Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is really good. Much like Stacey Abrams is a jack-of-all-trades this book cannot be fit into one neat category: it's part political memoir, of course, part self-help business book, part antiracism book, part you-should-just-read-it-okay? As I learned more and more about Abrams I was reminded of Benjamin Franklin. She's a renaissance woman! We're too often discouraged from this wide approach to knowledge and career to the detriment of current society, I think.

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“Never tell yourself no. Let someone else do it.”

“What’s not right is giving credence to bad actions, and thereby becoming complicit.”

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While Gladwell makes some interesting points and connections which deserve attention and action particularly in policing, I think he has too much sympathy for the devil in general. There is no mention for example of how police feel they deserve complete respect or to what extent they feel comfortable abusing their (basically unlimited power). Furthermore, there is no discussion about how racism, both conscious and subconscious, causes white people to expect complete respect from black people, even when they have no cause to expect or merit such perfect and high respect. And the deadly consequences of both such mindsets especially in combination. Trying to explain the Sandra Bland tragedy without more than an allusion to those issues is completely unbalanced.

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The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits

The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite by Daniel Markovits
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting perspective. I would recommend reading "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World" by Anand Giridharadas first because it's a related threat to democracy and, in my opinion, a better book. But this has a lot of value as well if you have the time to read it. Spoiler alert: you might not have time to read it if you're in the group of elite currently being devoured by over-work.

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The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am torn about how to review this book. Yes, of course, it's as badly written as everyone who read this 10 years ago says it is. And it's ridiculously disgustingly sexist- and it appears to be the author pushing this sexism more than it being a reflection of the subjects of the book. The thing is, 10 years ago, we didn't know that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook would contribute to the destruction of democracy. While it's not necessarily accurate, it at least lets us see what Eduardo Saverin thought of Zuckerberg at a younger age.

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Multipliers by Liz Wiseman

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Surprisingly good for a business book. Really changed the way I see the management and inspiration of people. It seems to have applications outside the business world- I'm about to try it on my kids this summer and will report back.

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Why We Can't Sleep by Ada Calhoun

Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a much better read than say Lean In, because the author has actually read books about feminism. I especially enjoyed the focus on Generation X because we are forever ignored. Seriously both Generation X and the Millenials have had a much tougher economy to deal with than Boomers, and the world seems almost completely dominated by the Silent Generation and Boomers.

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Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed learning about the research that Gladwell used in this book, and with Gladwell's particular story-telling. I was already familiar with some but not all of the research, and of course, I already believed that we are not all self-made but usually largely dependent on our environments. That said, there was something a cognitively dissonant about including the 10000-hour rule in a book about how the most successful are typically not all self-made.

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The Honest Truth About Dishonesty by Dan Ariely

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the pro side, some of these influences are important to know about in one's personal life and in legal and policy work. On the con side, this book is pretty repetitive if you've read Ariely's other books as I have. Additionally, though I'm aware that this is all based on studies, the lack of actual moral or spiritual perspective in the book is disappointing. Compare for example Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis or The Righteous Mind.

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David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Amazing first chapter and some interesting ideas that were somewhat supported but overall not a tightly-argued or edited book. First chapter is worth rereading any time you need inspiration.

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Dollars and Sense by Dan Ariely

Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter by Dan Ariely
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a better book if you haven't already read a ton of behavioral economics. For me, it was a compilation of a lot of effects I'd already read about (for example in Ariely's Predictably Irrational). This book would be great for people who don't know that much about behavioral economics who are interested in personal finance.

I was also uncomfortable with the way the authors veered into territory that was somewhat morality- based without a holistic view of the issue. I fear economics often makes this mistake, but to my mind, behavioral economics is more sophisticated and shouldn't make this error. We've rejected the idea that humans make the most rational economic decisions. We've also learned that morality can be very closely tied to empathy and other emotional systems. So I didn't find the section on "fairness" to very sophisticated with regards to current economics, psychology, biology, or ethics research. Sure, you should pay the locksmith his rate for the reasons stated in this book, but I disagree that you shouldn't battle large companies like Netflix or Uber when they do something you consider unfair- and certainly when they do unethical things.

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Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that really changed my perspective-- which is such a gift. I was certainly open to what he had to say, but there were many concepts in here that I hadn't considered in the way that Giridharadas analyzes it. Part of my preparation for this book includes having already read 56 "popular nonfiction" economics books and some additional behavioral economics books. I'm not sure if someone who doesn't otherwise read economics books would be open to the concepts in here.

The basic premise is that the richest 1% claim to be trying to help with social problems but what they should actually do is pay their employees living wages so that they don't need charity, stop polluting the environment so that the subsequent disaster areas don't need charity money, stop lobbying against things that help the 99% of citizens like regulations, stop creating tax shelters so that government can't function properly, stop impeding government in general. In other words, instead of being bad guys and covering up their sins with philanthropy, they should stop being bad guys. In addition, actual income equality creates a huge power inequality. Democracy cannot work when a small percent of the population wields such disproportionate power. Part of that is the money itself, part of that is the disaster of current day finance regulations. The central thesis is that the rich can't even fix problems with philanthropy because their solutions involve mostly self-interested band-aids that don't address the underlying causes: them.

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Finish by Jon Acuff

Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A short and useful book. Here's what I got from it, but it might be worth a second read.

Pick a fun goal! And fun ways to achieve the goal.
Make the goal smaller than you originally want
Make the timeline to achieve your goal longer
Don't let "noble" prerequisites get in your way.
Don't let perfectionism stop you when you're almost done. (Actually usually for me, it's the opposite-- it's pessimism that gets me before I'm done.)
And you don't need to figure out what's next before you're done.

What are you getting from not finishing? (Fear of failure.)

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The War on Normal People by Andrew Yang

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future by Andrew Yang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm a supporter of Warren, but I thought there were a lot of important arguments and ideas in this book about the current state of our economy, and the direction it's taking. I have a hard time taking Yang seriously as a candidate because of his lack of government experience and his performance during the Democratic Debates, but this is probably the third-best book by a Democratic Candidate for the 2020 election. So far, I've read at least one book by each of the 10 candidates that qualified for the third debate (and some of the dropouts) except Beto. I guess that's next.

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Rule Makers, Rule Breakers by Michele Gelfand

Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World by Michele Gelfand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this as part of the GW Alumni Book Club. Although I was familiar with a lot (but definitely not all) of the underlying information in this book, I thought that the particular lens of analysis of the book, “loose” or “tight” social norm and rules, was a really eye-opening way of examining a lot of conflicts- personal, national, and international. I highly recommend this one.

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Deadly Spin by Wendell Potter

Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans by Wendell Potter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every American should read this as soon as possible. It's a tell-all by a health care insurance insider. Reading this book is critical to understanding, and not just the health care debate taking place in this country right now, but many of the political debates we're all wallowing in.

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The Invention of Childhood by Hugh Cunningham

The Invention of Childhood by Hugh Cunningham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is specifically a history of childhood in Great Britain. It's interesting but not as interesting as a larger examination of childhood throughout the world and throughout history. You can't draw any specific or scientific conclusions from the book. It serves more as entertainment than a book to clarify your thinking on the topic of childhood. I also thought the writer was a little overly-casual about the instances of child sexual abuse he covered.

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Pivot by Jenny Blake

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters is Your Next One by Jenny Blake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this because it was the GW Alumni book club selection for this month. This book focuses on transitioning from a current job to a new more adventurous position, probably as your own boss. For people outside that particular paradigm (say you are currently unemployed) it doesn't apply as much. It also wasn't focused on brevity or very clearly demarcated points so I didn't find it as helpful as some other self-help-type books I've read.

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Atomic Habits by James Clear

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a summary of Nudge by Richard Thaler, who actually discovered a lot of this information, and Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Even though I've read a lot of the information before in other books, and I don't think it's particularly fair that Clear is just cashing in other people's work, nonetheless I think Clear did an especially good job of collecting the most relevant information to the topic and keeping the explanations of each point short. Not a lot of filler in this book and this is probably the book I'd be most likely to revisit on this topic.

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The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane

The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was partly delighted and partly sheepish when midway through I remembered that the virtual people in Sims 4 also read books about charisma. There weren't a lot of new things here, and I think it's information most adults (or anyone who ever met Bill Clinton) know. The problem isn't the knowledge, the problem is the consistent exhausting implementation of something that doesn't necessarily feel authentic. Still, I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, and I might be an interesting book for young adults to start being more mindful of their interactions with others.

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Deep Work by Cal Newport

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a totally decent mashup of books about mindfulness, flow, and the books about ditching your phone. I've been reading so many of these types of books lately, and it's usually either researchers who have dedicated their lives to studying a particular type of psychology now termed behavioral economics and, alternatively, guys who write about other people's research. I find the latter category kind of unfair but often they do better summaries of the research because they're not so personally invested.

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