Happy New Year, readers! Welcome to 2024! I always love this time of year, when things slow down and there is time to reflect. In 2023, I accomplished one of my most difficult life goals yet — I published a book of my own! I also did a lot of reading. On this blog, I only reviewed a small fraction of what I read last year, so I thought I’d make a list of my favorite books in case you’re looking for things to read in 2024.
2023 Favorite Books
Quit Like a Millionaire
Quit Like a Millionaire: No Gimmicks, Luck, or Trust Fund Required by Kristy Shen & Bryce Leung was probably the best book I read this year. It almost sounds gimmicky, but in my opinion, it’s one of the best books from the financial independence movement ever. Kristy & Bryce saved up a bunch of money as young engineers and then quit their jobs in their early 30’s to travel the world. For those of you who know me well, you’ll know that’s pretty much what I’ve always wanted to do, just never had the guts to do it. In this book, they go over the financial side of getting to a place where you feel comfortable quitting your full-time job. They also dive into a whole host of other important information like how to find expat insurance and what to do if you have kids. If you’re not sure what financial independence is, I recommend checking out Choose FI. They’ve got a financial independence 101 course that’s free and may just change the way you think about living life.
One side note about this book. I contacted Kristy afterwards to tell her how much I appreciated the book and she wrote back. It was pretty exciting to hear from her and I appreciated that she took the time to respond between traveling and getting ready to have her first baby.
Caste
In the category of books that will never let me unsee the world the way the author sees it, enter Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. This is the most beautifully-written exposé of our society you will ever find. The United States has a caste system, just like India and the Nazis had. Black Americans are on the bottom, white men are on top. If you’re not sure you agree, pick-up the book and give it a read. Wilkerson hits her readers over the head with mounds of evidence to support this statement. Why did Trump, a belligerent racist rapist, get elected? Because Obama had just been President, flipping the caste system on its head and freaking out millions of unconsciously (and consciously) racist Americans hoping to flip the caste system back. Amazingly important book and everyone should read it.
The Catalyst
I picked up this book hoping to get a few pointers on being more influential in the product management sphere, and ended up learning a heck of a lot about sales. I already reviewed The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind by Jonah Berger and left a bunch of notes for you on it here. Worth checking out if you want some help convincing your peers to see things your way.
Rest
I’ve always told my team that they should take their nights and weekends seriously (i.e. don’t work) because you are far more productive when you’ve had your rest. This book, Rest: Why You Get More Work Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, was packed with the science behind why we not only need equal parts rest and work, but how much more productive we can be when we take rest seriously. I wrote more about the book here. If you’re curious about it or you’re the kind of manager that’s always been a bit skeptical about employees who don’t work overtime all the time, this book may be for you.
Dollars and Sense
I love books on behavioral science. Dollars & Sense: How We Misthink Money & How to Spend Smarter by Dan Ariely & Jeff Kreisler did not disappoint. It’s all about how we think about money and how our human tendencies aren’t doing us any favors when it comes to spending it. Did you know we tend to spend more when we use a credit card (because they don’t feel like “real money”)? Or no matter how rich we are, we always compare ourselves to our peers. So, hanging out with people who are richer than us makes us feel poor, even if we’re making millions every year. Or if you want to feel better about your spending, pay for the thing or experience ahead of time because then we experience the pain of buying early and can enjoy the thing more when we get it (like a pre-paid all-inclusive resort vacation)! Time and time again this book gave me interesting tips about how we all view money, how to save more, and how to spend better.
The Expectation Effect
This one floored me. In The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World by David Robson, we learn that the placebo effect is not only very, very real, but our expectations really do change our outcomes. It’s not magic, it’s science. Read my summary on this book here.
Outlive
I’d heard about this book again and again on some of my favorite podcasts and finally picked it up. In it, Dr. Peter Attia outlines nearly everything we know about how to live a long and healthy life in this very thorough work, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity. My main takeaways were that we need to eat less and that there are four types of exercise we should do on a regular basis: weight training, flexibility training, HIIT, and zone 2 cardio. Since reading this book, I’ve added quite a bit of yoga and weight training to my weekly routine and it sure does make me feel better. The book is so long that perhaps you’ll be interested in reading a summary of it first. This one is decent.
The Silo Series
OK, I don’t read only non-fiction (just mostly)! I found the Silo Series after watching Season 1 of Silo on Apple TV. The premise is that the world was destroyed, but a group of humans live underground in an over 100-story silo. If you do something terrible, you’ll be sent outside to where the atmosphere is still poisoned…or is it? There are three books in the series: Wool, Shift, and Dust all by Huge Howey. Super fun reads all of them.
Upstream
Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen is by one of my favorite authors: Dan Heath. This book is all about moving your problem-solving earlier to find the root cause of issues. Then, stopping undesirable outcomes before they happen. As I’ve come to expect from both of the Heath brothers, the book is filled with facts and stories of people successfully moving upstream. Find out a bit more about the book in my book review from earlier this year.
2024
So that’s 2023. What am I doing in 2024? I’m teaching a spring semester of the Capstone course, still working at Singlewire, and have a lot of travel planned! My first book this year was about breathing: Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. Spoiler alert! We really are all probably breathing wrong.
If you see something you like in this post, go find out if your library or local bookstore carries it. If you want to find out what I’m reading now, please follow me on GoodReads. Happy New Year!