Books Read (98)

This is basically an ad for Khanmigo—more a vehicle of change convincing educators than a source of truth. But it is probably the most comprehensive vision and discussion of AI's impact on education, so still worth the short read. Khan paints a glorious future where Khanmigo is always there to help students, teachers, and parents, redefining the way we do everything from testing to recruiting. I d...

One of the most well-written and realistic sci-fi novels I've read. Despite some wacky technology, the story feels grounded, like it could happen. My favorite moments were about the three-body game and the joyous awe of discovering patterns. But none of the characters felt very fleshed out/relatable but were more pieces of a story. It didn't strike any emotional chords in me, was more entertaining...

This. Book. Slaps. One of the best books I read in a while and I finished it in two days. It’s an absolutely wild life story that's deeply engrossing, violent, dramatic, and reflexive. The memories are explored in their jumbled confusion and words chatter in her mind. Her family is the protagonist and antagonist, the abusive lover. The author has this brilliant ability to articulate her internal s...

Such a great, unique book following generations of Africans from the 18th century to the present day. While the writing and characters aren't super compelling/stirring, the book offers this episodic multi-century arc giving an appreciation of this vast expanse of time and different historical ways of being. Feels historically real with interesting moments for each generation. Wouldn't be surprised...

Dense, no book has taken me more rereads per page to understand. He writes with this self-righteous wit in long winding sentences. But the density of original insights per page is amazing, if hard to fully grasp. It must be said Nietzche is a genius. He explores the human psyche with a piercing, original gaze; presenting an amoral, cynical, solitary elitism. It is less a new philosophy and more a...

THE best book I have read in the last year or two. Each chapter is the perfect length, ending before it gets too repetitive and with its own powerful ideas. Instead of the false narrative depression is a chemical imbalance, this book explores how rising unhappiness is a reflection of a faulty way of life, particularly our extrinsically, selfishly motivated American culture. Lays out not just the 8...

Strongly counters the idea that "voters are rational, but just ignorant". Instead arguing for a rational irrationality where voting is a public good without personal cost, so people are very reasonably irrational and ignorant. Generally explores democracies systemic shortcomings with interesting counter intuitive takes and compelling arguments. Great thesis, but the book struck me as too lengthy...

Shockingly short, understandable book for an intro to an ancient philosophy. A peaceful reflection. More aphorisms than a complete, persuasive worldview, but I gained some perspective and resonated with some points. A book well worth the quick read. Takeaways: "True power seems weak, true purity seems tarnished, true steadfastness seems changeable, true clarity seems obscure, the greatest seem un...

Human. Dostoevsky creates the realest, deepest, most complex characters of any author I've read. He offers amazing insight into depravity and emotions with even offhand remarks commenting on the human psyche. Worldviews clash in this almost psychological thriller. The compelling story explores the darkness of man and the internal rationalizations and beliefs the desperate cling to. "You put intel...

American history through the lens of capitalism. It's like Sapiens where each chapter looks at some time period through the lens of a particular invention or economic explanation, but is less broad stroked and more generally unopinionated. Tries to offer unique perspective through this lens so offers much more on each topic than what is covered by most Youtube videos/schooling. It almost felt as i...

Sexuality, casual hookups, important yet superficial friendships, third wheeling, mental health, loneliness. I'm surprised how it was so beyond my standard conception of relationships, yet somehow still felt real and relatable. A kind of normal, peaceful, nostalgic past. The characters and story were simple and soft without tear jerking or dramatic moments, but it subtly resonated with parts of my...

The first few chapters are great intros to the compelling ideas of Mimetic Theory. The actual explanations and examples the author provides were a little too polished and dogmatic for my taste. Anecdotes and pop culture examples instead of rigorous analysis of any kind. But it is a human emotional problem of desire and stirs important questions. What do you want? What should you want? A perspectiv...

Compelling sci-fi. Science man protagonist provides some actually interesting and fun yet educational explorations of science and his world. Great story arc with powerful emotional moments. Wasn’t as much a story of character development as a story exploring what it means to be human with cosmic decisions. The characters are mostly caricature so doesn't feel too real, but in the end I was deeply e...

Emily isn’t an intellectual with some deep understanding. But she approached this book the best way she could, not to explain ideas but to explore them. Gives some visceral insight into what being a beautiful women, identifying and valuing yourself as one feels like. The power dynamics of modeling and inner narratives justifying it. The deep rooted, yet nonsensical toxic ideas she is still working...

This book is a calming, wandering reflection on a different way of life. With its strong perspective relishing a solitary, simple life in nature, it served as a great background to my busy, society approved life. It has this powerful calming voice that offers some beauty in its quiet values. Perspective more than proposition. As the book continues, it does become too much of a naturalistic guide t...

One of the biggest secrets of our time is the massive impact genetics and DNA has on personality, intelligence, and outcomes. Despite data accumulating, genetic differences are politically rejected with egalitarianism a foundational idea in the west. This author was a fierce egalitarianism that found the genetic science so destabilizing that she wrestled out the nuisance and clarity on this import...

I picked up this book because Bret Viktor called it, "perhaps the greatest book ever written on learning in general". The insights in this book were truly mind expanding and visionary. Decades before it became relevant, the author had some great forecasts for the future and some powerful perspectives yet to be achieved. I will probably mention this book when I mention learning for its novel ideas....

Reads more like a political speech or self help book than an academic book. The book does describe many real problems like how school drains creativity and doesn't teach job skills and how our labor market needs different skills as rote tasks are left to computers. But, its support is full of fluffy, "inspirational" language with carefully crafted metaphors and historical lens to point and laugh a...

This is the best book on learning I have read. The authors pull from deep research to recommend practical tips and frameworks for thinking about education. The book is directed at professors learning to teach and reads a little like a textbook, but it is information rich. The summary of this book really does not do it justice. The genius is in the specific nuanced understanding of how learning wor...

Wow, I forget how engrossing fiction could be. This was a triumph of the human spirit and culture. Amazing world building that really created an immersive and expansive world with a great feeling of depth and culture. I love these Death Note esque mind games and titans of intellect playing chess matches with nations. Many memorable ideas and quotes struck me. I did find the ending a little underwh...

This book shattered my world view. Bryan Caplan asks the very important question: what is the value of education, personally and nationally? And he answers with an amazing command and breadth of research, rigorous modeling, and nuanced recognition of uncertainty. And despite this academic rigor, its still very readable. He builds a strong case not just against the current education system, but the...

This relationship tale really resonated with me and some friends. Many of those inconsequential, perplexing fights and damaging thought patterns are often a reflection of your underlying attachment style. In something as complex as relationships, its hard to even know why or how you feel. This charts out a illuminating lens with two axis of comfort with intimacy and anxiety about your partners lov...

Contrary to what I thought when I picked this up, this is really not about romance, but really meditations on a way to live, a way to desire, and a way to be happy. Love is just the powerful, general vehicle. Short, sharp and very real. Several passages directly resonated with and illuminated my current problems. So dense and clear, my notes on the book are comparable to the book itself. While the...

This book is a fun mockery of Silicon Valley weaving in volleys of witty jabs and social critiques through his time working FB ads or starting a YC company. His writing is blanketed with an almost lethal dose of cynicism and a kind of aloof arrogance. More amusing and mindless like a clever sitcom rather than being particularly informative or illuminating. But also like a sitcom, this book is a ho...

Though the word executive is in the title, this is the best productivity book I have read and applies whether you are a programmer, youtuber, marketer, or designer. Self management, focus, efficency are essential in our world where each worker is a mini executive constantly making decisions of importance and allocating (your own) time and attention. Though written in 1966, it feels like it could b...

In NYC, charter schools absolutely crush public schools in educational outcomes when controlling for demographics. Despite that, charter schools have faced increasing scrutiny and regulation. This book is basically a complete research paper offering a withering attack against critics of charter schools. The data and methodology were pretty tedious in the beginning(especially for an audio book), bu...

This book is so lengthy, that by the time I write this review I barely remember anything in the first half of the book. I never found the book boring with Obama's thoughtful reflection, but very few things stuck out to me and I was able to achieve my fastest audiobook speed ever without feeling like I was missing something important. This book also feels like a political vehicle offering a stirrin...

This book is an engrossing collection of long-form essays. Gladwell is a great writer and each self-contained essay is like a mini-book with its own unintuitive perspective, engaging anecdote, and sharp evidence. I found almost all of these essays kinda surprising and just the right length to completely cover the idea. As I review my notes, I am surprised at all the unique ideas I almost forget I...

INTEGRITY CHALLENGE: You are the CEO of a small company and get an anonymous tip that John made a huge loan to his secretary and that he might be sleeping with her. What do you do? Integrity isn't as easy as following some 10 commandments and neither is creating a system of policies and punishments to instill it. It is nuanced and complex, and luckily the author doesn't shy away from very specif...

What makes this biography wonderful is how unique it is. This isn’t the biography of some titan of industry with ungodly work ethics boldly overcoming adversity after extraordinary adversity on a path to fame and fortune. Instead, this is more like those young adult superhero movies. A relatable, candid story of a woman with pretty conventional concerns and ambitions that is suddenly thrust into a...

Oh my god! This book describes the labor camps, trials, prisons, secret police, and special camps from the beginning to the near ends of the Soviet Union. A well-researched, history book that is simultaneously filled with such vivid and engaging stories. A takedown of the Soviet Union labor camps and philisophy. It inspired in me a great fear of government power that starts with an uncompromising...

So I started this book thinking this was actually the religious canon version of Buddhism's Siddartha. And I was so confused about how a religion could be founded and held together on such an individualist, anti-authority foundation. Turns out I was just confused, luckily what was left was actually a very thought-provoking, varied, and pretty fast-paced book. The highest praise for this book is...

This book basically takes the chapters on religion and the future from Sapiens and fleshes them out into their own book. In his trademark style, Harari dissects the human superpower as large scale, flexible cooperation through a shared religion(narratives of meaning and values). Religion covers Judeo-Christian and Eastern philosophy, but also capitalism(growth and progress lead to paradise) and hu...

Wow! Fuckin David Goggins man. Easily the most inspirational book I have ever read. Some chapters literally gave me goosebumps and intense awe for what this man was willing and capable of achieving. And he champions a hard mindset that makes all these other weak, depressed mindsets I have flee the scene. Physical strength and endurance are the clearest form of pushing yourself beyond your limits....

Your motives(yes you) really aren't as pretty and prosocial as you pretend they are. One of the most uncomfortable and difficult things to become self-aware of is your own selfishness. This book makes you stare at the ugly elephant of selfish motives entrenched with self-deception behind everything from laughter and conversation to art and education. In the end, I found myself a little too much in...

Old books are a great reminder that our society and ideas are really not that unique and unprecedented. This book has many points I wish everyone knew, but unfortunately, misunderstanding language still causes much unnecessary confusion today. The ideas should be required reading for a more educated population and show how many common, circular arguments especially political are really just confus...

Fascinating. An elegant model of the world. No real evidence offered to prove the simple model is correct, but trying on the perspective was illuminating. Nothing has ever more clearly ripped the grand curtain down for me to show that our society is only one of many possible societies and everything is made up. Finite games like money and status are ONLY valuable because there is an audience. If n...

So many dense, excellent, and unique ideas. While the book begins fairly slow, the valuable insight offered really picks up going beyond just defining antifragile. Unwritten rules of thought that are obvious when said aloud like observable effects are much more timeless than theories or expected value doesn't matter if you die(avoid catastrophe risk). The concept of antifragile is powerful and man...

Intense fact and survey based analysis of the current political climate in America. This is a uniquely polarized time in US history and it divides across humanities deepest lines: race, wealth, location, education. The author confirms the irrationality of politics making an excellent case for why political identity is attire/identity. Klein suggests some solutions which do feel a little liberal le...

Like watching expert 5D chess. Harry Potter is a genius child prodigy that participates in more convoluted battle of wits than Death Note. Machavillean and manipulative, yet hopeful and uplifting. Somehow hilarious while being highly educational bringing in beautiful original ideas in psychology and philisophy. Don't worry, it still reads like a great fiction book would. It is more episodic than o...

Toby, a leading researcher in this field, estimates there is a 1 in 6 that the future of humanity is destroyed in the next century. 1 in 6. Humanity has the same chance of globally and irreparably imploding in our lifetime as someone does of getting into UCLA. The author covers the full breadth of risk discusses asteroids and climate change to unaligned AI and engineered pandemics. Mountains of r...

I really wanted this book to be better :(. I agree wholeheartedly with the premise: spirituality and meaning are and should be independent of religion and institutions. But, perhaps I didn't read it carefully enough on a sped-up audiobook because I am not sure I am closer to actually attaining that ideal. As a fan of Harris, I really didn't learn anything very new either. The book seemed more abo...

EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU. If you are trying to start a business and tell people your idea, this is a fact. These lies, well-intentioned, will lead you astray. For an entrepreneur, this book is pure, valuable content with specific examples and pitfalls I've seen people(myself included) fall into. It's one thing to not know about business or industry, but it's another thing to think you know somethi...

Mark Manson interviews a few kinda normal people about their relationship problems. Everyone shows some growth and the personal stories are fun, engaging, and honest. A good vicarious exploration of a few of Mark Manson's ideas about romance and relationships. Relationships are hard especially from the inside as you might imagine. More a podcast-feel than a book without any real structure and them...

I imagined this book wouldn't be very surprising. I understood the basic idea that intrinsic(internal) motivation is a better motivator than extrinsic(external) motivation. But, this book went far beyond that citing research and really teasing out the nuisance of when intrinsic works and when it doesn't. The modern workforce of creative, collaborative tasks makes intrinsic increasingly important....

The story was pretty compelling for a business fable. And the advice the perfect mixture of simple, unique, and probably correct. But, more than that I LOVE the format of the story as a fable trying to teach/show practical management lessons through a story and characters. The idea of having characters embody certain perspectives to teach not just moral lessons and philosophy, but management, entr...

Fairly short, but very stirring. An articulate, poetic writer doesn't try to convince, just convey his own perspective on being a Black American. A perspective that I will definitely fail to summarize, but I'll try anyway. Fearing violence and danger around every turn, knowing deeply you are different and treated as such, realizing these facts are deeply and historically ingrained in America. More...

While revolving around products, there are deep lessons that transfer to personal habits. Instead of optimizing your product to be habit-forming, you can optimize the habit systems you want to create. Meticulously outlines a model of what makes products stick and supports it with studies and specific tech products used everyday. This might be my favorite book about habits because of its fast pace...

Malcolm Gladwell is a pretty incredible writer and this book was super engaging and enjoyable. But, I think the best summarization of this book is [some pop culture event] "and this reveals something very deep about the human psyche". This is a pop culture masterpiece referencing many of the timely crimes in the news from Cuban spies, Amanda Knox, to police killings. Large claims made with mainly...

Apparently there are 19 distinct ways to generate growth or traction for your business. 19. Really makes marketing a much more conquerable challenge instead of an engineers subjective nightmare. The book is a great intro to the marketing landscape. Basics to specific details like expected conversion tests and costs and time commitment of certain channels.

So, I have basically spent the last 4 years reading and rereading this amazing body of knowledge and finally reached the end. Truth, intelligence, cognitive biases, how do you make better decisions and believe true beliefs? The author is a genius AI ethics researcher that really, actually needed an accurate model of the world, information, and morality. In this pursuit, this body of knowledge has...

As someone just entering my 20s, I really appreciated this book. It really captures exactly what it set out to do: convince me that my twenties matter and avoid the common paths of failure. As a psychologist herself, the author gives very real anecdotes about young people drifting through their lives in both work and love. Although I have heard many of these ideas before, I loved how the author ju...

The questions this books asks are so golden: How can you better predict the future? When pundits make predictions, why do we not care about accuracy? The intro is solid, the middle was a little slow covering some standard ideas in a standard way, but it culminated into a pretty grand conclusion. Approaching the world with an analytic, Bayesian mind and avoiding human cognitive biases are powerful...

Short book and chapters that effectively do what the author set out to: practically convey powerful ideas and perspective. The obstacle is the way. If you take any of these ideas and apply it in your life, then this book will be well worth it. The introduction left with a powerful idea. The obstacle is the way. Some chapters stuck with me, others did not. Some short summaries seemed so amazing it...

I started this book with high hopes. Entrepreneurial perspectives on rapid prototyping and risk are good perspectives to have on life in general. A startup that is trying to figure out what to build is like a person trying to figure out what they want. This book didn't exactly live up to my dream metaphor, instead it tried on different entrepreneurial "mindsets". Develop competitive advantages, pu...

Phil Knight is now one of the wealthiest men in the world and this is his recollection of the struggles, vision, and people it took to get there. Despite being an MBA Stanford graduate, he still starts his life with that wistful insecurity most young people have stumbling through life. Driven by a love of running and sports, he took shit for decades to build something valuable and lasting and mean...

Haven't you always want to know how to fire executives or motivate employees? Neither have I. This book is targeted at the rare successful entrepreneur, which isn't me. If I was this book would be physical gold offering amazing, succinct advice that would improve countless companies. The introduction is an absolute banger of struggle, triumph, and business. And I love those gangster intros Horowit...

One of the longest books I have read in a while. And it really is a book much too long by modern media standards. On his death bed, you have a man tell his life story over several chapters and side stories of little importance. There are long elegant speeches and monologues about religion and passion. While the events of the story are interesting, the greatness of this book shines t...

Mark Manson is great and I enjoyed all the ideas in this book. However, it was pretty scattered covering different topics from philosophy, thinking vs feeling brain, pain, and obviously hope. For each, some useful perspective reduces some aspect of human experience into a very simple idea. So hedonic adaption becomes "pain is the universal constant" meaning experience warps so there is a constant...

Good ideas. Against the grind aggressive culture of most startups. Clear and short. Like this summary.

Wow, I now have tremendous respect for Elon Musk. The boy read two entire encyclopedias series as a child, I've read 0 and I'm 21. The biography follows the life and thoughts of the real Iron Man and his life really is interesting, impressive, and elaborate. The writing seemed to be factual and rarely speculative even including Elon Musk for quotes at various points. Musk often wonders why the bio...

We got a new religion over here. A fable beautifully illustrating the dream of following your heart and fulfilling your own personal legend. Everyone has their own personal legend they must follow, but some close their heart and regretfully leave it behind. In this fable, the characters are caricatures. Despite being a relatively short book, I was still moved and motivated. Grand sounding language...

The premise is fundamentally about the practical limits of knowledge. People are stupid, we know this. And our focus on the knowledge we have can make the things we don't know very dangerous precisely because they are unexpected. When there is a power law/Pareto principle, this is especially significant. The book offers this intriguing idea and supports it well. All the Gaussian curves used so you...

Snowden's intelligence, candor, and articulate writing really shine in this book. This is a true autobiography of a man whose entire life is defined by disclosing top-secret government surveillance. This offers some of the most comprehensive and compelling arguments for privacy I have ever seen. Emotional, logical, and historical. This book is basically at the forefront of one of the mos...

China is a worldwide leader in test scores(counting only urban centers), so the world is wondering what are they doing right? This is a great book focuses on answering this question with a critical questioning of its shortcomings. Chinese rigor for tests against more western holistic ideas. With the underlying story of her own children in early education, the author must not only tussle with the t...

A concise book providing solid fundamentals for believing in a scientific morality. Most of the book is spent rejecting the notion that science can't answer moral questions and all ways of human existence are equally valid. At times, the book can take a very heavy tone to opposing views which may cause readers holding those views to be left unconvinced. However, despite being a philosophy book, th...

This book offers insightful perspective after insightful perspective. The author follows all of human history from the first homos to writing to the present day in a single book. This isn't your normal history book. Instead of just conveying details, the author casts each period under an overarching story with an idea or framework showing history as a logical progression rather than a jumble of ev...

Although a very clickbaity, scammy title, this book actually is embedded in a convincing life perspective on how to value things like time and money. The fast lane to wealth is entrepreneurship and the slow lane is the 9-5 worklife. That could be considered a summary of the book, but the ideas supporting that conclusion and insights offered for pursuing it are extremely valuable. Regardless of you...

A solid book analyzing the happiness curve basically high happiness in youth and old age with a progressive dip around the mid 40s. The book began somewhat slow simply explaining and pounding that this happiness curve was a thing. The format was usually a backstory of a skeptic scientist stumbling upon this happiness curve and being very convinced it was some essential aspect of the human conditio...

This book can be summarized as the biography of a man living through the horrors of concentration traps with barely a hope for survival, yet still finding a reason to live. In these extreme circumstances, the author does a great job of not making it a story to draw sympathy, but draw meaning. His experiences and observations are rare insights into human nature at the extreme. After exploring his s...

This USC endowed chair chronicles her mental health journey through schizophrenia. It is a very intense, yet ultimately inspiring journey. A very interesting glimpse into the mind and feelings of someone who loses touch with reality and the mental health system created to deal with it. The book has good momentum throughout the story and offers good reflections throughout. As a rare successful schi...

An English major turned neurosurgeon's biography reflecting on his life. After years in residency as a doctor often dealing with life and death, he tragically is diagnosed with cancer and must struggle through this confrontation with death. The book begins with cancer so don't worry I didn't ruin anything. But, the author is so poetic and articulate conveying unique and deeply personal ideas about...

I enjoyed reading this book. The content was nothing revolutionary with concepts like avoiding distraction, quit social media, and timeboxing, but the entire narrative of deep work vs shallow work pounded in through this book is a good way to conceptualize your work. The ideas and goal of "deep work" are now easy for my mind to digest and strive towards. The author does an excellent job of not onl...

An absolutely amazing and succinct book offering not only a business philosophy but some applicable examples. The author does an excellent job of understanding the background of the average reader and leads them to understand his own conclusion. The listed examples are compelling case studies and are great illustrators of the conclusions. I really wish I had read this book sooner as I asked myself...

An broad, succinct, yet extremely profound book. Covering everything from the definition of intelligence, dangers of AI, goals of life and the universe, potential future societies, and more. This book's breadth and clear explanations are impressive. The first few chapters might be familiar to those interested in AI, but serve as a great foundation for beginners building to an adventurous 2nd half....

This book is a great exploration of the many problems of the current school system and offers a new vision for education. While sometimes the presentation of Khan Academy as a great solution can be a little overdone, Khan is definitely hoping for change on a grander scale. The inefficiencies of the current education system are very clearly articulated and are kinda appalling once you see it. I am...

A nice short book about the mental game of getting in the zone. Though the focus is on tennis, it is definitely applicable to life in general. Great ideas that the author supports with examples and experience as a tennis coach. Your mind can be an enemy as can an assessment of yourself and this book is a shining example of that narrative. While short, I feel like this book could have been more if...

An amazing book that explores the idea that the truly exceptional were hard working AND extremely lucky products of their circumstances. The environment and circumstances play an incredibly huge role in what someone becomes. The author beautifully explores the ideas while citing specific evidence and examples. But, in countering the American idea that people deserve what they have, Gladwell showca...

A beautifully written book with stunning imagery and immersive moments of agony. Besides the stellar writing, the story was reasonably compelling. The world laid out was interesting, but honestly didn't seem extremely plausible or necessary. It didn't seem to reflect my own society enough.

Finally, an intense analysis of what is wrong with the current political climate and this no-compromise scorched-earth policy people are increasingly taking on political issues. Levistky walks us through how democracies have failed in the past and how they succeed. I have always felt uneasy by this increasing polarization and obstruction in Congress and across the country, but the author drives ho...

This book was written with intention, scientifically counter all the science casting women as the inferior sex. Despite the narrow focus, the details are respectably researched and definitely well written offering the opposing opinions with all their imperfections and clashing them with the old theories in their most compelling form. All the arguments were clear and never contrived. However, it's...

Modern Romance overviews the modern dating and marriage scene with a surprising amount of research and case studies. Basically, summaries of different facets of relationships and case studies/quotes illustrating different ways to romance. Aziz makes light hearted jokes about those little quirks of romance that don't make sense. More humorous than hilarious and data than analysis. This book is a fu...

As a CS major, this book offered some great connections between some ideas I had learned in class and life. While oftentimes the advice gleaned was fairly obvious or too simplified to implement, the insights provided a strong mathematical support for some common sense ideas as well as a new framework for analyzing our own lives. The book was well written with a good depth of research, yet the expl...

A well-written case study of the true power of habits extending into individuals, companies, and society. This book strongly hints at the unspoken underside of our mind where all these unconscious decisions are being made. This book dispels the myth that the actions of individuals, companies, and society are well-planned, rationalized, and then executed. In reality, we often end up with these rigi...

This book is a lengthy treatise dealing with investing in stocks and bonds from the 1950s and updated for the 2000s. I probably understood 30% of it, but the ideas I did gleam seemed solid and provided a solid framework for how to think about investing. Maybe one day I'll come back and understand this.

I couldn't finish the book. I got through 50%, but it didn't just get better. The book has this framework of the hero journey's that it attempts to showcase through mythology. He setups what to look for in this mythology and his explanations are wordy, pompous showy sentences that provide little meaning. The mythology can be interesting, but despite his explanations, the connection to a hero's jou...

The book is a concise philosophy about a way of life and a manual at what to value. The self-help book has interesting anecdotes and chapters that are short, but convey essential ideas. The ideas weren't very revolutionary to me, as I am already a fan of Mark Manson's work. That being said, the ideas are powerful and are the best I've seen in my life. Sadly, in the concise size, much of the analys...

A very important read that has well-supported analysis and conclusions I haven't seen anywhere before. The book is a well-organized exploration of why people misjudge their own future happiness, provides a solution, and then explains why people don't do that. Through the analysis of happiness, you learn some illuminating perspectives and support for the science behind brain analysis and psychology...

This book isn't for everyone. It is fairly verbose and explains and derives many ideas through a precise philosophical analysis. There are new vocabulary words and a very precise selection of words akin to philosophy and textbooks. However, the logic is fairly clear and accessible and the ideas are jam-packed in this book. The base of analysis provided really interesting insight into various field...

The book reads more like a story than a nonfiction book following the author's progression through his study of shame. He follows and interviews the participants of various modern social media public shaming and analyzes how their lives were ruined for innocent acts. The internet and public relentlessly berated and destroyed their lives from afar devastating their self-worth. While I kept waiting...

A pretty standard book about thinking. It is engaging and I didn't get that bored. But, really this is rehashing of everything I already learned and heard was helpful in school. Take notes over long periods of time. You can't just read, test yourself, you try hard. Perhaps, the most useful idea I got from this is that all these things I already learned can have a real % increase on your performanc...

The circle started out strong contesting the spot of a dystopian classic with a great world setup and potential. Mae, a normal young Midwestern woman, starts a new job at the circle, the world's best tech company with too much power, money, acclaim, and passion to be blocked in any endeavor. The characters are cardboard stand-ins for ideas giving long, eloquently manipulative arguments defining so...

Short seperate chapters giving descriptions of various cognitive biases. Good to read, but nothing particularly exciting that you can only get in this book. I had familiarity with cognitive biases already, so I found it a little too familiar.

Ok. I read this book. Because I heard it was interesting. What is this book about? Mostly Apathy. A nihilist man to the extreme. A man annoyed at the heat of the sun at his mother's funeral. A man who will shamelessly not give a single fuck. A somehow functioning man that is acted upon rather than acting. Interesting read and perspective that is short enough to deserve a read. Sometimes I burst ou...