My media recommendations for your situation
2023.12.04
1. My top recommendations
Power Weekend Six Rules for Success Speech
Getting Things Done
The revised psychology of human misjudgement
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most
Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary
2. You’re in your first technical management position
First, break all the rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
The coaching habit: Say Less, Ask More, & Change the Way you Lead Forever
How to measure anything
Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is
An elegant puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
The Effective Executive
Harvard Business Review
3. You’re interested in product development
Four steps to the epiphany
Game Thinking
The Design of Everyday Things
The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You
4. You need to understand non-technical people
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
How to Win Friends and Influence People
How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk
5. You’re a techie struggling in an intimate relationship with a non-technical person
Nonviolent Communication: Create your Life, your Relationships, and your World in Harmony with your Values
Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
How to Think More About Sex (The School of Life)
6. You don’t know why your life isn’t better
Thinking fast and slow
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business
Designing your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
Immunity to Change
Atomic Habits
The Happiness Hypothesis: Ten Ways to Find Happiness and Meaning in Life\
Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary
7. You’re reevaluating right, wrong and the inherited wisdom from your tribe
The Moral Landscape: How Science can Determine Human Values
Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis
The Righteous Mind
8. You’re interested in the science behind actually being healthier
How Doctors Think
The Calorie Myth
Lifespan
Thinking fast and slow
9. You want to be a better technical leader
Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most
The coaching habit: Say Less, Ask More, & Change the Way you Lead Forever
Immunity to Change
First break all the rules
The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
10. You’re finding yourself
Designing your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
The last lecture
Focusing
Beyond Order: 12 more rules for life
11. You’re graduating from engineering school
Designing your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Hunt
Power Weekend Six Rules for Success Speech
The last lecture
Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference
Outliers
12. You don’t understand why you’re not being promoted into technical leadership
Thanks for all the feedback
Give and Take by Grant
How to win friends and influence people by Carnegie
Principles by Ray Dalio
Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most
13. You’re an engineer that wants to be a better parent
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
The Gardner and the Carpenter
Parenting with Love and Logic by Cline
Hold onto your kids Neufeld
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Tough
Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary
14. You’re a technically oriented person who wants to be a better communicator
Getting Things Done
The elements of style by White and Strunk
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Karpman’s drama triangle
15. You’re a techie that wants to be smarter
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Hunt.
Thinking in bets by Duke.
Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It by Leslie.
Keep Sharp: Gupta
An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments by Almossawi
The Great Mental Models by Parrish
How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-based Medicine and Healthcare
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Mlodinow
A Mathematical Theory of Communication by Claude Shannon
16. You want to be more productive and effective engineer
Getting things done
Flow
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Just Enough Project Management: The Indispensable Four-step Process for Managing Any Project, Better, Faster, Cheaper
17. You’re an engineer trying to work yourself out of a bad mental space
Man’s search for meaning, Frankel
Focusing by Gendlin
The Happiness Hypothesis: Ten Ways to Find Happiness and Meaning in Life
The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse
Stumbling on Happiness
Strategies to reach your potential
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
The happiness advantage
18. Historical books still relevant to an engineer today
On the origins of species by Darwin
The Wealth of Nations by Smith
The Holy Bible New International Version by Biblia
The art of war
The Prince
19. You’re a technical person interested in the origins and essence of biological life
The selfish gene by Dawkins
On the Origin of Species by Darwin
What is life by Schroedinger
Sapiens by Harari
20. You’re an engineer interested in business
Good to Great by Collins
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations By: James Surowiecki
How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Collins
The effective executive Drucker
The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by: Micklethwait
21. You’re engineer interested in entrepreneurship
Four steps to the epiphany
Game Thinking
Innovation and Entrepreneurship By: Peter F. Drucker
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Goldratt
The great game of business
Nail it then scale it by Furr
Zero to one Peter Thiel
A case study of innovation by Morison