Welcome to Episode 1 of That Book Podcast!
Now let’s get to the books. Here’s what we read this past week:
- Think Again by Adam Grant
- I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
- The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality by Mike Sielski
- An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe
- Howdunit by The Detective Club
- Holier Than Thou by Jackie Hill Perry
- The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
And here’s the book recap of the week: Atomic Habits by James Clear
Think Again – Adam Grant
This book’s about reevaluating everything you think to avoid pitfalls and blind spots
Andrew’s only read the prologue and 1 chapter in, but it’s awesome so far.
The Prologue- has a cool example about testing and changing answers. People who revise answers on tests tend to change them from wrong to right. (totally the opposite of what I’ve been told)
Great quotes from the Prologue. (And it’s just the Prologue, people!):
Adam Grant, Think Again
“It’s not so much changing your answer that improves your score as considering whether you should change it.”
“We laugh at people who still use Windows 95 yet still cling to opinions that we formed in 1995”
Adam Grant, Think Again
Also- FROGS WON’T SIT IN GRADUALLY HEATING WATER LIKE WE WERE ALWAYS TOLD
That’s it. That’s the Prologue.
Chapter 1- “As we think and talk, we often slip into the mindsets of three different professions: preachers, prosecutors, and politicians.”
He says that we preach when we’re right, prosecute others when they’re wrong, and politick to gather support around a view. None of those evaluate whether or not the view is accurate.
The inventor and founder of BlackBerry didn’t pivot as the world was changing, despite many of his employees recommending innovations that eventually caught on.
The faster you are at recognizing patterns, the harder it is for you to update your beliefs.
To rethink, start with humility rather than pride.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit Sethi
This book is a 6-week program to help you overhaul your personal finances. Which sounds ambitious, but he spells it out really well. Also, I (Julianne) don’t have to really *do* any of it because Andrew already did it!
One takeaway I’ve gotten while reading this book has to do with what he calls a Conscious Spending Plan– he talks a lot about spending extravagantly on what you love and cutting costs mercilessly on the things you don’t.
We’ve listened to his podcasts and I’m on his email list so I’ve seen/heard this many times, but reading the book made me think about it a little more seriously. I’m excited to look through how we’re spending our money together and see how that aligns with our priorities!
I also really love looking at how he breaks things down into doable action steps. This is something I’ve been thinking about a bit at work recently, so I’m trying to take all the notes I can.
His writing style is great. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve laughed out loud while reading a PERSONAL FINANCE book!
The Rise – Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality – Mike Sielski
What book’s about – Kobe Bryant in growing up, especially his high school years
Kobe was able to watch the mistakes that his dad made that caused him to leave the NBA and make those his greatest strengths.
He was polarizing and very rough around the edges as a youngster but became incredibly beloved by the time he died. I (Andrew) am excited to learn a bit more about what set the groundwork for that transformation.
An Atlas of Extinct Countries – Gideon Defoe
This book is about countries that have ceased to exist.
Or, to quote the back cover:
“Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous that they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. This is an atlas of forty-eight nations that fell off the map. Their causes of death range from improbable (jerky prices) to the unfortunate (too evil) to the downright bizarre (the flip of a coin). The polite way of writing an obituary is: dwell on the good bits, gloss over the embarrassing stuff. This book refuses to do so, because these dead nations are so embarrassing that it’s impossible to skip the embarrassing stuff.”
-The back cover of An Atlas of Extinct Countries
Honestly I (Julianne) am just here for the ride! It’s hilarious and fun and I might eventually learn something.
I’m not very far in, but one of my favorite parts so far is the little summaries he does at the beginning of each country. It includes things like the “cause of death” (for example: Bavaria’s is described as “bad genes and Bismark”) and a three-word description of where it’s located. This is a system that I had no idea existed! It’s called what3words.
Howdunit – The Detective Club
This book is a masterclass in crime writing (that is the subtitle after all)
I (Andrew) was feeling the desire to read a book like Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz (good book. Read it) when Julianne found this book on the shelf of one of our favorite bookstores.
I’m just so fascinated by the Detective Club itself. It’s an informal group founded 1930, with G.K. Chesterton and Agatha Christie residing as presidents at different points.
At this point, I’ve read about how valuable detective novels are to humanity and that’s about it. 😂
Holier Than Thou – Jackie Hill Perry
This is a beautifully written (and deep) exploration of the holiness of God and what that means.
She’s a spoken-word poet and you can tell because she uses VIVID language while explaining Biblical concepts.
I (Julianne) am on Chapter 4, but one of the things that has stood out to me the most is her argument early in the book about how God can’t be good without also being holy. I’d never thought about it in those terms, but when you examine what they mean it makes SO MUCH sense.
The Coaching Habit – Michael Bungay Stanier
What this book’s about – giving less advice and listening more to help others grow
“Only 23% of people being coached… Thought that the coaching had a significant impact on their performance or job satisfaction.”
Michael Bungay Stanier, The Coaching Habit
Why? Because we give too much advice. He starts by talking about habits, which makes sense since it’s called the Coaching Habit.
Then he outlines the 7 questions you need to coach someone with masterclasses in between to give extra tips on how to approach coaching conversations:
“What’s on your mind?” “And what else?” “What’s the real challenge here for you?”
A lot of pages are just quotes, but that is actually really visually engaging and helps you know what is important.
Book Recap: Atomic Habits – James Clear
If you wanted a peek at the slides, here they are! (I recommend looking at them full-screen for best readability).