I’ve heard people say they don’t buy books anymore, claiming that everything they want to learn is available on YouTube or somewhere on the web. I regularly buy books. Sometimes I pick up something in a completely new area to broaden my knowledge, and sometimes to deepen it in an area where I already have experience. Since I work as an educator and create the courses I teach, a book can be a great resource to validate the scope of a course or the way I explain a topic.

How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens is a book packed with information. The reason I found it was that I started to read up on how my new text editor, Obsidian, worked and how I best could structure my notes in this new world of note takers. The forums of Obsidian was the natural place to go to. There I found multiple suggestions and good ideas but the main theme of many of them was the use of something called Zettelkasten. Further research recommended Ahrens book with a promise to open the golden doors of knowledge organisation.

Drive was a book that I started to read a long time ago. But for whatever reason I got sidetracked and it got left untouched on my bedside table. I did not give the book a real chance. A few days ago I thought I should. This time around I read it carefully and with intent to learn and understand.

Drive is a book that investigates motivation by looking at what was the motivational factors in the past and what the main drivers are in the current society of knowledge workers. Pink wants to show the differences in how organisations and families motivates and what science has learnt. He does that by structuring the book in three sections.