People are endlessly fascinating to me. We are very peculiar in how we approach the world. We believe things that don’t stand up to any kind of scrutiny. We react in unpredictable ways to events that would seem to require a logical or different approach. We lie to ourselves regularly (“I only ate one biscuit today!”) about things that matter and things that don’t. We sometimes extend ourselves for strangers and inadvertently neglect family members. We cry over cute advertisements, or movie scenes, but are indifferent to real suffering in other parts of the world. We are enigmas, wrapped in conundrums, wrapped in fashion. I believe we are also mostly good.

I’ve found that the recent, enforced lack of in-person interaction with people has reduced the number of connections I make in my thinking, as well as in my daily life. That shouldn’t have been a surprise as I’m still meeting with people every day, albeit virtually. But it was.

I’m also missing my daily dose of podcasts. My commute is between 2.5-3 hours every day, under non-Covid circumstances. While I don’t miss the commute (I’m enjoying having the extra time with my family, as I’ve previously written), I do miss the thought-provocation that comes from the various podcasts that keep me company when I’m driving.

I’ve realised over the last few years that I gain insights best through being exposed to multiple sources of information at the same time. It’s one of the reasons I tend to read several books simultaneously. It is only in the current situation that I’ve come to realise that other sources of input are also vital in helping me build composite pictures of subjects that interest me.

I’m now making a conscious effort to catch up with more people outside of work, although still virtually. I’m also trying to figure out when I can squeeze in a podcast – when I’m BBQing at the weekend, maybe? Either way, I’ve learned something new about my sources of inspiration. If you’re feeling blocked in some way, it may be worth figuring out the same for yourself.

After roughly a year of work, I’ve completed the book I was writing titled “Even Tougher Than Herding Cats”.

The book is focussed on management advice for newly minted managers and those taking on broader management and leadership roles.

I know people say “It’s been a labour of love!” and it really has. Not just because I enjoy writing but because my family love me enough to allow me to pursue this kind of time-consuming project when I’m already away from them a lot because of my day job.

The book is available to order through Amazon Kindle Publishing services, with a published date of January 16th, 2020.

If you enjoy reading the blog, and you would like to support the book, I would really appreciate you picking up a copy (or five!).

While I enjoy writing, it is challenging. The response to this book will determine whether I invest the time I borrowed from my family to write another.

Thanks for your support, and please let me know what you think.

Currently Reading/Re-reading

• • The Culture Map – Erin Meyer
  • Benjamin Franklin; An American Life  – Walter Isaacson
  • How to Measure Anything in Cybersecurity Risk – Douglas W Hubbard, Richard Seiersen
  • Scary Smart – Mo Gawdat
  • Noise – Daniel Kahneman, Oliver Sibry, et. al.
  • The Experience Machine – Andy Clark
  • The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk
  • Set Boundaries, Find Peace – Nedra Glover Tawwab
  • The Strategy Book – Max McKeown

• Strong Recommendations (YMMV)

• Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain – Lisa Feldman Barrett
• Outlive – Peter Attia
• The Infinite Game – Simon Sinek
• Good Leaders Ask Great Questions – John C. Maxwell
• Power Failure – The Rise and Fall of General Electric – William D. Cohan
• Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell
• The Wisdom of the Bullfrog – Admiral William McRaven
• Atomic Habits – James Clear
• David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell
• Courage is Calling – Ryan Holiday
• Discipline is Destiny – Ryan Holiday
• The Lazarus Heist – Geoff White
• And the Next Question Is… – Rachel Alexander, Julia Russell
• Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker
• Stillness is the Key – Ryan Holiday
• How Women Rise – Sally Helgesen & Marshall Goldsmith
• Behave – Robert Sapolsky
• Quiet Leadership – Dr. David Rock
• The Happiness Advantage – Shawn Achor
• Bad Blood -John Carreyou
• Shine: Using Brain Science to get the Best from your People – Ned Hallowell
• Your Brain at Work – David Rock
• 21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Noah Yuval Harari
• Talent Wins – Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, et. al.
• That Will Never Work – Marc Randolph
• Zero to One – Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
• Life 3.0 – Max Tegmark
• Principles – Ray Dalio
• The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
• The Undoing Project – Michael Lewis
• Measure what Matters – John Doerr
• The Obstacle Is The Way – Ryan Holiday
• Team of Teams – Stanley McChrystal
• Turn the Ship Around – David Marquet
• Make your Bed – William H. McRaven
• Influence  – The Psychology of Persuasion– Robert Cialdini
• Tribe of Mentors – Tim Ferriss
• Tools of Titans – Tim Ferriss
• The Phoenix Project – Gene Kim, Kevin Behr
• Anything You Want – Derek Sivers
• The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker
• Choose Yourself – James Altucher – needs patience but has some really good points in it
• Trust me, I’m Lying – Ryan Holiday
• Superfreakonomics – Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner
• Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
• Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
• Work Rules! – Laszlo Bock
• Nudge – Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein
• Bounce -Matthew Syed
• Storyworthy – Matthew Dicks
• The Culture Code  – Daniel Coyle
• The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis
• The Fourth Age – Byron Reese
• Outlaw Platoon – Sean Parnell
• Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari
• Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
• The Wisdom of Psychopaths – Kevin Dutton
• Black Box Thinking – Matthew Syed
• The Hard Thing about Hard Things – Ben Horowitz
• Getting to Yes  – Roger Fisher, William Ury
• The Ride of a Lifetime – Bob Iger
• The 4 Disciplines of Execution – Sean Covey, Chris Chesney, et. al.
• Money – Yuval Noah Harari
• Rebel Ideas– Matthew Syed
• Wilful Blindness – Margaret Heffernan
• The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
• Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales
• The Future Leader – Jacob Morgan
• Reinventing Organizations – Frederic Laloux
• Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
• The Dichotomy of Leadership – Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
• Gates of Fire – Steven Pressfield
• AI Superpowers – Kai Fu Lee
• The Bomber Mafia – Malcolm Gladwell
• Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
• Mindset – Carol Dweck (again)
• The Pathfinders – Will Iredale
• Indistractable – Nir Eyal
• Time to Think – Nancy Kline
• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy – Richard Rumelt
• Site Reliability Engineering – Betsy Beyer, Niall Richard Murphy, et. al.
• Misbehaving – Richard Thaler
• Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
• And the Next Question Is… – Rachel Alexander, Julia Russell
• Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek
• How to think like a Roman Emperor – Donald Robertson

Waiting to read (Kindle or print to-read list)

• Administrative Behavior – Herbert A Simon
• Everything – ok, not quite everything, but there’s a lot out there 🙂

Recently finished

• Leadership, Strategy and Tactics – Jocko Willink
• AI Superpowers – Kai Fu Lee
• The Unicorn Project – Gene Kim
• Principles – Ray Dalio
• The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
• Freakonomics – Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner
• Gravitas – Caroline Goyder
• Discipline Equals Freedom – Jocko Willink – this is a really interesting book – it’s like listening to the Jocko podcast in written form 🙂
• Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
• Start with Why  – Simon Sinek
• Radical Focus – Christina Wodtke
• Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday
• CyberWars – Charles Arthur
• Trust me, I’m Lying – Ryan Holiday
• Superfreakonomics – Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner
• Fooled by Randomness – Nassim Taleb
• Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
• Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
• Work Rules! – Laszlo Bock
• Nudge – Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein
• Bounce -Matthew Syed
• Tribal Leadership – Dave Logan, et. al.
• Storyworthy – Matthew Dicks
• Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
• The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis
• The Innovators Dilemma – Clayton Christensen
• Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins
• The Fourth Age – Byron Reese
• Leaders: Myth and Reality – Gen. Stanley McChrystal
• Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari
• Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
• Machines like me (fiction) – Ian McEwan
• The Wisdom of Psychopaths – Kevin Dutton
• Black Box Thinking – Matthew Syed
• The Hard Thing about Hard Things – Ben Horowitz
• Zero to One – Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
• That Will Never Work – Marc Randolph
• Getting to Yes  – Roger Fisher, William Ury
• The Ride of a Lifetime – Bob Iger
• Call Sign Chaos – Jim Mattis
• How The Mind Works – Steven Pinker
• Why I’m no longer Talking to White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain
• Option B – Adam Grant, Sheryl Sandberg
• Ahead in the Cloud – Stephen Orban
• Discipline Equals Freedom (updated) – Jocko Willink
• No Time Like the Future – Michael J. Fox
• Barbarians at the Gate – Bryan Burrough, John Helya
• Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales
• Think Again – Adam Grant
• How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
• Mindset – Carol Dweck (again)
• Competing in the Age of AI – Marco Iansiti, Karim Lakhani
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
• Misbehaving – Richard Thaler
• Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office – Lois P. Frankel
• Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
• Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit – Mary & Tom Poppendieck
• Practical Cloud Security – Chris Dotson
• Peak – Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool
• The Dream Machine – M. Mitchell Waldrop
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