Author Archives: 5tephen 4eo

Unscalable

Unscalable by Charlie Guo My rating: 1 of 5 stars Quite a number of the interview responses were not particularly insightful and most of the case studies were boring as hell to read. If you’re curious about startups and their journeys, I would recommended checking out the StartUp podcast by Gimlet Media instead. View all… Read More »

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like Carol Dweck in her book “Mindset”, Greg McKeown separates people into two camps – the essentialists and the non-essentialists. Sadly, the real world is not as black and white. Unlike Dweck, McKeown explains his “theory” with well-supported reasoning so… Read More »

Grit

Grit by Angela Duckworth My rating: 3 of 5 stars So apart from delayed gratification being a predictor of future success, as documented in Walter Mischel’s book The Marshmallow Test, “grit” – a special blend of passion and perseverance, does the same thing too. Well, at least that’s what Angela Duckworth seems to imply in… Read More »

Steal the Show

Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life by Michael Port My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first two parts of the book are boring to read with a lot of fluff. It didn’t steal the show as… Read More »

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck My rating: 2 of 5 stars The concept of fixed/growth mindsets is sound, but the arguments for it in this book are stretched too thin at times (like a simple blog post being over-extended into a book). Dweck ended up devoting many pages describing the… Read More »