Turning reading into useful work: my standards for five books

I do not want to count finishing five books in their original English as completing the task. This checklist sets the standards for my learning plan: each book should leave me with something I can use, test, and review.

Six questions for every piece of work

I will check each learning outcome against these six questions:

1. Problem: What real problem did I start with?
2. Input: What new model did the book give me?
3. Application: Where, specifically, did I apply it?
4. Evidence: What shows that it made a difference?
5. Limitations: What remains unresolved?
6. Artifact: What have I made that I can keep using?

I will update the checklist below as my reading progresses.

Five English books → five pieces of work

Overall aim

The goal is to turn five books into five real pieces of work, rather than simply write five sets of reading notes.

Each piece should:

• Address a real problem.
• Explain the book’s central model clearly.
• Apply that model at least once.
• Include supporting evidence or a case.
• Identify limitations or counterexamples.
• Leave a reusable result.
• Be documented as a project on the blog.

The result might be:

An article / case study / checklist / standard operating procedure / README / prompt / template / tool / method.

I will leave the form open, but set the acceptance criteria in advance.

1. Beyond Feelings

The ability I want to develop:

Judge whether a claim is reliable.

Requirements:

• Develop my own framework for judgment.
• Analyze one real claim from start to finish.
• Distinguish claim, evidence, reasoning, and assumption.
• Record how my judgment changes after reading.
• Identify the framework’s limits.

The central question:

How can I judge a claim more reliably?

2. The Craft of Research

The ability I want to develop:

Complete a structured research project.

Requirements:

• Pose one real research question.
• Record how I narrow it down.
• Organize sources, evidence, and counterevidence.
• Complete a research memo.
• Describe my research workflow.

The central question:

How can I carry out credible, in-depth research on my own?

3. Competing Against Luck

The ability I want to develop:

Understand why people actually choose a product.

Requirements:

• Choose one real product or behavior.
• Write down my original explanation for it.
• Reinterpret it using Jobs Theory.
• Analyze the situation, desired progress, hiring decision, and alternatives.
• Derive new product decisions.

The central question:

What job is the user really “hiring” this product to do?

4. When Coffee and Kale Compete

The ability I want to develop:

Understand how a user actually switches products.

Requirements:

• Choose one real switch.
• Reconstruct the full decision timeline.
• Analyze push, pull, anxiety, and habit.
• Find user motivations I had previously missed.
• Identify at least one new insight about users.

The central question:

How does a real product switch happen?

5. The Jobs To Be Done Playbook

The ability I want to develop:

Carry out Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) research in practice.

Requirements:

• Select the JTBD tools that are actually useful.
• Assemble my own toolkit.
• Choose one real project.
• Run the process from the initial research question onward.
• Complete interviews, evidence gathering, and analysis.
• Define the job and the opportunities.
• Make recommendations for a product or an action.
• Record which tools helped and which did not.

The central piece of work:

My practical JTBD workflow, V1.

The progression across five books

The intended result is more than:

Having read five English books.

I want to develop the full sequence of abilities:

Judgment → research → modeling → insight → execution.

The check at the end of each book

I will copy this checklist for each book. The most important rule can sit at the top of every draft:

Completion means producing something I can verify, not simply reaching the last page.