Think about what Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Instagram really are. They aren’t antisocial applications. They are forms of serial socialization. Imagine living on earth around 3000 years ago, you would have known only a few people at a time. You may have been around more people, but they are the same people. Over a … Read more
Massimo Pagliucci has written How to be a Stoic, a great book about the history of how Stoicism emerged, as well as its theoretical background. Overall, this was an enjoyable book, but deteriorated towards the end. Summary When Pagliucci left religion and became an atheist or a secular humanist, he felt something was lacking … Read more
In The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom sets on an ambitious undertaking, to find a single explanation for why there is evil in the world. Bloom is a controversial figure. He once suggested that Islamic cultures treat their children harshly, they despise open displays of affections, and the result is a society of violent adults. If … Read more
Stay Foolish If you have ever read anything about Steve Jobs, you must have heard his famous line, “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” The psychologist Carl Jung emphasized that the fool was the precursor to wisdom. This idea has been articulated in the Bible and other ancient texts. In mythological stories, this is called the call … Read more
Peter Bevelin divides Seeking Wisdom into two parts. The first describes our natural human tendencies and how they often fail us, while the second part describes principles that we should think about and apply, to improve our decision making. Most of the advice and stories are given by Buffet and Charlie Munger, with some references … Read more
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk is, like all books about marketing, about how to be relevant in a sea of noise. But what Gary does well in this book, is he tells us how media has changed, why what worked in the past doesn’t work today, and makes good arguments for how … Read more
Ed Young is a contributor for the Atlantic. I Contain Multitudes is his fascinating book about the story of microbes, their origins and functions, our relationship with them so far, and how this relationship will develop in the future. Friendly Fire We usually think of microbes as inconveniences. We may wonder how much more pleasant … Read more
Don’t Tell People What To Do (or What Not To Do) The human mind is innately rebellious. Often, it is said that children are rebellious, but that is not true, everyone is rebellious, and it has everything to do with control. The loss of control physiologically causes us great stress. In fact, completely different areas … Read more
This book is about Ikigai – a Japanese philosophy for how to live a long life and enjoy it. The authors make references to well-known psychological ideas such as Flow and Logotherapy, but also criticizes Western psychoanalysis for placing too much emphasis on control, direction, and intellectualizing – this is the opposite of Morita Therapy, … Read more
The Philosophy of Little Bets Little Bets by Peter Sims is about making many low-cost experiments and investing in what works, rather than investing in one big idea from the start. This philosophy isn’t new, it has been discussed in other books including The Learn Startup by Eric Ries and 4 Steps to Epiphany by … Read more