Tag: self-improvement

Trust and Loyalty

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Working in an international company, I’ve experienced cultural differences firsthand between various nationalities. A year ago, I wrote a review of The Culture Map, a book I constantly recommend to colleagues. However, this topic is so broad and fascinating that it keeps resurfacing, especially as the understanding of these differences allows me to notice them in the behavior of those around me almost daily.

Today, I’d like to delve deeper into differences in trust and loyalty. Instead of comparing everyone, let’s focus on the typical American and the typical Russian. By “Russians,” I mean people from the former USSR, as this is how we are often viewed abroad. Of course, this is a diverse mix, and we’re not all the same (for example, I can clearly see differences between Russians and Belarusians, and within Russia itself, there are plenty of distinctions due to the sheer size of the country).

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Simon Sinek “Leaders Eat Last”

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The book Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek initially caught my attention because of its title. It immediately sparks different images in your mind, and you start imagining what the author meant by such a title… so it was worth reading to find out.

I read it almost in one go and took more notes than with any other book I’ve read. However, I struggled for a long time to decide what rating to give the book, as well as what I really liked and what still needs further thought. That’s why I’m writing this review three weeks after finishing the book.

The book is about what it means to be a leader and what the right company culture should look like.

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Richard Rumelt “Good Strategy, Bad Strategy”

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Some books come into your life at just the right time. I first noticed Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy, Bad Strategy a few years ago and bought it immediately. I didn’t get around to reading it right away, but once I started, it suddenly became very popular among my colleagues, which gave me the chance to discuss various points with them.

A year passed, my thoughts settled, and I realized that the book was so good that it deserved a more thoughtful re-read. So that’s what I did this time.

So what is this book about, and why did I read it twice in roughly a year and a half?

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Mark Manson “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”

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I always thought that the midlife crisis was something out of the realm of psychological fiction, until this “fiction” overwhelmed me personally. And then I began to think about a lot of things and to reconsider much.

That’s when I came across the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. No, it’s not about middle age or even about its crisis. It’s more about the values we set for ourselves and how we do so. What we pay attention to, and what we SHOULD be paying attention to.

Some points are debatable, but overall, the author explains in a rather laid-back manner that many of the goals we set for ourselves, the things we strive for, are not actually what we truly need. Society imposes its values on us, preventing us from living happily and growing personally.

On the one hand, the author shows that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for who we haven’t become or never will be. He demonstrates that it’s often necessary to accept ourselves as we are and not stress over failures. And here lies the second important thing — mistakes and failures allow us to move forward. Self-doubt is a crucial part of our personal growth. In other words, we should doubt ourselves, but we shouldn’t worry about it.

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Danny Gregory “Shut Your Monkey”

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The book Shut Your Monkey by Danny Gregory caught my attention with its description. We all have doubts, and that inner voice often tells us unpleasant things that can sometimes make us give up. Danny Gregory suggests visualizing this panicky voice as a monkey that lives inside us and holds us back from growing and achieving success.

The author worked in creative fields for many years, and this is evident in the book’s design: it’s full of sketches and illustrations, with white pages alternating with black ones. It’s clear that he was aiming to create not just a book but a creative piece of art.

While there are some interesting ideas, the book as a whole didn’t captivate me because it lacks a clear, cohesive approach.

It feels more like a notebook where the author jotted down his thoughts and artistic sketches “on the subject” and then decided to publish the whole notebook as a book. Perhaps because of this, it reads quickly and easily—there are no long chapters, just short paragraphs on one thought before moving on to the next.

Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end. At some point, I even found myself thinking that the book felt like the speech of an American preacher: short, concise, emotional, but with an obvious underlying agenda—selling a form of religious fanaticism.

You can read it to reflect on how you deal with your own inner panic monkey, but don’t expect much more from the book.

My rating: 3/5

Danny Gregory ‘Shut Your Monkey: How to Control Your Inner Critic and Get More Done‘buy

Mark Goulston “Talking to ‘Crazy'”

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I read the book in Russian, and the main issue with the translation is its title, which became How to Talk to Assholes in Russian. In the original, there’s no mention of “assholes”—the word used is “crazy.” However, to grab attention, the editors took liberties. This may have drawn some readers in, but the reality is the book isn’t about what its cover suggests.

I decided to read this book as a sort of follow-up to Robert Sutton’s The No Asshole Rule. But as it turned out, the two have nothing in common. However, the book was much better than I expected, given its strange title.

The author is a practicing psychologist who interacts with a lot of strange, even insane people through his work. He uses examples to demonstrate how one can communicate with people we find unbearable.

He starts with a brief classification of “crazy” people, explaining possible mechanisms of madness, and then moves on to discuss how to handle each specific case. Interestingly, through these examples, he shows that most problems stem from childhood, from the principles of upbringing. This, in turn, leaves a mark on the rest of one’s life.

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Erin Mayer “The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business”

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Let’s consider an example: an employee (French) and her boss (American) are discussing her work performance. The employee leaves the conversation feeling inspired—she’s exceeding expectations, and she is one of the best. Meanwhile, the boss is left puzzled—he’s tried every way possible to point out how many issues there are in her work, her behavior is inappropriate, but she seems to be ignoring everything he’s said. Think this couldn’t happen? Oh, it certainly can! They’re both acting and interpreting each other based on the cultural codes they absorbed growing up.

I would’ve been just as puzzled myself if I hadn’t interacted with people from all over the world at work. I’ve seen and experienced situations like this firsthand. Knowing just a common language isn’t enough because your personal experiences and cultural background unconsciously shape your behavior, and you evaluate others through the lens of your own cultural perspective.

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Maxim Dorofeev “Jedi Techniques: How to Tame Your Monkey, Empty Your Inbox, and Save Mental Fuel”

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Max Dorofeev’s training on the “empty inbox” technique has recently become very popular among many of my colleagues and in the IT sphere overall. Probably because many of us are familiar with the feeling of having too many emails, too many tasks, with everyone working at full speed, yet the workload only seems to increase. At some point, many realize that things can’t continue like this.

This leads to a frantic search for books on self-organization, time management, and various “silver bullet” methods that promise to solve everything.

Before writing his book, Max Dorofeev successfully toured with his training sessions and also conducted webinars on the same topic. I participated in one of them myself, but I was curious to see what he compiled under the cover of the book.

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Maxim Ilyakhov, Lyudmila Sarycheva “Write, Shorten”

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Readers’ opinions on this book vary greatly: some give it the highest rating, while others feel frustrated and quit before reaching the halfway mark. Among my close friends, I’m the only one who finished it cover to cover, yet my overall rating for the book remains low.

The book contains quite a lot of very useful information for anyone who writes in Russian. Furthermore, this review itself is certainly an example that the authors would gladly edit! 😉

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Scott Rogers “Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design”

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Although I have worked in the video game industry for years, I never thought I was any kind of a game designer. But it is impossible to avoid all this knowledge after all these years, especially if you have a lot of great professionals around you. This is why you want to know more about a big part of your job and entire life.

One of my colleagues recommended me to read ‘Level Up!’ as one of the best ‘manuals’ of game design.

The book isn’t just a game design tutorial, it is a great handbook. The author explains every type of aspect of game creation, and give a lot of examples of how to document it and keep ideas.

One can say that it most likely too boring to read a step-by-step manual, but there is so much humour and dozens of great artwork, created by the author himself in a very ironic and even cartoonish style. This makes the book easy to read, almost like a comic graphic novel.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in game design. And if it is a part of your job then you have to have it, the book is like a Bible for every game designer (in the words of my colleagues, game designers).