2019: 75 Lessons from 75 Books

Books expand your knowledge and empower you to break free from boundaries. Capture the main learnings within minutes, not days.

Photo by Kourosh Qaffari on Unsplash

Only a few people have the opportunity to exchange in-person with the shapers of the present and past. For us normal people, books provide an excellent way to learn from the Elon Musks and Einsteins of this world in a structured way — at home.

Coming up with a one-sentence lesson from a several hundred-page book was challenging, but a fantastic way for reflection. All of the books were read cover to cover, no summaries. There is no specific order. As we all perceive reality through our own filter based on past experiences and mental models, the lessons I took from the books will probably differ tremendously from yours. If you do not agree, that’s fine. My personal top 10 books are marked with * at the beginning. Enough talking, let’s jump into the lessons!

1. The 10x Rule — Goals of a magnitude higher are often easier to reach than 10% improvements
2. Predictably Irrational— Human beings make decide intuitively first and rationalize afterward
3. Helix — Creating a new human race is not science-fiction anymore
4. *How to Be a Power Connector — We cannot maintain a stable social relationship with more than 150 people
5. Write and Grow Rich— To finish your book, sit down and write every day
6. Fluent Forever—Learn any languages by mastering pronunciation first, never translate and use spaced repetition systems
7. Made to Stick—Get your idea to the audience through simple, unexpected and emotional stories
8. Getting Things Done— Your brain is there to generate ideas, not to hold them
9. Getting Results the Agile Way—Manage remote teams effectively by setting your 3 priorities for the year, quarter, month, week and day
10. The Power of Scrum — Replace rigid long-term plans with flexible 2–4-week sprints
11. *Flow — Engineer flow state through challenging but doable tasks, clear goals, immediate feedback, and deep concentration
12. Zen to Done — Reduce productivity systems to the most essential
13. The Girl with Seven Names— North Korea has over 50 different social (sub-)classes, definitely, not everybody being equal
14. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin — Ask yourself every morning “What good can I do today?” and reflect on your good deeds in the evening
15. Man’s Search for Meaning — Human beings can find joy even under the most brutal conditions, it’s all about enjoying the little things
16. Virtual Freedom— Outsource tasks with high opportunity costs to virtual staff around the world
17. The Science of Self-Learning — Write down specific questions before reading a book and boost your learning
18. How to Talk to Anyone— Acquire the terminology of various professions to connect more easily through a shared language
19. Blitzscaling — Sacrifice short-time efficiency for long-term market dominance
20. The Science of Accelerated Learning— Learn actively through questioning yourself and teach others
21. Principles: Life and Work — Be radically transparent with your employees
22. The War of Art —Amateurs identify with their work, professionals do the work for its own sake
23. Never Split the Difference— Replace saying ‘no’ with calibrated questions like “How am I supposed to do that?”
24. War of the Wolf — Age is never a limiting factor to achieve success
25. Freakonomics— Economics is the study of incentives
26. The Last Weynfeldt — Keen observers are the real puppet-masters
27. Unlimited Memory—Brains can hold an unlimited amount of information
28. Give and Take —Remove selfish takers from your organization to let givers strive
29. Animal Farm — Break complex situations into fun stories
30. 1984 — Language shapes the way we think
31. *Why We Sleep— Sleep deprivation undermines our ability to socialize
32. Change by Design— Human-centric problem-solving turns needs into demand
33. Pitch Anything—Any decision-making is always subject to our survival instincts
34. The Mind Map Book — Associations and imagination is the brain’s most natural way to think
35. *Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! — Having a lot of fun and being successful (Physics Nobel prize!) is not mutually exclusive
36. The Art of War — Know more about your opponent than they do, then strike where they do not expect
37. Drive— People strive with autonomy, advancement towards mastery and a higher purpose
38. How to Publish a Book—Quantify demand first before building a product
39. The Laws of Simplicity— Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful
40. Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers—Almost every failed startup has a product, but not enough customers
41. The 7 P’s of Publishing Success — Work is more than it appears on the surface
42. The Editor’s Eye— Every book needs an editor
43. *The Power of Full Engagement— Managing Energy, not time, is the key to high performance
44. Plutocracy — Wealthy people have statistically higher voting power
45. Convict Conditioning— Exercise with bodyweight to build functional muscle mass
46. The Compound Effect — Pay attention to the small, but regular decisions as they have a tremendous impact on your life in a few years
47. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions — Trying to thoroughly answer a stupid question can take you to some pretty interesting places
48. I Am Malala— Have the courage to stand up for beliefs
49. Einstein — Deconstruct complex concepts into imaginative real-life scenarios for deeper understanding(like riding on a light rail to understand the speed of light)
50. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas—We are all more alike than we are different
51. *The 6-Minute Diary — We process only 0.005% of all information consciously
52. The Future Is Asian — History shapes culture, and we know too little about Asian history to understand
53. The 12 Week Year — Break the year into manageable 12-weeks chunks to increase urgency on your goals
54. The Secret — Wrong understanding of the brain’s reticular activating system. Avoid.
55. The Mom Test —Don’t listen to opinions, collect facts and pain points instead
56. *Disciplined Entrepreneurship —Build a validated startup in 24-steps
57. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up — Keep only things that spark joy
58. Meditations — Develop self-discipline to gain control over judgments and desires
59. Designing for Emotion — Every design element triggers emotional reactions
60. Influence — People ignore facts if they decrease their hope
61. The Game— Discover and live true to your values
62. The Culture Code—Sharing vulnerability leads groups to perform better as focus shifts from individual’s status to group outcome
63. All Marketers Are Liars— Identify your target group based on how they perceive the world, and tell stories to match these perspectives
64. The Effective Executive— Get the right things done
65. The Way of the Superior Man — Prioritize purpose over relationships
66. *How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big — Every new skill doubles your odds of success
67. The Power of Now— Emotions are energized thought patterns
68. *Loonshots— Innovative ideas follow organizational structure
69. Ego is the Enemy — Decide if you want to be famous or do something meaningfully
70. Ultralearning— Acquire skills faster by creating a meta-learning map first
71. *Way of the Peaceful Warrior—Do not give up what you love, find the love in what you do
72. Models — Showing vulnerability increases shared trust and attractiveness
73. The Uninhabitable Earth — Climate change is interdependent with the refugee crisis
74. High-Performance Habits — If you cannot win the game, change the rules
75. Value Proposition Design — Test your riskiest assumptions as fast/cheaply as possible

You made it!

Reading books is one of the most efficient ways to expand your knowledge. Throughout 2019, I learned that setting a goal of reading a specific amount of books helps you to get into the habit of reading regularly, but comes with a big disadvantage.

Charlie Munger once said: “Show me the incentives, I will show the outcome.”

My incentive was to read lots of books, not to learn a lot. With that in mind, I tended to read books with fewer pages and took less time to reflect on them. It is faster to go through audiobooks, especially with 2x speed, but thinking on the content works better during actual reading. For 2020, I shift my focus from reading numerous books to few but high-quality books.

Which books made you think? I would be very happy to hear what you have learned!