Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck.

I love these end-of-the-year lists where you can get recommendations from smart people about things that are worth your time and money. It always sets me up really nicely for the December holidays—arming me with new podcasts and albums for travel, and books and movies for the downtime.

And so I am happy to bring you this collection of recommendations from some very smart HBS alumni, collected on campus during this year’s fall Reunions. Please enjoy—and happy holidays.

READ MORE

James Sutherland (GMP 16, 2014): James Sutherland, GMP 16. My recommendation is Tim Ferriss' podcast of Boyd Varty, a safari guide in South Africa, who's an incredible storyteller about the most basic elements of life, but also then the most exciting elements of life—escaping lions and tigers and surviving. Just so funny, just real humor. It's not business, it's not HBS. It was just one of those late-night flights home and it just fit the bill.

Diana G. Noble (AMP 156, 1999): So it's Diana Noble. I am AMP 156. So it was actually published last year, but it has been a bit of a constant companion for me this year because I think it's so good. And the title is How to Know A Person by David Brooks. And his theme, which I thought was incredibly powerful, was that we all think we're really good at human connection, and we all suck. And he talks really profoundly about that and also gives amazing tips on how to be better, on how to be present, on how to listen properly, how not to top what someone else has just said. So when someone says to you, “I'm having a difficult time with my child,” all of us immediately go, “Oh yes, I've got my story about my child, too.” Or things like a little bit about gender balance in this. He said he will go into a room, a restaurant for example, and he'll look around and he'll say he sees a picture of men just talking to the women in the room and he looks at the women and they're bored as hell and he just wants to shout out, “Just ask them a question!”

So that's just like a funny insight from it, but it's really engaging and you learn a lot. And actually I tried to put into practice some of it and found that the depth of your conversation and the depth of your engagement is so improved.

Billy Eskind (MBA 1989): Billy Eskin, 1989. So I read a great book. I read a lot. One of them is called The Midnight Library, and it's by Matt Haig. I'm 61, and it's really a book about all the paths your life could have taken and all the different ways it could have happened in the guise of a female protagonist who has these different situations. She wakes up in different situations and she's a singer and an entertainer. She's a mother. Doesn't know if she's going to remember her kids, but it all comes to her. And it's amazing because it talks about paths you could have taken, decisions that you made that altered things, and I found it very interesting.

Ken Sharpe (OPM 58, 2022): My name is Ken Sharpe. I'm from Zimbabwe and I did OPM 58. My partner sent me Who Not How by Dan Sullivan, and he also wrote 10x Is Easier Than 2x. It’s life-changing. So he runs Strategic Coach and I just came back from Chicago from a conference where he teaches to split your life into three categories of days: rest days, buffer days, and focus days. And my week has changed dramatically, because I've now agreed that I'm going to have three rest days a week. So Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday—completely no work, detached from all business activities. It was really uncanny because I had a coach—a behavioral psychologist—come and teach our company and coach them for four months from Mexico, and at the end of that at an all-staff meeting, he announced that we're becoming a self-managing company. The same day that happened, Dan Sullivan's other book arrived in the post and the title of it was Self-Managing Company.

Leo Markides (MBA 1999): So my name is Leo Markides, I'm from MBA 99. There's a book by Peter Attia called Outlive. It's talking about how you can impact the way you age and expand your lifespan in a good way—not just expanding the number of years, but expanding the number of years that you live well. So he talks about how you can impact the way you live. It talks about the metrics that they use that are beyond the mainstream metrics, and those are indicators of a good way to age basically.

Grace Migliaccio (MBA 1989): Hi, I am Grace Migliaccio, and I'm class of 89, Section G. My recommendation is the book my section mates and I have been talking about and sharing with each other. It's a book called Die With Zero, and it's a book on investing as much in experiences and as early as possible as any other investment that you would make and not simply save for a day that doesn't come—to do it along the way and to really place it on experiences and relationships as much as anything else. I think it really spoke to me at this point in my life. I wish maybe I'd been a little bit more conscious at a younger age. It takes a tragedy for you to realize that the time is not unlimited and the book helps you start much earlier in life of balancing those two things—not to be broke, but also not to starve yourself of experiences and relationships either, and find that balance.

Tom Roberts (MBA 1984): Tom Roberts, 1984, Section G. For my 70th birthday, went to Dead and Company at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Spectacular venue, probably the premier venue for performances in the world at this moment, and I can't imagine anyone ever surpassing it.

Ted Teele (MBA 1989): Hi, my name is Ted Teele. My favorite book is The Age of Scientific Wellness by Lee Hood and Nathan Price. Lee is a giant of biology. He's the guy that came up with the algorithm to decode the human genome, and he has had numerous other discoveries and his longtime associate Nathan Price have written a book about a new way to do health care based on scientific wellness. We all remember there are four Ps of marketing and there are four Ps of scientific wellness. The first P is to predict disease before it happens. Most people believe that you're healthy and then you're sick, but in reality there's a long period typically of disease transition where you can identify based on protein aggregations that a disease is coming. And if you can predict it, you can prevent it. The third P is personalization: coming up with recommendations for you about what you should do, what you should eat, type of exercise, supplements … based on your biology. And the fourth is participation, which is what you can do to help yourself. For HBS grads, all being highly motivated, those are things you could do, but they believe we could do this across the health care system and save a trillion dollars.

Sonia Lo (MBA 1994): Sonia Lo, MBA 1994. The Ministry for the Future. At a minimum, the first chapter. It's fiction, but it reads terrifyingly like nonfiction. And the first chapter describes a catastrophic heat event in the world, which as you read it, you think this could be on the everyday news. And it will change your perspective on climate solutions and how rapidly we need them.

Pamela Woo (MBA 1994): Pamela Woo, MBA 1994. Mine is All There Is by Anderson Cooper. I just lost my mom in December, [after a] 10-year battle with Alzheimer's and it was just so transformative to hear about his journey, his loss, and how that grief journey can be so lonely, but also how so many other people have gone through it. So there were so many people and episodes that really spoke to me.

Clyde Ensslin (MBA 1984): My name is Clyde Ensslin, MBA class of 84. The record album that was reissued is called For Everyman, and it's by Jackson Browne. And it was originally released 50 years ago in 1974 on September 20th. And so it's been remastered and it includes one of my favorite songs that he wrote that's called “These Days.” And he wrote it when he was 16 years old. And it's a very profound song, been covered by all kinds of different artists and includes the line, “don't confront me with my failures; I'm well aware of them”—which was a surprisingly regretful lyric to have been written by a 16-year-old. So For Everyman, so remastered, it's a fantastic lineup of musicians. It was his second album that came out about a year and a half after his first album called Jackson Browne. That was his breakthrough. But he's so great, he's still going strong and he's just a little bit older than the class of ’84.

Cara Eisenberg (MBA 1999): Hi, I am Cara Eisenberg and my class here is 1999, Section J. One of the podcasts that we've enjoyed is Science Vs. And what this is, it's a woman from Australia and she's got a great sense of humor and she takes a topic that is hot, whether it's a health-related topic or a political topic or something where there's often a lot of hype. And she says, okay, so this is what we're hearing, and here is science. And she brings in some experts to talk about the facts about it.

Mark Hill (MBA 1989): Mark Hill, MBA ‘89. My recommendation for the best book that I've read recently is Pattern Breakers: Why Some Startups Change the Future. It's by super VC, Mike Maples Jr. Particularly good description of what are the dynamics of venture investing and what are venture investments that get to the right point in the power law. In VC, it's the one investment in Facebook, Google, Amazon that returns the fund. So Maples talks about what are the characteristics of those investments. And his advice to an entrepreneur is, if you haven't found something that's based on a fundamental discontinuity in technology and a unique non-consensus insight into how that's going to change the world, fold. Look for another one. Wait for another hand. Find something that has those characteristics and you have the possibility of doing something truly exceptional. Still probably going to have a fifty percent chance of failing, but if you do something mediocre, you have zero percent probability of getting an exceptional outcome.

Sacha Coburn (OPM 58, 2022): My name is Sacha Coburn and I graduated OPM 58 in 2022. So this is my first Reunion. The best thing I read this year has been Same As Ever by Morgan Housel. So he wrote The Psychology of Money and it's his follow up book, packed full of wisdom. I also recommend fiction by Richard Osman, so he has a new book, We Solve Murders, and I think business people benefit from fiction because it gives us insight into the human character and the human soul that's super helpful. And we spend so much time reading business books that I think a bit of fiction from time to time is good. Acquired is my favorite podcast. The deep dives those guys do into business is just outstanding. I like my own podcast, The Not So Breakfast Show. Everyone should listen to it because so far it's just my mum.

The best concert this year: OPM 60 organized a reunion in Rio. Exceptional hosts, and they organized for us to be at the Copacabana Palace, and we watched the Madonna concert on the beach. She performed for 2 million people for free courtesy of one of our graduates’ clients. I can't recommend it—it's gone. That moment has passed, but I recommend when you get those offers, take them, take them. The book I'm looking forward to is by the former Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. She currently has a fellowship here at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has her leadership book coming out, and she really role-modeled for the world what it would mean to respond to tragedy, with kindness, with an open heart. And I think there's a lot for us to learn from her.

This episode of Skydeck was edited by Jocelyn Gonzalez from PRX Productions. Skydeck is produced by the External Relations Department at Harvard Business School. It is available on iTunes or wherever you get your favorite podcast. For more information or to find archived episodes, visit alumni.hbs.edu/skydeck.

Post a Comment