Welcome to episode 108 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss book goals for 2021.

Original Recording Date: 01-22-2021

Topics – Book Goals for 2021

Most book links are Amazon affiliate links. If you’re going to purchase one of these to read along with us, please consider purchasing through the link to support the podcast!

0:56 – Dreaming Big about Reading Books for Growth

• John sets the stage for this episode. We’re going to share our reading goals for the year, how we think about them, and how they can help us grow in some way.

1:55 – John’s Goals Based on Category

• General Learning and Career Growth

  • Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt
    • John has read this book before but not in a while. He mentioned in as a book that has shaped his thinking in Bonus Episode 8 from late 2019.
    • Other than some fundamental principles he remembers from it, he feels he needs to read it again to refresh his memory.
    • John enjoys re-reading books.
  • The Ideal Team Player – How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni
    • We reviewed another book by Lencioni in Episode 87 called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team that was also quite good.
    • John wants to hear Lencioni’s thoughts on the team player concept.
    • The style of Lencioni’s writings are usually business fable and easy to consume. John plans to put this one early in his list to get a quick win.
  • Two Recommendations from Steven Murawski:
    • Our trilogy of interviews with Steven began with Episode 107.
    • Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management by Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby
      • Steven mentioned in his interview "the patterns we build to work with and interact with software are not so different from those familiar models built to work with people" in reference to this book.
      • We have to manage tasks and groups of peers even if we do not want to pursue management.
    • How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
      • John is a little hesitant on this one as the author doesn’t sound like a great person in real life. But the title remains intriguing.
      • John will check it out and report back.
  • Success is in Your Sphere: Leverage the Power of Relationships to Achieve Your Business Goals by Zvi Band
    • This one sounded intriguing based on the title.
  • Strategic Relationships at Work: Creating Your Circle of Mentors, Sponsors, and Peers for Success in Business and Life by Wendy Murphy, Kathy Kram
    • This choice was inspired by our interviews with Ashley Connell that began in Episode 96.
    • Ashley shared the difference between a mentor and a sponsor, and John would like to grow his circle of good sponsors and mentors.
    • Any other books in this area / thought leadership is welcome advice to us.
  • Feedback That Works: How to Build and Deliver Your Message by Center for Creative Leadership
    • In his role at Google, John is involved in a lot of peer feedback and review. He’d like to improve in this area.
    • Please send recommendations for providing good feedback John’s way!
  • The Art of Being Indispensable at Work by Bruce Tulgan
    • This is a title that seemed interesting to John as he definitely wants to be indispensable at work. If he is able to read it he can report back.
  • Empathy at Work by Sharon Steed
    • John likes to lead relationships with empathy. If there is a book with a good model for doing this, he would really like to hear about it.
    • If you have read something covering this genre of empathy at work, DM us!

• Python

  • John has a technical goal for the year to formally adopt a programming language. He chose Python because it seemed to fit the skills he wants to adopt in data engineering, analytics, big data, and machine learning.
  • Learn Python 3 the Hard Way by Zed A. Shaw
    • The author has covered a number of different languages.
    • The "hard way" is typing in the code rather than just doing a copy paste. It allows you to experience the debugging process and better learn syntax as well as understand what commands do.
    • As we record this, John is a couple weeks into it.
  • Clean Code in Python by Mariano Anaya
    • The idea of clean code is writing it in a way that is understandable.
    • John wants to be knowledgeable to be empathetic to customers doing development work.
    • One philosophy is document what you are doing extremely well with good comments. An alternative philosophy is to write the code so it is very clear what you are trying to do and only write comments when something complex needs to be referenced outside the code.
    • The stretch for John is learn Python and conceptually understand clean code.

• Computational Thinking

  • Computational Thinking – A beginner’s guide to problem-solving and programming by Karl Beecher
    • Programming can be broken down into language syntax, what commands do, data structures, logic, etc. Then there is the problem solving part. Computational thinking is more focused on problem solving abstracted away from the languages (i.e. algorithmic way of solving problems).
      • John has not had any formal training in this area. His goal is not to become a programmer but to gain a general skill to be empathetic to those who write code in their day jobs.
      • It would also be nice to solve problems he comes across on a daily basis with this type of thinking. *Applied Computational Thinking with Python by Sphia De Jesus and Dayrene Martinez
    • John does not know anything about the book but would love to hear from anyone who has walked this path.
    • This choice and the previous seemed logical based on what John wanted to learn.

• Data Science

  • Data Science on the Google Cloud Platform by Valliappa Lakshmana
    • John is making a technology bet based on what he is hearing from his customers.
    • He would love to hear about any recommendations that might be abstracted from a specific platform, especially if it is better than what he has chosen above.

• Consumption Format – How will John Consume These?

  • John thinks the only book he can do in audio form is the Lencioni book (could be both audio and PDF format and use WhisperSync). Maybe the Scott Adams book falls into this same category.
  • Most of the technical reads will probably be consumed in digital format. John keeps a few physical books but not many these days.
  • He thinks 90% digital with 10% possibly audio.

• Lots of these reads sound really interesting to Nick. Maybe they can compare notes on progress in each list separate and apart from the show.

• Maybe John could start blogging about those technical reads? Nick would love to read some articles written by John on computational thinking.

27:14 – Nick’s Goals Based on Category

• The General Philosophy

  • This is a stream of consciousness progression. Nick went back and categorized the books he had read over the past couple of years and categorized them into several different areas. It seemed to span a wide range of topics.

• Deliberate Practice

  • Nick fell into this topic after reading Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer in late 2020.
  • This is practice with a focused intensity, repeating the doing, with fast feedback to develop mental representations.
  • Nick then read Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool followed by The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin.
    • Waitzkin made it to elite levels in multiple fields, and it was extremely interesting to hear how he was able to learn as a beginner and how he continually raised his expertise level.
  • Once Nick reads a really good book in a specific area he likes to read other books in that same area to get another viewpoint.
    • Nick found this list of recommendations written by James Clear. There are 3 other books that Nick wants to read as a result.
    • The Talent Code by Dan Coyle
    • Deep Work by Cal Newport
    • The Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner

• Mentoring / Career

  • Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris
    • There was a podcast at the end of the Audible version of Josh Waitzkin’s book where Tim Ferris interviewed Josh.
    • This book is a collection of advice from a number of highly successful people in a number of industries.
    • John kind of wishes he had picked a Tim Ferris book and a Seth Godin book based on the discussion here.
  • A Game Plan for Life by John Wooden, Don Yaeger, and John Maxwell
    • Don Yaeger was on a team call at VMware and spoke about how he met Michael Jordan. As a result of this call, Nick ended up getting to pick a book by Yeager and decided on the one about John Wooden.
    • John calls out that John Wooden’s coaching methodology is heavily referenced in The Talent Code.

• Biographies

  • Nick really enjoys this genre and likes to learn about people’s lives whether a sports figure, thought leader, successful person in business / technology, etc.
    • He read Ed Catmull’s book Creativity, Inc. at the end of 2020 and loved it (highlighted as Nick’s favorite book of 2020). Ed was one of the founders of Pixar and had a dream to create a digitally animated film.
    • This led Nick to a book on Steve Jobs (who acquired Pixar) called Becoming Steve Jobs. It was a story of how Jobs grew and changed as a leader from the time when he founded Apple to leaving Apple and starting Next to acquiring Pixar, helping it become successful, selling it to Disney, and eventually returning to Apple to make it a success. Nick just finished this one (highly recommend).
      • You can learn from people’s mistakes / successes from reading their story.
    • George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones
      • Nick is a big Star Wars fan, and this also has a connection to Pixar.
    • The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger
      • Iger was responsible for the launch of Shanghai Disney and shares lessons learned in his career up to being the Disney CEO.
    • Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
      • This may have come from Nick watching The Imagineering Story on Disney Plus.
    • The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
      • This is supposed to be a historical account of the people who influenced the creation of the computer and the internet and seemed interesting.
    • After reading Andre Agassi’s biography last year, it seems natural to at some point read A Champion’s Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis.
    • Michael Jordan: The Life
      • Nick watched a lot of Bulls basketball as a kid.
    • Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre by Jeff Pearlman
      • This could have been a product of Audible social engineering.
    • Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly
      • This supposed to be some of the untold story of what Bruce Lee was like.
    • Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
      • This was a recommendation from Paul Green. Our interviews with Paul start in Episode 93.
    • Paul: A Biography by N.T. Wright

• Thinking

  • Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
    • This has been referenced in a number of different books Nick has read as has the next choice.
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnerman

• Creativity

  • Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley, David Kelley

• Exercise and Health

  • After reading Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, Nick is choosing The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage by Kelly McGonigal

• Parenting

  • Some of the authors here were cited in other parenting books Nick has read in the last year.
  • The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child by Daniel Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson
  • Are My Kids on Track?: The 12 Emotional, Social, and Spiritual Milestones Your Child Needs to Reach by Sissy Goff
  • Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting by John Gottman

• Emotional Intelligence

  • Nick has not read a book on this yet.
  • Emotional Intelligence Blueprint: Mastery Bible, Practical Guide on Becoming a Social Skills Chameleon, Able to Dominate Any Room with Charisma and Influencing Leadership Skills by Mark Page
  • Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership: The Secret to Building High-Performance Sales Teams by Colleen Stanley
    • The focus on leadership was interesting from the standpoint of understanding how leaders need to be emotionally intelligent.

• Technical

  • Nick did not have a specific technical read. More of the things he has read about haven’t been super focused on specific technologies.
  • Nick would love a technical recommendation on serverless technologies or software development processes from the greater community.

• Consumption

  • These will likely be Audible except for those which are extremely technical.

• We are aiming high. Not every book we read will be on these lists, and not every book on these lists will be something we read this year.

49:17 – Ideas on Places to Find Book Recommendations

• Friends, family, colleagues
  • Nick is interested in why people read specific books and why it was interesting to them.
  • Understanding people’s influences can help you understand them better.
• Follow LinkedIn Book Club, and tag your posts with #linkedinbookclub
  • John pulls up the link live and finds a potential good read immediately.
• Reddit
  • Reddit Book Club – all genres
  • Book Suggestions – a place to ask for recommendations but not genre specific
  • General Books Reddit
  • Nonfiction Book Club
  • The book club forums seemed to have weekly recommendations, asking for people to share their favorite book in the last year.
• Twitter is an option also
• John likes to read books that are cited as a source In a book he’s reading.
• Friends / family members have also made some very good book recommendations to John based on his interests.

55:33 – The Importance of Books

• If you are not reading books you may be missing out on some good content. Nick did not do this when he was in IT Operations due to a feeling of no spare time.
  • He never really read books separate and apart from articles, training, blog posts, etc.
• John likes things that challenge his mental models of the world / how things work or present a model he has not previously considered.
  • One of the things that is most enjoyable is having an assumption he has taken apart and analyzed.
  • His nonfiction reading has been science focused in the past as a result. The learning genre we’ve discussed is in this area.
• John has been a lifelong book worm and recently switched over to audio books (easier to consume while driving, etc.). He still loves reading both fiction and nonfiction.
  • Go back and listen to the episodes covering books that have shaped our thinking:
    • John – Bonus Episode 8
    • Nick – Bonus Episode 9
  • John is a little judgy about not reading.
• Nick was a decent reader as a kid but really never found something interesting until someone gave him the first Harry Potter book, which led him to really enjoy fantasy fiction.
• As we learn more, we will make connections across fiction and nonfiction works that can help us in other areas.
• John has a back burner project to create a list of books he read at each age which led him to be who he is today.
• Nick and John give some book recommendations for people who enjoyed Harry Potter.

Contact us if you need help on the journey.