I don’t know a lot of people in our business who feels completely at ease with how much they use their phone. After years and years of a tiny minority trying to get our attention about the dangers of phone addiction, it seems like the idea is finally getting a larger audience. I’m certainly in that camp. I use my phone too much, and I’d like to use it less.

This book gave me the motivation to try harder to actually do something about it. There weren’t any novel arguments or statistics I hadn’t heard before, but recounting them all in one place provided the final push to finally do something. This kicked off a thorough review of not just how much time I spend on my phone, but reviewing what that usage has done to both my capacity for concentration and my motivation to go deeper on topics. I didn’t like the conclusions I came to.

So I’ve started taking more sabbaticals from my phone and the addictive apps on it. I credit this book for finally getting that going.

A few years ago, Bill Stixrud and Ned Johnson started noticing the same problem from different angles: Even high-performing kids were coming to them acutely stressed and lacking motivation. Many complained they had no control over their lives. Some stumbled in high school or hit college and unraveled. Bill is a clinical neuropsychologist who helps kids gripped by anxiety or struggling to learn. Ned is a motivational coach who runs an elite tutoring service. Together they discovered that the best antidote to stress is to give kids more of a sense of control over their lives. But this doesn't mean giving up your authority as a parent. In this groundbreaking book they reveal how you can actively help your child to sculpt a brain that is resilient, and ready to take on new challenges.

The Self-Driven Child offers a combination of cutting-edge brain science, the latest discoveries in behavioral therapy, and case studies drawn from the thousands of kids and teens Bill and Ned have helped over the years to teach you how to set your child on the real road to success. As parents, we can only drive our kids so far. At some point, they will have to take the wheel and map out their own path. But there is a lot you can do before then to help them tackle the road ahead with resilience and imagination.

Enfin, un livre sur le leadership que je peux rapporter à ce livre regorge de stratégies pratiques et accessibles.

• Les Lettres Boron de Gary Halbert ;
• Secrets publicitaires de l'écrit par Joseph Sugerman;
• Kickass Writing Secrets of a Marketing Rebel par John Carlton.

Il est difficile de déterminer un moment précis car tous les livres m'ont aidé d'une certaine manière. Un exemple récent est probablement le livre The Internet of Money d'Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Il parle de Bitcoin et de crypto-monnaie. Après avoir lu ce livre, j'étais, putain c'est l'avenir et je dois commencer à investir dans cette technologie. N'a pas cessé depuis.

This book was recommended by Daymond John on page 234 of "Tools of Titans".

Le plus drôle, c'est que les livres qui ont eu le plus d'impact (comme le préféré de mon Verne) ne sont pas forcément les meilleurs livres, objectivement parlant. Ils étaient assez bons pour présenter une nouvelle vision du monde dont je n'étais pas conscient. Le timing était probablement plus important que leurs qualités littéraires intrinsèques. Ils ont « réussi » à tomber sur mes genoux au bon moment. Un tel livre était "Rich Dad Poor Dad" de Robert Kiyosaki, un livre médiocre selon mes standards d'aujourd'hui, mais profondément inspiré par ceux d'hier.

J'ai lu ce livre à une époque où Udemy se développait rapidement - au cours des 18 mois où nous sommes passés de 30 à 200 personnes. Il était utile de lire les défis, les inquiétudes et les triomphes d'Horowitz lorsqu'il abordait les mêmes types de problèmes à un stade de croissance similaire. Il y a tellement de grandes décisions que vous devez prendre là où il n'y a tout simplement pas de réponse claire, bonne ou mauvaise. Il y a beaucoup de zones grises. Vous recueillez des informations auprès de votre équipe, mais les décisions difficiles vous incombent. Ce livre m'a aidé à réaliser que même si j'avais besoin d'examiner attentivement et objectivement les commentaires, j'étais responsable de prendre une décision à la fin, même si elle était impopulaire.

This is next on my list of technical books to read! Refactoring is one of two programming books that I’ve read multiple times (the other is Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns), and I’m due for another reading. What perfect time then to dive into Martin Fowler’s long anticipated 2nd edition, now using JavaScript rather than Java for the code examples.

Like the stoic books, I read Refactoring and that Smalltalk book again and again not because I’m going to learn something new, per se, but because I want to be reminded about what I already know. And what better time to reread than just as we’re kicking off a new major project that needs a fresh architectural foundation.

Also, these two books just remind every time of how much I love the craft of programming. It’s not just having the programs, it’s not just solving problems, it’s simply using my hands and head to program that in and of itself is sublime.