Books

Brett Kelly’s introductory tips for OmniFocus are presented in his own, unique and inimitable way with a blend of humour and practical application.

It might not seem like it considering the number of book reviews I do,  but sometimes I get in a reading rut. Days will go by when I haven’t read a book and despite my best attempts to try tactics that have worked in the past I can’t seem to start a new book. Then I

Peter Thiel has written a book where he hopes to bridge the gap between specifics and generalities. A book that applies as much to a business owner in Iowa as a San Francisco startup.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders has written a time management book that values your time. Time management may be the wrong category for what this is. It’s more like strategic time investment – hence the title.

If you want to be more productive, spend more time on your core work. If you want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more. If you want to have a better relationships, hear what the other person says. If you want to use social media, match the message with the medium. This last sentence is the summary of Gary Vaynerchuk’s’ three books, but like the other insipid advice that precedes it, that tells you everything and nothing.

A book review of Shane Snow’s Smartcuts what what riding waves can teach us about spotting trends, how to hack the corporate ladder, and knowing just enough about the right things.

A great thing about reading books is finding smart people. I first realized this reading Malcolm Gladwell a decade ago and thinking “Wow, this guy is really smart,” and the same thing when I finished Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good For You. The conclusion of this book is that your vice, while not nice, may not be so bad. A secondary takeaway is to think about reframed, redefined, and updated views and when we do this we can see where things are going rather than where they’ve been.