Rating: 7.3/10. Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz Memoir by the CEO of Starbucks about how he turned the company around during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. In 2007, there were lots of small things that indicated the company was losing its competitive edge: they prioritized opening…
Category: Topics
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
Rating: 7.9/10. Book about the principles of design, using examples from everyday objects that we’re familiar with, like doors, clocks, faucets, etc. The first job of the designer is to communicate to the user what actions are possible on the item (affordances) and where should the action be directed (signifiers), for example, a handle signals…
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Rating: 8.2/10. The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Rob Fitzpatrick Book about how to validate startup ideas by talking to customers, and common mistakes that founders make when they try to do so. Unlike many business books,…
An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching by Keith Johnson
Rating: 8.0/10. Book covering a lot of research about best practices in language learning and teaching. There is a lot of implicit knowledge that’s required to effectively use a language: the obvious ones like phonology, syntax, and the lexicon, but also often-overlooked ones like pragmatic differences between languages. There is some overlap between this book…
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Rating: 6.8/10. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan Book by journalist Michael Pollan (author of the Omnivore’s Dilemma) about psychedelics like LSD, and its yet untapped potential for medicine. The author is in his 60s and did not…
Yut Di – One Earth by EHK Ho
Rating: 7.4/10. Novel about the first Chinese immigrants to Canada, escaping war and famine in China in search of a better life. The year is 1880 and the story begins with a wealthy businessman (Cheung) and his son (Wing) on a ship to British Columbia. Their plan is to make a business selling supplies to…
Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene
Rating: 7.8/10. Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read by Stanislas Dehaene Book survey of the neuroscience of reading, written by a prominent researcher. Our brains did not evolve to read, yet we can learn to read by “recycling” parts of our visual system to recognize letters and words instead of objects….
Northwest Coast Indian Art by Bill Holm
Rating: 7.7/10. Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form by Bill Holm An analysis of the formline style of art by the Pacific Northwest Indians including the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian tribes. The ancient art was forgotten until its revival relatively recently, when people studied old works to deduce the patterns so that new…
Overdose by Benjamin Perrin
Rating: 7.9/10. Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada’s Opioid Crisis by Benjamin Perrin Book about drug policy, centered around the recent opioid epidemic in North America but especially in Vancouver. The problem recently intensified with the introduction of fentanyl, which became popular around 2012. Fentanyl is especially bad because it’s easy to overdose when using…
The Business of Venture Capital by Mahendra Ramsinghani
Rating: 8.4/10. The Business of Venture Capital: The Art of Raising a Fund, Structuring Investments, Portfolio Management, and Exits by Mahendra Ramsinghani A comprehensive guide to how the world of venture capital works and what it takes to be successful as a VC. The job of a VC is to take money from investors, identify…
Historical Atlas of Vancouver by Derek Hayes
Rating: 7.8/10. Historical Atlas of Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley by Derek Hayes Atlas containing about 350 maps of Vancouver and the surrounding regions from the first European settlements until about 2000. Vancouver is a relatively young city: it was still covered in dense forest as late as 1885 but rapidly grew into a…
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Rating: 7.6/10. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Book by tech CEO and venture capitalist, founder of the Andreessen-Horowitz VC firm. The first part tells the story of his role as CEO of Loudcloud and Opsware. His company ran into trouble during the…