Reading Reflections: September and October

September and October were some of my weakest months as far as reading volume - but there were some excellent books! This was also the first set of books recommended by Claude as a specific curriculum for my development plan.

 

 

Thinking in Bets - Annie Duke

Why I read this: At this time I was planning on speaking to students at my alma mater about how to deal with uncertainty (I ended up giving a different talk instead) - This book was in support of that plan. It's difficult to imagine a profession that requires a greater understanding of uncertainty than being a professional gambler.

Reflection: This book offered such a unique and welcome perspective. The lesson that resonated with me most deeply was the need to isolate decisions from outcomes. Good decisions can have bad outcomes. Good outcomes can come from bad decisions. We would all be better off and more effective if we put our false sense of certainty to the side and embraced the fact that there are always variables we cannot control.

 

Critical Chain - Eliyahu Goldratt

Why I read this: This was a part of my curriculum. At this point I was still very focused on my pursuit of the PMP and my reading list reflected that. I wanted to consume as much wisdom about project management as I could find - and I knew from earlier reading that Goldratt's wisdom is hard to match.

Reflection: This book was everything I expected - it was "The Goal" rewritten so that Goldratt can show that the core driving principles that can optimize manufacturing can be repackaged and applied to optimize project management as well. Abandoning the 'cost world' for the 'throughput world' seems fantastical - but there is endless evidence to show that it is the right thing to do.

 

The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim

Why I read this: This was also a part of my curriculum and was the perfect follow-up to Critical Chain. If Critical Chain was the Project Management version of "The Goal" - then The Phoenix Project is the DevOps version. Given my current career and role - this was a perspective of these lessons that seemed valuable to add to my toolchest.

Reflection: Maybe it's just because this book is more applicable to my current work - but I found this book to be vastly more relatable than The Goal or Critical Chain. The issues that are faced through this narrative are issues that I'm painfully familiar with. Most importantly and most resonant was the importance of breaking HUMAN bottlenecks. If a team or organization becomes dependent on an operational hero - then that hero MUST be converted from an operational resource to a knowledge resource. This was knowledge that was deeply relevant to my work and immediately changed the way I think.

 

On Settling - Robert Goodin

Why I read this: This book was referenced in a book I'd read earlier this year and sounded interesting - it floated on my list for awhile and finally bubbled to the top. This book occupies the sort of iconoclastic cultural/philosophical thinking that I generally find fascinating and insightful.

Reflection: This would likely be better described as an essay than a book - but I found it extraordinarily insightful. Especially as a supplemental and antagonistic perspective to my entire thoughts on the need for constant growth and forward progress. Goodin writes about the value and the importance of settling. Not as a failure or a compromise - but as an opportunity to fortify our position and create a stronger foundation for us to strive in more important ways.

 

The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis

Why I read this: I have said previously here that C.S. Lewis was a formative voice in my youth - The Chronicles of Narnia represented much of the foundation of my feelings on religion and the theology that has consistently guided me in life. I picked this book (and later the other 6 in the series) primarily for the purpose of entertainment and nostalgia - but in truth there was an itch in my head that was looking to be scratched and I thought perhaps these books might do the trick.

Reflection: Of the 7 books - this one is tied for my favorite. It's difficult for me to articulate what it is about this book that resonates with me - perhaps it is the fact that despite the fact that this book is exceedingly simple; I seem to find something new every time I read it. Perhaps it is the fact that Lewis takes the complexity of the Christian creation story and puts it into a narrative that could pass as a bed time story. All that I am certain of is that this book makes me feel a particular warmth - and I hope that I can share that warmth with my daughter as she gets older.

 

 

 If you've been keeping track - this brings the total read books (at the end of October) to 60.

As of today (12/17) I am in progress on book #88.

Fair warning that the November and December posts will be long.