- Mindset by Carol Dweck. Taught me a lot about just grinding/practicing.<p>- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson. It's helping me focus only on the things I really want.<p>- Deep Work by Cal Newport. I have almost no social media now, and I value uninterrupted time greatly.<p>- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Quite sobering honestly. I realize I'm spoiled AF.<p>- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. I'm more conscientious of my (and my close friends') plans and I try to help them as much as possible. No excuses. Also the military discipline/mindset is really inspiring.<p>- Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss. I haven't finished it but this is what I read before sleeping, I can just flip the page anywhere and I read something cool
These are my 10 favourites:<p>- Total Freedom by J Krishnamurti<p>- Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack: Benjamin Franklin<p>- Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio<p>- The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius by Marcus Aurelius<p>- 10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness by Alanna Collen<p>- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert Pirsig<p>- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami<p>- Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe<p>- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari<p>- The Complete Adventures of Feluda (Volume 1) by Satyajit Ray
I particularly liked these 12 books:<p>- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less<p>- Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe<p>- The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet<p>- Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters<p>- This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike<p>- A Life in Parts<p>- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future<p>- Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be<p>- The Power of the Other: The startling effect other people have on you, from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond-and what to do about it<p>- The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads<p>- The Compassionate Achiever: How Helping Others Fuels Success<p>- The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play
I had decided I wasn't going to read any book in 2017. I almost succeeded - ended up reading Novice to Master - An ongoing lesson in the extent of my own stupidity by Soko Morinaga.<p>I found the book to be beautiful and practically useful. I am going to continue my resolve in '18 by not reading and instead applying what I have already read towards more productive and joyous life. I think I have plenty to go on with.
Enjoyed the below:<p>The Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch<p>Dear Friend, From My Life I Write To You in Your Life - Yiyun Li<p>Hillbilly Elegy - JD Vance<p>Inadequate Equilibria - Eliezer Yudkowsky<p>The Neapolitan Novels - Elena Ferrante<p>Mating In Captivity - Esther Perel<p>Our Mathematical Universe - Max Tegmark<p>Radical Candor - Kim Scott<p>Scale - Geoffrey West<p>The Seventh Day - Yu Hua<p>Somebody with a Little Hammer - Mary Gaitskill<p>Stubborn Attachments - Tyler Cowen (ebook)<p>What Do You Care What Other People Think? - Richard Feynman
I really enjoyed Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog. I’m not that into shoes so I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but he’s an excellent story teller and there are surprisingly a lot of parallels between being a shoe startup in the 1960s and a tech startup today.
In no particular order:<p>* The Obstacle is the Way, Ryan Holiday<p>* The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday<p>* Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl<p>* Siddhartha, Herman Hesse<p>* The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman<p>* The Effective Engineer, Edmund Lau<p>* The Lean Startup, Eric Ries<p>* Certain to Win, Chet Richards<p>* Left of Bang, Patrick Van Horn & Jason A. Riley<p>* Native Set Theory, Paul R. Halmos<p>* Introducing Go, by Caleb Doxsey.<p>If you'd like to read what I think of these books, you can read my blog post about them here: <a href="http://aalhour.com/blog/2018/01/02/review-of-my-2017-readings" rel="nofollow">http://aalhour.com/blog/2018/01/02/review-of-my-2017-reading...</a>
My favorite was Pre-Suasion. An excellent book on influence.<p><a href="https://g.co/kgs/GStGv1" rel="nofollow">https://g.co/kgs/GStGv1</a>
The best book published in 2017 for me is this one:<p>"A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Edward O. Thorp<p><a href="http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/a-man-for-all-markets/" rel="nofollow">http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/a-man-for-all-markets/</a>
Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type by Isabel Briggs Myers was interesting to gain a better understanding of the Myers Briggs types.<p>Curing Cancer with Immunotherapy by Rene Chee and Edward Chee was interesting and informative as well as it describes Rene's cancer experience and immunotherapy which I knew nothing about.
Non tech book “On tyranny by Timothy Snyder”. The book points out that it is easy too loose democracy if you do not protect it.<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33917107-on-tyranny" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33917107-on-tyranny</a>
I published my top 10 here: <a href="https://raviramanujam.com/post/blog/2017books.html" rel="nofollow">https://raviramanujam.com/post/blog/2017books.html</a>
Read quite some. Here are my favourites:
-Poor dad rich dad
-Elon Musk's biography
-The republic (Plato)
-Man's search for meaning
-Autobiography of a yogi
The World Is Flat by Tom Friedman.<p>Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper.<p>Inner Engineering by Jaggi Vasudev.<p>Sapiens by Yuval Harari.<p>Zero to One by Peter Thiel.