Exploring Insights from Books
I read one book every week and publish its notes, summaries, and ideas on this blog. Dive into a growing collection of reflections from a wide range of books.
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Welcome to the Blog!
This is where I write about the parts of software development that happen outside the code: running a software services business, working with clients, positioning & marketing yourself, hiring developers, and working with AI. It is about everything that happens around writing software, well.
If you're a developer who's also thinking about the business side of things, you'll probably enjoy it here. If Write Software, Well is about learning to write good software, the TypeAngle blog is about learning everything that makes it work in the real world.
Why We Sleep
Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day. I won't list the benefits of sleep. Instead, you need to know what a lack of sleep does to your body.
Unix: A History and a Memoir
Bell Labs, where Unix began, was a remarkable institution that produced many good ideas and capitalized on them. This book offers a fascinating history into how Unix was conceived, from an insider's perspective. Written by Brian Kernighan, author of The C Programming Language.
The Art of War
The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.
Deep Work
Our work culture's shift toward shallow work is exposing a massive economic and personal opportunity for the few who recognize the potential of resisting this trend and prioritizing depth.
Are Your Lights On?
We often try to come up with solutions before taking the time to define the problem being solved. Even experienced solvers, when subjected to social pressure, yield to this demand for haste. As a result, **many solutions are found, but not necessarily to the problem at hand.**
Rework
REWORK is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Entrepreneurs, small-business owners, and artists who don’t want to starve will all find valuable guidance in these pages.
Demand Side Sales
Demand-side selling is understanding what progress people want to make, and what they are willing to pay to make that progress. Our product or services are merely part of their solution.
Known
Being known is not the same as being famous. It’s not about having millions of fans and red carpet appearances. Being known is about having the proper authority, reputation, and audience to realize your potential and achieve your goals … whatever they might be.
Building a StoryBrand
Humans love good stories. This book is about effective marketing via storytelling. It explains the essential elements of a good story and relates them to your business, positioning your customers as heroes of their stories and your brand as a guide.
E-Myth Revisited
You can be the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician. All in one. You don't have to be an employee or have employees. You can be the one-person business that does and enjoys all three roles. You can enjoy being an entrepreneur, a manager, and a technician. If you plan accordingly, this can be a very satisfying and independent life, providing you with all the freedom and flexibility that you desire in your life.
This is Marketing
Your marketing has to resonate with the listener, to tell them something they've been waiting to hear, something they're open to believing. It has to invite them on a journey where a change might happen. Then, if you've opened all those door, it has to solve the problem, to deliver on the promise. Effective marketing understands the customers' world view and desires to connect with them.
The Secrets of Consulting
Consulting is the art of influencing people at their request. It's always been a mysterious profession, at least to me. This book takes you behind the scenes, explaining why consulting seems so irrational. It also provides practical actions to make yourself more successful as a consultant.
Write Useful Books
This book offers a different way to plan, write, test, and refine non-fiction books that are useful. Its central theme is this: Write a book so startlingly useful that readers can't stop talking about it. Write a book that can grow organically via reader recommendations for many years, without relying on either heavy marketing or a large author platform.
Brain Rules
Every brain is wired differently. Exercise improves brain health and cognition. We're designed to never stop learning and exploring. Memories are volatile. Sleep is connected to our ability to learn.
One Page Marketing Plan
Marketing is the strategy you use for getting your ideal target market to know you, like you, and trust you enough to become a customer. This book teaches the principles of effective marketing.
The Gift of Fear
Intuition is always right in at least two important ways: It is always in response to something, and it always has your best interest at heart. Your intuition sends you different signals: Fear, apprehension, suspicion, hesitation, doubt, gut feelings, hunches, and curiosity.
The Age of Absurdity
The book covers a broad range of topics from philosophy, spirituality, literature, psychology, and neuroscience for common ideas on fulfillment and happiness. It then investigates how easy or difficult it might be to apply such strategies in contemporary life, amplified by a culture of high expectations, conspicuous consumption, shallow partnerships, and perpetual youth.
A Wealth of Common Sense
This book offers a simple framework for making investment decisions. It doesn't delve into maths, complex formulas, or guilt you into saving money on lattes. Instead, it focuses on simplicity, discipline, patience, prioritizing the long term, and sticking to the fundamentals.
The Elements of Style
The classic text on writing. It offers practical, highly useful advice on improving your writing. Whether you're a professional writer or an amateur, this book will help you communicate more effectively and in a simple, concise way.
101 Things I Learned In Engineering School
This books presents the fundamental ideas from physics and engineering in an accessible way. I found that a lot of its lessons apply equally to life, business, relationships, and many other fields.
Jobs To Be Done
A job is essentially the progress that a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance. When we buy a product, we essentially hire something to get a job done. Deeply understand your customers' struggle for progress and then create the right solution and experiences to ensure you solve their jobs well, every time.
Show Your Work
If you work on something a little bit every single day, you end up with something that is massive. One little blog post is nothing on its own, but publish a thousand blog posts over a decade, and it turns into something special.
On Writing
Although I have never read any of Stephen King's novels, I have heard about the man enough to respect him as a writer. So when I found out that he wrote a book on writing, I immediately bought a copy and read it over the weekend.
Shape Up
This book is a guide to how 37signals (creators of [Basecamp](https://basecamp.com) and [HEY](https://hey.com)) does product development. It’s also a toolbox full of techniques that you can apply in your own way to your own process. Whether you’re a founder, CTO, product manager, designer, or developer, I'm sure you'll find valuable advice to manage your projects better.
Skin in the Game
These are my notes from Nassim Taleb's book "Skin in the Game". Heuristics for bull**t identification and filtering, that is, the difference between theory and practice, fake and true expertise, and academia and the real world.
Copywriting Secrets
Copywriting is a specific form of writing with the purpose of compelling the reader to take a specific action. No matter what you do, effective writing is a skill that everyone should learn. This book will teach you how to communicate clearly and write well so that people buy whatever it's that you're selling, be it a product, service, or a subscription.