This is where I upload the notes I take while reading (sometimes only part of)
There’s something funny about making a list like this. To force organization and legibility on the non-rational seems futile. Yet, when you have no idea where to begin, it’s helpful to have a jumping off point. So, this is my version of a recovering rationalist starterpack.
Review – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami Haruki Murakami is best known for writing surreal novels, but did you know he runs a marathon every year? What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a sort of memoir-slash-diary Murakami wrote while training for the NYC Marathon.
This is a summary of a great Tree Book. Tree books are books that lay out a framework of ideas. Here Hargrove explores physical health and performance from a complexity science perspective. Review – Playing With Movement by Todd Hargrove Teaching Complexity Science is hard.
Review – Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday Ryan Holiday wants you to find stillness. He explores this concept through his usual lens of historic figures, repetition, and stoic philosophy. This recipe has worked in his previous books, and again it makes for convincing reading.
A practical guide to developing aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. I highly recommend this book for people who: want to incorporate more conditioning into their lifting regime want to develop an aerobic base or continue developing aerobic conditioning work in the military, law enforcement, or other physically demanding jobs Buy Tactical Barbell II on Amazon
When readers ask about habit formation, I always point them to James Clear’s blog. Now I’ll be pointing them to his book, Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits Book Review full disclosure: I was provided with an early release copy of this book.
Ricardo Semler changed a traditional manufacturing company into one where staff set their own salary, vacations were mandatory, books were open, and workers had autonomy to run their job as they like. This democratized, trust based approach led Semco to great success during Brazil’s tumultuous 80’s.
(This book was originally titled “Work Clean”) Chefs deliver their dishes to customers, night after night. To the untrained eye, the kitchen looks chaotic: people dashing here and there, pans slamming onto burners, knives chopping, tickets printing. But somehow, every dish is served, right on time.
It was summer. The beach was crowded. My friends and I had just finished college, ready to head into the real world. But first we had to fight for an open patch of sand. The warmth hugging the bottoms of our feet.
Haidt explores different paths to happiness, examines them through the lens of modern research, and proposes a revised ‘Happiness Hypothesis’. 2024 update: In this book, Haidt proposes the idea of a “happiness setpoint”, a genetic level which you can only adjust by a small amount.
Review “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” gives a fascinating overview of humanity’s rapid expansion across the world. Yuval Noah Harari approaches the topic with a unique, often contrarian viewpoint that’s sure to get you thinking. The author’s clear writing style makes for an easy read.
“Wiping out the fear isn’t what’s important, facing it is” Review In March 2012, I was scared. By myself, in a country where I didn’t speak the language, headed to a job that felt way over my head. At home, I had been living a life decided by others.
Tom Kelley of IDEO thinks innovation is the path forward for companies. To help us become more innovative, he presents 10 ‘personas’ we can learn to take on. Book Review Kelley’s tenure at IDEO has put him in the path of many fascinating projects.
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up is Marie Kondo’s simple manifesto on tidying. With over 4 Million copies sold, her message resonates with many–we all have too much stuff. Review Kondo’s approach, often called the KonMari method, is a drastic, do-everything-at-once method.
Can normal people make accurate predictions about the future? Yes, with a lot of work, careful application of principles, and as long as you don’t look too far into the future. Review Tetlok is best known for his research showing the average expert to be roughly as accurate as a dart-throwing chimpanzee.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you keep it together?” Who are you arguing with? In this short but highly actionable book, David Levin presents a unique framework for thinking about your ‘Inner Game’.
Taylor Pearson wants you to be an entrepreneur. Maybe you’re scared of entrepreneurship: “it’s too risky”, “I need a steady paycheck to be safe”. If Pearson is right, the riskier option is to stay at your job. Review This is an excellent book.
A short but incredibly useful impetus to learn about oneself. Review Originally an article for The Harvard Business Review, this short volume covers how to create your career path by understanding yourself. As it’s not really a full book, there aren’t any how-to guides or in-depth tactics for figuring out who you are or how to manage yourself.
Do you want to make something truly great? A body of work that sticks around, and helps people year after year? Are you sick of everyone telling you to churn out cheap, ‘viral’ content? Ryan Holiday has the book for you.
The sportsman’s most common complaint: “It’s not that I don’t know what to do, it’s that I don’t do what I know!” The Inner Game of Tennis Book Review My weightlifting coach used to joke that it’d be easier to teach people if we could give them lobotomies.
Like these book notes? Join the newsletter and be the first to know when I post more: Email Address First Name About These Book Notes If you learn by reading, books are the best investment you can make, both in terms of time and money.
“Much of what we’ve been told about the qualities that lead to achievement is logical, earnest–and downright wrong.” - Eric Barker Review In “Barking Up the Wrong Tree”, Eric Barker (see what he did there?) takes a look at some common misconceptions about success.
Murakami chats with internationally renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa over two years of interviews. Review The book is presented in an interview format, with occasional asides by Murakami. They chat about various composers, how different the same piece can feel depending on who conducts/plays it, how to think about music, and more.
If there’s anyone who knows how to reinvent himself, it’s James Altucher. He’s run hedge funds, started companies, lost it all with said companies, written books, hosted TV, and blogged about the worst moments of his life. His willingness to be vulnerable in his writing sets him apart from the sea of ‘amazing’ self-help gurus.
The definitive book on running a Silicon-Valley style ’lean’ startup. Must read for entrepreneurs. The Lean Startup Book Review Plenty of big startups use Lean Startup methodology to grow their business rapidly, and this book is the bible of the whole movement.
Not just another minimalism book, Newport’s latest has the potential to free up hundreds of hours of your attention–and your life. This is a summary of a good branch book. You can glean the main ideas from a summary, but if you’d like stronger arguments or more detail it’s worth picking up the book.
Gateless - a “self-improvement” book that will actually improve your life. Review Fantastic, actionable advice on setting up your life to constantly improve. Marshall and Zau organize the book around “Four Currencies”: Capacity, Network, Signal, and Assets. They go into depth about how to improve these areas and discuss common pitfalls.
Seth Godin’s treatise on the need to be remarkable in today’s economy. Review Seth Godin conveys his ideas in a clear, convincing manner. And his ideas are great. He pulls no punches about the death of traditional advertising, and outlines the only remaining viable path: be remarkable.
Holiday neatly outlines the tactics and mindset needed to become a growth hacker. Review Quick and to the point, Holiday deconstructs the techniques used by growth hackers to make their products spread. I highly recommend this book for anyone involved in the launch of a new product.
Do you get angry while skimming through news headlines? Then someone succeeded in manipulating you. Published in 2012, Holiday’s book is surprisingly prescient. Since then the techniques described in the book have gotten more prevalent and more effective; all the more reason to understand how they work.
Are you surprised at yesterday’s election results? Do you want to help shift the political climate? You need to brush up on your sales skills. Elections have never been decided on policy issues or experience. Whichever team has the best persuaders wins, everytime.
Pragmatic and brutally honest advice in the self-help sea of useless feel-good bullshit. Review I was expecting recycled content from Manson’s blog and The How To Not Give a Fuck Subreddit, but there’s plenty of new material here. The book touches on interesting and often unsaid truths about our behavior and values.
Update: it’s been brought to my attention that some of the scientific claims made in this book may be incorrect or misrepresented by the author. When reading any book, it’s important to read with a critical eye. Read more on this discussion here.
Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle is the Way, has just published his treatise on ego, sure to be another cult classic. Review Holiday uses examples of historical figures–both successful and unsuccessful–to examine the destructive properties of ego. Through these stories we gain a better understanding of how dangerous ego can be, and how its’ suppression leads to a better life.
The Last Safe Investment offers great advice about spending wisely and investing in yourself. Review A quick note: some people are put off by the authors’ dismissal of investing in the stock market. I don’t agree with their suggestion that stock market investments are worthless.
Not just another rant by a technophobe, Newport makes a compelling case for the importance of ‘Deep Work’. Review The book is split into two parts: Part 1 argues that Deep Work is increasingly important in our economy, and Part 2 outlines strategies for increasing your ability to do Deep Work.
I almost didn’t read this book. On first glance I thought it’d be another collection of tips and tricks for avoiding your phone–block websites, turn off push notifications, go live in a log cabin to reclaim your attention and your life from being hacked by evil social media platforms.
This blue hardcover book sat on my bookshelf for a year. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to open it, because after the first page, I was already blown away. What is Worlding? When we think of Worldbuilding, we think of Fantasy worlds, like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.