My 2017 Reading List in Review: Navigating Startup Life, Becoming a Better Marketer, and Appreciating my Fellow Sapiens
I’ve always been a avid reader, and last year I shared this blog post, outlining lessons I learned from books I read in 2016.
Going into 2017, I focused on books that would help with career growth. Before you start yawning at the aspect of reading boring old business books, you should know that the genre is not what it used to be. To move fast in the tech world, you need to be blunt, transparent, and willing to step around conventions and formalities. Many of the books I read this year were by authors who encapsulated this spirit and weren’t afraid to cut straight to the icky stuff, drop a few **** bombs, and even tell their stories with wit and humour.
Whether you’re trying to succeed in the tech scene, become a better marketing, or just become better teammate with the people around you, you can appreciate some nuggets from my 2017 reading list.
Books to Navigate Startup Life
Even if your company is now too big to be considered a startup, most young tech companies seem to have similar cultures and complications. If you consume excessive amounts of caffeine, operate in a role that never existed before, and feel immense pressure to optimize every minute of every day, this reading list is for you.
The title of this book says it all. Even if you’re not a founder or a manager, if you aspire towards leadership this book is a must-read. Before founding Andreesen Horowitz, Ben Horowitz spent a lot of time as a war time CEO.
What this book will teach you to know when to analyze, or when you should simply trust your gut. Also, building a business is a brave endeavour. Making tough, wrenching decisions when no clear “right” choice is difficult, but it’s comforting to know that this discomfort is just part of the job and everyone experiences it.
I also love his mantra around “hiring for strength, not lack of weakness”
2. The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
If you work on or anywhere around a software product, knowing the basics of good design is immensely helpful. We tend to think of the tech world as this cerebral, left-brained place where the focus is all around making things smart, but if we can’t make things usable, all the brainpower that went into our products goes to waste.
This book quickly and clearly teaches you design and usability concepts both applicable to evaluating hardware and software products. It’s also entertaining to read as Don Norman tears apart everyday objects and points out when design has served us, when its failed, and when it’s been unplanned and users find applications that designers hadn’t originally planned for.
In other words, design allowances; every bit of design allows for a function, whether you intended for that function of not.
He’s also great at pointing the finger back at the people who build the products, and highlighting that sometimes the errors people make are a result of bad design, not a lack of human intelligence. This is why you always need to look a product from the standpoint of the end user.
An oldie but a goodie. This book is a good reminder of the evolving and continuing struggles of women in the workforce. I do agree that it’s important to remember that it’s written from the perspective of some from a privileged perspective, however, it’s still a solid primer.
4 & 5. What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast &What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend by Laura Vanderkam
I can thank Shawn Francis, my team’s Operations Manager, for putting the works of this time management expert on my radar. Laura Vanderkam is a writer who’s spent her career observing how the most successful people in the world manage their time, and has written various books on her findings.
Being someone who loves routine hacks and hates squandered spare time, I was was happy to pick-up a few gems from her. One was around willpower being a diminishing resource. A study from Roy F. Baumeister, a researcher of self discipline, discovered that
“will-power, like a muscle, becomes fatigued from overuse.”
This is one reason people are more likely to cheat on their diets later in the day. The same principle applies to work. Few people look forward to boring editing or learning difficult code, so better to tackle the strenuous exercises earlier in the day and schedule to easy, enjoyable tasks for later in the day.
In terms of time management for the weekend, as much as you may be burnt out from the work week and too exhausted to plan weekend activities beyond Netflix and sofa time, it’s super important that you muster the energy to make weekend plans anyways. It may sounds counterintuitive to make plans in order to help recover from your crazy schedule, but studies have shown that committing to a few activities you find enjoyable can have a significant effect on happiness. When people don’t schedule or commit to anything, it’s easy to fall into the trap of lazing around all weekend, then spending Sunday night feeling like you wasted your weekend. When you take time to plan for the things you enjoy, you’ll have better feelings of accomplishment and have something to look forward to when you need that mid-week motivation.
6. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
You probably care about your job. In fact, you probably care too much, about too many things. Things that sometimes aren’t always important.
In order to give the right ****s about the right things, that really do matter, you need to learn to let the unimportant stuff roll off your shoulders. In a growing startup environment it’s easy to take on too much and get stretched too thin. In learning to focus on the highest value things and openly reject the others, you’ll be a happier and more effective contributor.
Books to Become a Better Marketer
When I naively walked out of business school, I thought the marketing world was dominated by fellow business minded, trained suits like myself. I mean, I have the perfect degree to run point on growth marketing, right?
As it turns out, companies (especially tech companies) really like hiring people with engineering degrees to run growth marketing. Although I don’t think that one degree is a superior primer to the other, I can see why an engineering mindset would be advantageous for this discpline.
If you’re looking to develop this mindset in yourself, learn new growth strategies, and learn to be bold enough to push forward with unconventional ideas, this reading list is for you.
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Before we even touch the subject of marketing or growth hacking, I’d like to reiterate something a marketing prof of mine tried to instil in me and my young classmates:
a big part of being a good marketing manager is being brave enough to tell other teams that they’re not on the right track.
While the people who build the products know how to make things great, marketers often look at things from an external opportunity perspective and know why people outside of the company don’t think it’s as great as the people inside the company do. This is probably why marketers are often considered the creative troublemakers, who are always trying to do unconventional things that the rest of the company barely understands.
Is being a “professional troublemaker” easy? Absolutely not! Standing up against convention is a very vulnerable act. Personally, I found this book very helpful in getting over my fear of speaking up and rubbing people the wrong way. As Gilbert teaches you, fear will also be there sitting in the passenger seat, but you’re the one in the driver seat and therefore have the power to tell fear to keep its opinions to itself.
As well, if you spend too much time worry if people will like what you do, you’ll never get anything done. Focus on creating something that you’re truly proud of. If people dig it, great! If they don’t? Who cares! Don’t waste time worrying about it, and go on to conquer your next big idea.
2. Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
Both a cautionary tale and a source of insight into how the world of marketing is shifting, Holiday emphasizes that the days of crafting stunning creative and crossing our fingers is over. More and more, marketers need to not only show the results of our work, but also how the data will feed into our future campaigns. This book will help introduce you to a growth hacking mindset.
3. Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Growth by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
Although it may come off as a bit Marketing 101 for current marketers, the way in which each marketing channel is critically evaluated then sharply summarized at the end of each chapter, makes it a must read for both new marketers and experienced marketers who want to re-look the channels they use.
Books to Better Understand the People Around You
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
It’s easy to take everyday objects, rules, and conventions for granted. But seriously, why did we end the oral tradition and start writing things down? Why is money a thing and why couldn’t we just continue trading goods and services? Why have certain groups of people suffered disadvantages that groups haven’t?
In Sapiens, you’ll learn about the findings and theories that help answer all the questions around how we got to where we are today. As well, Harari is surprisingly tongue and cheek in his recollections, making this far from being a boring history book.
2. Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman
While it’s easy to think “American Cuisine” and envision golden arches, the history of American food is actually quite rich and unexpected. It also showcases the importance of immigrants in American food culture. If you like food or history, you’ll devour this book.
Bonus: Books to escape reality and better appreciate your 21st century life
Modern life in the western world is certainly not without its malaises, but it’s a paradise compared to mid-1800’s Ireland and mid-1900’s China. If you want to escape to a different life and a different time, The Wonder by Emma Donoghue and Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien are both insanely captivating and beautifully written.
