Review: Ashlee Vance – Elon Musk (S)

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Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Ashlee Vance

“Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, sold one of his internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius’s life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk’s story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition?”

Wow, this book was fantastic!

Going into it, I honestly didn’t expect much. I thought it would just be another business biography, but I was completely wrong. Ashlee Vance writes it more like a story than a traditional biography, which made it really easy to get hooked. By the end, I was itching to go and do something entrepreneurial.

Before reading this, I wasn’t really a fan of Elon. I wasn’t particularly interested in him or his companies. But this book definitely changed my view in some ways. It really shows how hands-on Elon is with his companies and how much he cares about the engineering side of things. He isn’t just the person out the front taking the credit, he is heavily involved in the products, the problems, and the process of building something.

That being said, I do think the book shows a very positive side of Elon and probably doesn’t tell the full story. It focuses heavily on his achievements and the incredible things he has built, but doesn’t dive as much into the more controversial parts of his personality or leadership style. The book was written before his takeover of Twitter, so that obviously isn’t covered, but even within the stories that are included, you get a glimpse of how intense he can be.

Throughout the book, it’s clear that Elon expects an extreme level of commitment from his employees. He pushes people incredibly hard and seems to have little tolerance for anything getting in the way of work. There are stories that make him sound like an absolute nightmare to work for, and while that drive is probably part of what helps his companies achieve so much, I also felt the book could have explored more of the impact that has on the people around him.

I’m not even interested in space or electric cars, but I couldn’t put this book down. Not only is it written in a really passionate and engaging way, but it’s also a fascinating look at innovation, ambition, and the people shaping the future. Whether you admire Elon, dislike him, or just find him interesting, this is definitely a book worth reading. 5 stars.

Review: Jim Collins – Good to Great (S)

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Good to Great
Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
Jim Collins

“Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?”

I feel like I’ve read this book before, but apparently I never reviewed it, so I read it again anyway. Good to Great is one of those business books that gets recommended constantly, and I can see why. It jumps straight into the content with very little fluff or unnecessary introduction, which I really liked. It doesn’t beat around the bush and gets into the ideas quickly. That said, I had mixed feelings about it overall.

One thing I struggled with was the company examples. Out of the 11 companies featured, I hadn’t heard of most of them or didn’t really know much about them. I assume that’s partly because they are American companies and many were probably huge in their time, but it still made parts of the book harder to connect with. To be fair, there’s probably not much the author could do about that if those were genuinely the top performing companies used in the research.

The book definitely has some good ideas and concepts throughout, and there were moments where I highlighted interesting points. But overall, a lot of it felt too generalist and abstract. Every company is unique, and at times the advice felt a bit too broad, almost like it avoided putting the dot on any “i”.

I also found the structure a little jumpy in places. The ideas were interesting, but sometimes it felt like the book moved around too much without going deeply enough into practical application.

Overall, not bad, but also not great. There are some valuable insights in it, especially if you enjoy leadership and business strategy books, but I personally found it a bit overrated compared to the hype around it. Overall 3 stars.

Quick Reviews of Non-Fiction Business Books #9 (S)

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Think Faster, Talk Smarter
How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot
Matt Abrahams

I picked up this book hoping for strategies to truly sharpen spontaneous communication. Instead, it felt more like a refresher on the basics.
The book leans heavily on ideas like slowing down, breathing, practicing, and reflecting. Which are helpful for managing anxiety, but not exactly groundbreaking or aligned with the promise of “thinking faster” or “talking smarter.” Much of it came across as repetitive and obvious, with tips that could have been summarized in just a few pages. While there were a few useful frameworks and reminders, the delivery lacked conciseness and engaging examples, which I would expect from a book about communication. I found myself tuning out at times. Overall, this wasn’t for me. Helpful in small ways, but nothing new. 2 stars.

Lead Like a Coach
Karen Morley

This book is all about moving from being a boss to being more of a coach; listening, asking questions, and helping your team grow. The author shares some solid tips and real examples that make it easy to follow and put into practice.
It’s a good summary of what coaching-style leadership looks like, but there’s nothing really new here. Most of the ideas, like building trust and giving feedback, have been said many times before.
Overall, it’s a quick and useful read if you’re new to the topic, but a bit basic if you’ve read other leadership books. 2.5 stars.
Order out of Chaos
Win Every Negotiation, Thrive in Adversity, and Become a World-Class Communicator
Scott Walker

Very below average. I didn’t get much out of this book at all. Just when I thought it was finally about to start in the last chapter, it ended abruptly.

The author mentions a few techniques, like mirroring and labeling, which might be new to some readers, but they weren’t explained well or in much depth, lucky for them I already knew what they are. I wanted more from the stories too. The author often sets up a situation, like someone being kidnapped, but then the story suddenly cuts off without any real follow-through or lesson. Sometimes it was just, “we paid less and got the person back,” with no insight into how or why.

The case studies were vague and lacking in real, instructive detail. There are a few good reminders here and there, but nothing new or that made me want to keep reading.

Honestly, save your time and read Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss instead. It’s far more useful and engaging!! 2 stars.

Review: James Smith – How to Be Confident (S)

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How to Be Confident
James Smith

“From two times number one Sunday Times bestselling author, James Smith, comes HOW TO BE CONFIDENT – the third instalment in James’ no-nonsense guides to gaining the tools to empower your decision-making and change your life. Now, more than ever, we are so often lost within a cycle of negativity – from comparing ourselves to others and doom scrolling on social media, to a paralysis of choice and chasing external gratification that does nothing to nurture authentic happiness. We need confidence to master our true ambitions, realise our genuine strengths, and achieve the life we need, but might not know we want. Luckily, with his candid, no-nonsense advice, experience, and passion, James is here to lead the way.”

I didn’t expect this book to be amazing, or to teach me brand new techniques on how to be confident. But I did expect it to be a bit more motivational, something that would actually get me in the mood to feel more confident in myself. I don’t think it really nailed that.

There were quite a few times where I just felt disinterested. A lot of the examples focus on dating, Jiu Jitsu, personal training, exercise, etc. I get that this is the author’s background and that these ideas can be applied to other areas of life, but it still felt flat and disengaging. There wasn’t much I personally felt I could take away from it.

A lot of the scenarios also felt irrelevant to me. They were informative, sure, but nothing out of the ordinary. And the author talks a lot about their own life, their progress, what they did and didn’t do, which started to feel more like a personal story than something that was actually helping the reader.

When I first picked up the book, I honestly thought it would be written by a female author. When I realised it wasn’t, it kind of changed the vibe for me straight away and felt like a let down. I really think this book would have been better coming from a female perspective and probably would have gone in a completely different and more relatable direction.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend it. 3 stars.

Review: Blitzscaling – Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh (S)

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Blitzscaling
The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh

“LinkedIn cofounder, legendary investor, and host of the award-winning Masters of Scale podcast reveals the secret to starting and scaling massively valuable companies. What entrepreneur or founder doesn’t aspire to build the next Amazon, Facebook, or Airbnb? Yet those who actually manage to do so are exceedingly rare. So what separates the startups that get disrupted and disappear from the ones who grow to become global giants? The secret is a set of techniques for scaling up at a dizzying pace that blows competitors out of the water. The objective of Blitzscaling is not to go from zero to one, but from one to one billion – as quickly as possible.”

I was so excited to pick this one up, but unfortunately it ended up being a bit of a letdown. The book felt scattered and all over the place, without a strong through-line or clear point it was building toward. Each section felt quite segmented, and none of the ideas or stories were explored with much depth. Instead of developing concepts meaningfully, it jumped quickly from one example to the next, which made it hard to feel invested.

It also didn’t feel especially relevant. Realistically, not many people are actually in a position to “blitzscale,” and while that’s obviously the premise of the book, it made the content hard to connect with in any practical or inspiring way. It didn’t feel particularly motivating or compelling as an overall story, and I found it a bit of a struggle to get through.

I’m increasingly unsure about business books that try to make big claims without any kind of comprehensive study behind them. This one relies heavily on personal anecdotes rather than evidence or data. Yes, the author is undeniably one of the biggest success stories out there, but that alone didn’t make the insights feel especially helpful or transferable.

I also wasn’t a fan of the author’s writing style. It came across as a little “know-it-all,” yet at the same time quite dry. Much of the credibility seemed to hinge on references to the author’s podcast, which didn’t really add value for me. I kept reading, hoping it might click or pick up at some point, but it remained underwhelming from start to finish.

I had higher hopes given who the author is, but in the end this one was just okay. 2 stars.

Review: Shawn Callahan – Putting Stories to Work

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Putting Stories to Work
Mastering Business Storytelling
Shawn Callahan

“The most successful leaders are storytellers. By mastering business storytelling, they achieve extraordinary business results. As a modern-day leader, you know you should develop this skill, but you don t have the time to do this in an ad-hoc way. What you need is a practical, reliable method to follow, one that will allow your business to reap the benefits of storytelling as soon as possible. In Putting Stories to Work, Shawn Callahan gives you a clear process for mastering business storytelling. He demolishes the thinking that storytelling has no place at work, reminding us that sharing stories is what we all do naturally, every day, and that it s one of the most powerful tools for getting things done. You just need to adapt this natural superpower to boost your business.”

I went into Putting Stories to Work expecting practical, detailed examples of storytelling in action. Instead, the book gives very short “stories” that never really go anywhere or dive deep enough to be interesting or memorable.

Ironically, for a book about storytelling, it was incredibly hard to stay engaged. I put it down several times because it just felt repetitive and boring. The concepts themselves are fine, but the delivery felt more like a drawn out corporate training session than a compelling read.

The biggest disappointment was that the case study at the very end of the book was actually good. It was detailed, practical, and finally showed storytelling being used properly in a workplace context. That was the kind of content I expected throughout the entire book. If the whole book had been written like that final section, this review would probably look very different.

Overall, 2/5 stars. They are lucky I finished it at all.

Review: Ben Mezrich – Breaking Twitter (S)

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Breaking Twitter
Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History
Ben Mezrich

“In October 2022, Elon Musk marched through Twitter’s front doors after buying the digital giant for $44 billion. His takeover came with the promise of fundamental change, but nothing could prepare the company for the chaos to come – brutal mass firings, an exodus of advertisers and ‘blue-tick’ celebrities and a vicious battle for control. With unique access to Twitter insiders and Musk’s confidants, this is the astonishing story from all sides. Why did Elon overhaul Twitter’s blue-tick system, and how did it lead to the near-collapse of the company’s revenue? Will Twitter – now X – survive? How has the constant negative press coverage affected Elon? With a wealth of hidden details, Breaking Twitter gives ringside seats to one of the most dramatic and compelling business stories of our time.”

I went into Breaking Twitter hoping for a sharp, insightful account of one of the most chaotic corporate takeovers in recent history. What I got instead was something far thinner, messier, and frankly exhausting.

This book is largely about the people who worked at Twitter before and during the Musk era. While that could have been interesting, it never quite lands. It is not a comprehensive or deeply researched story of the takeover itself, nor does it offer much meaningful insight into how or why things unfolded the way they did. For a book tackling such a huge, controversial moment in tech and media, it surprisingly does not have much to say.

I did not like Elon Musk before reading this, and I definitely do not like him now. Even that takeaway feels obvious and unearned. The narrative jumps constantly between perspectives and characters/employees, many of whom are difficult to keep track of and even harder to care about. I found myself repeatedly asking who this person is and why they matter. Too often, the answer was that they do not.

The book feels unpolished and directionless, with a judgmental tone that replaces analysis. Rather than building a clear argument or storyline, it follows several vaguely unlikeable characters who ultimately add very little to the broader picture. They seem to exist mostly for cinematic moments rather than because they meaningfully advance the story.

There is also an underlying irony that is hard to ignore. The author condemns Musk’s narcissism, yet the book itself suffers from a similar problem. There is an inflated sense of importance about Twitter, its internal dramas, and the people orbiting it. I genuinely cannot believe how much anyone cares about Twitter at all, from the tweets to the drama to what Musk might say next, or the crowds willing to follow him off a cliff because of it. The obsession feels baffling.

By the end, I felt worse for having read this book, the same hollow and irritated feeling you get after spending too much time doom scrolling on social media. 1 star.

Review: Robert Glazer – How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace (S)

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How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace
Simple and Effective Tips for Successful, Productive, and Empowered Remote Work
Robert Glazer

“Remote work is here to stay, and the companies that do it well will have a clear competitive advantage in the future. As founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, a 100 percent remote organization with 170 employees who work from home, Robert Glazer has discovered that with the right principles, tactics and tools for managing remote employees, many businesses can excel in a virtual world. In this highly actionable book, Glazer shares how he and his team built a remote organization that has been recognized with dozens of awards for its industry performance and company culture.”

This book promises to help you succeed in remote work, but honestly, it doesn’t deliver much that’s new or useful. The advice feels really basic and, frankly, outdated. The author talks about things like staying productive, keeping in touch with colleagues, and making the most of working from home, but let’s be real, that’s all pretty obvious at this point. It doesn’t really bring anything fresh to the table.

A big chunk of the book is aimed at managers, with tips on how to manage virtual teams, build culture, and hire remote employees. If you’re not a manager, there’s not much here for you. The last couple of chapters are full of buzzwords and vague ideas about team-building that don’t really offer practical takeaways for your day-to-day work.

At the end of the day, the book feels like a surface-level overview of remote work, the kind of stuff most of us already know. It’s not engaging, it doesn’t bring new insights, and it’s pretty forgettable. 2 stars.

Review: Peter Thiel – Zero to One (S)

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Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Peter Thiel

“If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets. The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.”

Zero to One promises a fresh perspective on building groundbreaking startups, especially coming from someone like the author, a Silicon Valley veteran. The book is visually appealing and I had high expectations, but unfortunately, I found the content somewhat underwhelming.

When the author focuses on the mechanics of startups such as creating monopolies, the need for vertical progress, and fostering innovation, his insights are valuable. These sections provide solid advice for anyone in tech or considering entrepreneurship. However, the book falters when the author veers into his more philosophical and contrarian views. His opinions on politics and technology are thought-provoking but often feel speculative and lack strong reasoning.

I had hoped for sharper arguments and more rigorous analysis, but instead, the author relies heavily on cherry-picked examples and vague conclusions. While the book offers some interesting insights, especially for tech startups, it doesn’t fully deliver on its potential. If you’re looking for a deep dive into entrepreneurial strategy, you might be left wanting more. 3 stars.

Review: Jay Jayamohan – Everything that Makes Us Human

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Everything that Makes Us Human
Jay Jayamohan

“Jay Jayamohan makes life and death decisions on a daily basis. That’s because he’s a Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon in a busy Oxford hospital. Every day, parents put all their faith in him to make their In this gripping and sometimes heartrending book, Jayamohan – who has featured in two highly acclaimed BBC fly-on-the-wall series following the work of neurosurgeons – brings the highs and lows of the operating theatre into vivid life.”

I really enjoyed this book and found it quite compulsive reading. The author has a smooth narrative style that provokes both ‘haha’ moments and deadly (haha) experiences. The format of essentially one major patient story per chapter worked well, even though it didn’t seem to be completely chronological. There were some small things in his educational journey that pushed him towards brain surgery, and then pediatric surgery. Working with children and their ‘plastic’ brains is fascinating, and I loved hearing about how sometimes it’s amazing the way children bounce back from surgeries.

I don’t know if he addressed what makes us human, but it was a catchy title! I’m fascinated by the stories and the humility of parents who have to accept that they won’t have a full length life with their child. The question of whether someone has a life worth living or not is a tricky one, particularly because I’ve just finished reading a fantastic book on palliative care (I cried).

I think I’d be happy to read another book by Doctor Jay and I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in neuroscience or medicine.