Book recommendations ~ learning, success, and inspiration
A few books I’ve read over the years, how they inspired or influenced me, and what I liked about them
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This blog post falls into my woman in tech portion of my blog, which is just an assortment of posts about the things I think about and how I got to where I am. It is not a cybersecurity post. No matter what your occupation, you probably want to do better and achieve success. At other times you are seeking motivation and inspiration to get through some tough times. Sometimes a good book can fill your mind with positive thoughts, new ideas, or give you insight into a problem you are trying to solve. This may not be for you, but of course, I hope you will read my book on Cybersecurity for Executives in the Age of Cloud. If that’s not your thing, here are some other books I read that have inspired me in the past and may help you in your career, or in your life in general. Others might just be a good story.
Stephen A. Clark, a retired Air Force Major General I met at a cybersecurity forum, recommended this book to me. We were discussing how large companies can deal with security problems effectively. He later wrote the recommendation on the description page of my book. I read this book and found it extremely inspirational and relevant to some things we are facing at this time in our country. I reference this book in relation to how we address the concept of trust in cybersecurity in my book.
Seven Habits of Highly Successful People
by Stephen R. Covey
This book has fundamental values and steps you can take to achieve goals. I read this book while running my first business, Radical Software, Inc. I might just go back and reread it. The book introduces the methods successful people use to get and stay successful.
by James Clear
This book has a lot of strategies for overcoming those bad habits you have been trying to break. I’ve read tons of books of this type and found this one to be excellent. I reference part of it in my cybersecurity book in terms of how we can break bad cybersecurity habits.
The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I read Fooled by Randomness first, and then The Black Swan, which is the opposite order of dates published. I think I like the second book better, but they both made me think about how I analyze facts and make decisions. I talk about these books in my cybersecurity presentations, and it also applies to the analysis of the unexpected, monumental events that affect us, like the coronavirus outbreak happening at the time of this writing. People come to conclusions based on averages and bell curves. Taleb explains why that logic is flawed.
by Cotter Smith
Did you know that at the time this book was written, many millionaires were teachers? That’s not because teachers have high salaries or make a lot of money. It was because they saved their money and spent it wisely. Even if you don’t make a lot of money, you can take steps to try to improve your financial situation.
The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+: Winning Strategies to Make Your Money Last a Lifetime
I also highly recommend watching Suze Orman’s show and book if you are in the category of improving your finances. I have been through some challenging financial times in my life — like the kind where you do not go out to eat, something many people who complain about their financial circumstances are still doing. Understanding how to manage your money more effectively may help you move to a better financial category. I had to recover from a mountain of debt and using my savings to pay for my employees’ health insurance after my first business, among other things. This and other related financial books helped me recover.
by Warren Buffet
This book taught me about value investing. I read this book shortly before the 2000 dot-bomb crash. My CPA said I was the first person to tell him it was a house of cards that was going to tumble. The reason I believed this was in part due to what I read in this book. Companies were getting more money than they would ever reasonably be able to pay back. That still happens. Look at the recent unicorns that have not produced the value in terms of revenue required to sustain them just in the past year. This book is still relevant.
by Jim Collins
I read this book while trying to start my second business. I found the idea of metrics to be beneficial. It also talked about different leadership styles. This has been a very influential business book over the years, and I mention it in relation to cybersecurity in the book I published. It may not have all the answers but it is a good read.
by Eric Barker
I dedicate this book to the person that told me in my career that I “wasn’t playing the game right.” Are you a filtered or unfiltered person? I used to joke that I remembered to put the filter on before I said something. My ideas are not always aligned with what people want to hear. I’ve learned that sometimes it’s better not to say anything, even if you are right. I was surprised to see the word filtered used in the way it is in this book. It’s an interesting take on different ways to be successful that suit each individual personality.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
Although you may see me on stage at a cybersecurity conference presenting to hundreds of people and run a meetup with over 3,000 people, I am a pretty hard-core introvert. I was surprised when Steve Wozniak said you are better off working on projects alone if you want to achieve something truly revolutionary. Everyone is always pushing group projects, but sometimes I prefer to work alone and do my own thing. I was happy to read that someone else who had such amazing accomplishments felt the same way. I need people helping me in my business. I can’t do everything alone and appreciate the support of others. However, it depends on the project and the circumstances.
by Gregory Burns
I’ve always felt like a bit of an oddball. I feel like I see things sometimes that other people don’t see. Even when these things turn out to be right, it doesn’t always help me. I could relate to the people in this book. These are some people who thought differently, went against the grain and the norm, and changed the world. Some of them never got credit, and society ostracized others for their thoughts. Being different and changing the world isn’t always all that it’s cut out to be!
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
by Michael Lewis
This book is a great inside look at the 2008 crash. What led up to it? Who was to blame? Who saw it coming, and who got blindsided? My favorite part of this book is the story about the man who saw it coming — Michael Burry. He had an investment firm, and by diving into the details, he discovered what was going on. He bet against the market. His investors sued him to get their money out, but he won. When those same investors made untold amounts of money in the end, none of them thanked him. The lessons to be learned from this crash are related to the books mentioned above — The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness. The story also shows how some people are good at digging into all the details and coming to logical conclusions, while others want to believe the things that are too good to be true. Eventually, reality takes over. I am hopeful that we can learn from history and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
The Yeast Connection: A Medical Breakthrough
Let me start by saying, the research in this book is old, and new books have taken its place in terms of up-to-date information. However, I want to explain how this book helped me. I had a debilitating medical problem years ago, and I could not initially figure out what wrong. I developed a lump on my neck, and I could not stay awake. That sounds like it’s not that bad — so go to sleep. It was incredibly depressing, to the point of not seeing the point of living. What’s the point if you can’t stay awake long enough to do anything. I liked to play volleyball. I would play one game and collapse in exhaustion on my beach towel and immediately fall asleep. I was running a business, and I couldn’t work. I also had strange emotional issues. I was not myself. While looking for answers, I stumbled across a book saying that your mood was somehow related to food. Between that and the medical problems, I started researching nutrition. I found this book and went on a stringent diet, and it changed my life. I am now a firm believer that nutrition and the food we eat matters more than most people give it credit, though I have since come to different conclusions — it was not the yeast, but rather gluten that was affecting me.
The Abascal Way To Quiet Inflammation
Since that time I have read countless books on nutrition. There are many good books out there. I also went to classes offered by a local researcher and followed the plan in this diet for six weeks, and then slowly introduced food back into my diet to determine what was affecting me. It works. Anyone who doesn’t believe this has not done it in a scientific manner. The most important thing that hit me in this book is that 2/3 of your plate should be vegetables. Corn and white potatoes do not count as vegetables in her plan because in the U.S. we overdo it with those vegetables already. I will admit that while starting a business in the last two years and traveling a lot, I fell off the wagon. Your diet can definitely affect your health, mindset, and performance. Now I’m trying to get back to it.
by Stephen S. Ilardi
We’ve all had a bad day once in a while. Sometimes those bad days last longer than others. I mentioned how I was depressed when I couldn’t work or do anything due to a prior illness. Later in life, I read this book. I determined after reading it that I was not truly depressed at that moment, but I did find some of the strategies to be helpful, nonetheless.
The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life
by Shawn Achor
This book presents theories and practices based on happiness research from around the world. It was an interesting read, and one of my biggest take-aways was the idea of gratitude. Being grateful for what you have, as opposed to complaining about what you don’t have, can help you become a happier person.
I recently read this book and it’s an intriguing look at pushing yourself beyond your perceived limits. It also tells the story of how a troubled youth over came huge obstacles to become successful in life. A warning — this book has strong language and is a very rough story. However, if you think you can’t do something, maybe it is because you think you can’t.
As you can probably tell, I mostly read non-fiction. However, when I was a kid, one of my favorite books was The Hobbit and the books that followed. There’s something adventurous about the little hobbit going out in the world to save everyone that inspired me. I don’t generally read scary books or watch scary movies. I remember The Hobbit was one of the only books that made me feel scared while reading it. My favorite part had to do with the dragon — another thing I write about in my book on cybersecurity.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
A book not for children, this story of a female hacker intrigued me for personal reasons. I’m a pentester for one thing, but if you read my book, you might understand that it’s a bit more than that. This book and the two that follow explain what motivates this woman to solve certain crimes using her cyber skills. I watched the American version of the movie before I read this book, and it inspired me to read this fiction book and the two that follow, something I rarely do these days.
A tribute to the books with names I can’t remember
I started visiting book stores in high school. It was here that I discovered books on sports psychology. There is a book out now called Peak Performance published in 2017 that I haven’t yet read, but I believe that was the name, or something very similar when I was in high school. It talked about the techniques top athletes use to improve their game. I went to a small high school (understatement) with 80 people in the whole school and 12 people in my class. Our coaches were also generally the math or history teachers. I was looking for a way to improve my performance in sports. I hated Latin class, which my mom said would help me someday, and would sit there thinking about basketball practice. This book talked about things like visualization, relaxation, and breathing techniques.
From there, I discover the self-help aisle — all the books with theories on how you could become a better person. I read books ranging from self-hypnotism to dream analysis, to psychoanalysis. Yes, I was a nerd. I still am. My conclusion: most of those books were useless. Dream interpretation is interesting, and I think there is something to it, but I don’t take it too seriously. A lot of those books pushed theories like “The Secret” (sorry if you like that book), which just doesn’t work. If you want to improve your situation, you need to take responsibility and take action based on further research and experience. I found the books I listed above to be more practical and useful.
Next, I turned to biographies ~ books explaining how real people had overcome problems in their lives. These books are not full of speculative theories and hocus pocus. These are stories from people who became some of the most successful or brilliant people in history. Some of my favorite stories are those about inventors and early businesspeople (yes, primarily men) in the United States who truly changed history. Each of these amazing people generally had some character flaws, along with their greatness. Here are some of my favorites:
Albert Einstein ~ A very humble man who discovered some brilliant things. However, he was an evil husband and father from other stories I’ve read. It is interesting to see how the mind of people like this work.
Henry Ford ~ When his engineers told him a particular engine was not possible, he said go figure it out. They did. He was also cantankerous and later taken to court, where people tried to make him look foolish. He did not have a high school degree. When people asked him various questions, he said, “I have people who can answer those questions for me.” He was the mastermind behind innovations such as the modern assembly line.
Thomas Edison ~ When he tried the first solution to create a lightbulb, and it didn’t work, he kept trying. He made 1,000 failed attempts before he discovered one that worked.
I also liked the stories of businesspeople like J.C. Penny, who came from nothing and overcame great odds to build their businesses. Unfortunately, that store is no longer around. I also read about businesses that failed to change with the times, like Kodak. It’s interesting to read about successful startups and big companies to see how they thrive or struggle over time.
I have read several books on high-frequency trading, options, and futures and other investing related books. Knowing the disadvantage that you have compared to large investment companies helps you understand how to improve your odds. If you can’t beat them, join them. Options and futures are extremely risky ~ like going to Vegas. So is investing on margin. I know someone who used this tactic to increase investments in the period just before the dot-bomb crash and ended up losing everything and going into severe debt as a result. After the 2008 crash I figured banks would eventually come back. I invested in some of the stocks that were down and out. Some banks went out of business. Others took many, many years to recover. The stock market still feels a lot like gambling to me, and generally, the odds are not in favor of the individual investor. Be careful and be informed.
Other topics I’ve researched include how your brain works and mindfulness. I can’t remember all the names of the books and which ones I liked best. Mindfulness is related to the relaxation and breathing techniques mentioned in the book on sports psychology I read in high school. I’ll be honest — I’m not the best at meditation. My mind is on overdrive thinking about how to solve problems all the time. But I do the best I can. One time I took tai chi classes for a year to try to chill out. I remember a venture capital investor I used to work for telling me, “Yeah, I tried that too. It didn’t work.” You’re supposed to go very slow when performing the moves, and my instructor would always tell me to slow down. One time I said, “I can’t! It hurts.” But I keep trying. As I’m home now more due to lockdown from traveling, I’m trying to get in some meditation and mindfulness every day. It’s a great way to try to get your mind off other things. You also find some mobile apps to help guide you through it.
Of course, I’ve read numerous technical books — too many to count or list here. I learned to program from a book in sixth grade, as I explained in another blog post. I used to shoo away my boyfriend after college on weekends when I was trying to learn Access and Visual Basic out of books and told him to go hang out with his friends. (Yes, I did go out sometimes!) I had the problem when I was younger of buying an interesting-looking technical book at the store and bringing it home, only to realize that I already had it. I have contributed stacks and stacks of books to the Half-Price books store.
These are just a few books to consider. I can’t remember all the books I read. There are so many more out there, but maybe that will give you some ideas if you are seeking something inspirational, you want to learn something, make self-improvements, or to take your mind off other things. Enjoy!
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Teri Radichel | © 2nd Sight Lab 2020
About Teri Radichel:
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⭐️ Author: Cybersecurity Books
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⭐️ Recognition: SANS Award, AWS Security Hero, IANS Faculty
⭐️ Certifications: SANS ~ GSE 240
⭐️ Education: BA Business, Master of Software Engineering, Master of Infosec
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