This week I had the opportunity to participate in my first book club. For context, this book club was virtual and academically oriented. A few initial thoughts:

• Over 250 people attended, which shocked me. I didn’t have any expectations, but I hadn’t considered that such a crowd would take part.
• The virtual nature of this club allows it to cast a wide net. There were people from other countries, including Canada. The internet removes boundaries—this group could find people anywhere.
• The author of the book was part of the session and shared his thoughts, which I enjoyed. It’s always nice to hear authors’ deeper thoughts.
• This meeting was styled as something of a debate. It began with people arguing for and against the argument in the book. The author then responded to points against the book.
• Many of the arguments presented were prepared statements.

Overall, I enjoyed my first book club experience. The scale and reach of this club were much greater than I could ever have imagined. That definitely stuck with me and has me thinking much bigger about the possibilities of book clubs.

Recently, I caught up with the founder of a high-growth company. The company exploded in growth over the last few years, and now they’re planning for the next twelve months. The founder mentioned that one of his focus areas is maturing the organization. He wants to add more process and structure so they can continue to scale rapidly without the wheels falling off.

When growth is crazy, you normally see a lot of hiring. Things are happening so fast that no one has time to delve into problems or the things holding them back, so they throw bodies at them and hope the smart people they hire will figure it out. The result is continued growth but a lack of process and structure.

When the leaders start planning for continued growth over the next few years, they realize they can’t get there by doing what they’ve been doing. They want more visibility into what’s happening operationally below them, more operational consistency, and assurance that their operations can scale as the company continues to grow.

It’s a cycle I’ve seen before: growth, efficiency, and then more growth. I like to think of it as the company catching up to the expectations implied by its revenue growth. For high-growth companies, it’s part of their normal cycle.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 100
• Total blog posts published: 665

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed in the week ending 1/25/26 (link to the previous week’s commitments):

• Read Take the Measure of the Man, the memoir of Comcast Corporation cofounder Daniel Aaron  

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• No ask this week

Week three hundred five was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• Same as last week (and the week before): I had trouble getting started on synthesizing another book.

What I learned:

• I listened to this section of an Odds on Open Podcast episode where Alix Pasquet argued that reading books leads to more critical thinking, unique insights, knowledge building, and gaining of analytical reps, whereas using technology like AI doesn’t. AI just helps you acquire information, which is different than knowledge. Because younger people aren’t reading books, Pasquet thinks they’re at a disadvantage. Pasquet also shared and discussed extensively this quote from Henry Kissinger:

Reading books requires you to form concepts, to train your mind to relationships. . . . A book is a large intellectual construction; you can’t hold it all in mind easily or at once. You have to struggle mentally to internalize it. Now there is no need to internalize because each fact can instantly be called up again on the computer. There is no context, no motive. Information is not knowledge. People are not readers but researchers, they float on the surface. . . . This new thinking erases context. It disaggregates everything. All this makes strategic thinking about world order nearly impossible to achieve.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.