Books Recommended by Sergey Sapelnyk

Noah Harari’s Sapiens is a book I enjoyed recently. As someone who reads a significant amount of business books, I feel like it’s easy to disproportionately read books that have a direct impact on your career/job/company etc. Reading Sapiens was interesting and different from what I typically read, and it was a thought-evoking book. Harari tries to explain all of humanity in 400 pages, and how humans have come to thrive throughout history. Although Harari has some disagreeable assumptions, it was overall a reading experience that expanded my perspective on the world.

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss has many practical tips that can generally improve your life or career. I particularly enjoy how he combines the two to provide a general ‘playbook’ on improvement. For example, I particularly enjoyed his interview with Marc Andreessen (Partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz), where he discussed his approach to decision making (‘Strong views, loosely held’). Another example is the numerous interviews Tim Ferriss has conducted about fitness, health, nutrition, etc. Plenty of great advice in his books/podcasts!

The most impactful book in recent memory is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It was tremendously eye-opening to realize that our daily lives consist of habits (whether positive, or negative). After reading this book, I began thinking of most of my professional (and partially personal) life as a series of habits that I’ve built over years. Given that your career will likely span hundreds of years, creating and reinforcing positive habits will make a drastic difference over time (much like the principle of ‘compounding’ in finance). This book kick-started a different thinking process for me, centered around optimization of the time I have in a day.

A non-business book that’s one of my favourites in the past year is Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Chernow distilled the impact that Alexander Hamilton has had on our world in a fascinating and intriguing manner. Hamilton is a thought-provoking individual, since he had such a tremendous impact on North America during his lifetime. It’s quite inspirational to learn about Alexander Hamilton’s effect on politics and economics, and the manner in which he made this impact.

PEAK by Anders Ericsson phenomenally explains how experts develop their skills. The author makes a profound claim: you can get significantly better at almost anything. This includes your job, a specific skill, or a hobby. From a career perspective, in most instances, the only barrier to personal development and success is effective effort. This book isn’t specific to a career, however it’s highly applicable to any career.

The idea of this book is a meaningful one, since it suggests that many goals are achievable and doable. The key differentiator between someone who achieves these goals or does not, is the amount of calculated effort that’s exerted on this task. I think this book will reinforce to young people that nearly any career path is feasible given that a focused effort is made. Aiming to consistently practice and work on your craft, is a very fundamental mindset to personal growth.