LITT wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 12:48 pm
i made a goal this year to 'read' more books. i put 'read' in quotes because most of them are via audible when i am driving around but still counts.
2023 litt book tour
Ron Chernow - Washington - biography on George Washington. Always wanted to learn more. the 42 hour audiobook didnt disappoint. i learned a number of things that were novel to me about GW and our nation
Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary - from author of The Martian. interesting book about an intersterllar bacteria that uses energy from the sun to reproduce and substantially decreases the luminosity of the sun leading ot potential ice age. would recommend if you liked the martian
Bob Iger - The Ride of a Lifetime - Iger's autobiography. very interesting about his career and some fruitful examples that pertain to leadership and business
Jocko Willink & Leif Babin - Extreme Ownership - Willink and Babin were navy seals that served in Ramadi in 2006. they started a leadership consulting group and relate leadership principles to the combat tactics the seals employ. excellent book and have used many of the tactics and examples in my day to day. highly recommend
Chris Vos - Never Split the Difference - was the lead international hostage negotiator for the FBI for several years (spent time in pittsburgh, apparently), worked in the NYC joint terrrorism task force before FBI. tactics and strategies for how to effectively negotiate. not sure if i would recommend or not. some useful nuggets about the psychology behind negotiating and what to look for in your mark
James Clear - Atomic Habits - how to change your habits, break down habits in to small, digestible bits, and how to identify triggers and tactics to protect yourself from yourself
Michael Lewis - The Big Short - didn't really know much about the workings of this before reading but enjoyed learning about it. its interesting to consider the groupthink that occurred in so many board rooms that something like that could ever happen
Phil Knight - Shoe Dog - great book. really enjoyed understanding the history of nike, the risks they took, their unwillingness to go public for so long.
Jim Collins - Good to Great - this book sucks.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Fooled by Randomness - only made it about 3 hours in to this book and had to stop. just insufferably boring to listen to. almost wrecked my car falling asleep
Bethan McLean - The Smartest Guys in The Room - similar to the big short, wanted to learn about Enron. so much to unpack about corporate culture, intentional and unintentional misinformation, negligence. very interesting how far they were able to take it.
Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential - just randomly popped up on my audible. loved it.
Patrick Radden Keefe - Empire of Pain - chronicling of the family (Sackler) of medical doctors behind Purdue pharma (oxycontin) and it's role in the opioid epidemic and rise of heroin and fentanyl use worldwide. morally reprephensible group of individuals who thought they could whistle past the graveyard by being in bed with the FDA, making donations to charities and foundations, and 'distancing' themselves from the operations of their company via installing figurehead CEOs they could control. the family siphoned cash from the company annually (they talked about taking 700M distributions annually for 7 years) and never really invested in r&d oustide of oxycontin so its pretty clear they knew exactly what they were doing.
several clever maneuvers to extend the patent as well. cunning business folks. would highly recommend.
up next
don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements - mrs litt told me to read this and it will make me a better person
