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This post will be about the 1,000 Book Challenge I created for myself and in general what measurement, process, and consistency means for accomplishment.
I’ve always been an avid reader, but I started tracking what I read on August 13, 2012 when I left Boston on a one-way bus ride to NYC to co-found my startup MedNexus. That day, all my possessions were in the backpack and gym bag next to me on that bus. In my pocket I had $10k in rolled up $100 bills secured by an elastic band, won over too many hours grinding $2/$5 no limit hold’em poker at Foxwoods that summer. I did not even have an apartment to move into that night or for the next few weeks, and crashed those first nights at my co-founder’s apartment. I plan to write more in-depth someday about that crazy startup experience, but this provides context since I spent a lot of time commuting on the NYC subway. I read so as not to waste a single second of my time and kept a record to motivate myself.
That was 2,471 days ago. In that time, I’ve finished off 508 books, which is a pace of one book per 4.86 days. Here’s the link to the Google spreadsheet tracker: Books
To be able to think deeply and widely, it’s necessary to read, and to read a lot. I found that the simple process of measuring what you read, and creating some simple derived…
