Book & Podcast Recommendations
Learn a new perspective
When I worked at Board & Vellum and lived in Bremerton, WA, I had a 4 hour commute. That was 2 hours each way, all on public transportation. It was an hour ferry commute, followed by walking, light rail and more walking. My walking totaled just under 3 miles a day. When commuting I could not really work or do much of anything. I didn’t want to just sit there, so I started listening to audiobooks and different podcast.
I quickly became hooked and learned a crazy amount about everything. Mostly I learned different perspectives folks had on leadership, how they organized teams, dealt with feedback, negotiations, where good ideas come from, and so on. It really opened up my eyes into new ways of thinking. I didn’t always agree with what folks were talking about, but I often found that authors were putting words to concepts and ideas we were trying to figure out in our own day to day. I feel a lot of these ideas made me a better person, listener, negotiator, collaborator, and thinker. I got very interested in sociology and how to find ways to get groups to work together. I also really enjoyed learning about leadership and different approaches folks were taking. There was also a book on negotiation that I really fell in love with. It’s crazy how much you negotiate day to day if you really think about it.
Audiobooks
Stillness is the Key - Ryan Holiday
This was a great book on the importance of slowing down. It touches on ideas from Stoic and Buddhist Philosophy.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - David Epstein
Wow what a great book. It talks about the power of being exposed to a lot of different things. It helps with creativity and problem solving. We need specialist to find the data, but we need generalist to help see how it all comes together.
Originals - Adam Grant
This is one of my favorites. It talks about how original folks think and explores where original ideas come from. This is a very inspirational book on how we all can improve what we are doing now to move things forward and not be stuck doing the same thing as we always have.
The Hidden Life of Trees: What they feel, how they communicate - Peter Wohlleben
This is a great book about trees. It is crazy what folks have been learning about trees. You will be a tree huger after reading this book, if you are not already one.
Radical Candor - Kim Scott
This is a great book on the power of feedback. It also has great strategies for keeping folks happy at work.
Give and Take - Adam Grant
This book talks about different types of people. People who help and are givers and people who take. It talks about if you give more than you get, you will create long lasting relationships and have a longer run of success in business.
Small Giants - Bo Burlingham
I love small companies that kick ass. This book talks about how you don’t need to be a billion person company to be considered successful.
Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek
This book looks at what leadership is really all about. It’s taking care of the people you are responsible for and making sure they are happy, healthy and safe.
Let My People Go Surfing - Yvon Chouinard
This book talks about how you can make work your passion. The goal is to find the connection between what you do at work and your values as a person.
Turn This Ship Around - David Marquet
This book talks about the power of a good leader. It’s about a US submarine commander that took a boat with the worst ratings to the highest in naval history, by empowering every individual on the sub.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
This books taught me the importance of understanding different perspectives and the sociology of people. It was a fascinating read and I learned a lot from this book.
The Dyslexic Advantage - Brock Eide &Fernette Eide
I’m dyslexic myself so this book really hit home for me and explained how my brain works compared to other folks. This book showed me the advantage I have over others because of being dyslexic. It was very empowering for me.
Start with Why - Simon Sinek
This is a great book for understanding the importance of knowing why you do what you do. Knowing why can help you make easy decisions to complicated problems.
Talking to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell
This is a great book about how we think we know how to read people, but we are often get it wrong. Why is that?
The Infinite Game - Simon Sinek
This book is about the long game of business. Goals often come and go, but how do you create a business that can outlast the short term goals and create a successful business with no defined endpoint?
Measuring Success: A Practical Guide to KPIs - Greg Brisendine
This is a great book on measuring performance for things other than just profit and how to measure the things that actually matter to achieve success .
Podcast
Work Life - Adam Grant
This is a great podcast exploring many of the topics I ponder from day to day about business. It explores pros and cons of different strategies and is backed by research and data.
Stuff you Should Know - Josh & Chuck
This is just a fun podcast that covers a variety of topics. It’s always fun to learn something new.
The BS* + Beer Show
This is a weekly panel discussion on building science. Its a lot of fun to watch live. Cool folks with great ideas.
Global Passive House Happy Hour
This is a zoom meeting with discussions and presentations, on building science and the architecture/ building community. Its share some great ideas.
Design Goggles - Charles Fadem & Rachel Scott
This is the podcast that my old co-workers created. It covers different topics and talks about them through a designer’s perspective. I have been honored to be interviewed on this podcast a couple of time. Once about collaboration and another time on sustainable design.