Michael

The main takeaway for me from this book is that it's difficult for competitors to beat your trailblazing product/service if your company exists of a full-fledged Innovation Stack that on its individual merits may be easy to copy, but as a whole is much more difficult to replicate. Other than that, nothing new under the sun with this book. It could've easily fitted in a well-penned essay.

Loved it! Cixin Liu is spectacularly great at immersing you in his imaginary worlds (if you haven't read the Three Body Problem trilogy, go do that now). Although this book is short and doesn't develop the protagonists, it should be seen as a parable - a warning to mankind to preserve our precious blue pearl.

Perhaps it's because I've been an entrepreneur for a while now, but I uncovered nothing new in this book. I started listening to it, because it came highly recommended by Ray Dalio, who lauded the author, Patrick Bet-David as “one of the most exciting thinkers I've had a chance to converse with”. The journey of the author is undoubtedly admirable and inspiring, but it was not as paradigm shifting as anticipated.

What an underrated topic is breathing. So much to learn, so much to apply from this book. Started putting tape on my lips while sleeping to prevent mouth breathing. Applied nose breathing and hypoventilation while running to increase blood CO2. Will revisit in due course to make sure I implement more!

While more an aggregation of other resources for an effective CEO, it's a great reminder of what to pay attention to when jumping out of that startup plane without a parachute

Valuable practical lessons in how to combat distractions. I have implemented a few, like reorganizing my phone's home screen and turning down the number of notifications I get even more.

This book is a captivating ride (pun intended). Very hard to put down.

Mike Isaac was ostensibly the right person to write this book as he had been reporting on Uber for all of its years since inception. His 200+ sources and their inside scoops make the story very credible. Only by stringing together all of the public fallouts created by Uber & Kalanick himself, you start to understand how the sh*tshow year of 2017 was an unavoidable outcome of the “super pumped” bro culture that Uber perpetuated (except for - of course - Kalanick sadly losing his mom in a tragic accident).

What I like is that Isaac doesn't paint Kalanick as a con artist (which he isn't). Kalanick is just the ebullient and charismatic entrepreneur who hasn't been kept in check by his immediate environment and through Uber's corporate governance. The question is though whether without Kalanick flouting the rules we would've still been still stuck with the notoriously inefficient and customer-unfriendly taxi industry.

The title of the book is an apt summary of the lessons presented. Horowitz uses non-conventional leadership case studies to bring home that your actions define your culture, not the corporate values in a document that lives somewhere in the cloud. Recommended read for founders/executives.

Looking for the only parenting book you'll ever need? Seek no further! You will want to read “The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read”.

As a newfound dad of a 3-month old I am keen to improve on child rearing having reflected on my own formative years. Nevertheless, I was at a loss for a framework to compare mine with my child's.

Philippa Perry explains in a magnificent way - yet without fluff - that it all comes down to you understanding and empathizing with the feelings of your offspring. Especially at a younger age, when they aren't able to verbalize themselves well and logical reasoning is underdeveloped, it is critical for a caregiver to recognize and help name out loud any feelings (good or bad) the child may have to build rapport.

Similarly, Perry recommends to not be afraid to express your own feelings in your parent-child relationship. There's nothing more frustrating for your little one to be told “No” if a boundary has been put up that has nothing to do with them but implicitly protects the parent from their own hurt. Don't “define” your teenager for being “too young to go out” when in fact you don't feel at ease with them coming back home too late.

I won't hold you any longer now! Go read the book yourself. Your future adult kid will thank you.

Would you like to place a wake-up call to a fellow adult of their boastful behavior? Recommend them this book! Yertle the Turtle and its other stories ridicule megalomania, avarice, and bragging. A friendly reminder to not be evil.

While Goggins does not always seem to plan everything and think things through in advance, his dedication and brute force is admirable and immensely inspirational. Don't let your pain restrict your mind from dreaming and attaining the unimaginable!

After reading this book, you'll hopefully understand better that you have to live your own life in order to be content. Through an interesting scholar-teacher dialogue narrative in the book, the writers relay the teachings of German philosopher, Adler.

Adler posited that you shouldn't compare yourself to others (only to yourself) and he claimed even more extremely that you should only practice self-care (forget what others think), because by doing so you'll be the best version of yourself to serve others and achieve that elusive state of happiness.

Being in the Fintech industry, this book has been proper food for thought as to how banks should be repositioning themselves for the future. “Banking” will disappear and any activity they engage in should be highly experiential (instead of product focused).

That being said, the book is repetitive (it's pretty clear by now Brett King doesn't deem branches are a forward-thinking strategy) and could've been written in fewer words. So I give it 4.5 stars, rounding up to 5.

Such a well-researched book by John Carreyrou and incredible how 20% in, you're already wondering how this company has ever made it so far with lies and deceit. Especially pertinent, given that the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes just started. Riveting read!

In typical Jason Calacanis style - slightly arrogant, yet genuine - he lays out very clearly how to go about putting your first chips on the poker table: How to start betting on startups as an angel investor.

I found it insightful as a founder/operator myself to gain a better perspective of how difficult the job is of an angel investor - what it is they are looking for in a 100x startup and after investing, how to protect their interests.

A direct takeaway I have is to start keeping a list of startups around me and value / qualify them on their potential. Then in a year's time or so, I check back in and evaluate the accuracy of my business antennae.

Fantastic book! It took me 2 months more to finish than the prescribed regime of 1 page a day, but it was all worth it. I love how Ryan Holiday for every entry reinterprets the Stoics by explaining them through contemporary examples and anecdotes. I'll start rereading the book again now to absorb these lifelong lessons even more!

The message that Taleb is driving home, is clear and understood: Gaussian bell curves need to be deleted from public memory - Black Swan events, that are highly improbable, yet enormously impactful don't follow projections using standard deviations. While this in itself is definitely news to me, the book is windy, lengthy, and sometimes “hautain” (haughty, in reference to Taleb's beloved French). Glad I read it but I didn't always fully enjoy it.

This book definitely deserves 5 stars for its new insights and candid storytelling, but I have mixed feelings.

It's been eye-opening in getting a better understanding of things like a VC's perspective or keeping focus while growing (instead of diversifying too much). However, the honesty of Rand can be very intentionally painful and makes you wonder if he would really learn from his mistakes, even though he wrote a whole book about his learnings.

What can I say... I bought this book 1.5 years ago and have digested it bit by bit. Day by day. Taken notes profusely. Yet, I still haven't fully fathomed the depth of the dialectics of phenomenology. Will have to read again in 10 years...

Wake up call that I - being from the Netherlands - may want to re-evaluate my business conduct in Southeast Asia

Not a book, but an impressive collection of provoking insights and mental models by an unorthodox thinker, Balaji Srinivasan. Very similar to Naval Ravikant's Almanack by the same author (i.e. editor), Eric Jorgenson. Balaji places a lot of value on maths and hence reasoning his way through problems and how he views the world.

Once I found out there was another biography of Steve Jobs (yet “unauthorized”), I quickly got my hands on an audio copy. “Becoming” is more nuanced in describing Jobs' temper and irate behavior (and its softening over time) than Walter Isaacson's book. A well told story, especially since Jobs' genius and impact on Apple never bores.

Quite repetitive and boring at times. But one great insight: Create your own (digital) flashcards with images you search for yourself. That will significantly aid in memorizing new words.

While the book by the late John Bogle is overly verbose and uses your typical fuzzy financial lingo, it really imprinted upon me how important the compounding effect is of not just your investments' returns, but especially the costs. Low-cost index funds (whether mutual funds or ETFs) bought and kept for long time horizons outcompete >90% of all actively managed funds.

The book is a collection of quotes from interviews, speeches, and writings, but reads cohesively and is chockful of great lines from an extraordinary leader. Impressive to read Lee Kuan Yew's discerning views on the world around him and the simple approach to bringing Singapore from swamps to skyscrapers. Living here myself, you can still see his vision imbued in Singapore's fabric.