The P2P Reading List (2023 September)
Read the best books first, otherwise you will find you do not have time.—Henry David Thoreau
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
Science might not be that different from art. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin does confirm this point. I would argue that technical professions, science included, are often pictured as the opposite of The Creative Act. I vividly remember these career questionnaires you were supposed to fill out as a child: it "helped" by pairing professions that are thought to be opposites, e.g. by whether you work with people such as a teacher or things such as a carpenter1.
Getting to the point, a painter was the opposite of a scientist. I still see the point, but this unidimensional comparison robs a very important point:
science is a creative act.
If you know exactly what you are doing, well, that is not research. Thus, I caught myself multiple times while reading The Creative Act thinking about science, not art. The adages and advice about curiosity, motivation, excitement, and hard work are illustrated by the arts, but they are to be considered for every profession. Not in a Nostradamus-esque way, but as excellent advice.
Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
Art and Fear investigates how uncertainties and fears (of failure, of acceptance, of imperfections) are the perils of the artists' life. As with The Creative Act, I found deep similarities to the sciences, especially regarding uncertainty.
Uncertainty is a key topic of the book; it is something I took to my heart: I used to say only half-jokingly that I did estimation theory during my undergrad for I hate uncertainty; with these tools, I at least had an impression of ruling it.
Uncertainty is there in the arts, for sure, which I can confirm in photography: if 90% of my pictures are not deleted outright, then that's an unreasonably high-quality day. Well, the 10% is still not exceptional, but they have something in them that's worth a memory—my optimistic estimate is that the exceptional ones are around 0.001%. This emphasizes that
the path to greatness is littered with the remains of your bad ideas.
You need to trust the process and let go of your inhibitions. Aiming for perfection at the first shot will only lead to paralysis.
Give and Take by Adam Grant
Is the only way to succeed to focus only on yourself? The answer is, fortunately, more nuanced than that. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant investigates how reciprocity styles, or, simply put, your single-mindedness on yourself only, affect success.
Interestingly, if you are a giver and help out others, then chances are that you either have the worst or the best performance. Why? Because giving can help build meaningful connections, show your goodwill, and elicit the willingness from others to reach a helping hand. However, this will not be an overnight success: giving is more for the ultra-endurance athlete of life.
The catch is that if you do not recognize that others are exploiting you (watch out in zero-sum games), or if you are so selfless that you neglect yourself, then you will end up at the bottom of the ladder.
Thus, givers shine when playing infinite games, but the shine will only show itself after a long bout, providing sparse feedback on what went well.
Peak Performance by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness
Anticipating the release of Master of Change, the newest book from The Growth Equation's Brad Stulberg, I re-read Peak Performance. The only problem with my copy is that it did not have notes despite being a treasure trove of balanced advice. As a type A person, I was always keen on grinding. Nonetheless, since you are reading my newsletter, you already know that I hope to do better and discover sustainable means to peak performance. This book was one of the first I read at the beginning of my PhD, and I still find it a gem. The authors do not want to sell a magic potion or a silver bullet. They are generally skeptical of fads and rely on a combination of scientific studies and empirical evidence (personal and from coaching) to help you thrive in the long run.
Master of Change by Brad Stulberg
A long-awaited tome from one of my favorite authors on my old kryptonite, uncertainty, a.k.a. change.
Brad Stulberg shines again by waking up the reader that change is inevitable, irrespective of how much you want to resist it. When you are in turmoil, your instinct might be just to get back to normal. As Brad Stulberg elaborates, the homeostasis approach to change fails to capture that where you get back is, well, not where you started. Allostasis, on the other hand, stresses that you adapt through change (also acknowledging that not all change leads to growth); thus, leading to a new normal.
A key aspect of the book is non-dual thinking: that is, holding two opposing thoughts simultaneously.
The author pinpoints that it is mostly alien to Western cultures, though in the East, this is part and parcel (think of yin and yang). This leads to Brad’s proposition for the go-to mindset towards change:
Rugged flexibility, that is, being both rugged (enduring, gritty) and flexible to manage change.
If you are interested in all the books that piqued my interest, you can also visit my Goodreads profile.
Of course, this is highly simplified, but a preteen/teen is probably not to be dumped with a handbook of career advice