Book Review: Think Like a Freak

"The modern world demands that we all think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally; that we think from a different angle, with a different set of muscles, with a different set of expectations; that we think with neither fear nor favor, with neither blind optimism nor sour skepticism. That we think like—ahem—a Freak."

Think Like a Freak is the 2014 book from Freakonomics bloggers and podcasters Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. This time around, they focus on capitalizing on their previous works and showing us all how to think a little differently.

I'm a big fan of the Freakonomics podcast, and I wanted to check out some of their writing so this recent work seemed like a great placed to jump in. I appreciated the idea of taking their perspective into action, since a lot of articles and books will simple present a viewpoint and then not give examples of how to put it into action, so I'm glad they took it the next step here.

Topics in the book include incentives, problem solving, metrics, and knowing when to step back when you don't know something. The authors showcase very different perspectives on conventional wisdom, which I think we can all use more of in our lives.

"Solving a problem is hard enough; it gets that much harder if you’ve decided beforehand it can’t be done."

The advice I gleamed after reading the book is be more curious, be less stubborn, and measure success. All of these can be easier said than done but it is crucial to simplifying our complicated world to do our best to do our best to live these values. We can't assume success, assume we know all the answers, and stop asking questions. We'll become stagnant in a world that will quickly leave us behind.

"...the stakes get higher when we routinely pretend to know more than we do."

I encourage you to check out all of the Freakonomics stuff out there. It is great stuff to get outside of the normal framework of how we look at our world. I know you'll get some valuable advice from their work.

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Book Review: Steal Like an Artist

"If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it."

I remember hearing about this book at some point. It got stuck in my head as something I knew I wanted to read at some point but just never got around to. I finally blew through this book and I am very glad I made time for it.

This 2012 book by Austin Kleon explores the traditional concepts about what we think creativity is and how we are creative and seeks to break them down. Kleon challenges conventional notions and builds up his own view on how we maximize our own unique creativity and stop preventing ourselves from creating. His liberating manifesto that nothing is original helps the reader break free of the oppressive mindset that we have to reinvent the wheel in order to be a creative. All we have to do is put our own spin on what is already out in the world and that makes something valuable and creative.

Kleon's style of writing is brief, engaging, and transformative so it is right up my alley. I was able to breeze through this book with some powerful takeaways in the matter of a few nights. I feel like I could have easily read through it in a day if I was commuting or had a few more hours free in a day to plug in with this book. I appreciate when books can be concise since it allows for the message to come through so much clearer for me when there isn't massive amounts of what ends up feeling like filler. Just because a book is longer doesn't make it better, but that's just me.

If you're looking to get inspired to be more creative or just want a great book to get motivated by for your current endeavors, I encourage you to check this book out. It's a quick but powerful read with some great perspectives on how to be a better creative.

Steal Like An Artist is available at all of your favorite book retailers which you can find at the book's official webpage.

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Book Review: Without Their Permission

This 2013 book, Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed from reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian explores his story creating the front page of the Internet as well as stories of how the Internet is reshaping society for the better. Ohanian also gives tips for budding entrepreneurs who want to succeed in this brave new world where people can make millions off a cool app they created on their own from a dorm room. Even more so, no one has to wait for someone else's permission to make that app, make a change, or do some good. With the Internet, so much more is at so many more people's fingertips. The Internet is a great equalizer in terms of access and it allows for more good stuff to get the attention it deserves.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It had a very casual tone while still containing some great perspectives on Internet culture, how it is changing our society, and how to maximize the potential it offers. Ohanian obviously knows this subject well as he made his life being plugged in to the vast community of the Internet. While it is something I feel pretty understanding of, I enjoyed how he talked about it and I hope others can gleam some important morsels of wisdom from this book.

I've been a fan of Ohanian and the work he has done to ensure a free and open Internet. He goes into some of that journey in the book as well. This segment felt especially poignant as the FCC just recently made sure that the work Ohanian did was not in vain. The stories he tells about the amazing positive impact the Internet has had on so many different people in all sorts of ways furthers my commitment to embrace it as a tool for good.

Without Their Permission is an engaging, fun, personal, quick read that is great for anyone interested in entrepreneurship and the greater Internet community. It will preach to the choir for many but I hope it may reach some out there that might not fully realize the good this brave new world is doing for so many people.

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Book Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

"...when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too. As a result, you can see quite clearly what you need in life and what you don’t, and what you should and shouldn’t do."

This recent book from Marie Kondo looks at how we can get our entire lives in order by "tidying up". By this, Kondo means going through all of your belongings and critically interrogating if you need them and if they bring you joy. Items that you don't need or items that don't bring you joy must be sold, donated, recycled, or just thrown out. The author outlines a detailed order of how to go about this process and guarantees success and commitment to the tidying you do. She has helped thousands of people get their lives tidied and this has enabled them to become happier and healthier people in several different ways.

What I plugged to in about this book was its undercurrent emphasis on minimalism. It was recommended to me after a conversation on the matter, and I was able to breeze through the book to gain the main points. I don't need to advice personally as I feel as though I already bought into the philosophy behind it. It does give a very thorough outline for others to follow though, which is something I like about it. The book has a simple point to make and if that is all it was, it could just be condensed to a blog post, but it gives you an actionable framework to follow to make your life better right away.

A great quote I enjoy is concerning keeping old papers:

"My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away. My clients are stunned when I say this, but there is nothing more annoying than papers. After all, they will never inspire joy, no matter how carefully you keep them. For this reason, I recommend you dispose of anything that does not fall into one of three categories: currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept indefinitely."

I don't like paper to begin with but a few things really do need to be printed and kept. Most of the paper we get and have does not, so we can recycle all that paper and remove the clutter and burden from our lives.

I recommend this book for anyone looking to clear the clutter of their lives. It could be too many clothes, too much paper, or just all the junk we all absentmindedly collect over time. A clear space is a clear mind in my perspective.

"To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose"

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Book Review: i, Geek - Confessions of a Geeky Mind

 

"So, to come to my core point: don’t limit yourself. Explore, try new things. Open yourself up to things that are outside your comfort zone. Learn. Live. And love more than just one genre or show."

I read through this book pretty quickly after it was recommended while doing a recent episode of my podcast. It was a book I hadn't heard of before and seemed interesting enough to me (especially since it is available for cheap on Amazon Kindle). The author, Joseph Dickerson, collects blog posts of his from around the Internets and curates them in this book under a few general categories like technology, design, Star Trek, and some others.

The book is a under 200 pages and I'll admit, even with it being very short, I skipped over some of his posts about user interface design, as it wasn't relevant to me at all. It is his day job and I know I like to talk about higher education so I can understand why he put it in there, it just feels out of place. I really enjoyed what he wrote about Star Trek (which is a lot of this book), since it feels a lot like what I have written and feel about the show and what makes it great. Frankly, the whole book feels like something I've been thinking of writing for a while now; simply a collection of my best blog posts curated around common topics.

Much like I have, Dickerson writes about the life lessons learned from a geeky life, and how we can all gleam some morsels of wisdom from video games, books, movies, and television. The above quotes is one of my favorites from the book. We could all use some time out of the ordinary, even if it is taking a chance on a new story (in whatever medium you prefer). I know I've found some awesome things by just taking a leap on something that just feels right.

Especially for the low price on Kindle, I recommend this book for a leisurely read on a weekend with a nice cup of coffee/tea. It has some worthwhile portions and I'm sure others will find certain sections more enticing than I did.

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Book Review: Smarter Than You Think

"We have to interrogate our most destabilizing new technologies and be aware of their dangers (economic, political, and social), to flat-out avoid the tools we find harmful—yet not be blinded to the ones that truly augment our thought and bring intellectual joy."

After having it on my list of things to read for a while, I recently finished this book by Clive Thompson that explores the positive influence technology is having on our lives. I found this book to be a refreshing, engaging, and relevant look at modern technology and this book is chock full of awesome numbers, figures, and stories that drive home the main points.

While any book about technology that comes out these days is instantly out of date once it is published, Thompson does well here to focus on the broad strokes of what current technology offers us and how it is helping us. He also focuses on communication technology which is of interest to me personally rather than anything too scientific. The fact that he fills the book with just the influence of communication tools further supports how it is changing the world in a massive way. The way we share information, how we learn, and how we are governed has changed dramatically in the past few years.

Some of Thompson's examples of are the revolutions happening in the Middle East, the numerous times a problem has been solved quickly by an online community, and just the sheer amount of information being shared on social media every day. We're communicating with each other more now than ever before, and that impacts our friendships, our families, and our work. Some jobs are being created, others are being made obsolete. We can know what is happening all over the world in an instant and also find communities of people who love what we're passionate about, no matter how niche it might be.

I am optimistic in general and also just love social media so I'm very happy to have been able to read this book and share it. It gives a lot of objective facts about how all these new tools are making our lives better in meaningful ways. I don't see any of it going anywhere soon so we are going to keep reaping the benefits of being more connected for years to come.

I wanted to share some of my favorite excerpts, so here they are:

"I calculate that we’re composing at least 3.6 trillion words daily, or the equivalent of 36 million books every day. The entire U.S. Library of Congress, by comparison, holds around about 35 million books."

"When you gaze with wild surmise upon the Pacific of strangeness online, you confront the astonishing diversity of human passion."

"The things we think about are deeply influenced by the state of the art around us: the conversations taking place among educated folk, the shared information, tools, and technologies at hand."

You can find Smarter Than You Think at your favorite book retailer!

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Book Review: Contagious Optimism

"My mind can be my friend or foe and that I either command it or it entraps me."

I was turned onto Contagious Optimism because of the involvement of one of my professors in my graduate program, Dr. Colleen Georges. She taught the counseling course in our student affairs master's program, and I also had the pleasure of taking a positive psychology course with her as well. I can see a lot of her amazing insights from the class in this book.

The book is organized around very broad topics such as work, love, and family among others. Then it gives a multitude of short stories from various authors within that topic. This provides a quick, engaging, relevant reading experience that drives the main points of the book home with the different vignettes. I found myself highlighting powerful quotes all over this book. It's a great inspiring read for anyone. I found the marriage and family portions to be less relevant to me but I know they would be useful for others.

This is also a very accessible entry point to positive psychology for anyone who is interested. It doesn't get too deep with any of the ideas or concepts, and if you're intrigued to learn more, you can opt to look for others works by the authors included in this book or do some research of your own.

I love positivity for the simple fact that is an empowering mindset to buy into. It encourages you to take charge of your own happiness and wellness, rather than wait for it to happen to you. This book shows you the how and the why behind optimism and positivity, so I highly recommend it.

Go check out Contagious Optimism and let me know what you think. You can get it from any of your favorite book retailers in whichever format you wish!

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Book Review: The Good Creative

"Be bold and brave with your art. Venture courageously with it into the unknown." - Paul Jarvis

I discovered this book through a promotional effort by the author, Paul Jarvis, for his recently launched podcast, Invisible Office Hours that he does with fellow cool person Jason SurfrApp (AKA Jason Sadler). He was giving away digital copies of The Good Creative for those that listened to the podcast and gave honest reviews, good or bad. I was intrigued by the podcast through recommendations of some awesome folks on Twitter so I listened, left my (positive) review, and got the book to check out. I got to it after I finished some other reading projects, and I blew through it in a day. I say that as a good thing.

The book, which reads more like a collection of blog posts than a dense tome, is a straightforward, concise collection of 18 tips from Jarvis about how to find personal satisfaction with the content you create. Your definition of success and whatever you make is up to you. He just helps you get there.

The book came out recently in April, and one in a series of other books by Jarvis about working freelance and creating a life as a "good creative". I found this one to be very applicable to my work running this blog (and where I hope it will eventually go). The writing is authentic, light, engaging, and actionable. Some of my favorite tips were about not feeling like you're "selling out" if you get sponsors or get paid to do your work as well as his advice about being authentic and telling your story. Something cool and unique about the book too, there are some really neat illustrations in the book to go along with all the tips.

I highly recommend this book! You can get it as a digital copy, a physical book, or an audiobook all on Paul's website.

If you read it, let me know what you think!

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Book Review: The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth

"...the things that make kids bullied, ridiculed, and ostracized in high school are the same things that others will value in them after high school and will even make them valuable, productive, and simply good people."

I recently finished this amazing book. It is another in the series of geek/nerd related literature I've been digging into, like Nerds, American Nerd, & Geek Wisdom. Definitely check out my reviews for all of them too if you're interested.

This book has a unique hook that I really enjoyed. The author, Alexandra Robbins, coins the idea of "quirk theory" which defines as essentially being that the things that make kids bullied, ridiculed, and ostracized in high school are the same things that others will value in them after high school and will even make them valuable, productive, and simply good people. These would be having unique interests, being creative, and having their own beliefs that resist the influence of popular conformity. Robbins has a great quote from an article written by Walter Isaacson for Wired magazine that really sends this idea home:

'What made Einstein special was his impertinence, his nonconformity, and his distaste for dogma. Einstein's genius reminds us that society's competitive advantage comes not from teaching the multiplication or periodic tables but from nurturing rebels. Grinds have their place, but unruly geeks change the world.'

I love this sentiment. I felt the pressure to be "normal" in high school and realized that I was a nerd and that was a bad thing to the cool kids in high school. I was fine with myself before that but the cruel realities of those four years made me feel less than. Robbins goes into a lot of the reasons why high school is such a gauntlet of trials for so many students. She also tells the stories of several students from different backgrounds from all across the country over the course of a school year to showcase examples of what she is talking about throughout the book. Such topics include identity, conformity, why popular people are mean, and if being popular even makes you truly happy. The arcs that all the characters in the book go through are engaging and riveting. You go through ups and downs with all of them and their lives feel real and authentic. You get their responses to everything that happens to them and I felt compelled to keep reading to see what happened next.

Robbins goes into other surrounding topics to the subject matter of high school struggles like teachers, administrators, and parents. She gives 31 awesome actionable tips at the end for folks to takeaway, which I always appreciate. It's a light read as well, and never feels long-winded.

Much like Nerds, this book is a great overview of why anti-nerd bias exists, what perpetuates it, what it does to us, and what to do about it. I really enjoyed it, and maybe some of that comes from it resonating with me so much personally but I feel like everyone has felt a little out of place at some in their life, whether that was in high school, college, work, or even within their own family. There are valuable parcels of wisdom for any and all here.

Check out The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, and I urge you to share it with any educators, parents, or anyone who struggled with their identity in high school. I know they'll get something from it.

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Book Review: Geek Wisdom

“What was your religion when you were growing up?” And my answer was: “Uh, science fiction, pretty much.”

I've been wanting to review this book for a while now, as I read a few months ago but I just haven't gotten around to it. This 2011 book is by a collection of author who curate awesome geeky quotes from movies, television, and literature to explore the morals and lessons that make up the nerd lexicon.

Everything from Princess Bride, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, The Twilight Zone, and much, much more is covered here. Each quote has a short page or two's worth of extrapolation where the real world lessons are found. The writing is fun, light, and engaging, with a lot of great life advice woven in. The writing is broken up by broad topics; quotes about the self, conflict, the future, the universe, etc.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"With great power comes great responsibility."

"Not all those who wander are lost."

"No matter where you go, there you are."

"Ideas are bulletproof."

"There are weapons that are simply thoughts. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy."

I take my entertainment seriously. I look into the symbolism, character arcs, lessons, morals, quotes, and implications of what happens in my favorite stories, no matter what it is. A lot of people are dismissive of geeky pursuits but I've always known that there is power behind what we enjoy. We learn, grow, and create community around what we love and this book helps capture some of that spirit.

I definitely recommend Geek Wisdom for all those geeks and nerds out there looking to find the deeper meaning behind their favorite geekdoms or even those not yet acclimated to all these wonderful worlds. Maybe it will get you excited to check out something new!

You can find it at Amazon, or any of your favorite booksellers.

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