My book of the week is an autobiography by Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising, written in 1927. Walter Weir once praised this book: There are few pages in My Life in Advertising which do not repay careful study - and which do not merit rereading. Before your eyes, a successful advertising life is … Continue reading My Life in Advertising
Author: dpz
My practice of improv and the book Improv Wisdom
I procrastinated from Friday night until the very early morning of Sunday before I committed myself to write about my book of the week, Improv Wisdom - Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up, by Patricia Ryan Madson. Writing this summary has not escaped my mind, whether I was deadheading roses, or making flower arrangements, or planning … Continue reading My practice of improv and the book Improv Wisdom
Only the Paranoid Survive
In this book, Andrew Grove talked to us about strategic inflection points: what they are, how to identify them, how to separate the signals from the noise, how to lead your business through the tough transitions and emerge from them stronger. Finally he offered advice on dealing with a career inflection point. In his own … Continue reading Only the Paranoid Survive
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The Hard Thing About Hard Things is written by Ben Horowitz. This book is hard for me to summarize. The lessons learned from the book are invaluable, but by not reading the stories themselves, you would only comprehend its gist with a large discount. In fact, most of the advice offered in the book might … Continue reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
This book came out of a course about startups that Peter taught at Stanford in 2012. My overall experience of reading this book front to back once and selected passages twice has been a very unsettling one in a positive way. It would be an understatement to say it is thought-provoking. Many opinions shared in … Continue reading Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World
After I read Adam Grant’s Give and Take a few months ago, I added his next book Originals to my reading list. The day before my trip to London, I decided to have this book as reading companion for the long haul flight ahead. Over the last decade, I have become used to long-distance flights … Continue reading Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World
Why I Write (Part II) – Politics and the English Language
Orwell wrote the essay Politics and the English Language in 1946. He argued that English language then was in a bad way: It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. He questioned the common assumption that we cannot … Continue reading Why I Write (Part II) – Politics and the English Language
Why I Write (Part I)
This week I read a book by George Orwell titled Why I Write. It consists of four essays: Why I Write The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius A Hanging Politics and the English language. Although the book is named after the first essay, the largest part of the volume is actually … Continue reading Why I Write (Part I)
When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air is written by Dr. Paul Kalanithi. There is a good summary about this book on his website. There are also a lot of reviews that you can find online about this book as well. Here I share with you a couple of my own thoughts on reading When Breath Becomes Air. … Continue reading When Breath Becomes Air
The Human Machine
The Human Machine, a small volume, was written by Arnold Bennett in 1908. A free e-version is available through the Project Gutenberg. However, for me, the pleasure of reading e-documents is not comparable with touching and turning each page of a physical book. This book can come across as challenging to read for some people … Continue reading The Human Machine