Reviews and Comments

I was looking forward to the book, as I know the author had spent a lot of time working on it, and called it one of his most important works.

The book is broken into three sections, and each is filled with short to medium chapters, each which cover a particular topic.

Each chapter dives into modern people who embody the Stoic virtue of Justice. He'll describe what they did and why, and often times opine about it for a bit to connect the dots and bring it to you.

The third section is about doing the right thing for the world. The first chapter of this section is 30 pages on Mahatma Ghandi's life. In fact, this third section didn't feel like it fit too well with the rest of the book. He introduces Tammy Duckworth, the junior senator from Illinois who was injured in a helicopter crash during military service and saved by her crew, stating that she never wants her former crew to have a second thought of the time and risk they took to save her, thus wants to always do good. However, he only has two paragraphs on Duckworth.

Transitioning from this third section to the multi-page Afterword, you'll feel the flow difference.

I own all of his Stoic related books, and have read about half of them. Given his work and mentions during this online content, I'm a bit let down. It's a tougher topic, but a necessary topic for his series, of which this book is the 3rd of four.

The book has over 300 pages. It's a smaller form factor. I thought the font was small. I'll try reading it again in a year or two.

I watched Karen Duffy work as a MTV VJ when I was younger. I recently became aware of this book somehow, and I am really glad I did.

Each chapter is a letter to her son. Likely written over years, each takes on one or two themes and runs with it for several pages. Jostled with her past, her health state, and her philosophy, this is a fantastic read.

Has some laugh out loud moments, such as cleaning her son's sports clothes, to sitting behind Bruce Springsteen at church and he recognizing her, to some of the simply outlandish stories she included, such as Grandma's in Japan chasing wild monkeys.

She obviously has spent a lot of time on Stoicism. She brings it up in many places, and there are quotes from the ancient stoics. She knows her stuff and I'm impressed. Thus this book is really mostly about philosophy and living.

I enjoyed this book getting through it in a couple days. Folks who grew up in the 80's and 90's might like it. Mothers might like it. Stoicism students would probably like it too.

There's no secret sauce or inside tips here. It's general advice over several topics, with a focus on office / tech / business workers. You'll find her on one of the Google Youtube channels with shorts that promote their products/services, some of which I find are really helpful.

She defines Productivity as Vision + Execution. She laments that balance is the new busy. Guard your personal time, work on your flow, and don't plan for you, but for the future you.

She does reflect on her Google work, sometimes mentioning people by full name, other times first name or generally. It's very well written, an easy read, flows well, and each chapter has a summary of important points.

Compare with Make Time by Knapp and Zeratsky, Martin's book flows very well and is organized.

Even if you take 1-2 items from this book immediately, the effort to read it will pay off. This is the type of book you should re-read every couple years or when you feel friction in your life or flow.

She rarely pumps Google services in this book. As I mentioned earlier, she mentions people she's coached. Her advice will generally apply to almost everyone.

I heard the author on another podcast, and this book raised my interest. In it's form, it's really a workbook. She has 10 pages of general Stoicism background - enough of the basics to ground you, then 90 days of exercises to practice your journaling.

Each day is titled and has a quote from one of the ancient Stoics. She then offers her take in several sentences and then has two questions to ruminate on. Each day has at least one page of lines for notes.

I find the daily exercises to be very nice and not strenuous. However, this may not be for everyone. Her take on the quote and two questions should be sufficient for most if not all. Doing this well does require some rigor, and the ability to set aside 15-30 mins each day to write your entry.

I can't bear to deface a book, so I'm writing my thoughts to her questions in my other journal which I've sputtered with, but do want to get better.

This book would be good for Stoicism devotees who want to get a journaling habit on track. Paperback. I plan to revisit this and use these questions to stimulate thoughts beyond my completion of her program.

I do enjoy Cal Newports work and his approach. This book builds upon some of his recent essays and podcasts, and is specifically targeted at knowledge workers. It's harder to measure work of this bunch due to it's often intangelibity. He wants through his advice to deal with this by doing fewer things, working at a natural pace, and obsessing over quality.

The book touches each topic and brings some recent and current day examples to the dialog. He hints at a potential series of titles about working in the modern age. Between this, his recent two titles "Digital Minimalism", "A World Without Email" kind of set the stage for a natural progression, all starting from "Deep Work".

It's written in a very readable tone, and might take a focused reader 2-4 hours to read speed depending from cover to cover. If you've read his other books, this is the same form.

This would not be a book I'd normally pick up. It was on a list from a well respected digeratti several months before it came out as they had reviewed it. I was first on my library list to reserve it then, and when it finally arrived for me, there were 60 other people waiting on the book. I had not read any of the author's previous work, but did recognize his name.

That said, I really liked this book. What can one learn about communicating from reading versus actual practice and coaching? Hard to say. He lays out a case here of three different conversation types, provides and integrates several stories he discovered in his research (surgeon, NASA, Netflix, doctors, etc) and discusses each.

I took several pages of notes for my future referrals. I did appreciate the book, and took special note of the chapter on difficult discussions which I thought was very well done (extra notes taken here). I do think a bit too much time was spent on his Netflix topic.

All in all, I really enjoyed it and learned a bunch. I'll use my notes to cement these ideas in coming months. Now I have to go practice on my family ...

Written by two academics that bring their research and practice to light, this is a easy read. It's meant for leaders to realize and deal with problems and to encourage the right things.

The first part talks about how leaders customize processes and flows for their organization, and several principles that they should consider, with text and examples of each.

The next part discusses lessons leaders should follow. There are 5, and you've probably heard these before. As they pull them together and introduce the good and bad friction, you may see them in a different light.

The last section deals with what we all should know: organizations aren't perfect, and to embrace the mess. Several topics in this section encourage leaders to collect feedback from their teams and have a dialog. The rest are tips for leaders to do and act on as leaders. Essentially, communication and collaboration can go a long way.

This book would be good for: * leaders * managers * those who want to be managers * change agents, consultants and those who define process for their organizations

170 pages, with about 30 pages of notes

This book has 5 chapters. It starts out with an introduction and history to the problem and a quick self assessment. She walks you through how to identify it, how to change your habits, how to ensure you don't encourage the behavior, and how to fix culture at the office/job.

There are 2 longer assessments in the appendix. These might be good to chart your progress over time should this be a pertinent problem for you.

It's a very light and easy read. Each chapter has a short summary section to nail the key points.

This book would be helpful for: * leaders in any organization * change agents and consultants who help define processes for their organizations * managers * future managers * anyone feeling overworked * anyone who thinks that they are overworked * anyone who has friends who are overworked.