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Well, I made a paper model after reading this one and talked to a bunch of people about it as I was reading it.

In the subtitle, "the surprising factors that determine the fate of every project", the "surprising" is clickbait. But that's a good thing I guess, maybe means I've learned something over the years. Nevertheless, the book is dramatic, interesting and quite readable.

Flyvbjerg, a professor and consultant for megaproject management, compiled a huge database of megaprojects. This book seems to be the fit-for-public compilation of his research an experience. Packed with fascinating stories of great success (Empire State building, Guggenheim Bilbao) and hard(ly) success (Sydney Opera House, Heaven's Gate), interviews with Edwin Catmull, Franck Gehry and Daniel Kahnemann.

I think the practical point that stood out most for me is that the most accurate forecasting method is to refer to other completed projects of the same class, the more the better. This helps account for unknown unknowns & black swans which we otherwise don't factor in due to latent human optimism.

So read about how the Sydney Opera house went 14 times over budget and the architect was forced out half way, leaving Australia never to return. Read about how Pixar films go through ~8 iterations of feature-length, hand-drawn slide shows before being developed. And how solar and wind are the most reliably on budget of all project classes.

(And this is definitely an engineering book. While conscious of climate change, it goes on to suggest carbon capture and storage as a serious technology. And one of the examples of success is the expansion of Heathrom terminal 5... it is steeped in Capitalism Realism. Still valid and useful and helpful for doing stuff, just don't come for your critical theory.)

This is a book about working in groups, and while the target audience seem to be companies most of the content is transferrable to non-profits or anti-profits.

The 3 co-authors are all guys with PhDs, psychologists. Hayes seems to be one of the main people behind Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which seems to be the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy + Mindfulness.

The theoretical basis of the book is multi level selection (evolutionary) theory (MLS)+ commons theory. MLS expands Darwin's model of genetic & epigenetic variability, heritability and fitness to include learning & culture. They claim this expanded model accounts for social innovations and that the 'fitness' of humans really can't be accounted for if learning and culture are ignored. Apparently MLS is the mainstream evolutionary theory, so we can all stop straw-manning "hard geneticists" and their "selfish gene".

I skimmed the chapter on commons theory, but I think they did a good job for people new to it. They reformulated Ostrom's 8 principles in a convincing and accessible way.

The chapter on the evolution of learning was quite interesting from habituation, to classical condition, to social learning (e.g. mimicry), to operant conditioning, to symbolic learning. Not very detailed, but stands out as being the clearest I've heard the differences being described.

The second part of the book, the larger half, was less interesting. Here the authors go through their reformulations of the commons principles and how they apply to groups. The anecdotes and experiences are interesting, and there are some practical tips in there. However it's pretty dry... professional I guess. It feels steeped in Capitalist Realism — see book of same name by Mark Fisher. And they have this 4-quadrant matrix thing that they claim solves everything, and refer to the Prosocial method a lot ("Prosocial" appears over 300 times in the book!) which gives a strong taste of trying to establish a brand.

I recommend the first part (4 chapters on theory) but can't really recommend the second part.

Contemporary evolutionary theory X Commons theory? Let's see!

It's an adventure book, and a good one at that. It follow the life of two young men, boys, who meet at a monastery. One dedicates himself to the monastic order and convinces the other his calling is elsewhere. It's about art, self-discovery, the value of authenticity, and many other things. I read it in the original German, which was a bit tricky, but it has some beautiful words that don't get used so much (e.g. "Nichtloskommenkönnen".

I read Hesse's "Siddartha" about a year before this. This is a different book, but has some nice parallels. I can imagine I'd give it 4+ stars if I'd read it before I was 20 or lead a more normal life. It is beautiful and well worth a read.

This is a short, easily understandable guide aimed at horizontalist groups. Prefigurative, not prescriptive, with lot's of relatable examples, and at the end a large appendix of constitutional documents historical and modern to gain inspiration from.

I am glad this exists! It makes the case for building lasting structures, institutions, and that governance (via constitution) is a strong support to that.

There are times where I wish it was a bit more prescriptive, and had a more positive light on leadership and specializing which I now believe to be not only inevitable, but actively desirable.

Overall, a lot of good common sense for organizing, and a great entry for people who are newer to governance.