What You Will Learn

As we come to the end of another year of the podcast, we look back on our favourite books we've read this season (so far). As we do at the end of every year then again at the end of every season, we each look back and rank all of the books we read, compile our respective 'Top 10' lists, then share the biggest lessons we took from each book. This is a great way to get a taste of all of the books and decide which ones you want to dive into further and listen to the full episode.    Adam Ashton's favourites: 10. Turning Pro - by Steven Pressfield 9. Getting Past No - by William Ury 8. Eat That Frog! - by Brian Tracy 7. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big - by Scott Adams 6. Oh, The Places You'll Go! - by Dr Seuss 5. Grit - by Angela Duckworth 4. Ego Is The Enemy - by Ryan Holiday 3. Thinking, Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman 2. Unscripted - by MJ DeMarco 1. Meditations - by Marcus Aurelius   Adam Jones's favourites:  10. Zero to One - by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters 9. Ego Is The Enemy - by Rya

The body is often likened to a machine. But it is much more than that, it works 24 hours a day for decades without for most part, needing regular servicing or the installation of spare parts. It runs on water and a few other organic compounds, is soft and rather lovely, reproduces itself with enthusiasm, feels affection and appreciates the sunset How many machines behave like that? In this episode we'll take you through the best bits of Bill Bryson -The Body, we'll look at the microbial organ, food, exercise medicine and death. Enjoy! If you'd like a copy of the book, grab one at: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Body/9780857522412/?a_aid=adamsbooks  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The book breaks down effective management through the tale of the 'One Minute Manager' through 3 simple secrets. The First Secret - One Minute Goals Most organisations when you ask people what they do and then ask their boss, normally you get two different lists. Once the manager has told you what needs to be done, or you have agreed what needs to be done, each goal is recorded on no more than a single page. The OMM then feels that a goal and its performance standard should take max 250 words. It should be able to be read in a minute. The Second Secret - One Minute Praisings Hardly anyone sees the One Minute Manager, except at the start. He knows it would be a lot easier for employees to do well if you get crystal clear feedback from him on how you are doing. After the goals are set, the OMM is watching the employee like a hawk. He always keeping a close eye and taking notes. At first you think it is because you think he doesn't trust you, that is until I found out from some of t

'The fight to master our greatest opponent'All of us, at every stage of life, are the victims of our own ego. Our ego leads us to strive too far, expect too much, assume that we're deserving - all before we've even done the work. If we achieve success our ego makes us do things that lead us to failure, if we fail our ego crushes our attempts to get up and try again."It's always nice to be made to feel special or empowered or inspired. But that's not the aim of this book". Instead, Holiday has tried to arrange the passages of the book so that you may end in the same place he did when he was writing it: you think LESS of yourself. He hopes you will be less invested in the story you tell yourself about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to ACCOMPLISH the world-changing work you've set out to achieve. The aim of the book is simple: to help you suppress ego early before bad habits take hold, to replace the temptations of ego with humility and discipline, when we experience success, a

Our third annual pilgrimage to Sydney took us right back to Dr Karl's office. His brand new book, Dr Karl's Random Road Trip Through Science, features an Augmented Reality app with Dr Karl popping out of the book to share his wealth of wisdom. (If you've been listening to the show for a few years, this is certainly 'breaking the script' and is a definite 'purple cow').  We talk about a bunch of random scientific things Karl learnt this year, as well an injecting a nice amount of conspiracy theory too.    Ask us a question for our 'Best of 2019' Q&A episode: https://whatyouwilllearn.com/question/ Check out more Dr Karl and grab his free AR app: https://drkarl.com/  Listen to our previous two episodes with Dr Karl: https://whatyouwilllearn.com/doctorkarl/ and https://whatyouwilllearn.com/drkarl-round2/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Eat That Frog! - by Brian Tracy'21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time'There is never enough time to do everything you have to do. You are literally swamped with work and personal responsibilities, endless emails, social media, projects, side projects, stacks of newspapers to read, a pile of books you want to get to 'some day' as soon as you get caught up on everything else. But the fact is that you are NEVER going to get caught up. You will never get 'on top' of your tasks. You will never get far enough ahead to be able to get to all those emails, books, newspapers, and leisure time activities that you dream of.Forget about trying to solve your time management problems by being more productive. No matter how many personal productivity techniques you master, there will always be more to do than you can ever accomplishing the time you have available to you, no matter how much it is.You can get control of your life only by changing the way you think, work, and deal with the ne

Revealed how painfully burdened they feel by a sense of not being good enough. We don't have to wait until we are on our deathbed to realize what a waste of our precious lives it is to carry the belief that something is wrong with us. Yet because our habits of feeling so insufficient are so strong, awakening from the trance involves not only inner resolve, but also an active training of the heart and mind. Through Buddhist awareness and practices, we free ourselves from the suffering of trance by learning to recognize what is true in the present moment, embracing whatever we see with an open heart. This is radical acceptance. It reverses our habit of living at war with experiences that are unfamiliar, frightening or intense. It is the necessary antidote to years of neglecting ourselves, years of judging and treating ourselves harshly, years of rejecting this moment's experience. It is the willingness to experience ourselves and our life as it is. Grab a copy of the book here:https://www.bookdeposito

After first speaking with Neil Pasricha 12 months ago about his book The Happiness Equation, he's back to chat about his brand new book You Are Awesome. It's all about building resilience, shifting from fragile to antifragile, and thickening up your skin a little. Check out everything Neil is doing at his site: https://www.neil.blog/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Grit - by Angela Duckworth'Why passion and resilience are the keys to success' Angela Duckworth studied successful people and found that the mega-successful weren't the smartest, the fittest or the most talented, but the ones who had the most grit. Grit, this combination of passion and perseverance, turned out to be the strongest indicator and predicator of eventual success.The good news? Even if you score pretty poorly on the Grit Assessment (like we both did), you can grow your Grit. Through interest, purpose, practice and hope, you can actually improve your grit score and learn to achieve more. Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Grit-Angela-Duckworth/9781785040207/?a_aid=adamsbooks  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lurking behind the mystery of ancient ruins is the mystery with the nagging thought: might such a fate eventually befall our own wealthy society? Will tourists someday stare mystified at the New York skyscrapers, much as we stare at the jungle overgrown ruins of Maya cities? Perhaps we can still learn from the past, but only if we think carefully about its lessons. The book has a 5 point framework of possible contributing collapse to societies: 1 - Environmental damageCould be exceptional imprudence of the people and exceptional fragility in aspects of the environment, or both. 2 - Climate changeToday we refer to human induced. But in the past it was natural climate change, including the advance and retreat of continental ice sheets during ice ages from about 1400-1800 AD, or the global cooling from the enormous volcanic eruption of Indonesia's Mt Tambora on 1815 3 - Hostile neighboursRelationships might be intermittently or chronically hostile. A society may be able to hold off its enemie

MJ DeMarco writes some of the most eye-opening books we've read - The Millionaire Fastlane and Unscripted. If you haven't realised it yet, the world is ran by numerous scripts that aren't designed for you to live your best life. In this episode, we run the analogy of the red pill deep: breaking down the BS and biases we all hold, the importance of your F-This Event, and how you could use a job to propel you onto the Fastlane.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Unscripted - by MJ DeMarco'Life Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship' Has life regressed into paying bills and living for a weekend?You weren't born to slave 9 - 5, Monday through Friday, paying the bills and then die. When life's final moment arrives, what will your spirit sing? Regret and remorse? Or peace and happiness?UNSCRIPTED: is your pen to rewrite a future that's already been written, don't wait for life's twilight to dream about time machines, it exists in the moment. The opportunity to resurrect your dreams and change history awaits. Want a free 7 day trial with Blinkist? Head to: https://www.blinkist.com/whatyouwilllearnGrab a copy of the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Unscripted/9780984358168/?a_aid=adamsbooks   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Daily life is full of negotiations that can drive you crazy.Over breakfast you get into an argument with your spouse about buying a new car, your spouse thinks it's time but you say "we can't afford that right now"You arrive at work for a meeting with your boss, you present her with a carefully prepared proposal for a new project, but she interrupts within the first minute and says "we already tried that and it didn't work.During lunch you try to return a defective toaster you bought last week, but the store person refuses to refund or exchange the toaster because you don't have the receipt and that's "Store Policy"This book will show you how to "get past no" via a 5 step process:Step 1: Don't React (Go to the Balcony) Step 2: Disarm Them (step to their side)Step 3: Change the Game (don't reject... reframe)Step 4: Build he Golden Bridge (make it easy to say yes)Step 5: Don't Escalate - Use Power to Educate (make it hard to say no)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big - by Scott Adams Scott Adams is the creator of the 'Dilbert' cartoon series. Before this world-wide phenomenon though, Adams is happy to admit the looong list of things he tried (and failed at) before eventually achieving success. Each failed attempt gave him a lesson, something he could take with him and apply to the next thing he tried. Even as Dilbert was growing in success, he still worked full time for 10 years, drawing Dilbert at 5am before work.This book provides some important ideas and approaches for achieving (eventual) success. In this episode, we'll talk about: the downside of passion, goals VS systems, managing your attitude and energy, prioritising and making decisions, and 'skill stacking'.     See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Everything is F*cked - by Mark Manson'A book about hope'  In the infinite expanse of space/time, the universe does not care whether your mother's hip replacement goes well, or your kids attend college, or your boss thinks you make a great spreadsheetYou care, and you desperately convince yourself that because you care, it all must have some great cosmic meaning behind it. You care because deep down, you need to feel that sense of importance in order to avoid the uncomfortable truth, to avoid the incomprehensibility of your existence, to avoid being crushed by the weight of your own material insignificance, and you like everyone - project an imagined sense of importance onto the world around you because it gives you hope.You might say: "I believe we're all here for a reason, and nothing is a coincidence, and everyone matters because all our actions affect SOMEBODY, and even if we can help one person, then it was all worth it"This is hope. That's a story made up in your mind that your brain spins to c

Meditations - by Marcus Aurelius Originally written as a diary almost 2000 years ago, the struggles people faced then are almost identical to the ones we are facing today. This is one of the core books on stoic philosophy.We recap some of the vital passages of the book and pull out the key themes: differentiating between the things you can control and the things you can't, responsibility and taking ownership, being indifferent toward things like death and change, and living in the present instead of the past or the future.  If you want to buy this book, make sure you get this version (other translations are harder to understand, this one is the best we've found that mixes the true essence of Marcus's sentiments with modern day understandable language): https://www.bookdepository.com/Mod-Lib-Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/9780812968255/?a_aid=adamsbooks    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Talking to Strangers - by Malcolm Gladwell'What we should know about the people we don't know' We think we can understand people. We think that by meeting someone, shaking their hand, looking into their eyes, we can get a grasp on who they are, how they feel, and what their motives or intentions are. We think that a little bit of personal knowledge gives us a big insight into their character - a job interviews shows us if they'll be a good employee, a first date can indicate the likelihood of compatibility.We're wrong. Strangers are complex. In Malcolm Gladwell's brand new book, he highlights just a few of the things that make strangers particularly hard to understand: Truth Default Theory, Transparency, Coupling. Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Talking-Strangers-Malcolm-Gladwell/9780241351574/?a_aid=adamsbooks  Check out top 50:www.whatyouwilllearn.com   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Five years ago, Nir Eyal wrote the best-selling book 'Hooked'. It was all about the four-step process businesses can use to make habit-forming products and services. By getting people 'hooked', by getting people to almost the point of addiction and compulsion, businesses can thrive (think Facebook, Candy Crush and Spotify as some examples).Now, Nir writes gives us individuals a four-step methods to get UNHOOKED in his brand new book Indistractable. This book is all about reclaiming our time and attention by adding more focus and traction to our lives - becoming "Indistractable". To check out the book, and more of Nir's work, head to his website: http://indistractable.com or https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable/     See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hooked - by Nir Eyal'How to build habit-forming products' If a business can turn their product or service into a 'habit', then they've got you 'hooked'. It makes it much harder for the user to change to a competitor, usage becomes more frequent and more irresistible, and it becomes far more profitable for the business.Nir Eyal takes us through the 'Hook Model' which teaches business what they need to build into their offering to get consumers hooked:Triggers (external & internal)ActionVariable RewardInvestment Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Hooked-Nir-Eyal/9780241184837/?a_aid=adamsbooks Get a free 7-day trial of Blinkist here: https://www.blinkist.com/whatyouwilllearn   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We've all heard of 'climate change' and we hear dystopian ideas about the horrors we may face if we don't take appropriate action, but what will life on the planet ACTUALLY look like if our planet heats up too much?  Check out our top 50:www.whatyouwilllearn.com   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.