Sarah Schumacher
This isn’t the first book I’d recommend if you’re wanting a handbook to better communication, although it’s worth reading once if you like the interesting-stories-woven-into-scientific-studies-plus-practical-insights modern pop-psych way. I’d recommend books written by deep experts before this though, i.e. don’t read Duhigg to get his take on John Gottman, just read John Gottman.
Grab a copy of Nonviolent Communication and/or Difficult Conversations for books in a similar vein that are worth reading more than once and will go much more in-depth.
This is a quick read that covers the food pyramid of team dysfunction:
- Inattention to Results
- Avoidance of Accountability
- Lack of Commitment
- Fear of Conflict
- Absence of Trust
At the core it’s another way of framing psychological safety as studied/made popular by Google research. There’s not a lot of depth here, but 3/4 of the book is actually a fictional story about a CEO hired to fix a company’s leadership, so it’s an engaging read that illustrates the ideas through story, rather than pontification.
The last quarter ends with a short summary of the principles used and how they work. Definitely worth the hour or so for anyone in a leadership role, and less heavy than a lot of business books, so perhaps a good initial read for someone wanting to start reading leadership books.
So incredibly timely, and as always, engaging and well-written. He outlines how we went from living and working seasonally, to nonstop work, to knowledge work, which encourages giving an impression of busyness to make the managers happy and, combined with always-on tech, means we’re caught in the trap of pseudo-productivity. The majority of the book is spent outlining practical ways to escape this trap. If you work in front of a screen, this book is for you.
Many of my kid’s graphic novels tell the story of immigrant kids trying to navigate their parents (extremely high) expectations and try to find themselves somewhere inside of that. This is that, but for adults.
Some of Carrie’s stories about those conversations with her parents were heartbreaking, yet at the end she somehow manages to end on a redeeming note, understanding what they went through while also acknowledging how it’s shaped her.
It’s also very much a story of the perfectionist, workaholic drive some of us have, and an honest look at the repercussions. I found her ability to run with anything and do it with excellence, a success that resulted in more work combined with an inability to ask for help, especially relatable.
She shows respect for her boss while laying out the issues underneath, slowly, as she started seeing them. It’s so hard to describe this book… but we’ve been on a Miyazaki kick lately, and it makes me think of the villains-not-villains, the fluidness with which he shows the flaws in both people and systems.
If you’re the child of (Asian) immigrants, or a workaholic, or someone who works in finance, or someone who keeps putting your dreams aside, or simply someone who enjoys reading about self-discovery or memoirs in general, you will enjoy this book.
I wanted to read this before watching Miyazaki’s movie, and now that I’ve seen the movie… the book is unequivocally better. I’d actually recommend watching the movie first, otherwise it’s disappointing. The book is excellent and a completely different storyline. My only complaint is the plot is a bit disjointed or hard to follow on a couple points, but it’s still worth reading.
A clear, chronological and fact-based analysis of Twitter and Elon Musk’s takeover. I watched this happen in real time, so the second half of the book was mostly recap. But it was interesting to get a bit more backstory on Jack in the beginning, and a behind the scenes look at his role as an ousted CEO, returning CEO, then ambivalent and unwilling CEO. I can sympathize with the type of person he seems to be, and I knew about his ultimate desire for a protocol, vs. a company, but I find it ironic he willfully orchestrated the handoff of his legacy to a trigger-happy man-child with ultimate veto power and no oversight. This is a step backwards, and it will be interesting to see if anything remains of “formerly-known-as-Twitter” over the next several years.
I was surprised to discover that this book is actually delightful, and much more engaging than I expected for something written in 1936. It feels like the polar opposite of the terrible 48 Laws of Power (“here’s how to take total advantage of people with no shame whatsoever.”)
Instead, How to Win Friends presents common sense recommendations for personal engagement with anyone, plainly, with examples from Carnegie’s students who attended the lectures that inspired the book. He explains the ideas in a way that somehow feels refreshing, nearly 100 years later. Perhaps it’s because the inability of the general public to be halfway decent to service staff post-pandemic has me wishing for the most basic manners. Either way, there’s clearly a reason this has been a best seller for so long, and I’m a little disappointed I blew it off until now. Unlike some of the more obnoxious classics, this one is certainly worth reading.
A fiery sequel to her book, Self-Compassion, this book is about harnessing the yang energy frequently denied/discouraged in women. The author covers all aspects of life, and it would be an excellent read for someone who needs encouragement to stand up for themselves.
She speaks deftly on the challenges faced by women in the workplace. She emphasizes the need for yin/yang (feminine/masculine) energies to be balanced in individual people (vs genders), and specifically outlines how viewing men as agentic and women as communal creates unwinnable situations for many women.
This is a classic, short read that outlines The Resistance experienced by all artists and entrepreneurs (often called procrastination, but with much deeper analysis).
This would be an excellent gift for someone who wants to “turn pro” - the new writer especially. If you struggle to complete work that matters to you, I highly recommend reading this. It would probably pair well with Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Just an incredible book, but hard to describe. It’s about much more than a misunderstood artist. In order to understand what an iconoclast William Blake was, you need a deeper understanding of how others view reality, then and now.
John Higgs deftly weaves discussions of Einstein’s theory of relativity or the nature of dualism into commentary on a fascinating artist’s life and philosophy. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read and it was glorious. As a philosophical, science-loving artist myself, I highly recommend this book if this description resonates with you.
Andy Greenberg has quickly become one of my favorite writers. His pieces for Wired are amazing, but this is the first book of his I’ve read, and it won’t be the last.
He has a masterful way of writing where he simply disappears and you’re fully inside of the story. And not just because “technothriller” is an apt description. His writing is effortless and unobtrusive. I particularly appreciate how he draws out and subtly highlights the importance of small details: a chance meeting in a coffeeshop resulting in a breakthrough, a single search result mentioned at the right time that saves an entire case. It’s an immersive experience, with never a hint of unwieldy dialogue and only a rare first person mention of himself or his role in the interviews. He centers the subjects with enough background to humanize their roles and keep them straight in your mind, weaving threads together so you’re able to see the big picture of many separate ongoing investigations and entities.
He also explains tech constructs simply and effectively. There are no long asides about the blockchain, just enough well-crafted explanations to understand the impact. The end result is the feeling that every sentence is chosen with care; he’s clearly extremely detail-oriented and thorough, which made this a joy to read. I’m also glad to see dissenting voices included in the discussion of the impact of crypto and thoughtful source notes.
One chapter in, and the writing is redundant and… irritating, like the author is trying really, really hard to convince me this is the most brilliant guy/concept/book ever written. It’s really weird to start a book by saying (and I paraphrase) “the name on the cover isn’t the guy that actually wrote this - it’s me! And he thinks it’s better than if he’d written it!” I get what he’s going for, but also… weird.
My 9yo insisted this book was hilarious and I should read it with him. He was correct. The concept is a blast and we thoroughly enjoyed the multiple mini adventures of this happy-go-lucky character that inadvertently teaches basic cooking techniques. I’d also recommend the Chronicles of Claudette by Jorge Aguirre.
This is a must-read for anyone who even slightly identifies as being a perfectionist. The author is a therapist with the ability to encapsulate deep truths in simple statements; this is currently the all-time most highlighted book in my library (414 highlights).
While she presents 5 types of perfectionists as personalities she’s noticed in her practice, this isn’t a huge talking point in the book and I love her caveat at the end that, like many other frameworks presented by other authors, her labels are just additional lenses that might be helpful.
The entire book is uplifting, encouraging, discusses trusting yourself, self-compassion, self-forgiveness, self-worth, types of perfectionism, being present, making meaning, and so much more. There are patient stories/breakthroughs as examples of concepts she’s presenting.
If you’re even slightly interested in this book - just read it. I’d also recommend On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen.
"When you’re in an adaptive space, you allow what’s perfect for you to change because you know that the perfection is coming from inside of you. When you’re in a maladaptive space, you’re not connected to your wholeness (perfection), so you try to outsource perfection. Your world becomes superficially perfect while you’re miserable on the inside." (Katherine Morgan Schafler, The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control)
This book is essentially an argument for niching down (grow one prize-winning “pumpkin”), with a focus on streamlining your processes and delivering great customer experience. It’s a high level approach with very doable action steps at the end of each chapter, written in the author’s colorful, I’ve-been-there, slightly zany way.
Read this if you’re an established business/stuck in the grind/trying to get past that initial plateau of growth. I agree with his assessment of stages; that not every business owner is ready to make the hard choice to niche down, or the scary choice to fire the bad clients. If you’re ready to do what it takes and you like informal, actionable writing, pick this one up.
If you want to dive more into the process side of things, pick up his book Clockwork. I feel like that is a natural follow-up to The Pumpkin Plan.
"I tried to become Frank's definition of an entrepreneur, which, I later learned, is the only definition of an entrepreneur: "You're not an entrepreneur yet, Mike. Entrepreneurs don't do most of the work. Entrepreneurs identify the problems, discover the opportunities and then build processes to allow other people and other things to do the work."" (Mike Michalowicz, The Pumpkin Plan)
Fascinating journey of a journalist trying to find the smoking gun of the crypto stablecoin Tether. He reveals a lot about the industry as a whole: crypto bros, NFTs, lost savings, scammers, and the real-world harms caused by crypto (evidently Tether is the money dispenser of choice for scammers in Cambodia who entrap then enslave people… if you get one of those “accidental” texts turned crypto-scam, it could be someone being held against their will). You also learn about a crypto-earning phone game that went viral in the Philippines and made money for people… for a while, many of whom lost their savings when it crashed.
Well-written, with quite a few satisfying turns of phrase. There’s a nagging feeling the narrative wasn’t tight enough, and I think that’s because he began with a friend bragging about money he’d made, while the author’s hunch was SCAM ALERT… and yet people are making money. He set it out to prove the hunch right. The collapse might have done that for him, except that it had little impact on the primary target of his investigation: Tether. So there isn’t any closure about what they’re actually doing. Time will tell, but I became invested in his search for transparency.
A good read for anyone curious/uninformed about crypto brotopia as it touches on so many different aspects of it.
Julie Zhuo begins by saying that she felt too early in the managerial journey to be writing a book about it, and a colleague said that’s exactly why she needed to. It’s approachable, practical, and genuinely helpful to people newer to management. This book is particularly useful for people moving from an IC (Individual Contributor) role like being a designer, to managing teams of designers, which is a very different set of skills. Highly recommended for anyone who finds themselves in that position.
Loved this and plan to collect them all. Complex character development, fascinating storylines, and gritty portrayal of life in 17th century Japan for a traveling samurai who happens to also be a rabbit. It feels like the storylines come before the drawings, and are supported by the framing. There’s some innuendo, and violence that’s at times disturbing but not gratuitous - I think this is fine for 10+ although I don’t really consider it a kid’s series.
For whatever reason, the first book begins with the 8th comic, so this isn’t the true beginning of the series. I don’t feel that negatively impacted the story in any way (starting with Saga Book 1). There’s an introduction to primary characters at the beginning, and a note referencing the original comic when they first appear.
I appreciated the more educational elements that cover some aspect of life at that time (kelp farming). There are also explanatory pages in this edition.
The 5 Second Rule is: when you think of something you need to do, count down from 5 then move. It could be explained in a long blog post or a short pamphlet. So, understandably, a lot of this book is ra ra coach empowerment hype and screenshots of social media testimonials sent to the author. That’s fine if you’re into that kind of thing, just not my preference.
The primary value of this book is in the author’s personal story about using this to kickstart serious changes. I do think it feels a bit like a panacea (using it to prevent worrying, for example, is essentially a sideways approach to the method of noting used in meditation, which, IMO, is much better suited for mental catastrophizing than counting backwards).
If you read anything vaguely scientific about habit loops you probably already know more than the cursory mention of the science behind the technique, so there isn’t much depth there.
TL;DR - If you’re a productivity nerd that’s fairly on top of things, you won’t get a lot out of this. But I don’t think that’s the audience; it feels like a book for people who are not the life optimizer types, but rather feeling stuck or depressed and need a simple “do this” to jolt them into self-confidence and set off a chain reaction.
I would not call this a “bombshell exposé.” The author felt very measured, if frustrated by a lack of transparency from Emily Weiss. If there was ever a true scandal at Glossier, this book didn’t cover it. There were certainly missteps, but you’ll learn nothing you didn’t already know from the ex-employee Instagram account in 2020. It's a book looking for a bombshell and finding mostly typical founder/startup dysfunction.
While it’s an interesting story, and Emily Weiss has obviously been very ambitious (and privileged) from her youth, I personally believe it’s making way too big of a deal of her selecting a new CEO at the end of the story. The book acknowledges that founders may not have the right skills to be ongoing leaders, while also seeming to think Emily Weiss somehow failed (the author’s personal hope) by not eternally being the CEO herself. If anything, this should be heralded as a sign she is, in fact, willing to make hard decisions, despite having the same wannabe tech company delusions as Adam Neumann of WeWork. Coming from the business world, this seemed like a very normal stepping stone decision, and the fact it seems to have felt like it wasn’t is itself a sign that the cult of founders is still a serious problem. Also, she’s still in leadership. As someone who considers a couple of Glossier products as mainstays in my daily routine, I WANT the company to be run by someone who understands operations, scale, and longevity in a practical, non-flighty way. Bringing in an experienced CEO is the right way to go.
It was difficult to follow a clear narrative arc in this book. There's history, it's well-written, and there's some excellent commentary on the detestable word "girlboss" and the double standard for women executives, but I'm not sure what the point of this book was, exactly. It originally started out as a book on the beauty industry and pivoted to became all about Glossier, and it definitely feels that way. Read it if you're a fan of Glossier, are interested in the vapidness of the fashion industry, want to see a high-level view of what creation and growing pains look like for a VC-backed DTC company, or want a decent look at their brilliant Instagram marketing and building a following around a brand (Glossier pioneered this concept in many ways). However, if you want more on women as founders (mostly in tech), read Brotopia, or if you want real founder drama go with Bad Blood.
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"Weiss started out as a starry-eyed innovator, a girl for whom nothing had ever gone wrong. She wasn’t a Rockefeller, exactly, but to most Americans she might as well have been. She was pretty, connected, thin, tall. She dripped with privilege. But she was also smart. And, crucially, she was willing to put in the work. She had a solid idea—Into the Gloss—that came at exactly the right time. That was all hers. But Weiss sometimes fell into an internalized misogynist trap of not taking credit for her ideas, as if Glossier were a craft project, a manifestation of her vision boards. That’s because luck plays a huge role in Weiss’s trajectory. And luck can be scary to discuss because it can’t be bought or controlled. You can only set up all the right conditions for it, which can involve a lot of hard work, though not always. People don’t like talking about luck the way they don’t like talking about privilege: because it makes it seem like they haven’t “earned” everything. But I don’t think it has to be a luck or hard work thing, but rather an and." (Marisa Meltzer, Glossy)
This is a mindfulness book disguised as a book about productivity; it will completely shift how you think about every time management tip you’ve ever read, because it’s fundamentally about a mindset shift. If you’re an entrepreneur constantly running on the hamster wheel of someday work-life balance, you need to drop everything and read this.
I have a massive TBR list, so I’m not sure that I’ve ever wanted to turn around and start reading the same book again, but it’s absolutely how I feel about this one. I read fast, but this is the kind of book that asks you to sit with it and digest what the ideas mean for your own life. This is going to be my top pick of 2023.