Joshua Tiong

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What am I currently reading?

Joshua Tiong

During a brief conversation last week, somebody asked me:

"What are you currently reading?"

Good question! Admittedly, I responded with whatever came to mind that day, but I've been giving it some further thought and decided to write it down as a follow up post. So dear asker from last week, I hope this post makes it on to your radar :)  

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Here's how I've approached re-answering this question:

First, I will make the assumption that the intent of the question was to ask about (1) content that a public audience would find interesting (as opposed to, say... a blog aimed at a private network of friends & family), and (2) content that I am intentionally consuming (as opposed to stuff that haphazardly finds its way onto my radar). 

Then, I will broaden the scope of the question to include other sources of deliberate learning (this was the context of the question when originally asked). I will also choose to exclude reading materials which primarily serves as research and reference which are specific to my work (e.g. domain or technical knowledge).

Next, I suppose it makes sense to categorize the various ways that I get my reading done. There are a few different categories I would put my reading into, based primarily on intent and frequency:

  1. Regular content consumption - I actively check on this stuff, frequency will range from daily to a few times monthly.
  2. Occasional content consumption - I will check on this stuff between once a month to once a quarter.
  3. One time reads and re-reads that I currently have noted on my get-to-this-eventually list (i.e. planned reading materials).

Finally, I make some observations about my current learning & content consumption patterns and how I've noticed them change over time.

That's how I've structuring this post. Enjoy :) 

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I began by taking some time to look at my default start-up browser pages, my bookmarks, and browsing through my reading history to come up with a list of my regularly consumed content (sources):

 

With the same approach, I came up with my list of occasional content consumption (sources):

 

Looking to my whiteboard, bookshelf, and sticky notes, here's my current list for planned (re-)readings:

  • Kiwanis Club of Vancouver, 1919-1979
  • Hold Me Tight, by Sue Johnson
  • Respect, by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot 
  • Understanding Zen, by Benjamin and Amy Radcliff
  • Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff, by Richard Carlson

 

Finally, here are some observations about my current learning & content consumption patterns and how I've noticed them change over time:

  • Today, most of what I read are personal stories, executive summaries, and essays; I've also embedded more face-to-face conversations into my life. My reading of mainstream news, industry publications, and books has decreased significantly. I enjoy reading biographies and listening to podcasts now; haven't done much of this yet, but it'll happen eventually when the time is right to build these habits into my life :) 
  • For the longest time, I firmly believed that you could hack the learning curve for everything as long as you were committed to it, regardless of the type of intelligence for the learning. While I still believe this to be mostly true and very possible for the majority of people, I've accepted that some learning really has to come with the passing of time (plus, a lot of wiser folks have beaten this reality into me, haha). Of course there are exceptions to this, but those would mostly happen in a circumstance/world that I would really not want to be in. I might write about this in the future when I can better articulate this idea.
  • To the above point, if I come across a topic that confuses me today, I will delve into it until I have a better (i.e. clear) understanding. The confusion has usually been a result of my not having properly understood something which I 'learned' earlier in life or has shown me some unconscious biases that I held. While it can be an enjoyable exercise, this sometimes leads me deep down the proverbial rabbit hole, and before realizing it, I've spent something like 50 hours researching something that isn't terribly relevant to anything I'm doing (oops!). I'm working on getting better at picking my battles. 
  • I've deleted most of the social media apps from my mobile device because: (1) a significant percentage of the content coming through was repetitive or otherwise of low value for me, (2) they have a way of sucking up your time into mindlessly scrolling through an infinite feed. Since deleting these apps, I've noticed that my mindfulness has returned and my enjoyment of life has risen. Hmm...to continue on this point and to be candid, I've found the aforementioned effects to be amplified since removing my work email from my mobile device.
  • There was a very important period of four-five years when I was building a foundation of understanding where I learned by consuming content and going for 'coffees' rather aggressively. During this entire time, I'd borrow/buy books about and stayed current for (through industry publications, blogs, forums, etc.) the fields of marketing, human resources, finance, banking, consulting, (tech) entrepreneurship, small business, as well as the business landscape. I also subscribed to research by specialized firms, a few of the major news outlets, and a few investigative report sites. For validating and enhancing the on-paper learning, I volunteered with a host of different industry associations as a student (great way to start, and it's free!) so I could be with professionals in their domain. I no longer approach learning in such a broad manner, but I can honestly say that it was an invaluable period of time for me to learn about stuff, people, and myself.

 

I can see myself starting to get way off on a tangent now, so it's probably best to stop here :) that's it, hope this answers the question!