Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Book Review: How Will You Measure Your Life?

I'm a big fan of Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma and other books about innovation and creative disruption. I was surprised to learn that he'd written a slightly different book, How Will You Measure Your Life?, this one about guiding principles for guiding one's career and one's life. I was curious about it being outside his usual fare, so I decided to give it a whirl.

As a self-help book, it's pretty unique. Christensen draws upon his many business case studies to make some pretty interesting analogies (e.g. comparing 'outsourcing' of parental duties to nannies and activity providers to Dell's outsourcing of it's core functions over time and what it cost them in the long run). This aspect of the book I liked very much, and most of his analogies are sound. I also like his recommendation on career choice assessments into 'hygiene factors' (e.g. salary - you need a certain amount to function, but beyond that it shouldn't be part of a decision between 2 jobs) and the factors that really matter.

On the down side, I found the later parts of the book to drift a little into left field. Especially when he gets into the more religious elements later in the book. Still, I enjoyed it despite this.

How Will You Measure Your Life?