Tools, Discipline, and the Work That Matters

June Reading Recap

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

This wasn’t a month for passive consumption. June’s reading list demanded action: write better, think harder, decide faster. Across writing, engineering, and motivation, the theme kept showing up: you are free to choose—but that freedom comes with the responsibility to do something with it.

To solve, not stall.

To clarify, not complicate.

To create, not coast.

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Sentences That Punch, Paragraphs That Sell

Inspired by

Polina

’s post, I went extremely deep into writing this June.

It was a deliberate exploration of writing—not as an art form, but as a skill. A tool. Something that can be sharpened.

You can read more about my main learnings and how to apply them in my previous article I did on this topic:

I Read (Almost) Every Modern Book on Writing—So You Don’t Have To

Stein on Writing – Sol Stein

Equal parts brutal and brilliant. Stein doesn't coddle. He diagnoses weak writing like a surgeon: overwritten scenes, limp verbs, lazy dialogue. His advice? Cut ruthlessly. Make your characters suffer. And never bore the reader—because they owe you nothing.

The Art and Business of Online Writing – Nicolas Cole

Cole treats writing like an operating system. His framework is all about leverage: write what you know, package it well, distribute it intelligently. Don’t chase virality. Build trust and repeatability. A guide not just for writing—but for writing that actually gets read.

Everybody Writes – Ann Handley

Practical and polished. Handley reminds you that writing isn’t just a marketing tool—it’s how you build trust at scale. From email to landing pages, her advice is simple: be clear, be kind, and sound like a human.

Stories Sell – Matthew Dicks

Every concept is easier to remember with a story. Dicks unpacks the mechanics of storytelling with surgical detail: stakes, specificity, structure. You don’t need to be a novelist to benefit. If you write memos, presentations, or even Slack updates, you’ll get better.

Writing for Busy Readers – Todd Rogers, Jessica Lasky-Fink

Your readers are distracted. Your job is to get to the point. This book teaches how to write so even the most impatient people will read. Use headers. Be blunt. Remove friction. Most of all—respect your reader’s time.

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sht* – Steven Pressfield

This is a wake-up call. Pressfield makes it clear: your first draft isn’t good. Neither is your second. But you’ll get better by writing anyway. Learn to structure. Learn to simplify. Above all—earn your reader’s attention.

On Writing Well – William Zinsser

A classic for a reason. Zinsser strips writing down to its cleanest form. His obsession with clarity is contagious. His style makes me want to delete half of my last blog post—and thank him for the privilege.

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Internal Drive and the Myth of Motivation

Drive – Daniel H. Pink

Pink dismantles the old carrot-and-stick playbook. Real motivation comes from autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Want better output? Stop micromanaging. Give people space to care.

The Best Place to Work – Ron Friedman

This book is like a cheat sheet for building workplaces people don’t secretly hate. Friedman weaves together psychology, design, and behavioral science to show how little things—lighting, feedback frequency, autonomy—compound into actual performance.

Confronting Our Freedom – Peter Block

The most philosophical book of the bunch. Block argues that freedom isn’t about removing constraints—it’s about choosing where to take responsibility. This isn’t self-help. It’s existential management theory. You’re free to act, but now what?

Someday Is Today – Matthew Dicks

A productivity book for creatives that skips the hustle jargon. Dicks gives you micro-strategies to fight procrastination and actually get things done. Not motivational fluff—just tools that work. And a few uncomfortable truths about how much time we waste pretending we’re preparing.

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The Crux of Focused Strategy

The Crux – Richard P. Rumelt

Rumelt’s follow-up to Good Strategy/Bad Strategy is even more focused: find the hardest, most important problem. Solve that. Ignore the rest. His writing is as clean as his logic. It’s not about vision—it’s about leverage.

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Systems That Don’t Fall Over

AI Engineering – Chip Huyen

A field guide to deploying AI systems that don’t implode at scale. Huyen breaks down infrastructure, testing, and ops with clarity. Her message is clear: shipping an AI system is easy. Maintaining it is the real game.

Designing Distributed Systems – Brendan Burns

Short, dense, and incredibly useful. Burns walks through design patterns for scalable systems with a Kubernetes-first lens. If you build for scale, or want to understand why your stack melts down under load, this is worth your time.

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Closing Thoughts

June was a month of sharpening tools—writing tools, thinking tools, building tools. And underneath them all: the reminder that freedom is only valuable when paired with action.

Writing is hard.

So is building good systems.

So is saying, "This is the thing I’ll focus on."

But that’s the work.

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Let me know what you’ve read recently that made you think clearer or build better. And if you’re still waiting for perfect conditions to someday write that post, book, or memo—well, I have a message for you: