Takeaways

Book: Talking to Strangers
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

This book has a lot of stories that include a police stop gone wrong, pyramid scheme, Cuban spies, drinking, sexual assault, and torture. A bit hard to follow all the different stories and pick out a theme for the book. At least for me.

My biggest takeaway was finding the balance between trust and doubt. The book points out that most humans are wired to trust by default. We believe what others say and this trust can override nagging doubts.

Book: David and Goliath
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

The subtitle for the book is “Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” and as you would expect it has many examples of an underdog beating a giant. Often the underdogs have to use unconventional approaches as facing the giant head one would result in their defeat.

An item that almost became my takeaway is that sometimes the underdog is not really the underdog. Instead sometimes the underdog is more powerful then they appear. A good example of this is the title story of David and Goliath as examined by Gladwell. He argues that David was armed with a superior weapon, the sling. The sling with it’s much longer range and stopping power then the sword wielded by Goliath. Basically David brought a gun to a knife fight and unsurprisingly won.

Book: Sometimes you Win, Sometimes you Lean
Author: John C. Maxwell

My takeaway from this book had nothing to do with it’s premise: learning from your mistakes. Instead my takeaway had to do with writing. Specifically make sure your audience can relate to your example.

One of the first examples of making mistake in the book is when the author accidentally brings a loaded gun to the airport. You can read all the details here but in summary he was giving a handgun as a gift while on a trip. He flew home on a private plane where, after they landed, the pilot showed him how to load the gun (this part is only in the book). He put the gun in his briefcase and when he got home forgot about it. His next trip, on a public plane, he took the briefcase with the loaded gun to the airport. You can figure out what happened when he got to security.

Book: When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Author: Daniel H. Pink

Any book that promotes napping is a win for me. These days it’s easy for me to catch a couple ZZZs as I work from home. When I was an employee or working at a clients site I would sometimes have an “errand” to run in the afternoon. An “errand” that involved driving to secluded place, tilting the seat back, and inspecting the inside of my eyelids for 20 minutes.

Book: Moneyball: The Art Of Winning An Unfair Game
Author: Michael Lewis

Both the movie and book are great and truth be told I watched the movie well before reading the book. In both cases they do a great job of showing how statics can find undervalued baseball players. Lots of time spent focusing on what stats actually win baseball games such as the famous “he gets on base” quote.