Stuart's comments

Stuart's comments from the You'll love this one...!! A book club & more group.

Note: Stuart is no longer a member of this group.

A collection of some short stories by G.K. Chesterton, which led me to reading The Napoleon of Notting Hill and some of his other writing. All of his work is full of compassion, wit and insight, and I find him inspiring as well as entertaining.

Less happily, Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky, which was on the reading list of a university course. Although I don't agree with some of the political views of the author, the book certainly had a powerful effect on my thinking.

About two years ago, I switched jobs to become a programmer, and was surprised to find that there is a keen interest in productivity, self improvement and human behaviour in software engineering. To become a rounded developer you are expected to read books like the The Mythical Man-Month and The Pragmatic Programmer, which are more about addressing how we manage ourselves and work with others than technology, and I've learned a lot.

I heard about Getting Things Done from that source. I wouldn't say that it changed my worldview, but it has certainly had a positive impact - following some of the ideas in it has made me noticeably better organized and less stressed.