My 2016 Reading List: The Year of Productivity

The majority of my reading in 2016 focused on productivity. Why? Because I’m a distracted mess who wonders how he’s managed to get anything done in life. Seriously.

I entered 2016 working in Lagos as a Research Analyst and then everything went from zero to hundred. In a couple of months, I had quit my job and was running my company Akanka full time before heading off back to school for a Masters program. I needed to become more productive. Did I succeed? Maybe. Pulling off studying for my Masters, partly and remotely managing a startup, working as a Research Associate at a nonprofit (all at the same time) was enough for me to pat myself on the back. However, I know I royally slacked off so many times and will strive to do better next year.

If you’re interested, here are a couple of books I read in 2016 classified under productivity, social and startup, but arranged in no particular order. I’ve included my thoughts on these book and excerpts from them. Enjoy.

Productivity

Deep Work

Let’s start with my best productivity read of the year, ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport. I love everything he writes because he comes from a place of tough love. No inspirational ‘you can do it’ feels writing. Just ‘this is the hard, but effective way to get things done’. His thesis is that in our highly distracted society, deep work is rare and valuable. Our ability to focus deeply on a given task over a long period of time is essential to true productivity, creativity and fulfilment. Recommended read if you find that like me, you’re a highly distracted mess and distraction attenuates your output.

“Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.”

“If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive — no matter how skilled or talented you are.”

If you service low-impact activities, therefore, you’re taking away time you could be spending on higher-impact activities. It’s a zero-sum game.”

“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.”

“What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore — plays in defining the quality of our life.”

How To Become a Straight-A Student

Coming back to school after years of professional work is no easy feat — especially when it’s an analytic and quantitative-heavy program at an Ivy League. I’ve followed Cal Newport’s writing since secondary school. Yes, that long ago. This book focuses on efficient and effective techniques, but I believe the major point it makes is about having a deeper understanding of your study material. Cramming formulas is pointless and when you can understand the reasoning behind these formulas, replicating them is but a few scribbles away.

Slipstream Time Hacking: How To Cheat Time, Live More, And Enhance Happiness

I’m terrible at time management and the nerd in me loves that this author approaches time from a more esoteric point of view; drawing from Einstein’s special relativity theory and referring to growth in terms of passing through wormholes and slipstreams. If you’re looking for a book that merges a bit of physics, productivity advice and even faith, this is it. Best part, it’s free (https://benjaminhardy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SlipstreamTimeHackingByBenjaminHardy.pdf)

“If time is relative, we don’t need to assume one minute means one minute. Perhaps, five minutes could be squeezed into one minute, of five hours, or five years. The compression of time is not a matter of compounding activities, but the compounding of meaning.”

“Slowing time is truly a matter of quality more than quantity. The destination a person is traveling toward must be intrinsically desirable. When on the wrong path, time will fly and what was done during that time will be forgotten. The goal isn’t an infinite quantity of time, but the highest quality of time. This is where time slows down.”

“Those who become the greatest and go the farthest are highly selective about what they take on. They are clear on where they want to go and recognize that most of what life offers will not get them there. Almost everything in life is a non-essential distraction.”

Excerpt From: Benjamin P. Hardy. “Slipstream Time Hacking: How To Cheat Time, Live More, And Enhance Happiness.” iBooks.

Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business

I wish I could say this book was as great as the subtitle makes it sound, but it wasn’t. A lot of these ’secrets’ were rather commonsense. Perhaps I judged the book based off his previous one ‘The Power of Habit’, which is a great read. He did have a point that resonated with me on how the best plans for the future were based off probability and not certainty. Hence, making better choices involves running through the probabilities of failure and success and what happens afterwards. I had always applied this to life, but it was great to see it written down.

“Envision multiple futures. By pushing yourself to imagine various possibilities — some of which might be contradictory — you’re better equipped to make wise choices.”

“We can hone our Bayesian instincts by seeking out different experiences, perspectives, and other people’s ideas. By finding information and then letting ourselves sit with it, options become clearer.”

Grit: Passion, Perseverance, and the Science of Success

Are people successful due to talent, luck, or circumstance? Duckworth argues that grit is a significant determinant of success. A bit too reminiscent of the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hour rule (which I hate), however, she conducts her OWN research and even introduces a grit scale based off an individual’s resilience in spite of setbacks or failure. While I can’t say that the role of perseverance in success is a new discovery, she does bring some research backing to it, which makes it worth a read.

“Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”

“Indeed, the calculated costs and benefits of passion and perseverance don’t always add up, at least in the short run. It’s often more “sensible” to give up and move on. It can be years or more before grit’s dividends pay off.”

“Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius,” Nietzsche said. “For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking. . . . To call someone ‘divine’ means: ‘here there is no need to compete.”

You are Badass

I’m more of a fan of books based on grounded research, but I recognise that a number of emotional triggers are not based on facts or numbers — ‘You are Badass’ falls under that category. I doubt myself and my abilities all the time and its hampered a lot of aspects in my life, and I believe this book helped trigger that emotional reaction needed to set larger and more daring goals. Warning: she swears an awful lot.

“If you’re serious about changing your life, you’ll find a way. If you’re not, you’ll find an excuse.”

“When you are consistently in a state of gratitude, and aware of all the awesomeness that already exists, it, among many other things, makes it much easier for you to believe that there’s more awesomeness where that came from, and that this yet-to-be-manifested awesomeness is also available to you. You’ve received awesomeness before, so of course, you can receive awesomeness again. This is how gratitude strengthens your faith. And having strong faith is a major key in transforming your life.”

Social

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Anyone who reads has surely read this. It’s a classic — no really — it was released in 1934 and revised in 1981. For those that find the book ancient, there’s another revised version called ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age’, which accounts for the fast-paced chat-based society we currently inhabit. So I won’t get into any details. It’s a book I believe should be read every one to two years. We might not realise how rusty we get socially, but we do.

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”

Never Split the Difference : Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Written by Former FBI Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss, ‘Never Split the Difference’ is a book on the art of negotiation. He does a good job of weaving stories from his days of high-stakes negotiations and tactics and strategies. It was rather timely that I ran into an issue with a client and got to test one of his tactics. And yes, it worked. Great application to both personal and professional life.

“Negotiate in their world. Persuasion is not about how bright or smooth or forceful you are. It’s about the other party convincing themselves that the solution you want is their own idea. So don’t beat them with logic or brute force. Ask them questions that open paths to your goals. It’s not about you.”

“When someone seems irrational or crazy, they most likely aren’t. Faced with this situation, search for constraints, hidden desires, and bad information.”

Excerpt From: Voss, Chris. “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It.” iBooks.

False Love

‘False Love’ is a book for those in relationships or planning to get into one. I got into a serious relationship this year, which started how most relationships do — passionately intense and charged. My girlfriend, Mohini, wisely recommended we temper these feelings while we read this book — False Love. This decision has been instrumental to the survival of our relationship.

Reading this book, I realised that we practice and plan for a lot of activities — driving, classes, cooking, but not relationships. We tend to dive into those with little guidance and unfortunately at our most emotional and least rational state of mind — much akin to a 12-year old drunk-driving. Personally, it revealed a majority of the mistakes I had made in previous relationships. This comes highly recommended to everyone — single, dating or married.

To achieve a secure relationship, both partners must get beyond the passive illusions of falling in love and begin actively loving each other. This means accepting and dealing with each other’s problems, faults, and inadequacies. It means giving not just what you want to give but what the other person truly needs from you. It means combining forces so that you broaden and deepen each other’s life instead of devouring each other.

Unlike false love, the real thing involves mature choice as well as emotion. It recognizes that feelings as well as people develop and change over time, and it accommodates changes by preserving an intimacy that runs deeper than lust. True love is mutual, honest, and highly complex.

Don’t ignore the best friend you know will still be there in a year so that you can spend every second with someone who may be old news by next month. Love has a better chance if you remain true to yourself and catch up with your partner when the time is right than if you throw yourself at the moment.

If your partner meets 90 percent of your requirements for love — and that must include all the key characteristics described in the last section — don’t let the missing 10 percent sabotage your relationship.

By allowing — and sometimes forcing — a romance to build gradually, you minimize the risks of infatuation, allow yourself the time to push past superficial impressions, and create a context in which the relationship has a chance. Starting slowly also gives you the time to safely withdraw or change the terms if you realize that what’s developing is actually false love.

The basic rules of love — fidelity, honesty, commitment, and intimacy — cannot be compromised; if either of you is unable to meet these conditions, you are not ready for true love.

The secret of true love is not that it must be all hard work, struggle, and sacrifice, but that it cannot consist solely of illusion.

If your partner is perfect for you in all other ways but refuses to enter a permanent relationship, there’s no foundation for love. Loving someone is a voluntary but requited act — you cannot love someone who refuses to love you. You may feel an attraction or need for that person, but that’s not the same as love. Only when the commitment flows both ways can a relationship survive and grow. Love without sharing and unity is false love.

Lovers make the active choice to continue giving each other affection, encouragement, support, and attention. In genuine love there’s a balance between mutual supportiveness and independence.

You cannot find love. What you’re searching for is a person with whom you can establish a lasting and loving relationship. So stop thinking in terms of superficial attractions, and consider first whether you yourself are prepared to invest the time, energy, and dedication that love requires. Only when you accept this responsibility can you reasonably expect to find someone to reciprocate your love.

Excerpts From: Stan Katz & Aimee Liu. “False Love.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/r3DBO.l

Startup

Platforms

I judged how good this book was by how many times I recommended it…which was a lot of times. The book makes a delineation between pipelines and platforms in terms of processes and the potential to scale. In doing so, it breaks down the components needed to establish a platform and explains why platforms like Uber or Airbnb are actually harder to pull off than most people think.

“A platform’s overarching purpose is to consummate matches among users and facilitate the exchange of goods, services, or social currency, thereby enabling value creation for all participants.”

“Frictionless entry is the ability of users to quickly and easily join a platform and begin participating in the value creation that the platform facilitates. Frictionless entry is a key factor in enabling a platform to grow rapidly.”

Zero to One

We often see competition as the necessary instigator of innovation, but Thiel argues that this competition has largely benefited consumers at the expense of businesses. If you wish to build a successful business, look towards monopoly. It’s an interesting position that holds ground from a business perspective. Thiel has an interesting mind and if you’re keen on learning about building a company from a different point of view, read his book.

“Zero to one every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them.”

“Monopoly is the condition of every successful business.”

“If you’ve invented something new but you haven’t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business — no matter how good the product.”


These were a couple of my reads for 2016. Next year will focus more on improving my writing abilities. Yes, I suck. More exciting though, I’ll be consuming a lot more materials on technology and will look forward to taking up writing again and sharing those throughout 2017.