2018 Reading List and Look Back

Jan 1, 2019

Changes in 2018

Last year I left Penguin Random House in April to work at Noom. I’m normally a utility reader and don’t do much reading for entertainment. During my entire 2.5 years at Penguin Random House, I think read at most a handful of books.

The culture at Noom really embraces reading and encourages it, so this year I got some recommendations from my colleagues and began reading. This list is all business-y books that I have annotated with some thoughts. For the most part, they were all useful in their own way and once internalized, have helped me be more thoughtful and analytical.

Patrick’s 2018 Reading List

  • The Goal - Eliyahu M. Goldratt

  • The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford

    The Phoenix Project is based on The Goal and references it often. Both weren’t particularly well written but they do give an interesting look at how manufacturing principals can be applied to modern office style work. An interesting way to think about how to structure teams and organize work.

  • The High Growth Handbook - Elad Gil

    Quite a comprehensive look into what it takes to build and grow startups. A lot of good information for startup newbies like me. I wasn’t too into the interviews but I can see myself going back and re-reading this every so often.

  • Powerful - Patty McCord *Recommended

    A look into how Netflix does things. I am still reading it but it’s quite a good read. Structured more as a guide for how to run a company the Netflix way than a tell all.

  • The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg *Recommended

    Interesting book on the psychology of habits, how to change them and how to re-wire our reward mechanisms. Not sure if I’ll try to apply any of the concepts to myself but it’s good information to internalize.

  • Clean Code - Robert C. Martin *Recommended

    The only software development book I read this year. Classic advice for writing maintainable code.

  • ReWork - Jason Fried and David Hansson

    A compilation of what seem like blog posts. A lot of advice on various things. I wasn’t too impressed by it, but it’s a quick read.