4 books worth reading

I really enjoy reading. It helps me spread my horizons, and improve ability to look at things from another perspective. This will be a short post reading recommendations. Below I have prepared a list of 4 books.

“Company of One”, Paul Jarvis

The “Company of One” I have already recommended in previous article (10 things to consider before starting B2B – CyNe.pl). In the book, author shares his knowledge and experience about running a business. As he has been working as an FTE in Corporations, he provides good comparison between realms of employment and self-employment. The decision about starting own business is definitely not easy, especially when you have to change habits, mindset and accept certain risks. Paul Jarvis, in his book, provides with summary of his reasoning behind the decision to start own business. As Author states “The ‘company of one’ approach doesn’t apply only to a single person business – it’s a model for using the power of you to be more self-reliant and more responsible for your own career”.

“The Phoenix Project”, Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford

It’s a great story about how poor management and a misunderstanding of business and technology can beat even the best ideas. There will also be many references to the famous Kaizen or the philosophy of “Purpose”.
“The Phoenix Project” is the first of two books. In the story, the company is struggling to adapt to the changing rules of the game. Everything is going computerization, and they are also trying to keep up. This is the journey from the perspective of IT Infrastructure world. The main character, Bill Palmer, with help of his mentor, tries to rescue the company, while discovering the secrets of how to manage properly. Many of you will probably notice some similarities to reality, after all, the author had to find somewhere the inspiration.

“The Unicorn Project”, Gene Kim

The second book from Gene Kim, “The Unicorn Project“, shows the same company and its struggles. However, now this novel is written from the development perspective. The book also has a lot of cool tips. Useful, not only for people working or aspiring to the IT industry, but also those who have already spent some time in IT. The book includes details on testing or CI / CD. When it comes to organizational advice, it is similar to the first part – “The Phoenix Project”. People managing the company or its strategy will probably find helpful tips.

“Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, Greg McKeown

The “Essentialism” describes the method, or more even to say the life philosophy on being the essentialist. Author provides in his definition, that being the essentialist is to do (or concentrate) exactly on one thing. Not to do more in shorter amount of time. Greg McKeown gives suggestions to use stricter criteria in assessing things, to filter out those ones which are really essential. Because, this will help you to gain control on your decisions, and will improve the management of your valuable time and resources. This book brings or refreshes the awareness, that you can eliminate the things which are irrelevant, and decide for yourself.

Enjoy

Have a good reading, I hope you will find those books interesting as well as helpful.