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Yien: Autobiographies are the ultimate cheat code for adopting mental models

Kevin Yien · Unorthodox PM tips: Automating user insights, unselling candidates, decision logs, more | Kevin Yien · Aug 18, 2024 · at 1:14:46

Stripe product lead Kevin Yien explains his reading strategy during a lightning round discussion on book recommendations.

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“The type of book by volume that I read and get the most joy from are autobiographies and memoirs. It is just like the ultimate cheat code to spend time with people that you respect are interested by or want to learn from. Like, could you imagine what it would take in real life to sit down with Albert Einstein for 50 hours and just have him talk to you about his life? Like, impossible. But you can read and pretty much get the same thing. So anyways, strong requirement or a strong suggestion, go read, like, autobiographies and memoirs of people that you respect. Mostly for like their mental model and the way to approach thinking less about, you know, specific things”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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