Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell’s third book, where he looks at what factors determine success, with surprising results (as if we’d expect anything different). I liked this book a lot more than Blink (which is still very good), and it’s definitely a much more mature book than The Tipping Point, but I’m not sure if it’s better. Definitely worth reading, if you haven’t already. Gladwell has a fantastic talent for making non-fiction writing incredibly engaging and entertaining.
Permission Marketing – Seth Godin
Another good book from Seth, who’s blog I highly recommend. This book is a bit outdated, as it was published in 1999, so some of the examples are a bit irrelevant now, but the principles are solid: for a good primer on permission marketing, read this post. I’ve been reading Seth’s blog for a while now so, like Purple Cow, this book was more for supplementing what Seth has published on his blog, rather than introducing me to new ideas.
The Game – Neil Strauss
I’ve probably read this book more than any other, but I’m going through it again and reading it properly. I think I first read this book when I was 17, and at the time it changed my life. I thought I had discovered “the secret” , and that by applying the knowledge in here I would have infinite success with women and live a happy life. In short, I completely missed the point of the book. But, for a while at least, I was quite into the community, and read a lot of self-help books with the intent of increasing my success with women. Strangely, just thinking that I knew more than other people about women made me much more confident, and this confidence actually paid off. As I got a little more mature I grew out of the community, but the confidence I had acquired stayed with me. Now I’ve realised no-one needs all this PUA bullshit to have success with women, which in turn made me a lot more confident in myself. Now, two years after I first read the book, I’m infinitely more confident than I ever have been before. Strange how that worked out. I highly recommend this book, as it is amazing, and Strauss’s honesty about his shortcomings is incredible. Just don’t do what I did – actually listen to what Strauss is saying about this subculture.
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell – Tucker Max
It’s been a long term at uni, and I needed a break from some of the heavier non-fiction that I read, so I’m reading this again. Hilarious. Although I think my girlfriend is worried (and slightly jealous) about the number of times I’ve read this book.
What if Steve Jobs ran one of the Big Three auto companies? – good article that looks at the problems in Detroit, and how they could learn a lesson from Jobs’ turnaround of Apple back in the 90s.
The High-Res Society – another great essay by Paul Graham.
“Large organizations will start to do worse now, though, because for the first time in history they’re no longer getting the best people. An ambitious kid graduating from college now doesn’t want to work for a big company. They want to work for the hot startup that’s rapidly growing into one. If they’re really ambitious, they want to start it.”
Is effort a myth? – this is one of my favourite Seth Godin posts. I’ve been re-reading it recently and thinking about how to apply it to my own life. I waste far too much time at uni, rationalising it by convincing myself that I’m exposing myself to randomness, when actually I’ve just wasted an afternoon playing video games.
If you have any recommendations for books, articles, essays, blog posts or whatever, email me at andrewlynch88@gmail.com.
