One Minute Book Review – Details, episodes & analysis

What’s your relationship with failure like? Do you accept it as part of the process of progression or does it debilitate you?

This a question many of us ask ourselves when we inevitably encounter failure. We either use it as a learning opportunity or we become entrenched in our ways of thinking blaming everyone else for the failure. 🤷‍♂️

This book examines many different concepts, such as cognitive dissonance, defining failure and achieving small steps over giant leaps. It’s one of the rare books that I read that leaves me questioning many different elements not only of myself but of society as a whole.

How can we all take more responsibility for the role that we have in society and apply these principles to create a better society? I do believe it is by constantly seeking the correct ways of improvement as this book suggests on multiple occasions. But it is also changing the stigma behind failure. Not as a badge of negative connotation, but instead of honour knowing that the same mistake can be prevented in the future. 📚

Another great book that I have read that I recommend. It seems every book I am reading at the moment is 💯.

Appreciate @matthewsyedauthor for writing this, I look forward to reading your other work as well. 👍📚

Have you read this? If so, what were your thoughts? 📚

I had heard so much about this book that I almost felt obliged to read it. As you can tell from the amount of highlights in this post, the book wasn’t my cup of tea. (British slang) ☕️

The book focuses on how we can become more open with how we engage with our colleagues at work. It defines the differences between armoured and daring leadership for us to put into practise.

The main issue I had with the book is it wasn’t saying anything original. This is partly due to the subject matter not being revolutionary and my experience with reading around this topic. But I felt the points weren’t expressed in a way that suited my liking. 📚

Even so I do think the book can provide value for anyone wanting to become more vulnerable and open with their interactions at work or elsewhere. 👍

Why do we think the way we do? Is our thinking determined by cultural and societal factors or are we true independent thinkers? 🤔  This is what Nobel Prize winning Daniel Kahneman explores in this book. 🤓  The essence of the book is focussed on analysing the differences between the two systems of the mind. System 1 requires little cognitive energy and is automatic. Whereas System 2 requires more cognitive energy. When we look at analysing our thoughts and behaviours we can derive the origins to one of these two systems. 🧠  The book goes on to talk about behavioural heuristics and biases and how and why we make choices. The book is research heavy and can be quite technical to understand when reading it. I would say for beginner readers this wouldn’t be a great book to read because I found myself confused on multiple occasions whilst reading the book. Also, there were not practical frameworks that we could derive from the book. It read more like an elongated peer reviewed journal than a good storytelling narrative. It was nonetheless interesting and a lot to learn from. 📚📚  💬 Let is know in the comments if you have read this and what you thought.  https://www.ombrclub.com/

A New Series called 'Knowledge Bites' where I talk about some of the models, concepts and theories that have captured my attention whilst reading that I have reviewed. In this week's episode I will be giving an introduction into 'Cognitive Dissonance Theory'.

This week's episode of 5 Reason Friday is 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell

Today I will be reviewing Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. DEEP work is the ability to spend four or more, disconnected, undistracted & entirely focused hours a day practising new skills or generating high-level output while leveraging an expertise. In this book, Cal Newport describes how to become a practitioner of deep work and the impact it can have on your personal and professional life. This book is practical which is one of the reasons why I enjoyed it. The steps that Cal describes to go into a state of Deep work can prove beneficial as it has done for Bill Gates and Carl Jung to name a few. The book is supplemented by a brief PDF that describes some of the key themes and points Cal explains, and I have found this useful when implementing the strategies he outlines. This book is for those who want to increase productivity while also becoming a leader in their field. I rate this book five stars.

This week's episode of 5 Reason Friday is 'The Whistler' by John Grisham

March's book review recap includes: Zero To One by Peter Thiel Shoe Dog by Phil Knight A Birmingham Story by Ryan Sinclair The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch Hooked by Nir Eyal

This week's episode of Five Reason Friday is 'Vagabonding' by Rolf Potts.

Hooked is an in-depth analysis of how to build habit-forming products that allow for customer retention. Following the 'Hook Model' consisting of a trigger, action, reward and investment, product forming companies have a model to develop and market in our current system. The book centres on the 'Hook Model' explaining in detail how it can apply in the real world and how it has helped companies such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to amass such a large following. It goes onto explain habit forming in more depth developing on the 'Habit Loop' made famous by Charles Duhigg. It's a technical book, explicitly made for product developers, to create and distribute exceptional products. I enjoy reading about habit formation, so this book gave me insights that I didn't know before. If you have the same curiosity in habit formation, especially in business, then I highly suggest you read this book. I rate it four stars.