The 5 Books That Got Me Through 2020
It goes without saying that 2020 has been an unexpected year full of tragedy, uncertainty, and unrest. Despite the social isolation and anxiety that the year brought, reading continued to be my anchor, and I’d like to share the top five books that truly helped me get through 2020.
I stumbled across this book while rummaging through some books in my attic, and I’m very glad I discovered it.
Arianna Huffington is the cofounder of HuffPost, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, as well as the author of fifteen books.
As you can imagine, Huffington’s life has been full of both success and hardship, and these trials and tribulations became the core of this book. Ultimately, Thrive was a massive wakeup call for me that we need to redefine what success looks like in the 21st century. Success isn’t solely about monetary gain or social prestige; it’s about thriving, which Huffington defines as well-being, wisdom, and wonder. Huffington writes from an incredibly unique perspective given her wide ranging business ventures and, as such, pulls heavily from her own life experience, while not forgetting to infuse her biography with research from an array of subjects including psychology, sports medicine, sleep, physiology, mindfulness, mental health, and more.
If you are struggling to find your purpose in life, are switching careers, or are just feeling crummy about where you are in life at the moment, I cannot recommend this book enough.
Keep your eyes out for my favorite part of the book: a passionate criticism of the virality of going viral on page 152, of which Huffington played a major role in her position as President of HuffPost.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
While reading Thrive was relatively unintentional, Grit was a deliberate exercise. In fact, it has been on my reading list for over a year.
Angela Duckworth is best known for her work as a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2013, but she is also the founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to “advance scientific insights that help children thrive.”
Years ago, I was introduced to the concept of grit, which Duckworth defines as passion + perseverance, for a summer reading assignment in high school and the concepts have lingered with me ever since. As such, there has been quite a bit of hype surrounding this book, but I can comfortably say that this is one of the few times that I can 100% say that the hype is deserving. Duckworth’s writing style is easy to follow and her examples are quite salient. Like Huffington, Duckworth infuses her personal biography as a student, educator, and scientist (as well as the biographies of notable athletes, scientists, and business people) with her research about success.
At the end of the day, Duckworth sees grit as the main distinguishing factor between successful and unsuccessful individuals in their respective fields. My favorite aspects of the book rested on building grit into institutions, such as the Seattle Seahawks and large corporations. That said, I wish there was just a bit more of that in the book.
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World by Adam Grant
When I was younger, my dad always told me that, “Anyone can come up with an idea, but not everyone can execute on that idea.” This book really put that logic into context for me. Literally, within the first twenty pages, I was simultaneously comforted and rethinking my entire life, which is my favorite experience while reading books like these.
Adam Grant is an organizational psychologists at the Wharton School of Business, the host of a collaborative podcast with TED called WorkLife, and the author of seven books. He has frequently been regarded as one of the foremost thought-leaders in business management (a subject that deeply fascinates me) of our generation.
The thesis of Originals is that change-makers are often procrastinators, fearful of risk, have bad ideas, and yet they frequently persist in championing those ideas anyway because they are less afraid of failing than they are of trying.
I picked up this read following a suggestion from one of my closest friends and, ever since I finished Grant’s book, I have been obsessed with his research.
My one point of contention with Grant, though, is that his writing style can be a little confusing as it jumps between storylines and research. My personal recommendation is that, if you want want the gist of the book, just read the first chapter and the addendum with actions for impact.
Some of my key takeaways included:
- Question everything — someone previously constructed the norm so why can’t you?
- Don’t get overly attached to your ideas. Instead, come up with as many as you can.
- Balance your risk portfolio in life like investors do in the stock market.
- Couch your novel ideas in familiar terms.
- Be a tempered radical.
- Run innovation tournaments in your organization to foster creativity.
- Transparency, transparency, transparency.
- Find people with cultural contribution, not just fit.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World by David Epstein
If I could recommend just one book to you to read from my list thus far, it would be Range. It has quickly become one of my all-time favorites and frequently pops up in conversations with friends.
David Epstein has worked as an investigative journalist for ProPublica and a writer for Sports Illustrated. Now, he is a full time author and speaker.
In Range, Epstein covers the age old question of “When should you begin to specialize, and to what extent should you specialize, for optimal success?”
Epstein’s answer: forget the question. You should never feel like you are behind in life. “Head starts” are remarkably overrated, and often fake, anyway.
In an age of hyper specialization, I found this book really calming. Epstein reminded me that diversified interests are crucial, and often the single advancing factor, to success in as disparate fields as athletics, engineering, and business. He isn’t so much arguing that specialization is useless (it has certainly documented its effectivity since the Industrial Revolution); however, he is arguing that specialization, just like “head starts” are overhyped.
Ultimately, here are a few extra takeaways I got from the book:
- Diversify your knowledge like you should diversify your assets.
- Interdisciplinary knowledge is king.
- Create your own experimentation days to facilitate creativity.
- Be a deliberate amateur and just love the process.
- Test, test, test, test.
How To Be A Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci
This book deviates from the rest of the list, not just in method but also in subject matter covered.
Massimo Pigliucci is a philosophy professor at the City College of New York and former cohost of the Rationally Speaking Podcast.
In How To Be A Stoic, Pigliucci answers questions such as how to find happiness in your life, how to find success in your life, and best practices to achieve the proceeding questions through the lens of Stoicism, an ancient Greek philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium that teaches that virtue is the highest good and that the wise life is in harmony with reason. Stoicism has become a re-emerging, practical philosophy in recent years thanks to book like How To Be A Stoic and The Daily Stoic.
I recently finished reading How To Be A Stoic during my most recent round of finals, and I found it to be very grounding. One exercise in particular was extremely helpful: differentiating what is and is not in my control. Following this practice freed me of most of my testing anxiety and speculation regarding final grades.
Pigliucci relies pretty heavy on his academic understanding of philosophy in the book, which is not inherently a bad thing at all. For me, I was just more interested in practical advice and exercises than philosophical foundations. That said, I think the final chapter does a great job of providing all of that in one place. So, here are the main suggestions/practices:
- Virtue is the highest good, and everything else is indifferent.
- Follow nature.
- Recognize what is in your control, and what is outside of your control.
- Remind yourself of the impermanence of things, including your loved ones.
- Pause and take a deep breath.
- Try to empathize with others.
- Speak little and well.
- Choose who you surround yourself with well.
- Response to insults with humor.
- Speak without judging.
- Reflect on your day, particularly what you could have done better, at the end of your day.
And there you have it. The five books that got me through 2020. As you could probably tell, I have been thinking about success, failure, and happiness a lot this year. Thankfully, these books have calmed my anxiety about my future by quite a bit, and I hope you consider adding at least one of them to your reading list for 2021!
I hope you found this list comprehensive and helpful. If you end up reading one of the books I mentioned and wish to discuss them further with me, I am relatively accessible on direct message via Instagram or you can feel free to drop me a comment here on Medium.
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