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Tuesday, February 20, 2018

You Do You: How to Be Who You Are and Use What You've Got to Get What You Want

This was a bit of a weird book to read.  I kept feeling like I should stop reading, that I wasn't getting a whole lot out of it (especially right after reading Hustle).  But I never really did stop.  I said to my brother the other night that I'm clearly getting something out of it (even if it's just that I enjoyed Sarah Knight's writing).

You Do You is a self help book that is dedicated to getting you to accept yourself, to be who you are without feeling guilty about it thanks to the social contract (but Knight does not endorse you doing you if you are a psychopath).  She looks at parts of the social contract that are generally accepted by most people (but which often don't need to be - like "don't be difficult," "do be a team player," "you should smile more" and the like).  She deconstructs them all, showing you how they prohibit you from being happy (unless of course these individual things are part of you doing you, which if that's the case, she says by all means continue doing you).  There's a lot of common sense in here, but also some very interesting points (like how you don't always have to put blood relatives first just because they are your family).

All in all, I did enjoy reading this book (like I said, I never did stop).

Friday, February 9, 2018

Hustle: the Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum

I normally only read one book at a time (or rarely read a nonfiction and fiction book simultaneously).  But right now I've started about four nonfiction books and a fiction book.  I don't even remember exactly why I started reading Hustle: the Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum, but once I started it I pretty much just focused on it (except for when I took a break to read The Little Prince; that was to avoid Hustle spoiling the other book).

Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler wrote this book to help everyone live their own dreams rather than living the rented dreams of other people.  Their main message is that you need to stack the deck in your favour by taking a bunch of small risks (or trying multiple projects) - this ends up less risky than putting all your eggs into one basket.  They also show how both they and other successful people have moved from project to project, creating momentum, meaning, and money by using their talents and giving back to the world.  They offer some good advice, like using the 10-minute rule (do something for 10 minutes, then evaluate how you feel about the task, rather than procrastinating because you don't want to do something), or using ESP (experiment, storytelling, and pitching) to help you move towards your dreams.

I enjoyed reading Hustle: I liked reading about the other people in the book, and Hustle made me inspired to make changes in my own life (although truthfully I've been feeling like I need to, which is why I started reading Hustle in the first place).  Hopefully I can take what I learned and manufacture money, meaning, and especially momentum in my own life. :)

The Little Prince

My brother read The Little Prince not too long ago and really liked it.  He was recommending that I read it.  I wasn't planning on reading it quite yet, but then I was in the middle of a nonfiction book, Hustle: the Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum, when a chapter opened with talk of The Little Prince.  I stopped reading Hustle that night and went looking for The Little Prince.  I considered getting it from the library the next day, but lucked out and found it on Hoopla (added bonus - I was able to snag it before the library hit their daily lending limit on Hoopla!)

The Little Prince takes place in the desert when a pilot crashes and meets the titular little prince.  Over eight days, while the pilot tried to fix his plane, the two talk.  The pilot slowly learns where the little prince came from, and more importantly, the why.

I'm honestly not very sure how I feel about this book (I finished it four days ago and still haven't given it a rating on Goodreads).  I liked some parts of it, but I had a hard time connecting with the story as a whole.  I do wonder if maybe I need to try reading a different version?  If I just couldn't connect with the translator in the version I read?  I know I was having problems with grammar errors in the Hoopla version.  Or otherwise if I just need to reread it?  Well, whatever it was, I think I will ask my brother if I can borrow his copy and give The Little Prince another shot at some point in the future.