I just finished the book “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh on Monday and I’m still not completely sure what to think of it. It was funny and it was an interesting read. I tend to take forever to read most non-fiction books, but this story was written in a captivating way, particularly the first couple of chapters. Tony started out describing his entrepreneurial spirit, starting from when he was a little kid, and then discussed the Zappos company culture at length.
I’m going to first discuss some of my favourite quotes from the book and then give my overall ideas on the book.
“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” – Morpheus, The Matrix. (page ix)
I think that this is a very important distinction and something that I will forever be working on. I love planning, but actually doing the stuff that I planned is sometimes another story. Without walking the path, you really don’t know if you’re going to enjoy something.
“even in school, it sometimes pays to take risks and think outside the box.” (p. 19)
This is one of the main ideas presented in the book “Women Don’t Ask” – sometimes you just need to ask and people are interested to see your side. For example, the research paper for my translation course in my last term of university was supposed to be eight to ten pages arguing about translation being an art form. To me, that topic was not remotely interesting, so I asked my professor if I could research computerized translation and write a high-level overview of that in eight to ten pages. He was happy that I had suggested another topic and allowed me to do that instead. (He was probably happy that he then had to read thirty-nine papers on the same topic instead of forty!) What did I get out of it? I spent days in the library researching a topic that I was fascinated by and then several more days compiling and organizing my research into the paper. And I ended up with an excellent mark for that effort!
“presentation of the truth was just as important as the truth” (p. 20)
This is true no matter what field you’re in. Why do you think you get marks for presentation, organization, and grammar when you write papers in school? Or why companies spend so much on marketing? Some great products wouldn’t sell without creative, catchy names or good product manuals. Even for software engineers, I consider documentation and presenting of your features to be almost more important than actually coding the feature.
“I made a list of the happiest periods in my life, and I realized that none of them involved money. I realized that building stuff and being creative and inventive made me happy.” (p. 53)
“I had decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.” (p. 54)
“experiences were much more important to me than material things.” (p. 76)
“the combination of physical synchrony with other humans and being part of something else leads to a greater sense of happiness” (p. 80)
Just after I had finished school and I was sitting around bored at my parents’ house before I relocated to start my permanent job, I made a list of all the moments in my life where I had been truly happy. This was a really refreshing idea and I would highly recommend that you try it. Despite being introverted, spending time with friends is really important to me. So after spending several weeks on a business trip in Europe, what did I do? Most people told me I was crazy to not have taken a few days of vacation there, but instead I chose to spend a few days with friends before heading back home. I didn’t watch how much money I spent that weekend until after. I added it up later, but no matter the dollar amount, it was totally worth it because I had an amazing time.
“We’d just throw ideas against the wall to see if they’d stick, improvise, and make it happen.” (p. 62)
I work on coding projects outside of work and this is one of the reasons. At work, there is the release cycle and bureaucracy of getting features done. With personal projects, I can just try stuff and see how it works. When I’m the only user, I can do whatever I want and no one else will care, but I can have a ton of fun with it and experiment.
“similarities between what was good poker strategy and what made for good business strategy”: (p. 64)
- “Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.”
- “Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players.”
- “Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.”
- “Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.”
“Learn by doing” is one of the oh-so-real reasons for co-operative education. When I graduated from university, I had almost two years of work experience in my field, over the course of five four-month work terms at various companies.
By surrounding yourself with talented players, you will always be striving to be better, keeping yourself on your toes and constantly learning. Different people have different passions and skills, all of which together can make for a great learning environment.
And of course, you should always try to pick a career that you love what you’re doing all day. If going to work is fun and you don’t dread it, then you’ve picked well and you’re probably better off in terms of happiness than many people in this world.
—
Was my time well spent reading this book? This was a 240 page book and as you can see, most of my quotes are from the first third of the book. I didn’t get very much out of the latter parts of the book, though I thoroughly enjoyed the first third of the book. I don’t have much of an entrepreneurial spirit, so perhaps I’m not the target audience of this book, but I’d definitely say that the first third had some interesting life lessons and I probably could have stopped reading after that point. At the very least, it was enjoyable, but it certainly raised a few comments in my mind. The main of which was:
The startup culture seems to strongly tend towards single men.
The impression that Tony’s stories gave me was that everyone at Zappos worked insane hours for very little end result, but spending their after hours time at bars with co-workers. Who with a family or any aspirations to have a family would want to work in a culture like this? This is definitely one of the turn-offs for women in this industry.
Overall, this was an entertaining book, but I don’t think it’s a book that I would have paid to read. To me, it just seems like a way for Tony to make even more money off the fame he got from the Amazon deal.
Delivering Happiness
I just finished the book “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh on Monday and I’m still not completely sure what to think of it. It was funny and it was an interesting read. I tend to take forever to read most non-fiction books, but this story was written in a captivating way, particularly the first couple of chapters. Tony started out describing his entrepreneurial spirit, starting from when he was a little kid, and then discussed the Zappos company culture at length.
I’m going to first discuss some of my favourite quotes from the book and then give my overall ideas on the book.
I think that this is a very important distinction and something that I will forever be working on. I love planning, but actually doing the stuff that I planned is sometimes another story. Without walking the path, you really don’t know if you’re going to enjoy something.
This is one of the main ideas presented in the book “Women Don’t Ask” – sometimes you just need to ask and people are interested to see your side. For example, the research paper for my translation course in my last term of university was supposed to be eight to ten pages arguing about translation being an art form. To me, that topic was not remotely interesting, so I asked my professor if I could research computerized translation and write a high-level overview of that in eight to ten pages. He was happy that I had suggested another topic and allowed me to do that instead. (He was probably happy that he then had to read thirty-nine papers on the same topic instead of forty!) What did I get out of it? I spent days in the library researching a topic that I was fascinated by and then several more days compiling and organizing my research into the paper. And I ended up with an excellent mark for that effort!
This is true no matter what field you’re in. Why do you think you get marks for presentation, organization, and grammar when you write papers in school? Or why companies spend so much on marketing? Some great products wouldn’t sell without creative, catchy names or good product manuals. Even for software engineers, I consider documentation and presenting of your features to be almost more important than actually coding the feature.
Just after I had finished school and I was sitting around bored at my parents’ house before I relocated to start my permanent job, I made a list of all the moments in my life where I had been truly happy. This was a really refreshing idea and I would highly recommend that you try it. Despite being introverted, spending time with friends is really important to me. So after spending several weeks on a business trip in Europe, what did I do? Most people told me I was crazy to not have taken a few days of vacation there, but instead I chose to spend a few days with friends before heading back home. I didn’t watch how much money I spent that weekend until after. I added it up later, but no matter the dollar amount, it was totally worth it because I had an amazing time.
I work on coding projects outside of work and this is one of the reasons. At work, there is the release cycle and bureaucracy of getting features done. With personal projects, I can just try stuff and see how it works. When I’m the only user, I can do whatever I want and no one else will care, but I can have a ton of fun with it and experiment.
“Learn by doing” is one of the oh-so-real reasons for co-operative education. When I graduated from university, I had almost two years of work experience in my field, over the course of five four-month work terms at various companies.
By surrounding yourself with talented players, you will always be striving to be better, keeping yourself on your toes and constantly learning. Different people have different passions and skills, all of which together can make for a great learning environment.
And of course, you should always try to pick a career that you love what you’re doing all day. If going to work is fun and you don’t dread it, then you’ve picked well and you’re probably better off in terms of happiness than many people in this world.
—
Was my time well spent reading this book? This was a 240 page book and as you can see, most of my quotes are from the first third of the book. I didn’t get very much out of the latter parts of the book, though I thoroughly enjoyed the first third of the book. I don’t have much of an entrepreneurial spirit, so perhaps I’m not the target audience of this book, but I’d definitely say that the first third had some interesting life lessons and I probably could have stopped reading after that point. At the very least, it was enjoyable, but it certainly raised a few comments in my mind. The main of which was:
The impression that Tony’s stories gave me was that everyone at Zappos worked insane hours for very little end result, but spending their after hours time at bars with co-workers. Who with a family or any aspirations to have a family would want to work in a culture like this? This is definitely one of the turn-offs for women in this industry.
Overall, this was an entertaining book, but I don’t think it’s a book that I would have paid to read. To me, it just seems like a way for Tony to make even more money off the fame he got from the Amazon deal.