December 2010
18 posts
New Read: The Mirror Test
Book Review: Start With Why
Start With Why by Simon Sinek
★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)
Recommended? Strongly, especially for leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs. Applies to everyone.
This book exceeded my expectations, and has been one of most mindset-changing books that I have ever read. Sure, “starting with why” seems like common sense. Why wouldn’t you make sure you have a well-defined purpose and motives?...
Watch“Technology is a way to evolve the evolution.”
Kevin Kelly: How Technology Evolves (TED)
Book Review: The Design of Everyday Things
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)
Recommended? Strongly, especially for those interested in design.
This book was incredible. In fact, the only reason it didn’t get a perfect 5 is because it is slightly outdated (published in 1990). If this book had been written based on today’s design, it would have easily been a perfect rating. (interestingly, many of...
Book Review: How to Become a Straight-A Student
How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport
★★☆☆☆ (2/5 stars)
Recommended? Not really, but could be helpful for a entering freshman.
Unfortunately, this book was well below my expectations. Though published in 2006, it felt very outdated.
Essentially, this book is a compilation of tips and stories from Newport’s interviews with Ivy-League students. It is separated into three parts...
Why We Travel →
Great article by Jonah Lehrer (one of my favorite authors) about how travel helps the mind think creatively.
Book Review: How to Win at College
How to Win at College by Cal Newport
★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)
As mentioned earlier, this book was a gift to UW Leaders from a former Mentor and one of my highly respected role models, Matt Lee. At 189 pages, it’s been one of my shorter reads recently. Newport’s friendly, simple to understand language helped me finish it within 36 hours (in the midst of finals studying and reading three...
New Read: How to Win at College
A Christmas gift from former UW Leaders Mentor Matt Lee to the program- thought I’d check it out! I have found Newport’s blog Study Hacks to be pretty interesting, so I’ve got some high expectations for this book.
(in case you’re wondering: yes, I am reading 4 books at the same time. also, this book is by the same person that wrote How to Become a Straight-A Student...
New Read: How to Become a Straight-A Student
New Read: Start with Why
Maintenance
Why do New Year’s Resolutions almost always fail months or even weeks into January? With 2011 less than a month away, I’ve been reflecting on 2010 and thinking about my goals for 2011.
I went for a swim last night after having been out of the pool for weeks. Despite the occasional run or bike ride, I was pathetically out of shape. I still managed to pull together a 2000+ yard workout...
Book Review: Rework
Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson
★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)
This book is one of the best organized and concise reads that I’ve ever come across. The ideas are straightforward, to the point, and easy to understand. This is actually the first full book I read on Kindle (I read part of 4-Hour Workweek in paper form), appropriately fitting the “rework” theme.
This book shares...
"Outside Reading"
Is it strange that I just downloaded all the readings for a class (Human-Centered Design and Engineering 400: Foundations of Human-Centered Design) that I’m not even taking? I’ve even started spending more time doing the readings for this class than my actual classes…curiosity and obsession are strange forces.
New Read: The Design of Everyday Things
By Donald Norman
To Learn
I’ve been thinking a lot about the purpose of “school” recently.
To me, school is supposed to be a vehicle for education and a catalyst for learning. The focus of school should be education.
I feel like there are people around me who think differently. They are in college to get get a high GPA, take the easiest classes, and get a job. While I think those are valid, I think that...
Role Model
Yesterday I heard the phrase “role model” spoken to me several times. I think it was just a coincidence, but it really got me thinking:
What sort of role model am I? Who are my role models?
Who looks up to me? Who do I look up to?
The first mention was when I ran into a friend that I had a summer class with. I told him about how I was on my way to speak to a FIG about majoring in...