My top books I read in 2020

A thread...

Almanack of Naval Ravikant
What a stunning and thoughtful compilation of @naval's work and words.
I predict that this is going to define a new industry - curating public content of thought leaders and converting them into books.

https://t.co/sHFCsvr4Jk
Waking Up: Search for spirituality without religion
@SamHarris provoked me through this book and offered me, an atheist, a lot to think about.
Pick up his works!

https://t.co/pcM5c7GkGo
Psychology of Money
My most awaited book of this year, since the day @morganhousel announced his book.
A must read for all ages, especially those in their 20s.

I predict this to reach levels of "Rich Dad Poor Dad" over the next 10 years

https://t.co/WGiowzQCCO
Courage to be disliked
What a stunner! Challenges most of our tightly-held beliefs and I found myself nodding more often than not through the book.

Not for the faint-hearted.

https://t.co/ixHN5DUwOT
One from many: VISA and the rise of chaordic organization
This was the biggest surprise of 2020. I started it with little expectations and was blown away by the story of how VISA came to being. Much read for all fin-tech enthusiasts.

https://t.co/EEM5ELUYQD
What you do is who you are
@bhorowitz strikes again, after HTAHT. This is a different yet joyous read from his earlier book and does the job well of establishing culture as a critical input to business success.

https://t.co/q3BKTycEBb
Siddhartha: An Indian Tale
This was a long time due book and I am so glad I got to it this year. Any other year I may not have appreciated it as much.
Such a powerful book to read and reflect upon. Set during the time of the Buddha

https://t.co/c0dcJsxeko
No Rules Rules
@reedhastings first book. if you have read the Netflix Culture Deck, then this is a great follow up book. A must-read for all founders and business leaders.

https://t.co/4sfV9nhMR5
Laws of human nature
@RobertGreene calls a spade a spade. And this book brings all his spades together!
It is hard-hitting, it is unapologetically real and it kept me hooked.

https://t.co/ZVh1u9cWs7
The moral animal: The new science of evolutionary psychology
This is hands down the most provocative science books that I have read. Gripping read, that tries to explain why we are the way we are!

https://t.co/OS61IKfLJ9
Range: how generalists triumph in a specialized world
If you want the class generalist vs specialist question answered, this is the book for you. @DavidEpstein has written a beauty. One of the best reads of the year for me.

https://t.co/bDsFagbcgP
Awareness: They key to living in balance
This is was my first read by OSHO and I quite liked it. In more ways than I expected, he made a lot of sense and his ideas were hard to not appreciate.

I would surely recommend this to many.

https://t.co/Wveb1sYBhu
On the shortness of life
I remain such an admirer of Seneca and his timeless wisdom. And every year find myself going back to some form of Stoic reading. This book was my highlight from the year.

https://t.co/ehdxK9C443
I tracked some numbers down for 2020

1. This year I read 37 books
2. 5 of them were re-reads
3. Of the 32 new books, I didn't complete 9 of them (Autobiography of Yogi being the most important one that I wish I had)
4. There were 47 days in 2020 when I did not read at all
In addition to these books, I also converted 5 of my twitter threads in illustrated eBooks

You can download them for free here
https://t.co/Kf4xzkFPWs
Here is a thread I wrote about how I read my books

https://t.co/daBa0uW5no
Here are 20 books that have benefitted me a lot in life

https://t.co/ytFYYFqodw
I would love recommendations for 2021 (am building my list right now)

I love reading
Entrepreneurship
Human Psychology
Philosophy
Autobiographies/Biographies

PS: I only read non-fiction.
No - I don't intend to change that :)

More from Ankur Warikoo

More from Book

People have wondered why I have spent 3 days mostly pushing back on this idea that "defund the police" is bad marketing.

The reason is, it's an example of this magic trick, the oldest trick in the book.

It's a competition between what I call compass statements. And it matters.


There are a lot of people who think "defund the police" is a bad slogan.

But it's a directional intention. A compass statement.

The real effect of calling it a bad slogan, whether or not intentional (but usually intentional), is to reduce a compass statement down to a slogan.

Whenever there is a real problem and a clear solution, there will be people who benefit from the problem and therefore oppose the solution in a variety of ways.

And this is true of any real problem, not just the problem of lawless militarized white supremacist police.

There are people who oppose it directly using a wide variety of tactics, one of which is misconstruing anything—quite literally anything—said by those who propose solutions—any solutions.

They'd appreciate it if you mistake their deliberate misrepresentation for confusion.

The reason they'd appreciate if if you mistake their deliberate misrepresentation for confusion is, it wastes time that could have been spend on the solution trying to persuade them, with different arguments and metaphors or solutions.

Which they intend to misconstrue.
दोन वर्षांपूर्वी जेव्हा मी ‘लीन इन’ हे पुस्तक वाचले होते तेव्हा मला कधीच वाटले नव्हते की ह्या पुस्तकाचा माझ्यावर कायमचा परिणाम होईल.
“खरोखर समान जग असे आहे की जेथे महिलांनी आपले अर्धे देश आणि कंपन्या आणि पुरुषांनी अर्धी घरं चालवतील. “
- शेरिल सँडबर्ग.


अध्याय वाचताना मला जाणवलं की प्रत्येक महिला जिला तिच्या आवडीनिवडींशी कोणतीही तडजोड न करता स्वत: चे करियर बनवायचे आहे, तिच्यासाठी हा manifesto आहे. या वास्तववादी पुस्तकाची लेखिका शेरिल सँडबर्ग आहे. प्रामाणिक बोलं तर मी त्यावेळी तिचं नाव कधीच ऐकले नव्हते.


काही खुलासे करणारे तथ्य शोधल्यानंतर मी तिच्या संदर्भात अधिक माहितीसाठी थोडा इंटरनेट सर्फ केलं. हार्वर्डमधून इकॉनॉमिक्सची पदवी घेतली व पदवी पूर्ण झाल्यावर तिला कॉलेजमध्ये वुमन इन इकॉनॉमिक्स नावाची एक संस्था स्थापित केली. एका वर्षासाठी वर्ल्ड बँकेत काम केले आणि कुष्ठरोगास आळा


घालण्याच्या एका कार्यक्रमाअंतर्गत त्यांनी भारतातही प्रवास केला. नंतर हार्वर्ड येथे एमबीए केले आणि वर्षभर मॅककिन्से आणि कंपनीबरोबर काम केले. माझ्यासारख्या भारतीय महिलेसाठी, तिने आपल्या पुस्तकात लिहून दिलेल्या कामाच्या ठिकाणी महिलांच्या वागणुकीच्या साध्या साध्या निरीक्षणाद्वारे

निश्चितच एक आदर्श म्हणून काम केले. मला वैयक्तिकरित्या कळले की पुस्तकात नोंदवलेल्या बर्‍याच अज्ञात, नकळत वर्तन तथ्य सत्य आहेत. त्यापैकी काहींचा समावेश आहे की महिला ज्या प्रकल्पात काम करतात त्या कोणत्याही प्रकल्पात पुढाकार अर्थात initiative घेत नाहीत,

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