Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Author: Daniel H. Pink

Genre: Self help, personal development

Rating: 3/5

Verdict: Not many new insights, but a good refresher on the intrinsic motivation mindset. 

This was a quick and easy read. It is pretty concise, the first two chapters were slightly longwinded but after that the author gets straight to the point. What drives some people to perform without external rewards and how those external rewards can in fact be detrimental?

The chapters on intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation was very interesting to read. To me personally, this has always been a very intriguing question and topic of discussion. On many occasions, I have found myself in the intrinsic motivated category when I do a task, for example, I can sit for hours in one place and paint and many a times I have wondered what is it that motivates me to sustain that long? The author explains that intrinsic drive comes from the satisfaction obtained from doing the task itself rather than the result from it. People with intrinsic drive enjoy the process as much as if not more than the results. 

It was also very interesting to read about Type X and Type I people and how the different characteristics can help distinguish them. Autonomy, Purpose and Mastery are the key factors in attaining the intrinsic drive and satisfaction. 

For people who have read the books of Carol Dweck, Peter Drucker and the likes, this book would be a repeat. Overall, a good and short read. 

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

 Author: Adam Grant

Genre: Self help, personal development

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: Many parts felt very repetitive, with the same message conveyed in different chapters. 

I follow Grant on social media and I like his bite sized quotes. I started reading this book in the library one day and finished it up with an audio book. All I can remember after reading the book is Don't be afraid to re-think what you already know. This message was conveyed in multiple ways and perspectives throughout the book. It felt very repetitive after a point and there wasn't anything new or substantial to learn. 

Some things like productive disagreement and being comfortable with the discomfort of disagreement was a good reinforcement. I wasn't so sure about the part on Grit and how it is ok to turn back sometimes rather than prolonging. At times, the author's words felt conflicting between two chapters. 

Overall the book felt very repetitive and 80% of the content is the same single message - Re-think. If you can find a summary of the key messages from the book, that is enough. You can give reading the whole book a pass.

எண்ணங்கள்

 Author: M.S Udayamurthy

Genre: Self Help, Thoughts

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: An inspirational book for every day life and dealing with its challenges.

My father is a big fan of Dr. M.S Udayamurthy and his writings. We had 2 books at my home when I was growing up and I have heard my father talk about Udayamurthy a lot. When I watched the tamil movie "Unnal mudiyum thambi" and its hero is named after this author, I became more interested in reading his books. Unnal Mudiyum thambi is one of my all time favorite tamil movies. Most of Udayamurthy's books are about self improvement and character/personality development. This book provides a good insight into how our thoughts shape and affect our lives. The power of positive thinking, visualizing victories, how to remove fears from our minds and increase self confidence are all things we deal with on a day to day basis and it is a good reinforcement of "what we think we become". A very short one written in simple Tamil which makes it a quick read. 

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Author: Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia

Genre: Self-Help, Japan, Health, Happiness

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: Do me a favor and read this. A very uplifting and calming book with simple language.

Don't you feel an instant calm and happiness when you see the cover of this book? Just staring at the cover relaxes you and puts you in a great mood. The book lives up to the much hyped and talked about "Ikigai". I was holding off on reading this book after bring burnt by reading about - The Hygge. I thought what if this is yet another latest fad which doesn't offer any meaningful insights into the true concept of Ikigai and boy was I wrong! Happy to have been wrong and read this book.

The book talks about the world's centenarians and in particular about the lifestyle and habits of the people of Okinawa - one of the blue zones, where people live the longest and the healthiest. Ikigai is about finding your purpose in life, what makes you get out of bed everyday. It is different for different people but the underlying idea is how to be content and happy with yourself and live everyday with meaning and passion. Although I completed this book in 2 days, I would recommend reading it slowly, savoring every line and idea, ruminate over it and take notes along the way. I loved reading about the inhabitants of Okinawa and their way of life. So much of their habits and life style resonated with me because I spent my entire childhood in a very closely knit colony of self sufficient people. My parents and everyone in the colony had a vegetable garden where they grew and got their produce from, a cooperative society for loans, discounted prices on things, an organizing committee for conducting various events and celebrations. Everyone knew each other and formed very special bonds and friendships which I recall fondly even now. This is exactly what the people of Okinawa live and I now long to visit the island and see them! I'm sure someday I will!

Some reminders I noted down:

- Stay active, never retire

- Don't fill your stomach to the full, eat only until you are 80% full

- Surround yourself with friends and nurture and cherish relationships

- Get in shape for your next birthday

- Fall seven times, but get up the 8th time.

- Slow down a little

- Do not multitask. Focus on a single thing at once.

Like I said, take your time to read this book, it will give you a warm fuzzy feeling when you start which will stay that way until you finish the book and every single time after that when you recall what you read!

A refreshingly simple read! I loved it.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

 Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Productivity, Personal Development

Rating: 3.5/5

Verdict: Loved the case studies used as examples throughout the book, towards the end there was a lot of organizational use cases which was not too relevant.

Since I loved Atomic habits so much, I picked this up to piggyback on that when my mind was already in that zone and I wanted to make the most of it. I generally like to bunch up reads on the same genre more so on the same topic. The author does a good job of answering key questions on forming habits and pursuing things relentlessly. I loved the concept of keystone habit formations - where one habit has a ripple effect on many other events/things in life. To me, it is personally proven where I have always been an early bird and made it a habit to wake up before sunrise. I strongly believe this has caused a lot of positive effects in many other facets of my life like being productive at work, creativity and so on.

The author has used a lot of case studies to put across his points and perspective - The Picadilly escalator fire incident, Alcoa to name a few. it was very interesting to read about these incidents and draw a few pearls of wisdom about habit formations from these case studies. The fundamental ideas  about what it takes to form habits and methods to employ to hold on to them are the same across both the book.

The first half was very fascinating but the second half of the book got a bit irrelevant and boring where the author pretty much repeated the same points over and over. 

Atomic habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Author: James Clear

Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Productivity, Personal Development

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: Very engaging and derives from simple everyday examples, which makes it very convincing to read and follow.

This book was on my list for 2022, but I couldn't get to reading it last year. Many times in the past, I have taken several new year resolutions only to break them a month later, like many of us do. This year, I really wanted to make a change in how I develop habits like working out, eating healthy, not procrastinating so that it becomes second nature and I am glad I chose this book. The author goes into stating almost right away that habits are an identity change. How we think of ourselves is a key change in making habits last and it brought an "Aha!" moment for me. The main idea of the book is that you can start small and build lasting habits. I also realized that many of my good habits are exactly how the author suggests doing them and is something I already do without realizing - like folding the blankets on the couch right away after relaxing in the evening or change your mindset to saying "I get to cook dinner for my family" instead of "I have to cook dinner for my family". I also liked the fact that the book is not philosophical like many other self help books but there are so many common scenarios we encounter everyday in every chapter of the book and how to deal with them. It makes the reader connect so easily and keeps it intriguing. 

My main takeaways from the book:

- Exponential progress is hard to see, initially

- Patience is essential

- Focus on systems more than goals

- Never miss twice

I think this book can be life changing if one is willing to apply these concepts and be patient until the results start showing up. I am glad I read this book and I'm sure I will refer to it when I need a reinforcement. 

The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life

 Author: Robin Sharma

Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Productivity, Personal Development

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: Extremely long-winded and stretched to convey a single message. It was a chore to read, I couldn't wait to finish reading the book.

I have read Robin Sharma's "Who will cry when you die?" and loved it, so I picked up this book from him for my next read. Also, I am a morning person and love waking up really early having some time for myself before the daily rut starts. I wake up at 5:30 am even on weekends so I can get some quiet reading time in before the rest of my family is up and about. I love the stillness and peace of the morning before sunrise and watching the first rays streaming in through my window. So, I knew this book would be preaching to the choir but I was very curious to find out the author's perspective on this topic.

There is one simple message and that is what the title states exactly. The author tries to convey this through a 225 page book and it was excruciatingly painful to read through the same repetitive message in different forms and chapters. The storyline is completely irrelevant and made me so frustrated and impatient throughout the book. It took the author 5 chapters to even get to the concept of waking up at 5 am, too long winded and stretched. At some point, I was so tired of waiting for the actual content that I started to skim over chapters to get to the meaningful parts of the book. 

The only reason I have given it a 2/5 is because of the quotes/messages about discipline, will power and habits. All of these could have been easily packed into well within 80-100 pages and it would've made for a very crisp read. Some of the messages I really liked and resonated with me:

* All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.

* World-class willpower isn’t an inborn strength, but a skill developed through relentless practice.

* Personal discipline is a muscle. The more you stretch it, the stronger it grows. Therefore, the samurais of self-regulation actively create conditions of hardship to build their natural power.

* Continue at all costs. Persistency sits at the threshold of mastery.

The 5 AM club preaches jumping out of one's bed at 5 am and splitting the first hour of your day into a 20/20/20 model where you perform sweat inducing physical activity for the first 20 mins followed by 20 mins of reflecting through meditation, praying, journaling followed by 20 mins of growing - reading, studying and the likes. Sure, I'd love to do this if I didn't have to get things ready for my kids for school, pack lunches, prepare breakfast and so on in the early hours of the morning which is the luxury billionaires and CEO's can afford with additional help and sure enough they can follow the 20/20/20 rule to start the day on fire. There is no one size fits all for this model!

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

 Author: Atul Gawande

Genre: NonFiction, SelfHelp, Medicine, Productivity

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: I loved the stories and anecdotes on how checklists saved lives! Very interesting read.

I am a list obsessed person. I cannot function without to-do lists. I have daily, weekly, monthly to-do lists of personal stuff as well as work projects, a meal plan list for every week (which I put together on Sunday night), a list of places I want to visit, a list of books I want to read, a list of to-do activities for my children. When I go on vacations or even a day trip to the city, I jot down a list planning what we will see and do down to the hour or minute including where we will eat and at what time - so much so that my family often quips that I take the fun out of a relaxed vacation by planning out everything ahead of time. 

I was very excited to read this book and I am glad I was not disappointed. It felt like Atul was preaching to the choir, I am already sold on checklists - a habit I picked up from my father since my high school days. The theme of the book is very simple - how to reduce risk by creating and following a checklist. It sounds so simple you might think how some people can miss it. But Atul's anecdotes throughout the book prove how error prone humans are and how well-made checklists can empower us and save lives. The general advice on how to keep checklists simple and accurate applies to well beyond doctors, surgeons and pilots. I myself have seen the benefits of checklists at work during crisis situations, when there is a lot of ambiguity to handle with urgency. Atul hits the nail on its head when he says when power/authority needs to be centralized vs distributed. 

As for the writing, for the most part, Atul made it very exciting with his anecdotes from the airline and medical fields - where human lives are at stake. My absolute favorite was chapter 7, I just could not put the book down after that. This is a wonderful read and an inspiration for anyone who is against checklists and to-do lists.

The Psychology of Money

Author:  Morgan Housel

Genre: NonFiction, Economics, SelfHelp

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: The language is simple, but the book fails to spark any excitement or interest.

I like reading non-fiction these days and I am also more willing to keep an open mind on the subjects I'd like to read about. This book was suggested by a dear friend and we agreed that we'd read it together. To begin with, the title is a little misleading - I was expecting and hoping that this will not be one of those innumerable self help finance books that advice on how/where/when to invest money, stocks, funds and so on. From the title, I expected it to be more of a "how does money affect people's behavior and decision making?" and as it states exactly the psychology of money. To be fair it was a mix of both but a lot more of the former and very little, may be one chapter dedicated to the latter that I wanted to understand more about. 

I am glad it was a short book and a fairly quick read mostly because I was determined to finish reading it fully :) At the end of it, I don't think I learnt anything new, it was mostly a bunch of blog-posts kind of topics reiterating  common sense knowledge like savings are supremely important or keep your debt low which are good reminders to yourself at best. I also didn't like the fact that the author tried to over simplify certain things like how Warren Buffet grew his wealth, if only it was that easy! The book definitely started off well and piqued my interest but by the time I got to the mid point, it was just a collection of incoherent random essays without any concrete action items or thoughtful insights that became pretty boring. 

Overall, a very easy and below average read. A few positives about the book - easy to follow, each chapter is a lesson on its own and succinct. There are a few good reminders out there which we most often tend to forget in this peer pressure filled world, they are worth reminding ourselves about how we want to live our lives. I especially liked the chapters on luck and risk and the essence of time! 

How to Hygge: The Nordic Secrets to a Happy Life

Author: Signe Johansen

Genre: NonFiction, Cultural, Self Help

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: Not much about Hygge as much as it is a collection of recipes and some superficial advice here and there. 

My husband received this book as a holiday gift from his manager. I was quite intrigued by the title and the front cover was dreamy, what better reason to start reading this on New year's day especially after an unprecedented year going by. We were all trying hard to adjust to the new normal and in the process I couldn't read much at all. 

Reading the initial few pages of this book felt like I was having a conversation with a close friend who lives in Norway. We've talked so much about life in the Nordic region and I used to be amazed at how everyone enjoys the harsh winters as much as the beautiful summers. I loved the first two chapters where Signe talks about how being outdoors is being alive and I completely believe in that. I love spending time outdoors with the family and making lots of fun memories. Just being out and staring at a mountain or listening to the sound of a creek or a stream helps clear the fog in your mind. 

But just when I thought the book was getting unputdownable, the author put together a bunch of recipes - almost 90 odd pages dedicated for this section and there weren't many options for my dietary choices and it really didn't appeal to me. I just glossed over them to the final section of the book. The rest of the book was pretty disappointing with just a few tips here and there about living spaces, specific furniture and the likes. 

Overall for me, it started out exciting and wore off pretty quickly. The book is not really about hygge, just a bunch of recipes and KonMari-type tips put together. I was really looking forward to reading about the cozy feeling of contentment and the nordic ways of living that makes them a happy bunch but didnt find it. 

Book Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Author: Mark Manson
Genre: NonFiction, Self help
Rating: 1/5
Verdict: Don't give a f*ck about this book.

I have been quite wary of self help books and staying away from reading them mainly because most of these books are never one-size fits all. This book was another reaffirmation to that fact not because it was good and just doesn't fit everyone, but this was just a boatload of self-indulgent rubbish, extremely sexist and random pieces of content put together. The writing was abysmal as well. I cannot believe this topped the best seller's list at some point. After reading the first 25 pages, I was in complete rage. Getting life advice from a 30 something slacker of a dude who takes pride in being a complete "f*ckboy" during his youth rather than being remorseful and objectifies women as material possessions isn't exactly something I would call a deserving best seller. Casually saying he has a wife and there is nothing glamorous and exciting about it reeks of arrogance, misogyny and entitlement. It was quite an irony that there is a chapter about relationships and giving a f*ck about them in the book. That aside, the content in the book isn't remarkable, just felt like a bunch of blog posts thrown together without any research whatsoever. Most of it was just 'duh' and things you learn naturally in life as you grow older and wiser. I'm annoyed at myself for having fallen for picking up this one to read. The only reason I gave it a 1-star is for some chapters that there is actually value in reading it for.