Book Reviews

I love reading. You’ll find here reviews and notes of some of the books I’ve read. (Check here for a complete list of books.)

Create or Hate. Successful People Make Things, by Dan Norris

Buy from Amazon Even if some factors that lead people to be successful could be attributed to sheer luck, a common trait is that successful people create things. In Norris’ vision, creating something –that is, being creative– has little to do with wild talent and is more about productivity. The first requisite for being creative is to start to do something. In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield writes about The Resistance, the voice that delays us from doing our work, the self-sabotaging habits of procrastination, self-doubt, susceptibility to distraction, perfectionism, and shallowness. Read more...
creativity entrepreneurship failure

7 Pasos para lograr resultados extraordinarios

Buy from Amazon Solo una cosa: Enfócate en lo único (The One Thing), por Gary Keller, es uno de mis libros favoritos. Keller propone un marco mental aterrizado para lograr resultados extraordinarios tanto en el trabajo como en la vida personal. La premisa del autor es que los resultados extraordinarios vienen determinados, directamente, por lo enfocados que logremos ser. Más concretamente, por nuestra capacidad de enfocarnos en lo esencial, en lo que llama lo Único. Read more...

7 Steps for Achieving Extraordinary Results

Buy from Amazon The One Thing by Gary Keller is one of my favorite books because it offers a down-to-earth framework for achieving extraordinary results in work and in life in general. The author’s premise is that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus, or more precisely, by your ability to focus on what he calls the One Thing. I strongly agree with most of what the author proposes. Read more...

Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon

Buy from Amazon I won’t try to write a review of this great book by Austin Kleon because there are a lot of good ones available. (For example, this one in Spanish, or this one in English.) Steal Like an Artist takes out part of the mystique around creativity, and will teach you some very concrete ideas about creative work and how to approach it, in a direct, colloquial, and easy to read style. Read more...

Don’t Reply All: 18 Email Tactics That Help You Write Better Emails and Improve Communication with Your Team, by Hassan Osman

Buy from Amazon Don’t Reply All: 18 Email Tactics That Help You Write Better Emails and Improve Communication with Your Team, by Hassan Osman Hassan Osman has a vast experience managing projects with large, geographically distributed teams. His previous book, Influencing Virtual Teams, offered no-nonsense tactics to help you managing your team. Despite the huge advances in communications and the little improvement in email systems, email is here to stay. Read more...
book-review communication effectiveness email productivity team-building