Dreams from my Father - Barack Obama

Totally fascinating. Amazing.

A friend had recommended I listen to this on CD. Obama reads it himself, and he won for a Grammy for it. I ended up reading it because I don't spend enough time in my car to get through the CD in a reasonable time. But I would love to go back and listen to it.

It's incredible to see Obama's history, especially knowing where he is now. The difficulties he had to navigate, the complexity of his life. He wrote this in 1995, before getting into politics, so it feels less polished and packaged than campaign memoirs do. And I'm amazed at how unsentimentally he's able to write about his past - about issues he was struggling with, about actions he is now embarrassed by. I know I couldn't be so dispassionate about my own history.

The book has greater resonance than just the story of the man who became President. It talks about identity formation and group connection and finding one's way in the world.

Plus, wow he can write.

Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Barack Obama
1995, 2004
Available from Amazon

Talent Is Overrated - Geoff Colvin

Geoff Colvin makes a compelling argument that what makes people really good at things is deliberate practice. He systematically tears apart ideas of "talent" or "gifts", and points out how everyone who is good at something got that way by working really hard at it. The people we think of as prodigies (including Mozart and Tiger Woods), got that way by starting practicing younger, and with better teachers, than other people did.

Colvin goes beyond this to explain how we can apply deliberate practice ideas to all sorts of areas (sales, management, whatever we do). It's freeing, in a way, because we can choose to become good at whatever we want. It just takes careful thought and dedicated effort. I had to take a break from reading this in the middle, because I was overwhelmed with the thought that I could be excellent at whatever I wanted. And what did I want to be excellent at?

When I go back to doing counseling, I'm going to put these techniques into practice as a therapist. Getting regular feedback (like every session) from clients, working on particular areas of practice, examining what I do with an eye to getting better.

Talent is overrated: What really separates world-class performers from everyone else
Geoff Colvin
2008
Available from Amazon

How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer

Jonah Lehrer is one of the writers who clearly has more intellectual horsepower than me. And since I think of myself as pretty freaking smart, I'm impressed when I read his writing. This book is fascinating. He talks about what current neuroscience tells us about how our brains make decisions. Are our rational minds more sensible than our emotional minds? How do we make decisions under stress? When should we go with our gut instinct, and when should we think a decision through intellectually? He describes really interesting case scenarios: how did the fire jumper who invented the escape fire (in the face of an oncoming firestorm) do so? How do excellent poker players understand who is bluffing and decide when to bluff themselves? How do excellent quarterbacks make decisions about where to throw the ball?

I'm going to apply the lessons he describes here, and I'm going to make better decisions as a result.

How We Decide
Jonah Lehrer
2009
Available from Amazon

The United States Constitution - Hennessey and McConnell

A graphic version of the US Constitution. Covers the content and history of the Constitution in a readable and fun fashion.

I've never read a graphic novel, and I'm a really verbal person. (No visualization skills whatsoever.) But I found the drawings incredibly witty and illuminating. I'm going to start seeking out graphic books, because the pictures were an equal partner to the words and made the book much more fun to read.

The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation
Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell
2008
Available from Amazon