6 Self-Improvement books from Hacker News In 2018
Self improvement books for men are the ones most guys get defensive about. Most guys protect their egos by refusing to accept they might have something to learn about girls or sex or making a living. It’s easier to put on the blinders than to admit deficiencies and begin the hard journey towards improvement.
The statistical truth is, most dudes are average at making money, attracting women, and having sex. Translation: they’re not particularly good at those things. I wasn’t. And I’m still not done improving.
It doesn’t matter. The point is not to be awesome. It’s to become awesome.
So check your ego at the door. Open your mind. Wider than its ever been. I’m about to imply that you are not as perfect as you may want to believe.
1. The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal--especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager.
From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, you'll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether you're a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization.
- Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager
- Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead
- Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the entire team
- Understand how to manage yourself and avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders
- Manage multiple teams and learn how to manage managers
- Learn how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams
2. The Case Against Sugar
From the best-selling author of Why We Get Fat, a groundbreaking, eye-opening expose that makes the convincing case that sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium: backed by powerful lobbies, entrenched in our lives, and making us very sick. Among Americans, diabetes is more prevalent today than ever; obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly 10% of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is at the root of these, and other, critical society-wide, health-related problems.
With his signature command of both science and straight talk, Gary Taubes delves into Americans' history with sugar: its uses as a preservative, as an additive in cigarettes, the contemporary overuse of high-fructose corn syrup. He explains what research has shown about our addiction to sweets. He clarifies the arguments against sugar, corrects misconceptions about the relationship between sugar and weight loss; and provides the perspective necessary to make informed decisions about sugar as individuals and as a society.
3. Zero to One Notes on Start-Ups, or How to Build the Future
"Thiel starts from the bold premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we're too distracted by our new mobile devices to notice. Progress has stalled in every industry except computers, and globalization is hardly the revolution people think it is. It's true that the world can get marginally richer by building new copies of old inventions, making horizontal progress from "1 to n." But true innovators have nothing to copy.
The most valuable companies of the future will make vertical progress from "0 to 1, " creating entirely new industries and products that have never existed before. Zero to One is about how to build these companies. Tomorrow's champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today's marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. In today's post-internet bubble world, conventional wisdom dictates that all the good ideas are taken, and the economy becomes a tournament in which everyone competes to reach the top. Zero to One shows how to quit the zero-sum tournament by finding an untapped market, creating a new product, and quickly scaling up a monopoly business that captures lasting value. Planning an escape from competition is essential for every business and every individual, not just for technology startups.
The greatest secret of the modern era is that there are still unique frontiers to explore and new problems to solve. Zero to One shows how to pursue them using the most important, most difficult, and most underrated skill in every job or industry: thinking for yourself"-- Provided by publisher.
4. Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
Learn how small changes can make a big difference in your powers of persuasion with this New York Times bestselling introduction to fifty scientifically proven techniques for increasing your persuasive powers in business and life.
Every day we face the challenge of persuading others to do what we want. But what makes people say yes to our requests? Persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science, and researchers who study it have uncovered a series of hidden rules for moving people in your direction. Based on more than sixty years of research into the psychology of persuasion, Yes! reveals fifty simple but remarkably effective strategies that will make you much more persuasive at work and in your personal life, too.
Cowritten by the world’s most quoted expert on influence, Professor Robert Cialdini, Yes! presents dozens of surprising discoveries from the science of persuasion in short, enjoyable, and insightful chapters that you can apply immediately to become a more effective persuader.
Often counterintuitive, the findings presented in Yes! will steer you away from common pitfalls while empowering you with little known but proven wisdom.
Whether you are in advertising, marketing, management, on sales, or just curious about how to be more influential in everyday life, Yes! shows how making small, scientifically proven changes to your approach can have a dramatic effect on your persuasive powers.
5. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But in today's dramatically reconfigured world, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. Give and Take illuminates what effective networking, collaboration, influence, negotiation, and leadership skills have in common. Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton's highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces tha shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom.
In professional interactions, it turns out that most people operate as either takers, matchers, or givers. Whereas takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return. Using his own groundbreaking studies, Grant reveals that these styles have a dramatic impact on success. Although some givers get exploited and burn out, the rest achieve extraordinary results across a wide range of industries.
Combining cutting-edge evidence with captivating stories, this landmark book shows how one of America's best networkers developed his connections; why the creative genius behind one of the most popular shows in television history toiled for years in anonymity; how a basketball executive responsible for multiple draft busts transformed his franchise into a winner; and how we could have anticipated Enron's demise four years before the company collapsed--without ever looking at a single number.
6. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
How do successful companies create products people can’t put down?
Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?
Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.
Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.
Eyal provides readers with:
- Practical insights to create user habits that stick.
- Actionable steps for building products people love.
- Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.