Amazon link Ben Horowitz is best known at this point for being half of Andreessen Horowitz, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He wrote this book to answer the question: How do you as an organizational leader create and sustain the culture you want? As his book site summarizes, “To Horowitz, culture is how […]
Category: nonfiction
The Art of Leadership, by Michael Lopp
Amazon link I have been reading Michael Lopp’s blog, Rands in Repose, for fourteen years, and liked his previous books, so I bought and read this newest book immediately upon release as it’s especially relevant to my work as an executive coach. Lopp shares what he has learned as a manager at Netscape, a director […]
Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad
Amazon link Book site This is one of the most recommended books for beginning one’s work on antiracism, so I worked through it in June. The book’s content was originally written as a 28-day Instagram challenge, and is thus brief with each chapter being only a few pages. The chapters are all structured similarly, first […]
It’s About Damn Time, by Arlan Hamilton
Amazon link Book site I first heard of Arlan Hamilton on the Startup podcast a couple years ago, and her story was amazing as a queer Black once-homeless woman without a college degree who decided to diversify Silicon Valley venture capital through sheer force of will. I was recently reminded of her when she opened […]
The Willpower Instinct, by Kelly McGonigal
[n.b. This may seem like a weird time to publish this book summary given my last couple posts, but I actually got this book from a physical library in the pre-Covid times, and the library is re-opening, so I have to return it soon. Plus, I do think it is relevant to anti-racism work to […]
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Amazon link I purchased this book when it came out several years ago, but gave up on reading it at the time because I didn’t have the patience to absorb Coates’s words and perspective. I restarted it this week, and finished it in a couple days, as it’s not a long book…but it is a […]
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
Amazon link This book is Frankl’s account of surviving the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, as told from his perspective as a psychiatrist. He readily admits that the conditions were so brutal that every ounce of energy had to be put into survival to even have a chance. He gives the example of earning a […]
Tiny Habits, by BJ Fogg
Amazon link Book site I went through BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits course back in 2014 with limited success in creating my intended habits. I was planning to skip the book since I figured it was more of the same, but after hearing a podcast interview with him, I realized he covered more in the book […]
The Last Word on Power, by Tracy Goss
Amazon link Tracy Goss is an adherent of Werner Erhard, who developed the est methodology that was later monetized into the Landmark Forum. What I knew of the Landmark Forum seemed pretty dodgy (see this 2003 rant on how I thought it was an evil cult), so I didn’t even want to open this book […]
Thinking in Bets, by Annie Duke
Amazon link Annie Duke was a world-class poker player, having won the World Series of Poker as well as other prominent games, who has since shifted to sharing what she learned about decision making at the poker table in talks and workshops. This book is the collection of her wisdom. If you want a summary […]
