Great Books I Read in 2015
In this day of blogs and micro-blogs, I am still a big believer in learning from good books. Good authors put a lot of work into their books and I find that it’s a great way to learn about topics from the experts.
Apart from social recommendations, I usually find myself going to Amazon to look for books on the topic that I am curious about. I own a kindle and Amazon has made it really easy to try out samples before committing time and money on book.
In no particular order, here are some of the great books I read in 2015. These aren’t necessarily books published this year but books that I read this year.
Who: The A Method for Hiring
I have been hiring people for many years now and while I did hire some great people, more often than not, it felt like good luck than the result of a repeatable process. This book by Geoff Smart and Randy Smart demystified the process for me and helped me understand the gaps in my process. In fact I realized that I didn’t have much of a process to begin with (posting a cookie cutter job application isn’t much of a process!). Since then we have improved a lot of aspects of our hiring process and hired two great people in the last three months for SupportBee.
prePARE, the book from my friend Raj Sheth is worth checking out as well if you want to read more on this topic.
10% Happier
Last few years, I have been very interested in spirituality. I have read many books on the subject and most of them tend to be pretty serious (though useful). 10% Happier by Dan Harris is unlike any of them. It’s a funny recollection of his journey into spirituality, how it made his life 10% better and why that’s a big deal.
Bigger Leaner Stronger
Many years back, I was overweight and lacked any stamina for sports. My buddy Jon Myers turned me on to Tim Ferris’ The 4 Hour Body and I ended up losing a lot of weight and getting in much better shape. Ever since I have been a bit of a gym rat but my progress stalled sometime last year. Michael’s Bigger Leaner Stronger is helping me get back on track. I am still working through it so the jury is still out on how well it will work :)
Caffeine Blues
Caffeine is probably the world’s most socially acceptable drug. I love coffee and so does the rest of the world but this book helped me understand how coffee works and how it should be used responsibly. Since reading this book, I have stopped consuming coffee everyday and I am down to one or two cups a week (mostly pre-workout).
Scaling Up
This is the best book I have read on the process of scaling up a business. Apart from helping me think about the process of scaling up, the book also showed me that many of the challenges I am struggling with are quite common in our stage of business.
A Scanner Darkly
A scanner darkly is one of the best fiction books I have ever read. It’s characters are users and dealers of Substance D (a mind altering drug) and law enforcement agents.
In this book, friends can become enemies, good trips can turn terrifying, and cops and criminals are two sides of the same coin. (description from Amazon)
Learned Optimism
If there is one aspect of my personality that causes me great grief as an entrepreneur, it’s that I am not always an optimist. In fact I have had some serious depressive phases in my life (which I have only recently started to talk about). This book helped me understand that optimism can be cultivated and depression is (possibly) just learned helplessness. In fact I understood that one doesn’t wanna do away with pessimism completely. It has a clear place in our lives and is needed to balance our over-enthusiasm. The book has had a defining effect on me and I highly recommend it.
I also read a couple books from the Foundation series and re-read bits of My experiments with Truth. If you have a book recommendation for me, I would love to hear it!
