I read 40 books last year. Here's what I learned

I turned 40 this year and reading these books was my version of the so-called midlife crisis

1. Forget data. Everything is tied to understanding consumers and their emotions–everything.

Marketing: While we all yearn for virality for our products or ideas, it most likely won’t happen. What we can all do is take a more structured approach to spreading our ideas.

This is what Jonah Berger offers in Contagious.

2. You don’t know your customers until you know their stories.

Marketing: The best fiction books do a great job in character mining. My character mining fixes this year came from reading Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan and Swing Time by Zadie Smith.

3. Design