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Camiel Schoonens

Product and Technology enthusiast

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Camiel

An evergrowing list with favorite management books

7 August 2024 ·

I read a lot of books in all sorts of genres. One of the genres I appreciate professionally is management literature. I use these management books to understand how to approach specific challenges in my career. Reading these books is about being inspired, as there is no such thing as copy/pasting management practices. I’ve seen too many managers and leaders do this throughout my career. I can tell you that in such scenarios, you will always fail. Every work/company environment is different; there is no such thing as copying/pasting yourself out of a professional challenge.

Below is my list of management books I enjoyed reading over the past few years. I share this list with friends and colleagues who ask me for advice on suitable books they could read.

  • Blue Ocean Strategy – Expanded Edition
  • Eat that frog
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • Making Work Visible
  • Nine Lies About Work
  • Our Iceberg Is Melting
  • Start with Why
  • StrengthsFinder 2.0
  • The Culture Map
  • The Miracle Morning
  • The Pyramid Principle
  • Who moved my cheese?

Changelog:

  • August 7th 2024: Initial post

Links worth reading #003

31 July 2024 ·

  • I find this technical insanity so fun to read. I appreciate all the engineering effort put into this free Wi-Fi on an airplane.
  • Athlytic.app is an excellent app that I started using to improve my running. I’m using the app to track my progress towards an 18-week running plan that I’m currently following.
  • The power of online community is an article by Lou Plummer that captures the essence of communities: Connections based on genuine interest.
  • Radio Kootwijk is an article (in Dutch) on ‘Radio Kootwijk.’ It’s worth a read if you are Dutch and appreciate history.
  • Blueprint is a beautifully designed wallpaper initially created in 2010.
  • Om Malik has a good post on social media fasting. I noticed that in my little bubble on the internet, more and more people want to go on such diets.

Earlier link dumps can be found here:

  • Linkverzameling #002
  • Linkverzameling #001

 

Links worth reading #002

28 June 2024 ·

  • How I built one of the biggest BIN lookup sites in the world, and how it was killed. Before doing Product in HR and Payroll I did product in payments. In payments, your BIN is a thing; the BIN is used to identify your credit card’s issuer and the country it’s originating from. Matt Birchler has a nice story about how he built a product on top of the Binlist API and how it evolved and eventually got killed.
  • The Clean Industrial Revolution has arrived. Bill Gates blogs about the Breakthrough Energy Summit and what promising climate tech is on the horizon to address five challenges behind the planet’s highest gas emissions today.
  • The paper tablet. I’m still thinking about getting myself a reMarkable 2 digital notebook. While I have an iPad Pro for work, I don’t like writing on it, as I miss the feeling of writing on paper. The reMarkable 2 seems to come close to the writing-on-paper experience.
  • Kiosk. Mass-produced from the 1970s to the 1990s, modular kiosks like the seminal K67, designed by the Slovenian architect Saša J. Mächtig, and similar systems – including the Polish Kami, the Macedonian KC190, and the Soviet ‘Bathyscaphe’ – could be found anywhere throughout the former Eastern Bloc and ex-Yugoslav countries, from bustling city squares to socialist-era housing estates. They served as hot dog and Polish zapiekanka joints, farm egg and rotisserie chicken vendors, funeral flower shops, newsstands, car park booths, currency exchange offices, and more. (Via Kekness.nl)

Earlier link dumps can be found here:

  • Linkverzameling #001

Links worth reading #001

22 June 2024 ·

  • RSS: The forgotten protocol that still matters​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​. I think I have been using RSS since it was introduced in WordPress. It’s still a technology I rely on daily, and it will continue to be with the new Reeder.app and Tapestry.app on the horizon. It’s pretty cool how RSS, a technology from the late 90s, still powers so much of the internet today, including your podcast feeds.
  • Slashpages.net. You can add slash pages to your website, usually with a standard, root-level slug like /now, /about, or /uses. Slashpages.net has an excellent overview of common pages you can set up yourself.
  • aboutideasnow.com. It is a great way to find people with similar interests as myself, but don’t post content on large social media platforms. For example: Runners or Photography enthusiasts.
  • Chat Control Must Be Stopped. More background information on the ‘Chat Control bill’ that is supposed to be passed in the EU Council and why this bill isn’t a good idea is needed.
  • HDMI Display Emulator. I ordered this little USB-C device earlier this week after seeing a colleague use a similar device. This is ideal for people like us who often need to do presentations from their laptop without an external monitor nearby. With this device you emulate a second monitor in the OS giving you the opportunity to share the virtual second screen in Teams, Zoom or Webex while seeing the speakers notes yourself. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

 

How I stay productive and go through my tasks

25 January 2024 ·

I received a text message from a former colleague and friend about how I stay productive and avoid procrastination. This colleague is not the first to notice my strengths in this area and ask for tips, tricks, and book recommendations. So here I go.

First things first, there is no silver bullet to doing things right. Many things that work for me might or might not work for you. Ultimately, you need to design a system that works for you. Staying productive in my work and private life comes down to building habits, being consistent, and optimizing what needs improvement.

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“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

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Camiel Schoonens · © 2025