Esther Perel is a brilliant human. Her insights into relationships and the paradox of relationships, love, desire, and commitment are some of the best I've come across.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "Desire is an enigma."
• "It takes two people to make a problem, but only one to change it."
• "Unconditional love does not drive unconditional want."

Hart does well with showing evidence of how these two seemingly unrelated fields overlap. It was a fun read, but it didn't go as deep as I hoped.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "Submitting yourself voluntarily to a particular constraint spurs creativity."
• "There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't."
• "Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them."

Excellent read. Does a great job of flipping the script on the idea that we are victims of our past experiences via Alderian Psychology. There is something extremely liberating in the ideas that the authors present.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "Alderian Psychology is a psychology of courage. Your unhappiness cannot be blamed on your past or your environment. And it isn't that you lack competence. You just lack courage."
• "... freedom is being disliked by other people."
• "You are unable to change only because you are making the decision not to."

It's difficult to adequately capture what Rubin covers in this book, so I'd just recommended reading it first-hand. It's inspiring, thought-provoking, and at times, a bit strange. Love it. I plan to revisit this book every year.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "As artists, we seek to restore our childlike perception: a more innocent state of wonder and appreciation not tethered to utility or survival."
• "The recognition of abundance fills us with hope that our brightest ideas still await us and our greatest work is yet to come."
• "Competition serves the ego. Cooperation supports the highest outcome"

Opted to listen to this book instead of reading it since I suspected that it would be a lot of the same message but repeated in different ways. While this turned out to true, I still think it could be a worthwhile read. Appreciate how he used his own experiences, scientific research, and history to tap into why embracing discomfort is important in life.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "In newness we are forced into presence and focus. Newness can even slow down our sense of time. This explains why time seemed slower when we were kids."
• "...as we experience fewer problems, we don't become more satisfied. We just lower our threshold for what we consider a problem."
• "Fear is apparently a mindset often felt prior to experience."

Reading letters that were never meant to be published or seen by others felt intrusive and many parts were painful to read. Lots of longing, unfulfilled desires, and existential angst. A collection of private correspondence has a depth that biographies just can't capture. As Milena said in her essay, Letters of Notable People:
"We do not expect any art from letters, we expect something human."
I'm glad I didn't skip over Milena's letters to Kafka's friend since they painted a more complete picture of their love affair and the role she played in it. Can't say that I'm a fan.

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

• "No one sings as purely as those who inhabit the deepest hell—what we take to be the song of angels is their song."
• "You have a certain peculiarity—I believe it comes from deep inside your being, and someone else is at fault if it isn't always effective—which I have never seen in anyone else and which I can't even imagine, although I have found it in you."
• "I keep trying to convey something which cannot be explained, something in my bones, which can only be experienced in those same bones."

Came across this article from Deutsch when I was looking into parallels between AI and human intelligence. Since then, the X algorithm has been doing its job and consistently surfacing this book. Excited to add it to the queue.

Another book surfaced to me by the X algorithm. Hoping this will be an interesting read since I currently work as an engineering manager.

Heard about this book on a recent Tim Ferriss podcast. Since this draws from Deutsch's ideas presented in The Beginning of Infinity, this felt like a logical next read.

Heard about this book many times and figured its past due for reading, so I'm adding it to the queue.

Picked this up at the Munich Airport at The School of Life store. Just started reading, and it's already offering some good insights, particularly around the importance of an emotional education.

Haven't read this since high school. Saw it on a favorites list from Andrej Karpathy. Thought it would be fun to revisit considering the recent hyperfocus on intelligence (and its potential overvaluation) within the AI community.