These Books Will Change Your Life

Incredible Lessons to Learn and the State of Procurement Tech

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Here’s what we do:

• Tuesday: Lessons learnt post from my career or from people in World who share lessons we should apply to Procurement (Tuesday)

• Wednesday: That’s today’s post. It is our “Newsletter” day.

• Friday: Posts that help you further your career with specific skills, insights on methodologies, book reviews, personal knowledge management, and procurement tech (every Friday). These are deep dives. Exclusive to Paid.

• Every Month: State of Procurement Tech Report & any updates on my book, The Future of Procurement. Exclusive to Paid.

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I’ve been on an incredible reading spree over the last couple of weeks and wanted to share some with you. They’re not procurement books, but there are incredible lessons to be learned in each of them that will empower you in various ways.

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Sold Out, by James Rickards:

This book is a deep dive into the broken supply chain we have and advocates for a new era of Supply Chain 2.0 to come into play. A solid read, with good insights, massively American; perhaps some political biases shine through too much, but it includes a lot of good points. If you like a Hardcover, it’s actually the cheapest version of the book on Amazon.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, by Eric Jorgenson, Jack Butcher, and Tim Ferriss:

If you don’t know who Naval Ravikant is, please pick this up and read away. THIS BOOK HAS CHANGED MY LIFE. It will start a beautiful rabbit hole for you to explore. Here’s a summary - The Almanack of Naval Ravikant contains a collection of quotes and insights on various topics such as building judgment, decision-making, mental models, happiness, and health. It emphasises the importance of being present, cultivating a love for reading, and surrounding oneself with positive people. It also includes book recommendations and personal beliefs on anger, Buddhism, and technology. The Kindle version is only £2.34 and is genuinely one of my life’s most incredible reads.

Digital Zettelkasten, by David Kadavy:

I’m big on digital note-taking, and my entire Personal Knowledge Management System is a mixture of Tiago Fortes Second Brain and a Digital Zettelkasten. I view this system as a superpower more potent than Dr X. A quick summary of this concept is - The Digital Zettelkasten is a system for organising notes that can help with writing and idea generation. It involves creating slips of paper or digital notes that can be organised in a non-hierarchical way, allowing for easy retrieval and connection of ideas.

Here’s my Digital Zettelkasten area in Notion.

I’ll release this as a Digital Download soon for you all.

The Pathless Path, by Paul Millerd:

I sent a message to

Tom Mills

to say he needed to read this with the way his Substack

Procurement Bites by Tom Mills

is growing. This is the book for any of you who have thought about a non-traditional career path in Procurement. The book offers insights into redefining success, experimenting with different kinds of work, and engaging in creative endeavours.

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ICYMI:

I’ve released 3 different articles in the last week (I drank too much coffee to get these all out in time 😃). Please check them out if you haven’t already.

This first piece, The State of Procurement Tech, is a monthly report I’ll be putting together forever. I hope it helps people looking into Digital Procurement, Procurement Leaders, New Procurement Pros, and the teams behind Procurement Tech. Check it out.

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See you next Wednesday for another newsletter,

Daniel