Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci - Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson fast become one of my favourite biographers after I read the Steve Jobs biography he wrote. Any story can be made interesting and suck you into turning page after page to read on if it is well crafted. More goes into a great biography than simply a factual retelling of an individuals life. Isaacson has such great skill at making you feel like you are right there with these great people throughout history while they are writing history and mastering their own craft.
Leonardo da Vinci was a thoroughly fascinating human being whose inquisitiveness knew no limit and is what set him apart in being recognized as a creative genius. This biography tells the story of his own life as well as the life da Vinci breathed into his world famous works of art. The hardcover copy of this book is well worth buying to get full-colour copies of all of the artwork described throughout the book so that you can see for yourself what is being referred to as Isaacson describes the subtle details of each image and the signature trademarks that indicate them to be works of da Vinci.
Anyone who thrives on curiosity and asking questions to get to the root of a subject is going to love this story of a legend who honed his creativity by always maintaining a childlike curiosity.
Sapiens
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
“The real root of suffering is the never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to be in a constant state of tension and dissatisfaction.”
Sapiens - a brief history of humankind is exactly as it is described. There is an awful lot of information crammed into this book! It's a fantastic way to learn more not only about our physical evolution, but also the way our development has shaped the very essence of our psyche. Bill Gates has called this his favourite book to recommend everyone read and I think that everyone really should read it. I wouldn't be surprised if this book or information adapted from the subjects in this book becomes compulsory reading for high school students.
What has allowed Homo sapiens to conquer the world above all else is due to the unique language systems we have developed and our ability to store information external to what can be held in memory.
Harari is also devout meditator and advocate of mindful practices and if nothing else, this book provides profound value with the information about happiness and finding meaning in life.
Bird By Bird
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Many successful authors call Bird by Bird the best book on better writing ever written. I loved reading the book. While it leans towards how to better fiction, I think there is plenty for non-fiction writers to take away, especially as it relates to the life and habits of writers.
The main point is that you shouldn't obsess over getting published and just enjoy the process of writing because becoming published is not all that it's cracked out to be but the writing life is if you truly enjoy it.
Lamott is a great writer and will have you laughing and crying with this book. While writers will appreciate the book the most, it's so well written that I think everyone can find something of value in it.
The Power of Less
The Power of Less - Leo Babauta
At almost 10-years old now, The Power of Less set the stage for many of the books we see today that are about the magic of tidying up or life-changing impact simplifying has. It's a very simple and straight-forward read, which is why I think it's so great. There's a little bit of everything in it to help you accomplish more by not spreading yourself to thin.
From organizing your tasks, saying no to commitments, setting goals, getting in shape, and staying motivated - this book covers it all in simple terms and to the point.
The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
“Every man creates his meaning and form and goal. Why is it so important what others have done? Why does it become sacred by the mere fact of not having been your own? Why is anyone and everyone right - so long as it’s not yourself?”
In Tribe of Mentors, of the 'mentors' that were interviewed about entrepreneurship, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand stood out as the most recommended book. Some went so far to say that it should be compulsory for any aspiring entrepreneur to read. Having finished reading it, I wholeheartedly agree. The essence of The Fountainhead is that the prime movers of the world are those individuals who create something of their own out of love for their job or passion first and foremost.
To try to explain the book cannot do it justice. You will become deeply immersed in the characters in the story and it is well worth the journey to get to Howard Roark's testimony, which is the talk to end all talks on why the struggle to follow your dreams is worth it if you never give up on what you love.
Conspiracy
Conspiracy - Ryan Holiday
“Fate sends to the conspirators of the world the best of its Murphy’s Law and entropy and crises of confidence.”
Conspiracy is Ryan's first adventure into a different type of narrative than his typical form of non-fiction writing and he nailed it. The book details the battle between billionaire Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel and Gawker, once the internet's hub of most outlandish gossip. After being personally offended by Gawker, Thiel conspired to take them out once and for all so that they couldn't smear the names of any other people partial to privacy. This all culminated in the case of Hulk Hogan's sex tape scandal.
While the general information about the case may be generally available, Ryan was given intimate access to both sides of the story and tried to remain unbiased in his approach to recounting the story and detailing how the narrative aligns with the traditional path of conspiracy.
As with all of Ryan's books, this one is a real page-turner that you'll be unable to put down.
Better Than Before
Better Than Before - Gretchen Rubin
“Self-measurement brings self-awareness, and self-awareness strengthens self-control”
Better Than Before offers an important framework for coming to better understand your ability to set and achieve goals and how to address others you are trying to help. Gretchen developed the Four Tendencies framework which is a very valuable starting point for figuring out how to help yourself and others.
Before diving recklessly headfirst into any goal, it helps to know yourself and your tendencies first so that you can set yourself up as best as possible for long-term success. Better Than Before is a meditation on Gretchen's Upholder tendency primarily but does offer insights into the other tendencies as well as a great starting point. Her subsequent book on the topic, The Four Tendencies dives into all the tendencies further to identify how best to help yourself or other that fall into the other categories.
Deep Work
Deep Work - Cal Newport
Deep Work is an important read in an age where distraction is the norm and we are rapidly approaching a time where most simple tasks and jobs will be taken over by AI. With these trends in the modern age, the necessity for intense, intellectual focus in the workplace is becoming more and more important.
With the new economy shift, the core abilities that will help individuals to thrive are the ability to quickly master hard things and produce work at an elite level both in terms of quality and speed. These factors necessitate what is called Deep Work.
Deep Work closely resembles and has much in common with achieving a flow state with your work. By putting intense effort into singular focus, one can accomplish much more high-quality work than those who allow themselves to be distracted by notifications and attempts to multitask.
The book is divided into two parts with the first addressing the thesis of why deep work will be so important for those who want to thrive in the new economy and the second part of the book offering practical methods for incorporating deep work into your own routine. This book is quite short, but excellent and packed with compelling information.
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Poor Charlie's Almanack - Charles Munger, Peter Kaufman
I've been on the search for Poor Charlie's Almanack for years and finally was able to get my hands on a copy of this one of a kind book. Charlie Munger is Warren Buffet's business partner at Berkshire Hathaway.
While you're hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't know the name Warren Buffet, Charlie has preferred to live in relative obscurity despite being whole-heartedly considered equal to Warren.
This book is aptly named as a nod to Charlie's idol Ben Franklin and is a must-read for anyone interested in personal finance and investing. This almanac includes a biography of Charlie Munger, sections on his principles on life and investing, and an impressive collection of his most popular public speeches. Charlie has amassed an incredible amount of wisdom over his lifetime - much attributed to his lifelong pursuit of reading and learning.
“The acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty”
You'd be a fool not consider what Charlie has to say, even if you just take the time to listen to one of his commencement speeches, like this one for USC:
12 Rules For Life
12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos - Jordan B. Peterson
In the past few years, Dr. Peterson has dramatically come under the interrogation light of the media. I don't invest much time into most sensationalized twaddle, but this story has caught my attention as Dr. Peterson is a professor in the psychology department of my alma mater and a number of my close friends were in his classes and absolutely loved him as a professor.
12 Rules For Life is Peterson's attempt at publishing a book for the general public. I call it an attempt because if you've ever listened to any of the podcasts, lectures, or new stories that Jordan has been a part of, you'll know that he processes each point he makes with a fine-tooth comb and you're extremely unlikely to catch him off-guard or contradicting himself. This book does justice to his logic and it is challenging at times to follow his arguments and how they connect together. For this reason, I was hesitant to consider it a book that deserves a 5/5 from me.
Reviewing the books and the notes you have taken on a book are an essential step in the process and only after this step has been completed can a book be properly judged in a reader's eyes. Upon review, I have determined that this book is worth its weight in gold for the right person, at the right time. The complexity and weaving of narrative into the arguments for each of the 12 rules adds to and does not subtract from, the value of the book. I see it this way now, as this book has offered up an opportunity for virtually every open-minded person to gain something useful from most, if not all, of the 12 rules as they are outlined. The book also takes you on a journey into the deepest Hells of human nature, which is something that very few people offering up guidance on "self-help" are willing to do.
Because of the complexity of the book and the arguments, this is the type of book that grows in value as you read it multiple times, argue with it and create a dialogue, and review it for greater understanding. It is for this challenge inherent in the journey that the book takes you on, just like in life, that it is a book I would recommend everyone to read.
Crushing It!
Crushing It! - Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary is the king of boisterous social media gurus but he backs up everything that his larger than life voice spews from his lips with proof that he and the people he advises are in fact crushing it. This book is a short, easy read but full of tons of valuable information (and as my friend Drew points out, it’s great to get the information without hearing Gary’s voice if you can’t stand him). If you need actionable steps to grow your following on any of the big social media platforms of today, this book has the nuggets that have got you covered. Take them, apply them to your own pages daily for a long time, and watch your followers grow.
This is your social media playbook if you're trying to grow your business or own personal brand. You could listen to hundreds of hours of Gary's YouTube videos or podcasts to gather most if not all of this information but the case studies of people crushing it on each platform and all of the things you can implement being compiled all in one book is worth the cost of entry.
Principles
Principles - Ray Dalio
“Problems are like coal thrown into a locomotive engine because burning them up - inventing and implementing solutions for them - propels us forward. Every problem you find is an opportunity to improve your machine."
Principles is one of the best practical guides on life and management that I've read and one of my favourites in recent memory because of the extreme effort that went into making it as readable as possible.
This feels very much like a modern-day take of Stoic philosophy. Ray's own approach to business and life clearly has been influenced heavily by the Stoics.
The best part of the book is how each principle is clearly displayed as a chapter heading followed by each sub-principle or example subdivided even further to make it simple to pick out whatever information you need to apply in a given moment. This comes into play even more importantly in the second half of the book that's designed to be used as a business and management reference guide for how to handle different situations that are another "one of those."
Radical Acceptance
Radical Acceptance packs a really powerful punch for those who find it at the right time in their lives.
The subtitle for RA is "Embracing your life with the heart of a Buddha."
This is a book on mindfulness, meditation, and spirituality for those who are into that sort of thing. Like I mentioned I think for anyone who is struggling to find happiness or seems to be bogged down by troubles and sees no escape, Radical Acceptance as a book and as a philosophy can be extremely helpful.
Each chapter in the book addresses a different area in your life that you may be struggling to accept and provides guidance on how to deal with it. Tara is a psychotherapist in addition to being a teacher of Buddhist meditation and so the book is full of stories of Radical Acceptance being applied in tough situations, which might seem like radically anecdotal evidence (pardon the pun), but can be very helpful considering that the whole point is you've got to accept things and let go. There are also plenty of guided meditations included to help you deal with particular situations, which may make this an even better book in audio format.
I find a very close connection between the thesis of Radical Acceptance with the Latin amor fati - "a love of fate" which was embodied in Stoic philosophy.
If you're not quite ready to dive headfirst into something quite so mystical sounding, 10% Happier is a great place to start exploring mindfulness and meditation. Dan Harris actually comically makes mention of Tara Brach in the book several times as he encounters her at mindfulness seminars and warms up to her ultra-serene personality as he spends more time around her.
Growth Hacker Marketing
GHM is a cool little handbook for anyone who is involved in marketing, whether as an entrepreneur or simply out of interest for a critical component of how the top companies in the world got to be so big.
Growth hacking is what Ryan calls the new age of marketing, as the old-school tactics don't allow for the same analytical approach to determining what works and what doesn't with your customer base.
The three keys to growth hacks versus the old marketing playbook are using things that are testable, trackable, and scalable. While all three factors are important for modern growth hacks, being scalable really matters when the best way to stand out is to bake virality into the thing you are making.
The book is very short but worth its weight in gold. Understanding the principles behind what makes something go viral and which companies become successful today is the foundation that needs to be fully comprehended in order to stand out.
Musashi
“People do not give up their loves and hates as long as life lasts. Waves of feeling come and go with the passage of time. […] The world is always full of the sound of waves. The little fishes, abandoning themselves to the waves, dance and sing and play, but who know the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows its depth?"
Musashi is an incredible book. If you’ve never read it, you need to put it on your list right now. It’s based on the life of the samurai Miyamoto Musashi who has his own non-fiction work in the Book of Five Rings, which this book is loosely based upon.
On episode 50 of the Jocko Podcast, Jocko Willink said that eventually he’d be covering Musashi in an episode and wanted to give everyone enough time to dig through the monstrous book before the spoilers from that episode came. It was set to coincide with episode 100 of the Jocko Podcast.
I prepared myself well in advance by reading Musashi in the spring and was blown away by the book.
It follows Musashi through the challenges that made him into the legendary samurai as well as great complexity with the interwoven stories of the other characters he crosses paths with. It’s a really engaging way to get a glimpse into some of the history of Japan as well as the samurai.
Trust Me, I'm Lying
TMIL is a tell-all story of Ryan's life as a "media manipulator" and director of marketing at American Apparel where he regularly spearheaded campaigns that would gain him national news coverage for AA or any of his other clients without directly having to pay for it.
While Ryan used his unique skill for benevolent purposes with his clients, he saw many others who were manipulating media for all kinds of purposes which is why he wrote this book and revised and updated it for today's world of fake news.
It's an awesome book and I would give it a perfect score if it weren't for the fact that since writing this book, Ryan has gone on to hone his writing even more and so in comparison, the writing is just a little less captivating to me in TMIL.
10% Happier
10% Happier is a book on mindfulness and meditation for people who are sceptical and don't believe in the "woo-woo" positivity that most books on meditation are replete with.
The book explores Harris' discovery of meditation following his on-screen panic attack as a newscaster live on ABC News. Harris knew that his "always on" mentality has led him to the breaking point.
If you don't think that there is anything miraculous about meditation, but think that it could help you be a little more at ease and grounded as the day-to-day stresses come flying at you, then this is a great book to help start you on your journey.
Siddhartha
“Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.”
Siddhartha is the story of a man's spiritual journey during the time that the Gautama Buddha lived.
Siddhartha grew up idolizing the aesthetics and joined the quest to discover Nirvana. The downfall in this for him was the disdain he felt for the "childlike" people who sought materialism and carnal pleasures.
To better understand this other type of life, Siddhartha leaves his simple life to learn from people following different paths through life in the city. He faces the trials and tribulations that his life had been sheltered from ever experiencing before and ultimately realizes that he had to go through it all to be able to truly let go of it and not look down on people not following his path with condescension.
The lesson of Siddhartha is that every person has their own path to follow and that you should be present to the moment and your surroundings and experiences.
Engineering The Alpha
Engineering the Alpha is your own guidebook to the hero's journey of improving your health, fitness, and vitality.
If you've accepted the call to action and are now ready to take action to build more muscle, lose fat, and become more alpha, this book is an undeniably great place to begin.
Terry Crews has stated that the diet and nutrition advice in this book has changed his life. How's that for an endorsement?
Tribe of Mentors
Tribe of Mentors is the ultimate guide to learning from world-class performers about virtually any topic you can think of. If you need to improve in any way, shape, or form, there's something in this book that can help you.