Personal University

The future of education is personalized learning.

Education does not take place over 4 years, it takes place over a lifetime.

I believe it is critical to continually engage in interesting, challenging, and stimulating pursuits of knowledge.

That’s why, each year I create a curriculum for myself. I plan the things I want to learn, courses I want to take, and books I want to read. I use this page as a place to track and share everything I’ve been learning.

Book titles are bolded. Courses and Assignments are labeled

Art, Creativity & Design

  • Art Matters by Neil Gaiman
  • Your Music and People by Derek Sivers
  • Keep Going by Austin Kleon
  • Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kelon
  • The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
  • Design for Hackers by David Kadavy

Business

  • Company of One by Paul Jarvis
  • The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
  • Sense and Respond by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
  • The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
  • Zero to One by Peter Thiel
  • Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
  • The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
  • Powerful by Patty McCord
  • The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
  • Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian

Communication & Relationships

Cooking

  • Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
  • The Four Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss

Food & Nutrition

  • Healing Mushrooms by Tero Isokauppila
  • The Doritos Effect by Mark Schatzker
  • Food Rules by Michael Pollan
  • The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert by Richard Betts

Health & Fitness

  • The Happy Body by Aniela Gregorek and Jerzy Gregorek
  • Own the Day Own Your Life by Aubrey Marcus
  • Even the Stiffest People can do the Splits by Eiko

History

Languages

Leadership

  • Course: Bob Iger Teaches Business Strategy and Leadership
  • The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
  • The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
  • Start with Why by Simon Sinek
  • Good to Great by Jim Collins
  • Together is Better by Simon Sinek
  • Extreme Ownership by  Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
  • Wooden by John Wooden
  • Strengths Based Leadership from Gallup

Literature & Reading

  • Assignment: Read one book per week
  • Assignment: Read 24 classic books in 2020
  • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  • Dune by Frank Herbert
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Dune by Frank Herbert
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
  • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
  • Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
  • The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
  • The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
  • Frankenstein by Marry Shelley
  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller
  • Hamlet by William Shakespeare
  • MacBeth by William Shakespeare
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
  • The Martian by Ray Bradbury
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  • Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Magic

Math & Science

  • Course: Neil deGrasse Tyson Teaches Scientific Thinking and Communication
  • A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark
  • Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" by Richard Feynman
  • Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman
  • A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
  • The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Meta-Learning

Mindfulness

  • Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana
  • Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
  • The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chodron
  • The Shambala Principle by Sakyong Mipham Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa

Music

  • Assignment: Learn Harmonica
  • Assignment: Perform Love Me Do and Piano man with a live band.

Minimalism

  • Essentialism by Greg McKeown
  • The Life changing-Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
  • Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Neuroscience

  • Conscious by Annaka Harris
  • How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

Personal Finance

  • Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
  • I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Philosophy

  • Course: Daily Stoic New Year, New You Challenge
  • Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
  • Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday
  • The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  • The Art of War by Sun Tzu
  • The Book of 5 Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
  • The Courage to be Disliked by Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi
  • Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  • The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish
  • Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  • The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Principles & Ethics

  • Principles by Ray Dalio
  • Lying by Sam Harris

Productivity & Personal Development

  • GTD Workbook by David Allen
  • Getting Things Done by David Allen
  • Indistractable by Nir Eyal
  • God’s Debris by Scott Adams
  • The Religion War by Scott Adams
  • As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
  • Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
  • Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
  • Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
  • The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
  • How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big by Scott Adams
  • Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

Psychology

  • Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging: Sebastian Junger
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Religion & Spirituality

  • The Dhammapada
  • Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
  • Awareness by Anthony de Mello

Travel

  • Cockpit Confidential by Patrick Smith
  • Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

Video Games

  • Extra Lives by Tom Bissell
  • The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell Sniff

Writing