Books

The Power Broker Project, Reading Response #4

Robert Moses’ power accumulation gains momentum through a feedback loop that even enemies in high places can’t stop.

When Roosevelt was elected governor, he did not want to re-appoint Moses, even despite Al Smith’s pleas. However, Moses’ positions as the president of the Long Island State Park Commission and as the chairman of the State Parks Council were beyond the reach of the new governor. Roosevelt was powerless against Moses from the outset. Then, throughout his term, Moses’s accomplishments made him indispensable. So much so that, “although he may have hated Moses, during the four years of his Governorship [Roosevelt] gradually increased, not decreased Moses’ power.” (pg 304)

Moses’ indispensability came down to two key attributes: his encyclopedic knowledge of the law and his relentless drive. With these characteristics, Moses was able to solve important problems and accomplish more than anyone else in a similar position.

Encyclopedic Knowledge of the Law to Solve Problems

Of course Moses had a thorough understanding of the law and how the government runs. As Caro points out, “To a considerable extent, the machinery was his machinery; he, more than any other individual, drafted the executive budget system, the departmental consolidation and hundreds of bills that implemented those constitutional amendments.” (pg 306) This knowledge was a “political weapon which no Governor could afford to let rust in his arsenal.” (pg 306) Roosevelt relied on Moses’ council to pass the budget in his first year against backlash from the Republic Legislature. And he would continue to turn to Moses on issues beyond just parks. “During 1930, 1931, and 1932, Moses handled more than a dozen special assignments for Roosevelt and produced results on every one.” (pg 319) Moses’ knowledge and ability made Roosevelt dependent on him. He couldn’t help but give him more responsibility, thereby increasing Moses’s power during his Governorship.

A Relentless Driving for Accomplishments

Moses inexhaustive drive to get the parks and parkways in Long Island open created a record of accomplishments that also could not be ignored. More so, Roosevelt wanted to be identified with the success, particularly given the positive publicity it generated. “For political, if not personal, reasons, Roosevelt wanted – needed – to get things done.” (pg 315) Like all politicians, Roosevelt needed a “record of accomplishment” for re-election campaigns and beyond. Because of Moses, he could point to a record of public works and completed projects that were cheered by the public. And Moses astutely understood the importance of sharing “the credit for the work he had done with the man he needed if he was to get more done.” (pg 315) Again, Roosevelt became dependent on the limelight that Moses’ achievements produced. He had little choice but to “heap on [Moses] more and more responsibilities, even though the giving of responsibilities carries with it the grant of more power.”

So, even though Roosevelt and Moses had an acrimonious relationship that would continue in the years to come, Moses knowledge and accomplishments made him indispensable to the Governor, thereby helping him gain more power. This allowed him to achieve more and just fed further consolidation of power in a reinforcing feedback loop.

We later see a similar pattern emerge when La Guardia becomes mayor of New York City. La Guardia dreamed of making his city beautiful, and “it was Moses who was enabling him to obtain the plans and the money” to make that dream a reality. (pg 453) La Guardia and Moses, as “two strong-willed, hot-tempered men” would get into fierce fights, but for both the importance of “the realization of dreams in concrete” trumped their disagreements – “their disagreements could always be resolved.” (pg 452)

And like Roosevelt, La Guardia thoroughly basked in the positive press that Moses’ accomplishments with the city park system generated. What’s more, La Guardia went along for the joy ride of going to many park opening ceremonies. He learned not to interfere with this golden goose. “As long as he didn’t fight, La Guardia had learned, Moses would provide him with a seemingly inexhaustible cornucopia of political benefits If he did fight, Moses would humiliate and defeat him.” (pg 463)

But it wasn’t just his park record that set Moses apart for La Guardia. Moses’ problem solving skills, as it did for Roosevelt when he was governor, proved to be invaluable to La Guardia as mayor.

“You give a problem to Moses and overnight he’s back in front of you – with a solution, all worked out down to the last detail, drafts of speeches you can give to explain it to the public, drafts of press releases for the newspapers, drafts of the state laws you’ll need to get passed, advice as to who should introduce the bills in Legislature … and a complete method of financing it all spelled out. He had solutions when no one else had solutions. A mayor needs a Robert Moses.” – Judge Jacob Lutsky (pg 463)

This power and ability ended up dominating over the mayor. He was able to overrule La Guardia’s plans and direct a “lion’s share of the billion-plus dollars poured into New York City by the New deal” on his own projects. (pg 465) “To a considerable extent, in the planning of large-scale public works in New York City during the 1930’s, Robert Moses operated independently of the elected official who appointed him – and therefore independently of the people’s will.” (pg 465)

Moses became uncontrollable by his superiors.

The Power Broker Project, Reading Response #3

I know, I know … I’ve fallen behind on my weekly schedule for what I’m calling “The Power Broker Project”. But I am going to do my best to see it all the way through, even if takes longer than planned. The 99% Invisible podcast’s reading club of The Power Broker really is helping me stay motivated too. I will keep pushing through the book so that I can listen to the next episode. (I only listen to them after completing the reading.) In all fairness to Robert Caro though, his writing is compelling and thoroughly keeps in engaged too. With that here is my response for the next section’s reading.

Robert Moses attained a position of power by installing himself as Long Island State Park Commission president and as the chairman of the State Council of Parks. He came to effectively wield (and abuse) these powers with the backing of “three formidable weapons.” (pg. 193)

First, parks were strongly supported by the public as they were seen as something fundamentally good: “… anyone who fought for parks fought under the shield of the presumption that he was fighting for the right.” (pg. 193) And second, the fight for parks was caricaturized as a battle between “wealth vs. lack of wealth, privilege vs. impotence, influence vs. helplessness, ‘rich golfers’ vs. the sweating masses of the cities.” (pg. 193)

With these two “weapons”, Moses was cast as a public hero and could easily enlist the press to gain advantages against his enemies. He became a “master propogandist” and in an about face to his idealist principles of right vs. wrong, he no longer cared about whether the press depicted the full facts, since it was in his favor. (pg 190) The New York Times would run pages rallying for Moses in his case against W. Kingsland Macy, while leaving little room for Macy’s side: “It was not just a case of inequality of space and play. The Time’s articles repeated, day after day, as if they were uncontested facts, the key contentions made by Moses and Smith. … The key contentions of Moses’ opponents were almost totally ignored.” (pg 197)

The press not only weakened Moses’s opponents but also took every occasion to lionize him. So much so that Moses “gleamed in the public conscious with an aura … of a fearless, fiercely in dependent public servant who loved parks above all else and was willing to fight for parks against politicians, bureaucrats and the hated forces of wealth and influence.” (pg 188) As the parks started open and the public began to benefit from them, these campaigns only became more forceful. “New Yorkers knew who was primarily responsible for the boon they had been given. … the praise, on front pages and editorial pages alike, continued day after day.” (pg 238)

It was from these first two weapons that Moses’s drew tremendous power and confidence from being on the “right side”: “As long as you have public opinion on your side, your safe. ‘As long as you’re on the side of the parks, you’re on the side of the angels. You can’t lose.’” (pg 218)

The last weapon that backed Moses growing power was Al Smith’s unwavering support, which gave Moses a “blind faith in Smith’s ability to rescue him from consequences.” In fact, we see him adopt the Machiavellian philosophy of the end justifying the means to do whatever it takes in order to realize his dreamt up parks. This could even entail “furnishing misleading information” and “underestimating costs”. He would start physical projects even before having full permission, knowing that once something was built, it was hard to undo. He would trick a Legislature to give enough money to just begin a project, knowing “it would be virtually forced to give you the money to finish it.” These maneuverings were only possible because Moses was under the protection of Al Smith.

These three weapons, really gave Moses a power and confidence. “As long as he had public power, as long as he was representing the state, he would have the means of … denying justice to his opponents, of shielding himself from punishments.” (pg 220) Robert Moses “could, with far more impunity than any private citizen, defy the law. He glorified in the knowledge: he boasted and bragged about it.” (pg 220) And with this flexibility, he was fully free to command his park dreams into reality.

The Happiness Advantage

The Happiness Advantage (The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work) by Shawn Achor, 9780307591548

Happiness comes after you’ve reached your goals. You’ll be happy once you’ve achieved success. Right? Apparently not!

Positive psychology – a relatively new field started in 1998 by psychologist Martin Seligman – has turned that common idea inside out. Happiness leads to success. Research has shown that optimism, makes us more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive, which fuels performance and achievement.

In The Happiness Advantage, author Shawn Achor shows us the many ways happiness leads to positive outcomes and gives us practical principles to actively cultivate optimism. He gives us hope that – with some effort – we can rewire our brains to change our outlook, and set ourselves up to reap the multiple benefits of happiness.

Just reading this book has given me a good dose of optimism. After growing up thinking that I had to struggle and grind away to reach happiness through (eventual but still uncertain) success, I now feel like there is a different path. Equipped with Achor’s principles and the research and lessons he shares, I can change my approach to life for a better outlook.

But there’s more. Achor goes on to show that by becoming happier and more optimistic myself, I could have a positive impact on the people around me. He calls this the “ripple effect.” As someone who is naturally more anxious worry wart, I now know to make a more conscious effort to be a “happier” person for the benefit of my friends, family, coworkers, and the greater community.

I don’t think these are just hippy-dippy words of advice. I am making a conscious effort to put Achor’s principles into action. I’ve started a daily gratitude practice and will try to foster deeper connections with people in my everyday interactions. I’m excited to see where these new habits may lead.

Click below to see my notes on the seven principles presented in The Happiness Advantage.

Continue reading →

Trillion Dollar Coach

To build a successful company in today’s day and age, you need to employ smart creatives and construct teams that are “individually and collectively obsessed with what’s good for the company.” In turn, these high-performing teams require a great leader who is both a strong manager and a caring coach. Trillion Dollar Coach dives into the responsibilities of the ultimate coach, as inspired by Bill Campbell. Campbell coached Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg (two of the book’s authors), Sundar Pichai and Ruth Porat, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey, Sheryl Sandberg, and countless others. He is the “trillion dollar coach.”

Trillion Dollar Coach has four chapters with numerous governing leadership / coaching principles in each: 1) Your Title Makes You Manager. Your People Make You a Leader, 2) Build an Envelope of Trust, 3) Team First, and 4) The Power of Love. The following are my notes and take aways regrouped into the overarching themes I saw.

Picking the Right Players

  • The top characteristics to look for are smarts and hearts: the ability to learn fast, a willingness to work hard, integrity, grit, empathy, and a team-first attitude.
  • A big turnoff for Bill was if they were no longer learning.
  • People who show up, work hard, and have an impact every day. Doers. “It’s not what you used to do, it’s not what you think, it’s what you do every day.”
  • People who put team first. As Sundar Pichai says, “people who understand that their success depends on working well together, that there’s give-and-take — people who put the company first.”
  • Bill valued courage: the willingness to take risks and the willingness to stand up for what’s right for the team, which may entail taking a personal risk.

Taking Care of the People

  • It’s the People Manifesto:
  • The top priority of any manager is the well-being and success of her people.
  • Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how they are going to make someone else better. But that’s what coaches do.
    • “Think that everyone who works for you is like your kids,” Bill once said. “Help them course correct, make them better.”
    • Be relentlessly honest and candid, couple negative feedback with caring, give feedback as soon as possible, and if the feedback is negative, deliver it privately.
  • Trust is the first thing to create if you want a relationship to be successful.
    • Trust means people feel safe to vulnerable (psychological safety – one of the five factors of successful teams). Trust means you keep your word. Trust mean loyalty. Integrity. It means ability, the trust that you actually had the talent, skills, power, and diligence to accomplish what you promised. Trust means discretion.
    • People are most effective when they can be completely themselves and bring their full identity to work
  • Believe in people more than they believe in themselves, and push them to be more courageous.

Building the Team & Community

  • Bill believed in striving for the best idea, not consensus. The goal of consensus leads to “groupthink” and inferior decisions. To avoid groupthink:
    • Make sure that people have the opportunity to provide their authentic opinions, especially if they are dissenting.
    • Help people prepare for group meetings. Have them think through and talk through their own perspective so they are ready to present it.
    • Create an environment that is “safe for interpersonal risk taking … a teams climate … in which people are comfortable being themselves.”
  • Winning depends on having the best team, and the best teams have more women.
  • Bill thought peer relations were more important than relationships with your manager or other higher-ups. What do your teammates think of you? That’s what’s important!
    • Seek opportunities to pair people up on projects or decisions. It will build a deeper sense of understanding between different team members.
    • To build rapport and better relationships among team members, start team meetings with trip reports, or other types of more personal, non-business topics. The simple communication practice – getting people to share stories, to be personal with each other – was in fact a tactic to ensure better decision making and camaraderie.
  • Most important issues cut across functions, but, more important, bringing them to the table in team meetings lets people understand what is going on in the other teams, and discussing them as a group helps develop understanding and build cross-functional strength.
  • “Knowledge commonality” helps the team perform better and is well worth the time it requires.
  • Getting to the right answer is important, but having the whole team get there is just as important.
    • When two people disagree, have them figure it out together. It empowers the people working on the issue to figure out ways to solve the problem, a fundamental principle of successful mediation. And it forms a habit of working together to resolve conflict that pays off with better camaraderie and decision making for years afterword.
    • Bill encouraged ensembles and always strived for a politics-free environment.
  • Listen, observe, and fill the communication and understanding gaps between people.

Leadership and Decision Making

  • When faced with a problem or opportunity, the first step is to ensure the right team is in place and working on it.
  • Define the “first principles” for the situation, the immutable truths that are the foundation for the company or product, and help guide the decision from those principles.
  • Identify the biggest problem, the “elephant in the room,” bring it front and center, and tackle it first.
  • Failure to make a decision can be as damaging as a wrong decision. Having a well-run process to get to a decision is just as important as the decision itself, because it gives the team confidence and keeps everyone moving.
  • The manager’s job is to run a decision-making process that ensures all perspectives get heard and considered, and, if necessary, to break ties and make the decision.
  • When things are going bad, teams are looking for even more loyalty, commitment, and decisiveness from their leaders.
  • Stay relentlessly positive. Positive leadership makes it easier to solve problems. Also be relentless in identifying and addressing problems. Stick to “problem-focused coping” in contrast to “emotion-focused coping”.
  • Strive to win, but always win right, with commitment, teamwork, and integrity. Remember “the humanity of winning” by which he means winning as a team (not as individuals) and winning ethically.
  • Harness the power of love:
    • Be generous with your time, connections, and other resources.
    • To care about people you have to care about people: ask about their lives outside of work, understand their families, and when things get rough, show up.
    • Cheer demonstrably for people and their successes.

From these principles, it is clear that Adam Grant writes in the book’s forward is true. Trillion Dollar Coach belongs in the help-others section. “It’s a guide for bringing out the best in others, for being simultaneously supportive and challenging, and for giving more than lip service to the notion of putting people first.”

I had heard of Bill Campbell previously as a Columbia student-athlete. After graduating from Columbia University, he was an influential football coach from 1974 to 1979 and went on to become a trustee. The sports center at Baker Athletics Complex is named after him. After his passing in 2016, he was honored by the school in numerous ways for his leadership and generosity. I didn’t realize the scope of his positive influence on people until after reading this book. I feel inspired to try to live by some of these principles and follow his example to create a beneficial impact on my teams and in my community.

The Price of Peace by Zachary D. Carter Notes

The Price of Peace by Zachary D. Carter

In The Price of Peace author Zachary D. Carter tells the story of John Maynard Keynes’ career, his significant contributions to world politics during both World Wars and The Great Depression, and his lasting impact on political and economic theory.

From early on, Keynes held the view that money was inherently a political part of society. As laid out in the first chapter of his A Treatise on Money, “To-day all civilised money is, beyond the possibility of dispute, chartalist.” The social nature of markets puts them at the mercy of (irrational) people trying to navigate an unknown future. Unexpected events, changing attitudes, flawed assumptions, and general uncertainty can prevent “free markets” from naturally self-correcting to equilibrium without potentially catastrophic instability. Economics could not be fully distilled into a hard science of mathematical proofs like physics. Given these shortcomings, Keynes believed governments needed to have the authority to structure, guide and – at times – manage markets in order to maintain “order, legitimacy, and confidence.”

This led to a big clash of ideals and of titans, pitting John Maynard Keynes and his “Keynesian” economics against Friedrich von Hayek, who pushed laissez-faire capitalism and neoliberalism. Hayek believed the world needed an upper class to transmit knowledge and define society’s values through the generations. After living through the Weimar Republic’s period of hyperinflation, what mattered to Hayek was “the rights of an aristocracy against the central government.” Keynes rejected Hayek’s ideas. To him, laissez-faire had led to vast inequality and social unrest.

In the post World War era, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman would also advocate for free-markets and try to fit economics into more of a pure science. For Samuelson, rational, profit-maximizing behavior would naturally lead to the supply-demand equilibriums of David Ricardo and Adam Smith. Meanwhile, Friedman believed “nothing could stand in the way of hard work and good ideas … there was no problem the market could not solve – even war.” True individual freedom came from man’s ability to participate in the market. During the Bill Clinton administration, these idealistic views of free markets, free trade, and globalization led to sweeping social changes. Clinton’s policies included government deregulation and the establishment of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). America did enjoy a brief period of unmatched prosperity, but income equality exploded in the 1990’s and the untethered financial markets eventually collapsed in the Great Recession.

As Carter writes, “The chief policy prescription of neoliberalism – let financial markets organize the distribution of resources and capital – had failed very publicly. Financial markets were obviously not rational – banks had blown themselves up – nor could they claim to offer a predictable, stable route to prosperity. The crash-induced recession had caused mass suffering.”

In contrast to laissez-faire and neoliberalism, Keynes argued for greater governmental authority in the economy to preserve social stability and prosperity. After World War I, he was against German reparations, predicting that the austerity measures required to make the debt repayments would breed resentment and social unrest (aka the rise of Hitler and World War II). In fact, he would become a lifelong enemy of austerity and, on the flip side, advocate for large government spending (investment) after deep recessions. Keynesian economic philosophy is most embodied by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, and potentially President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Bill. By alleviating poverty and bringing economic freedom, the government – Keynes believed – could produce a supportive society to ensure a “good life” for all (and not just Hayek’s aristocrats).

“[Keynes’] rubric for determining economic success or failure was not growth or productivity by “greatness”. There was objective aesthetic cultural achievements – Shakespeare – that economic policy was supposed to support.”

The Price of Peace, Zachary D. Carter

Keynesianism (which is John Maynard Keynes’ broader political philosophy vs. Keynesian which is mostly focused on economics?), Carter concludes, is “not so much a school of economic thought as a spirit of radical optimism”. It is a hopeful belief that with the right political leadership and steadying economic management, a democratic government could alleviate inequality, enable “artistic flowerings” (the Bloomsbury life), and encourage shared prosperity.

As further detailed in The Price of Peace, John Maynard Keynes did not live an easy life since his ideas were frequently “ahead of his time”. Nevertheless, he was courageous and pushed on until his death. I learned a lot about – and from – him while reading Carter’s book. The Price of Peace also also taught me more history, political theory and even some philosophy. While long (at over 650 pages), I did appreciate this read overall. It is obvious that Carter put a lot of work in bringing all of the ideas and concepts together. And I come away from it curious to learn more.

Some Guidance on Public Speaking

Driven by the goal of improving my public speaking and negotiating skills, I recently dove into three books: How to Win Friends and Influence People, Quiet and Talk Like Ted. While written for slightly different purposes, these texts had a few, core overlapping ideas I found instructive.

Impressions matter

Body language, charisma, and confidence all influence the impressions we impart on other people. And, while it may be unfair at times, first impressions and people’s perceptions of us can greatly affect our future success. Positive and charismatic leaders, aka “extroverts”, who can lead discussions, make presentations, and engage dynamically in conversations, appear more intelligent and more authoritative. This gives them more power and increases the likelihood they will be taken seriously and that their suggestions will be put into action.

In Quiet, Susan Cain writes, “We perceive talkers as smarter than quiet types. We also see talkers as leaders. The more a person talks, the more other group members direct their attention to him, which means that he becomes increasingly powerful as a meeting goes on. It also helps to speak fast; we rate quick talkers as more capable and appealing than slow talkers.”

What is particularly important here, is that the enthusiastic leader lifts the moods of others through his/her positivity. Positive emotions are contagious and help rally support. As Carmine Gallo says in Talk Like Ted, “Charismatic leadership is linked to organizational success because charismatic leaders enable their followers to experience positive emotions.”

Interestingly, in many cases, it doesn’t matter if these leaders are right. They are the people who are remembered and whose instructions are followed when the meeting is adjourned. This means that if you want your ideas to be taken seriously, you have to deliver them convincingly, with confidence and positivity. (But of course it also helps to be right.)

But what if confidence and charisma do not come naturally to you? That brings us to the next core idea.

Use physical behavior to guide your emotions and build up confidence and charisma

In Talk like Ted, Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist at HBS, says, “Our bodies change our minds, and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.”

Perhaps the most important behavior touted in both How to Win Friends and Influence People and Quiet is smiling. In fact, in How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie lists the simple smile as the second principle in his six ways to make people like you. Smiling (our body) helps create a positive internal attitude (our mind) that is reflected in our actions (our behavior). And in Quiet, Susan Cain connects those behaviors to Cuddy’s outcomes. She writes, “We must smile so that our interlocutors will smile upon us. Taking these steps will make us feel good – and the better we feel, the better we can sell ourselves.”

Carmine Gallo would add that having “command presence” – the look of authority – could also instill confidence in ourselves and attract followers. He writes in Talk like Ted, “How we use our bodies – our nonverbal cues – can change people’s perceptions of us. Simply changing your body position affects how you feel about yourself and, by default, how others see you. Even if you don’t feel confident, act like it and your chances of success greatly improve.”

So, as the saying goes, “fake it until you make it.” Smile and take on strong body language to trick yourself into being more confident and charismatic. This will at least get you part of the way there … Like any other skill you’re looking to acquire, true mastery will only come with practice, which is the next main idea.

Public speaking takes practice

Even if you feel like you are not a natural extrovert or public speaker, there is still hope. In Quiet, Susan Cain says that according to Free Trait Theory, we may be born and culturally endowed with certain personality traits, but we can act out of character. An introvert can still rise up to be an inspiring public speaker. It just takes practice.

Deliberate practice strengthens the “muscles” associated with any skill, and, with public speaking in particular, it seems that practice can bring about actual structural brain changes that makes it easier over time.

As Gallo writes in Talk like Ted, “The brain areas involved in language – the areas that help you talk and explain ideas more clearly – these brain areas become more activated and more efficient the more they are used. The more you speak in public, the more the actual structure of the brain changes. If you speak a lot in public, language areas of the brain become more developed.”

Having more opportunities to practice public speaking also increases exposure to any potential fears. Over time, that fear will become desensitized, making future public speaking occasions easier to handle. In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie also highlighted that “learning is an active process,” and that “we learn by doing.” As he writes, “You are attempting a new way of life. That will require time and persistence and daily application.”

Practice is hard. Being patient to persist over time is also hard, especially if it involves overcoming your fears. You need passion to help you see it through. That is the last idea.

Being a convincing and inspirational public speaker requires passion

As mentioned before, with Free Trait Theory, even introverts can take on the characteristics of extroverts and become inspiring public speakers. However, acting out of character in such a way, as Cain says, is usually in the service of a “core personal projects.” In other words, you have to be passionate about what you’re speaking about. By pursuing the activity for its own sake, and not for the rewards it may bring, you can reach a “flow” state that will make the effort of practicing and persisting easier to bear.

Passion will also make you more convincing. As Carmine Gallo writes in Talk like Ted, “Science shows that passion is contagious. You cannot inspire others unless you are inspired yourself. You stand a greater chance of persuading and inspiring your listeners if you express an enthusiastic, passionate, and meaningful connection to your topic.” I guess this should not be too surprising – that at the bottom of it all passion is the driving force that can help make any person a better public speaker. After all, passion is an essential underlying motivating factor.

In the end, I did find these three texts fairly helpful. As someone who is more introverted, or feels very self-conscious of how I will be judged for what I say, I now acknowledge that I have to take extra time to practice public speaking, voicing my thoughts, and hearing the sound of my own voice. I will try to adopt the technique of forcing a smile and embodying a commanding presence to instill a more positive, confident attitude. The greatest comfort reading these books gave me is confirmation that I can get better at this skill, and, that over time, it will become less scary. I do have the passion to take on this challenge.

Top Books of 2020

In the midst of this tumultuous year, and in large part due to the quarantine and work from home measures in effect since March, I found that I was able to read (skim and listen on audio) a lot more content in 2020. 

These are all the books I “read” (in roughly chronological order) with the ones I would recommend in bold and starred: 

  1. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
  2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  3. Range by David Epstein*
  4. So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
  5. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (audiobook)*
  6. Navigating Debt Crises by Ray Dalio
  7. Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin*
  8. How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen*
  9. Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (audiobook)*
  10. The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch***
  11. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
  12. Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
  13. The Brain Fog Fix by Dr. Mike Dow (audiobook) 
  14. The Bhagavad Gita
  15. How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens
  16. The Overstory by Richard Powers
  17. Sources of Power by Gary Klein  
  18. Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzalez 
  19. Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger***
  20. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
  21. The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss 
  22. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates***
  23. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman (audiobook)***
  24. Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
  25. Bean-to-bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution: The Origins, the Markers, the Mind-Blowing Flavors by Megan Giller
  26. Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S’More by Todd Masonis, Greg D’Alesandre, Lisa Vega & Molly Gore
  27. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
  28. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
  29. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
  30. The Foundation by Iaac Asimov
  31. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
  32. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  33. Quiet by Susan Cain

My reading this year leaned heavily on the side of nonfiction (as usual) and can be further broken down into the following categories: 

  • Self-Help Books. Yes, I was definitely a sucker for these books this year. A lot of them were recommended as “life-changing” reads through numerous YouTube channels (another pastime I picked up while in quarantine). Some of them even seem to fall into a new “classics for productivity / self-starter gurus” kind of category. These would include Think and Grow Rich, The Four Hour Work Week, The War of Art, Do the Work, Rich Dad Poor Dad and How to Win Friends and Influence People. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon (and recommended by Ali Abdaal) is probably lesser known but has inspired me to bring new life to this blog. Overall, I’d say sure, these are good books to read  skim once if you feel inspired to do so, but, if you don’t, you’re probably not missing much. 
  • Finance and Business Books. Navigating Debt Crises and Too Big To Fail were reads inspired by the shutdown of the economy and my desire to review the potential effects of large scale monetary and fiscal stimulus. (What happens to inflation, the dollar, productivity, future tax rates, etc. when the government issues trillions of dollars of debt?) Too Big To Fail really read like a drama and would still be entertaining for those who aren’t interested in finance. Psychology of Money was gifted to me by a colleague and seems to have been a big hit this year, but I didn’t find it particularly informative. I do want to especially highlight The 80/20 Principle. I learned of this book by listening to The Tim Ferriss Show podcast episode featuring Richard Koch as the guest. The 80/20 Principle is a common business term, but in this book Koch uses it as a lense to examine your personal life. (In fact, I debated grouping this book in the Self-Help group category too.) I liked his ideas of Happiness and Unhappiness Islands, Achievement and Achievement Desert Islands and his call to become self-employed as soon as possible (so you can reap the full rewards and benefits). Unfortunately, I still have not figured out a path to sustainable self-employment yet … Sorry Richard.
  • Spiritual / Life Value Books. I wasn’t entirely sure how to label these books as they were kind of a new realm for me this year. The Four Agreements is a recommendation from Karlie Kloss, The Bhagavad Gita came from a podcast, and How Will You Measure Your Life was recommended by a high school classmate of mine. Each gives loose guidelines on how to live your life. Of these, I’d say How Will You Measure Your Life was the most impactful in terms of getting me to reflect more regularly to see if my daily actions are truly aligned with what I value. 
  • Biography and Memoirs. I’m not surprised that each of these are on my Top Books of 2020 list. I would highly recommend each of these to anyone as they are truly captivating and eye-opening stories. 

The only two fiction books I read were The Overstory and The Foundation. The Overstory was recommended by Hugh Jackman on The Tim Ferriss Podcast and actually won The Pulitzer Prize this year. I enjoyed most of The Overstory, but the ending was a bit sad. The Foundation was inspired by Elon Musk, and I believe Chamath Palihapitiya mentioned it as a guest on The Knowledge Project Podcast. It was entertaining, but I’m not jumping to read the next book in the series. I am curious about other sci-fi books and want to read Dune before the movie version comes out. 

What did you read / listen to / watch this year that inspired you? Any recommendations for me for 2021?