Originally posted on Medium

Drawing inspiration from Matt Clifford’s annual reading list, I’ve decided to take a small step towards my 2019 goals by focusing more on compounding my learning rather than just absorbing new ways of thinking alone.

If you have any suggestions for what I should read next, add me on GoodReads!

Disclosure: there are affiliate links to Amazon for each book to make it easier for you to buy it should you want to. 

So, in no particular order, here is what I will remember from what I read in 2018:

It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried

1. I will remember to experiment with the way we work, when we think of a company as an iterative product, the way we work becomes malleable and open to experimentation. When you join a team where the work culture is quite established leading to behavioural ways of working being picked up implicitly, it might lead you to feel that you need to fit in. Thinking of yourself not as a cultural fit but a cultural addition to the team where everyone is responsible for forwarding the mission will help you see behaviour as an open model ripe for experimentation.

Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman

1. I will remember (and this is directly aimed at product managers) that you have to be as good as getting users as building a product. A good product with great distribution will almost always beat a great product with poor distribution.

2. The five categories of network effects: direct, indirect, two-sided, local and compatibility/standards.

3. Not all revenue is created equal, the unicorns of the world have incredible gross margins of 60%+.

4. A new definition for product/market fit: whether or not you have discovered a non-obvious market opportunity where you have a unique advantage or approach, and one that competing players won’t see until you’ve had a chance to build a healthy lead.

5. Maslovian hierarchy of fires: 1) distribution, 2) product, 3) revenue model, 4) operations, 5) competition, 6) what’s next.

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

1. As a person who facilitates 100 extraordinary humans through a mind expanding experience every 6 months there are so many opportunities to intentionally design moments and gatherings that matter in order to (hopefully) change the trajectory of their lives.

2. Hosting an event requires servant leadership, you are there for the experience of your guests and you are there to help guide them through an incremental change in their lives.

3. For every gathering, start with why, the true root why, no bullshit as to why you’re gathering together.

4. Magic numbers for group sizes: 6, 12–15, 30 and 150.

5. Diversity in groups requires explicit norms, especially at the get go, something I’ve had to learn the hard way in the past year!

6. “Your opening needs to be a kind of pleasant shock therapy. It should grab people. And in grabbing them, it should both awe the guests and honour them. It must plant in them the paradoxical feeling of being totally welcomed and deeply grateful to be there.”

Singapore at Random by Susan Tsang

1. Having now lived in Singapore for almost 3 years, I felt that it would be fun to know a few unusual facts of about this tiny country! Apparently Singaporeans are the fastest walkers in the world (I don’t actually believe this) and as I suspected Singapore is geographically in the wrong timezone.

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

1. For years Mitch Albom was my favourite author, but his formulaic way of writing has become very predictable, especially with his latest novel. Nevertheless, what I I will remember is a passage about the winds of change: “Do you know what causes wind? High pressure meeting low pressure. Warm meeting cold. Change. Change causes wind. and the bigger the change, the stronger the wind blows.”

Dear Founder by Maynard Webb

1. I will remember that when I want to improve the execution factor on our team that I will make sure that everyone understands that identifying problems is a good thing.

2. When thinking about culture, don’t pick another prominent case study and adopt it as your own, you need to find authenticity in your culture and identity.

High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil

1. I will remember that the definition of a moat is the ability to charge more. People often talk about data and network efforts but it’s rarely truly valuable.

2. Most successful, high-growth, fast-moving companies are an environment of smart people who are all trying to optimise and do the right thing.

3. The universal job of a CEO is to make sure the company wins. 5% of her job is to think about deciding what the company is going to do and 95% is making sure that the company gets that done.

4. If you are growing fast, you have a different company every 6–12 months.

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

1. To not compare myself to other people, or at least try my best not to.

2. Learn how to enjoy being alone more, and cherish that time with myself.

3. Remember to read not just for growth but to escape, to live, far beyond my life and feel connected to what’s greater than myself. “Reading isn’t important because it helps to get you a job. It’s important because it gives you room to exist beyond the reality you’re given. It is how humans merge. How minds connect. Dreams. Empathy. Understanding. Escape.”

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

1. Th most powerful thing I’ll remember about this non-fiction book that reads like a thriller novel is the power of a story, how embedded you can become in believing one’s narrative and how powerful it can be in rallying others to a cause. But also very clearly, having already worked in healthcare, that healthcare problems are rarely rooted in a technology barrier, but more-so an incredibly tangled and layered puzzle that can only be solved if all stakeholders rally around the patient. Great book though, can’t believe it’s true.

Purposeful: Are You a Manager or a Movement Starter by Jennifer Dulski

1. IICDTICDA: if I can do this, I can do anything as a mantra to build a strong bias towards action.

2. Building a narrative requires a story of self, a story of us, and a story of now. A story of self explains our personal why and purpose. A story of us describes what we have in common in trying to inspire those around you to buy into a mission. A story of now should viscerally demonstrate its urgency. Marshall Ganz has developed a framework around this here.

Factfulness by Hans Rosling 

1. I will remember that the world has never been less violent or more safe, despite the news that is being propagated daily. “There’s no room for facts when our minds are occupied by fear.”

2. I will remember to be careful of the gap between “us” and “them”.

3. To recognise that my first reactions are my Type 1 brain reacting typically to the negativity of a story.

4. That the only method proven to curb population growth is to remove extreme poverty. Every generation kept in extreme poverty will continue to have many children to have many hands available for labour.

5. That North Americans and Europeans need to understand that most of the world population lives in Asia. The economic reality is that the stereotypical “we” is becoming the 20% not the 80%.

Make Time by Jake Knapp

1. To be ruthless in blocking out time on my schedule and sticking to it.

2. To use the same MVP approach in product development as tasks, to highlight a priority, to have focus on building/doing and collecting data but learning from it and reflecting to see how to grow for the next cycle.

WEconomy by Craig Kielburger

1. Having a purpose barometer for your team where: there is a long term vision/strategy/budget to deliver your purpose, the board is engaged and accountable for it, there is a measurement system to support the purpose strategy, purpose is operationally embedded to drive decisions.

2. Reminder for what millennials want: a purpose, pursuit of personal development, coaching, ongoing feedback, flexing strengths, and integrating work/life together, can’t just be a job.

3. Traits of a learning organisation: can articulate a clear theory for why they do what they do, relies on feedback from data and evidence to inform decision making, results are share openly and honestly, focused on “improving” instead of “proving” outcomes, commitment to transparency.

My Product Management Toolkit by Marc Abraham

1. Four key attributes of a good product manager: customer focused, value driven, curious and the ability to learn and iterate.

2. To understand customers make sure to use customer segmentation, persona development, empathy mapping and JTBD.

3. Marty Cagan’s product opportunity assessment: what problem will this solve (value proposition), for whom will it solve (target market), how big is the opportunity (market size), what alternatives are there (competitors), why are we best suited (differentiator), why now (market window), how will we get this product to market (GTM), how will we measure success (metrics), how will we make money (business model), what factors are critical to its success (solution requirements.

Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt

1. I will remember that just in time or modular learning is more effective than trying to learn the entire system in one go. Learn parts of the system in chunks, measure your progress and results reflect and continue instead of trying to follow a model from end to end.

2. Split up large goals into small bite sized moments where you can build a habit around them and become addicted to them.

Into the Magic Shop by James Doty

1. I will remember that there is scientific evidence to meditation and visualisation but if we aren’t careful about that journey that it can lead us to self-absorption and narcissism. The journey inward is meant to lead you to go outward and connect with others.

2. I will remember that there is such a thing as a “compass of the heart” that the heart sends far more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. Ultimately the mind and the heart are part of one unified intelligence, the neural net around the heart is an essential part of our thinking and reasoning.

3. CDEFGHIJKL: Open your heart and be ©ompassionate to yourself and others. Recognise the (d)ignity of every humain being. (E)quanimity while acknowledging the ups and downs. Give (f)orgiveness to those who have failed you or made your angry. Keep in the front of your mind (g)ratitude for all that you have. (H)umility, remember that you are no better or no worse than others. Value (i)ntegrity and use it to guide your actions. (J)ustice, acknowledge your obligations to those who are most vulnerable. (K)indness does not require suffering, only recognition of another’s humanity. (L)ove which contains and binds all.

A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind by Shoukei Matsuomoto

1. I’ve never been a very neat person, I value cleanliness deeply but not necessarily order. But as I am sharing most of my space with my life partner, I will remember that to think of our house as an allegory for our body and mind. We need to keep it clean every day.

Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

1. If you’re not saying “Hell Yeah” to a hire, don’t hire the person.

2. As a founder, as a manager, you’re working towards making yourself redundant to the running of your business and your team.

3. “Ideas are just the multiplier of execution”.

The Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook by HBR

1. Whenever I start our a new role, within 1 month to have 3–4 simple well defined problems that can serve as high impact quick wins.

2. When managing upwards: to empathise with their situation, to discuss expectations (objectives, methods of communication, what made the last report so successful), adapt to their working style and to work on busting silos across the organisation.

3. When developing talent on your team: discover their purpose, identify their work values, help them understand the organisation’s priorities, improve their skills, expand their competencies, challenge them with new experiences and help them acquire mentors.

The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

1. I’ll remember that to coach is to create a safe space for others to have their learning moments. My job is to hold a mirror up against them, to reflect the reality of obstacles in the way and talk through how to overcome them in a way that is genuine to them without introducing my own bias.

2. The questions: what is on your mind? And what else? What is the real challenge here for you? What do you want? How can I help? If you´re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to? What was most useful to you about this conversation?

Design a Better Business by Patrick Van Der Pijl 

1. Using the 5 bold steps vision canvas to facilitate a group of humans to build a collective statement about the change ahead.

2. Using the value proposition canvas to guide teams through how to understand your customers, especially through the lens of Jobs to be Done.

Doing Good Better by William MacAskill

1. I will remember that our moral compass in trying to make the world better can be clouded by our inability to objectively quantify the impact our our dollar or time. In other words, we are unable to acknowledge the opportunity cost of our giving in part do to our inability to rationalise our compassion.

2. When deciding on which charity to donate to ask: what does it do, how cost effective is the program, what is the evidence, how well is it implemented and does it even need more money?

3. The QALY metric when trying to measure the healthcare impact of a product or service.

All the Light We Cannot See by Antony Doerr 

1. I will remember that it almost took me two years to finish this book and that it wasn’t particularly memorable. What I will remember is sensory detail to which the author able to construct a visceral world with his writing. One of the gifts of this novel was how to explore a world through the use of sound and that will definitely remain pretty palpable, but the story and narrative itself was way too predictable to call it a must-read for me.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

1. I will remember that experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.

2. I will remember that showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.

3. And one of my life mantras: Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.”

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

1. Reading this book felt like reading an interpretation of what I believe my potential future were to be. It is so rare that a book not only captures my world but reflects lessons that are real and deeply moving.

2. “Marriage: a hopeful, generous, infinitely kind gamble taken by two people who don’t know yet who they are or who the other might be, binding themselves to a future they cannot conceive of and have carefully omitted to investigate.”

3. “It is a wonderful thing to live in a world where so many people are nice to children. It would be even better if we lived in one where we were a little nicer to the childlike sides of one another.”

Millennials Who Manage by Chip Espinoza

1. I will remember to be leadership centric and not leader centric, to make sure that leadership is distributed ideally to the ends where the best person makes the best decision, not the highest paid opinion.

2. To express myself instead of trying to seek out to prove myself to others as a leader.

3. I will remember generational theory, in which cohorts of people go through transformational experiences that define the generation through macro scale events that help develop a shared values, attitudes, and beliefs.

4. When leading a team of millennial, think and act people first (not task first), whenever possible, keep your group in an underdog position, develop a sense of community, create time to breathe and to think, keep an eye out for burnout. Value a relational approach to management, focus on career development, give frequent and timely feedback, sponsor them for new opportunities and encourage their voice.

Radical Candor by Kim Scott

1. Relationships do not scale but culture does. Relationship s with direct team passes down and scales through a network of nodes.

2. Kickass bosses do not make decisions, they create an environment for clear decision-making process that empowers people closest to the facts to make as many decisions as possible.

3. Remember to have career conversations with my team at least once a month.

4. About praise: “Be as specific and thorough with praise as with criticism. Go deep into the details. Ideally you’d spend just as long getting the facts right for praise as for criticism”

The Power of Moments by Chip Heath & Dan Heath 

1. I will remember that life is just a series of moments, passing from one to another like a picture book.

2. What we remember are the peaks and pits, the lasting moments in the rollercoaster we call life.

3. There’s nine times more to gain by elevating positive customers than by eliminating negative ones.

4. I will remember to cultivate the ability to see moments, to grasp moments, and to create moments that matter.