As a working parent with two young children, life has been quite hectic in 2023. However, I still managed to read a few books, primarily in childcare and career advancement. Reading is one of the few events that brings me internal peace and fullfillment in life.

Childcare

  1. Siblings Without Rivalry (**) Main take-aways:
    • Avoid comparisons and labels
    • Effective communication
    • Encourage collaborative activities
    • Encourage siblings to resolve conflicts by themselves under adults’ supervision
    • Treating them fairly instead of equally
  2. How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk (**) Main take-aways:
    • Acknowledging the children’s feelings and emotions.
    • Involve children in the process of problem-solving and decision-making
    • Encouraging children to be independent and make their own choices
    • Praise children in ways that boost their self-esteem and encourage internal motivation
    • Freeing Children from Playing Roles
  3. The Collapse of Parenting (*****) Main take-aways:
    • Over the past decades, American parents have lost much of their traditional authority over children, leading to kids turning to their peers and the internet for guidance and values. Parents need to reclaim authority over their kids.
    • Both schools and parents overemphasize on Academic Achievements at the expense of teaching character, humility and respect.
    • Technology especially social media has undermined parent-child relationship and contribute to issues like cyberbullying and social isolation.
  4. The Coddling of the American Mind
  5. The Sleepeasy Solution This book has provided a new way to do sleep training for young kids, whose core is to gradually reduce night feed amount and bring up feed time simutaneously. While the theory sounds solid, I find it hard to follow. For example, when I tried it on my son, I soon realized reducing night feed amount would make him wake up more frequently craving for milk, which eventually made us more exhausted. We have tried this method for two weeks and decided to give up because we can’t stand it any more.
  6. Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems This is another classic book I have read about sleep training. My experience with it is very similar to mine with The Sleepeasy Solution. After trying both books, I decided not to sleep train my son anymore. When he got to the one-year mark, he can sleep soundly through the whole night. Needless to say, my husband and I have finally survived our hardest year in life.

Career Advancement

  1. What got you Here won’t get you there (**) Main take-aways:
    • Your past success doesn’t gurantee future successes. Personal traits, skills and habbits lead to your past success may actually hinder your future successes. Keep updating your skillset as you advance your career or life.
  2. The power of habit Main take-aways:
    • You are what you eat and what your habits are.
  3. Becoming an effective software engineering manager (*****)
  4. The making of a manager (*****)
  5. High Output Management, by Andrew S. Grove
  6. The power of showing up
  7. The Effective Engineer, by Edmond Lau
  8. Staff Engineer, by Will Larson
  9. The Alliance
  10. Deep work (*****), by Cal Newport
  11. Find Your Focus Zsone, by Lucy Jo Palladino
  12. Clean Code (unfinished)

Tech interview

  1. Machine Learning System Design Interview (**), by Alex Xu
    • A good beginner’s book for passing machine learning system design interviews. Not suitable for L6+ candidates though.
  2. Designing Machine Learning Systems (***), by Chip Huyen
    • A good collection of main topics in designing machine learning systems.
  3. Answering Behavioral Questions in Amazon Interviews (*****), by Jennifer Scupi

Misc

  1. Three men in a boat (unfinished)
  2. We Were Dreamers (*****)