2020: 64 Lessons from 64 Books
Books expand your knowledge and let you escape your prison of thoughts. Capture the main learnings within minutes, not days.
Only a few people have the opportunity to exchange in-person with the shapers of past and present. Books provide an excellent way to learn from world-class thinkers in a structured way.
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 differently, the lessons I took from the books might wildly deviate from yours. If you do not agree, that’s fine. Actually I read 82 books, but 18 novels do not count.
My personal top 10 books are marked with * at the beginning. Enough talking, let’s jump into the lessons!
- The Happiness Advantage — Happiness leads to success, not the other way.
- Die Flüchtlingsrevolution — Human traffickers operate in network-driven organizations.
- Prisoners of Geography — Environment shapes culture.
- *The Courage to Be Disliked — All problems are interpersonal relationship problems.
- *Lifespan: Why We Age — There is no biological limit to our age.
- Essentialism — Do less, but better.
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things — Be clear on what you want, get it done by others.
- The Richest Man in Babylon — Invest 10% of everything you make.
- *Mastery — Combine intuition with rationality to perform at peak.
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century — The human mind wants to worry.
- The Goal — Think in constraints (time, cost and quality).
- Let My People Go Surfing — Do what you love, money will follow.
- Wer den Wind sät — US interventions caused the Middle East conflict.
- Die den Sturm ernten — Good and bad are matters of perspective.
- *Hacking Darwin — Accelerate evolution by giving birth to your great-grandchildren.
- *Psycho-Cybernetics — Detach yourself from the outcome to perform better.
- What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars — Rationality beats emotionality.
- The Game — Attraction is psychological, not physical.
- *Future Shock —Dramatic change has a negative impact on health.
- The Psychedelic Experience — Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind.
- The Way of The Iceman — Breath work influences the immune system.
- Venture Deals — Ask your VC for references from entrepreneurs.
- Getting Real — Copywriting is interface design.
- The Four Steps to the Epiphany — Product development in isolation is deadly.
- Atomic Habits — Building a habit by making it part of your identity.
- Zero to Sold — Anyone can build a bootstrapped SaaS business.
- *It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work — Productivity is not more hours. It’s less waste, distraction, and persistent stress.
- Actionable Gamification — Design products around core human drives.
- Get Together — Communities need a shared purpose, identity, and responsibility.
- Holacracy — Design an organization in circles.
- How to Win Friends and Influence People — People are only interested in themselves.
- The End of Jobs — Our world becomes more chaotic and requires entrepreneurial thinking to strive.
- What You Do Is Who You Are — Culture is behaviour.
- Explore Like a Pirate — Turn learning into a game.
- *Antifragile —Fixing a system makes it more fragile in the long run.
- Steve Jobs — Human biases are useful tool.
- The Laws of Human Nature — Become aware of your mortality to experience a taste of true freedom.
- The 5 AM Club — Morning exercises increase cognitive performance.
- The Bullet Journal Method — Physical note-taking improves mental clarity.
- Shape Up — Work in 6-week sprints.
- The Black Swan — The bell curve misrepresents real risk potentials.
- Der Ernährungskompass — Eat real (unprocessed) food.
- Mit Ernährung heilen — Fasting prolongs healthy lifespan.
- Factfulness — Our world gets better, we just do not realize it.
- *Range — Break-through innovation comes new perspectives on old problems.
- The 5 Love Languages — People express sympathy in different way and want to be appreciated with their way.
- Flow — Flow is deep enjoyment.
- Happiness — Happiness can be learned.
- Remote — A one hour meeting with 8 people costs 8 hours work time.
- Rework — Plans are harmful. Say no by default.
- Stillness Is the Key — Slow down to charge ahead.
- The Mind of the Leader — Leadership is about being a servant, not a ruler.
- *A Mind for Numbers — Learning happens when toggling between focused and diffused mode.
- Homo Deus — Human biology runs on algorithms.
- A New U — University degrees are no longer a good value proposition.
- Body by Science — Short, intense resistance-training with long regeneration works optimally for muscle-building.
- Genius Foods — Food changes the way the brain ages.
- Bold — Leverage community for co-creation.
- The Cockroach — Kafka in reverse.
- Trillion Dollar Coach — Do frequent 1:1s with employees.
- Theory of Human Learning —Learning is existential.
- Mit 50 Euro um die Welt — Faith beats money in the pursuit of happiness.
- Smartcuts — Question the basic assumptions of a problem.
- Mastering the VC Game — Understand incentives reduce power imbalance.
You made it!
Which books made you think? Happy to hear what you have learned!