110 — What's in your L&D book bag?

Way back in episode 103 ("We need to stop overcomplicating learning"), Owen and Ross D proposed a special episode focused on the non-fiction books that thought an L&D professional could learn from.

This week on The GoodPractice Podcast, we're releasing that episode.

As well as recommendations from Ross D, Owen, Gemma and Ross G, we've got a long list of books that our extended podcast family have suggested via Twitter.

So dust off your library card and prepare to fill your tote as we dive in to the world of non-fiction books for L&D folks.

If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @Ross__Dickie, @OwenFerguson, @GemmaTowersey and @RossGarnerGP.

To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice and @GoodPracticeAus.

Owen recommended Bad Science (by Ben Goldacre) and Creativity Inc. (by Ed Catmull).

Gemma recommended Critical Thinking (by Richard Paul & Linda Elder), Visual Storytelling (published by Gestalten) and Happy City (by Charles Montgomery).

Ross G recommended Factfulness (by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund) and Freakonomics (by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner). He also claimed that Rosling's main points were captured in his excellent TED talk, somewhat ruining his own book recommendation. The talk is excellent though: https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen?language=en 

Ross D recommended Checklist Manifesto (by Atul Gawande) and What Money Can't Buy (by Michael Sandel).

The books recommended via Twitter were:

Black Box Thinking (by Matthew Syed), recommended by David Hayden and Michelle Parry-Slater.

The 4-Hour Workweek (by Tim Ferris), recommended by Lloyd Dean and Wes Atkinson.

Turn This Ship Around (by David MarQuet), recommended by

Garry Turner and Michelle Parry-Slater.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (by Greg McKeown), recommended by Danny Seals and Jamie Good.

The Drunkard’s Walk (by Leonard Mlodinow) recommended by David D’Souza.

And The Tiger that Isn’t (by Blastland & Dilnot), recommended by Rachel Burnham.

With thanks to everyone else who made recommendations. We may revisit them in the future.

Also this week, we managed to squeeze in our regular feature: What I Learned This Week.

The article on wellness programs discussed by Owen was from the New York Times at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/upshot/employer-wellness-programs-randomized-trials.html

Ross G learned the word 'zeugma', a word that received so little enthusiasm from the wider team that he took his belongings and his leave. He first heard this word on The West Wing Weekly podcast episode "Ellie", available at: http://thewestwingweekly.com/episodes/215 

Gemma learned that coconut oil, according to one professor, is actually like 'pure poison': https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/ae331eb1-8576-4228-8562-569efc2a9ee7 

And Ross D filled us in on the history of the 'interrobang', as heard on the 99% Invisible podcast: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/interrobang/ 

UPDATE (29/08/18): Ross' panic about the dangers of alcohol have subsequently been addressed by David Spiegelhalter here: https://medium.com/wintoncentre/the-risks-of-alcohol-again-2ae8cb006a4a