Lessons from 2020 (Books)
What a hell of a year, in the most literal sense of the word! I guess (almost) nobody expected at the beginning of the year how it would turn out, and all the challenges that all of us would have to face. And I guess most of us are looking forward to 2021 to reboot and leave all of this behind.
But let us stop here for a second. Take a minute to reflect. The challenges we faced forced us to find solutions to new problems and we have grown along the way. In these articles I want to take the time and reflect on what I have learned in the past year, and why it might be interesting for you as well. And, who knows, maybe reflecting on what we have achieved will also bring a bit of positivity back into this year. I certainly hope it will inspire others to share their reflection of 2020, and I am open (and thankful) for any feedback!
This series is split into multiple articles:
- Part 1: Lessons from the Home Office
- Part 2: Lessons from Books
- Part 3: Lessons from the corporate World
Lessons from Books
People who know me, know that I love to read and learn more about science and the world. And this year, between being stuck at home and searching for toilet paper, left much time for reading. Therefore, in this article I want to share some of my favorite books of this year along with some of the lessons I learned from them, so here we go:
Principles by Ray Dalio
This was easily one of the most insightful reads I had this year. Ray outlines his principles to work and life, while lightening up the read with many anecdotes on how each of the principles came to be. I fundamentally agree with the core principles he outlines, in particular:
- carefully select the people around you (and make sure you can tap into a diversity of viewpoints)
- search feedback whenever you can (and figure out who is most believable in which area)
- reflect often on your life to form new principles
And these are just a few of many that you will find in this book.
Capitalism without Capital by Jonathan Haskel & Stian Westlake
This year has surfaced a radical shift toward digitalization and new economies that has been brewing for years. In this book Jonathan & Stian tell the story of how digitalization influences value creation and assets. More than half of all existing assets are now intangible, meaning they have no real physical value, but are purely virtual goods. Examples range from Brands (e.g. Nike), Patents (e.g. technical innovations) or Operating Manuals (e.g. the way Starbucks operates its shops). These virtual goods are created basically every time knowledge or mental work is captured in one form or another. This shift has a strong impact on how businesses operate and how they can create value. In detail intangible assets have four unique properties:
- Sunkenness — Costs cannot easily be recovered
- Synergy — Different investments in intangibles are likely to benefit each other
- Spill Over — Mental work (i.e. ideas) can seldom be truly kept under lock
- Scalable — Mental work, once completed, can be replicated at scale
In my opinion books are at its best, when they transport a different view or conceptual understanding of the world. And in this book, the authors delivered exactly that. I loved this book, as it provided me with a new perspective on how markets work, how companies are motivated and how startups can create value in the market.
The Future of Brain Repair by Jack Price
The human brain is intensely fascinating. Part of the appeal is that we still don’t know how exactly the brain works. But this cloak of mystery also means we currently have limited ways to help patients who suffer damage to the brain (e.g. through a stroke).
In this book Jack pulls back the curtain a bit to reveal current research in neuroscience and how stem cell therapies might help to limit (and to a degree even revert) brain damage. While reading, I learned a lot how different diseases effect the brain.
As an example, most of the damage from a stroke does not necessarily happen through damage to the neurons in the area of stroke, but to neurons in areas that have axons or dendritic connections to this area (i.e. secondary damage). More than one time while reading this book, I got a feeling of reading science fiction, imagining how future therapies might help these patients!
If you want to know more about the history of neuroscience and how science started to unravel the secrets of the brain, I can also highly recommend “The Idea of the Brain” by Matthew Cobb.
The diversity Bonus by Scott Page
One of the reasons I picked up this book, was to get a deeper understanding on how we can define diversity and its impact. Diversity has been a hot topic for years, but it is difficult to measure and there is no clear consensus on what counts and doesn’t count into the diversity factor.
Scott takes a very interesting perspective by focusing on cognitive diversity. That means the difference in ideas and knowledge applied to a specific problem. This kind of diversity is of course correlated with, but not limited to, variety in backgrounds and ethnicities. Building up on this hypothesis he outlines which tasks can benefit from diverse viewpoints. Along the way he also introduces different dimensions through which cognitive diversity can be measured (including knowledge, facts and mental models) and gives plenty of examples.
If you are like me and had no real idea on what the concept of diversity actually implies, I strongly recommend picking up this book.
Troy by Stephen Fry
In my childhood I would listen to audio plays of greek mythology over and over again. Each story has fascinating twists and deep morals that show the intricacies of human nature (as well as those of the gods). I found them captivating.
Stephen Fry, in his cycle starting with Mythos, Heroes and now Troy, manages to capture this fascination perfectly. From the prophecy of the glory and death of Achilles, over the ruses of Odysseus to the unheard warnings of Cassandra. Similar to a good series, every story is somehow connected to the bigger picture, but also stands on its own with a clear resolution.
If you never had the chance to learn about the greek mythology and do not yet know about the endless task of Sisyphus, the fall of Kronos or the labors of Heracles, I would also suggest starting with the Mythos, the first book.
How democracies die by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Zitblatt
Over the last few years and especially in this year it seemed to me that the world was spiraling into madness. I picked up this book, to get a different perspective on the structures that keep democracies alive and the tasks that a new US president would face. And while there are no universal answers, this book provides an interesting viewpoint on how functional democracies work and continue to work.
The core idea is that democracies are not (only) upheld by its hard guidelines (i.e. its laws and constitution), but by soft guidelines. These include certain norms build on the foundation of mutual respect and restrain of opposing parties (knowing that they work towards the best of the country and not against each other).
The authors then go on to make the point that these soft guidelines have started to erode in the US since the 70s and recent developments are simply a continuation of this trend. While this view is certainly alarming, they also outline ideas how we can preserve democracy in the future.
Many of the concepts are quite US-centric, but every now and then the authors draw analogies from other countries, such as Italy, Germany or Iran, and from different times throughout history. This help to understand the concepts and also makes it an interesting read from a historic perspective.
These are some of my favorite books of this year, and I hope you like them as well and get the chance to pick up some of them and take a few quiet hours to read and escape the whirlwind of daily struggles.
Thanks for reading.
Stay healthy, stay happy and see you in 2021!
