This book is an absolute classic, and after putting it off for a long time, I finally finished it. The core philosophy of the book essentially boils down to turning yourself into an altruist.
My thoughts after reading Outliers
Passion is overly romanticized. The book opens with Steve Jobs's commencement speech, pointing out that what Jobs actually did was quite different from what he preached. I believe passion shouldn't be something you're expected to force out of thin air; rather, it develops naturally through the process of doing something. You might have a passion for XYZ, but the world usually doesn't care about your passion—it cares about your output.
The books I've been reading recently have all focused on workplace soft skills. Engineers are often reluctant to deal with things like communication, coordination, and collaboration. But unless you plan on freelancing until retirement, learning these skills will make your future career much smoother. This book, titled *Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge*, describes how to steer an entire team and move it in the right direction when you aren't in a management role.
Driving Technical Change: Why people on Your Team Don't Act on Good Idea, and How to Convince Them They Should…