Books

(best viewed on desktop)

Atomic Habits – James Clear
My Score – 10/10

Focus on systems, not goals

• Change your identity –> Change your process –> Change your outcome
  • Would a runner eat this cookie?
• Never miss twice – once is an accident, twice is the beginning of a new habit
• The Power of Tiny Changes:
  • Small habits, when compounded over time, lead to significant improvements.
  • Focus on making 1% improvements every day; these minor adjustments accumulate into remarkable results. (like compound interest!)
• Habit Loop –> Cue (obvious), Craving (attractive), Response (easy), Reward (satisfying)
• Environment Design: Shape your environment to support your habits.
• Habit Stacking: Use an existing habit as a cue for a new one.
  • Example: After brushing your teeth (current habit), you do ten push-ups (new habit).
• The Two-Minute Rule: Scale down new habits to just two minutes. Master the Art of Showing Up.
• Measure and Track Progress: Keeping track of your habits can provide motivation and accountability. Use habit trackers, journals, or apps to monitor progress and make adjustments

(best viewed on desktop)

The Simple Path to Wealth – JL Collins
My Score – 10/10

“Spend less than you earn – invest the surplus – avoid debt.”

Indexing: invest in VTSAX (Vanguard’s total stock market). Don’t pick individual stocks. Don’t try to time the market. When you get older, you can move money into VBTLX (Vanguard’s total bond market) to hedge risk.

• The Market Always Goes Up – from 1975-2011, market returned 11.9%. It’s not always a smooth rise but it always goes up over time. Don’t sell and actualize the loss.
• Low Cost Funds – VTSAX is .04% management fee. This makes all the difference with compounding over time.
  • So low because Vanguard is client-owned (the only one!) and they operate at cost.
  • If other funds show higher historical returns, it’s a survivorship bias (fund managers sunset low-performing funds and promote funds that got lucky and exceeded the market)
• Self-Cleansing – some companies will struggle, lose value, and fall out of the index fund. Others will be successful, join the index fund, and skyrocket. 
• Avoid Financial Advisors – might be harder to pick than individual stocks. More complex investments only benefit the person recommending them.

Ego Is The Enemy – Ryan Holiday
My Score – 10/10

• Euthymia – a sense of one’s own path and not getting distracted by all the others that intersect it. It’s not about beating the others or having more, it’s about being what you are and being as good as possible at it without being distracted. (Ego is the Enemy)
  • What’s Important to You? – All of us waste precious life doing things we don’t like, proving ourselves to people we don’t respect, to get things we don’t want. Why do we do this? Ego leads to envy and it rots the bones of people big and small.
• Become A Student – You cannot learn if you think you already know. You will not find answers if you’re too conceited or self-assured to ask questions. You cannot get better if you think you are the best.
• Change the definition of success – Success is peace of mind knowing you did your best to become the best you’re capable of becoming.

The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss
My Score – 9/10

• New Rich – Focus on money but also freeing up time. Abandon the deferred life plan.
• Work For Work (W4W) – Don’t get caught in W4W sake. Focus on being productive over being busy. Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
• D.E.A.L. Structure
  • Definition – What do you want? Turns misguided common sense upside down
  • Eliminate – What 20% of work yields 80% of results? Batch work. Low-information diet.
  • Automation – What can be automated? Delegate routine tasks to VA’s.
  • Liberation – Can it be done remotely? Negotiate remote work arrangements

Anything You Want – by Derek Sivers
My Score – 9/10

Make it Anything You Want – Making a business is like creating a small utopia where you design your perfect world. If you like dealing with customers, do that. If you hate business negotiations, hire someone to do that.

• It’s not about making money – it’s about being happy and making dreams come true for yourself and others
• Everything you do is for your customer – Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone!
• It’s okay to be casual – “do you have any friends who need work? Tell them they start tomorrow!” Hire lightly, fire lightly. Don’t try to impress the invisible MBA jury.
• Don’t punish everyone for one person’s mistake –  When one customer wrongs you, remember the hundred thousand who did not. You’re lucky to own your own business. Life is good. You can’t prevent bad things from happening. Learn to shrug. Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person’s mistake.
• Make your perfect world: some people want billion dollar companies with thousands of employees, some people want to work alone. Whatever goal you choose, there will always be people telling you that you’re wrong. Pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress the invisible jury.

The Like Switch – Jack Schafer
My Score – 9/10

* The Golden Rule of Friendship * – If you want people to like you, make them feel good about ­themselves

• Friendship Formula: Friendship = Proximity + Frequency + Duration + Intensity
• Body Language: maintain open body language and read theirs to understand how they are really feeling. Use mirroring.
• Foot-in-the-Door Technique: Start with small requests to increase the likelihood of agreement to larger requests later. This will make them feel good about themselves for helping you (“can you watch my drink while I run to the restroom?”).
• Strategies:
  • Let Them Talk: Listen and ask questions. Be genuinely interested!
  • Display Empathy: Empathy statements (“so you…”)
  • Smile: Sincerely (with your eyes)
  • Eye contact: shows interest and trust

The Last Sports Mogul – Alan Bass
My Score – 9/10

Hot Take – Right up my alley! Blended Flyers sports history with business enterprise/entrepreneurship. Truthfully, I’m embarrassed that I made it 34 years knowing so little about the Flyers history and who Mr. Snider truly was.

The Alcohol Experiment – Annie Grace
My Score – 9/10

“Society has normalized alcohol to such an extent that not drinking can seem abnormal, but it’s important to remember that your health and happiness are more important than fitting in.”

• 30-Day Challenge: Committing to a 30-day break from alcohol allows you to reassess your habits and understand the impact of alcohol on your life.
• Mindful Drinking: Becoming aware of the reasons behind your drinking can lead to more mindful consumption or complete abstinence.
• Social Dynamics: Society’s normalization of alcohol consumption can pressure individuals to drink; recognizing this can help resist social pressures.

Peak – Anders Ericsson
My Score – 9/10

10,000 hours rule is a myth – how you practice matters

• Deliberate Practice – specific, goal-oriented exercises designed to improve performance
  • i.e. you don’t just go “hit balls at the range”, you watch a few instructional videos, record your swing, review and make adjustments,…
• Feedback and Adjustments: Continuous feedback and the ability to make adjustments are critical for progress in any skill.
• Nobody is “Born With It” – Even savants, child prodigies practice intensely
  • The kids that are great at a skill are great because they practice more
  • Mozart’s symphonies were written in someone else’s handwriting (likely Dad’s).
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy – Being told you’re “good” or “bad” at something –> identity –> practicing more –> getting really good!
• Motivation and Passion – Sustained motivation and passion for the activity are key drivers of long-term improvement and success.

The Obstacle Is The Way – Ryan Holiday
My Score – 9/10

You can’t control what happens to you but you can control how you react to it. It’s not “this isn’t so bad“. It’s to will yourself to say “this is good!“

• Learn from Failure – People fail in small ways all the time but they don’t learn and listen (and they don’t get better). Soft-bodied and Hard-headed, they have too much ego to fail well. Failure is feedback, giving you precise instructions on how to improve
  • “The things that hurt, instruct” -Ben Franklin
  • “Bad companies are destroyed by crises. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them” -Andy Grove (Intel) 
• “This happened and this is bad” – 2 impressions
  • This happened – objective
  • This is bad – subjective
• Objectivity – removing ‘you‘ from the problem
  • What happens when you give others advice? Solutions are crystal clear
  • We save the pity and sense of persecution and complaints for our own lives

Free Will – Sam Harris
My Score – 9/10

Our Free Will is authored by our genetics and experiences

• Driven by desires: You are free to do what you want but where did these desires come from? You didn’t choose your parents, the time and place of your birth, your genome…
  • Example: Do you want to be a serial killer? Probably not. You don’t have to think about it, you simply do not desire that lifestyle. Then why do we have serial killers? Did they wake up and decide that would be a worthwhile way to live and willing chose it? It’s not a conscious decisions they’re making, but it is a desire, being authored by a combination of their genetics (abnormal mutation) and/or experiences (childhood trauma).
• A different form of freedom: Losing a belief in ‘free will’ doesn’t make you fatalistic. Being sensitive to the background causes of one’s thoughts and feelings can paradoxically give one more freedom in their life
  • Example: Arguing with your wife because you are in a bad mood. You reflect and realize you haven’t eaten today, and your blood sugar is low. This allows you to grab control of one of your ‘strings‘, and in this case a bite of food might be all you require. This allows you to steer a more intelligent course through your life, while understanding you are still being steered
    

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
My Score – 9/10

Hot Take – Sounds like a boring history book but there’s a reason this book is so acclaimed. Does a beautiful job at not only describing the ‘what’ but also the ‘why’.

The Algebra of Wealth – Scott Galloway
My Score – 9/10

You want to go from earning wages to having capital, and then putting that capital to work.

• Stoicism: Is about living an intentional, temperate life. It’s about saving money, for sure, but also about connecting with your community and character. 
  • Economic Security = Passive Income > Burn Rate
  • If money is the goal, you will never have enough (hedonic treadmill)
  • You’re never more vulnerable than after a big win
• Focus: primarily about earning an income. It alone won’t make you wealthy, but it is an important first step 
  • “One of the many things I learned from working at Morgan Stanley is that I didn’t want to work for a big company. I’ve resented people senior to me, I didn’t take criticism well, took offense at trivial injustices, And not motivated unless I felt a direct connection with rewards.”
  • The worst thing is to fail slowly. Success is the best thing, and failing fast is the next best.
• Time: This is your most important asset because of compound interest
  • The best time to invest is 10 years ago. The next best time is now.
  • Investing when you’re young is good practice. The amount of money you have is not significant, but when you do have significant money you’ll know how to invest it.
• Diversification – This is about being an educated participant in the financial marketplace
  • Buffet Bet – The s&p 500 index will beat any active investor over a 10-year. He won the bet against Protege Partners after they were originally up over 5 years and ultimately conceded.

Modern Romance – Aziz Ansari
My Score – 9/10

How it’s changed…

• Good Enough –> Soulmate – used to find your “match” in your hometown, at 18 years old, that was “good enough”. As a woman, finding your man allowed them to leave their childhood home back before college and career was prioritized.
• More Options – you are no longer limited to your “hometown” and if your search parameters are tight (i.e. I will only date someone who is Polish) you can search wider radius to find a fit.
• Better Ability to Qualify – can filter and search by interests/likes before initiating a dialogue, and then communication style before meeting. As opposed to meeting someone at a bar and going in blind, basing comparability solely on physical appearance.

Just remember…

• Online “Introduction” – No substitute for face to face interaction. Meet people and use your intuition. Tinder is just a medium for introduction
• Give them a Fair Shot! – Take the time to get to know someone. Don’t go back to the Tinder “well” at the first sign of something not being perfect
• They’re Real – Remember there’s a real person on the other end of the phone.

Buy Then Build – Walker Deibel
My Score – 9/10

“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel—you just need to roll it farther.”

• Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA): Buying an existing business reduces risks and provides a proven revenue stream, customer base, and infrastructure.
• Buy With Leverage – utilize creative financing, or loans, in order to purchase the business with less money down, allowing for a higher ROI.

Main Street Millionaire – Codie Sanchez
My Score – 8/10

• Acquisition Over Inception: Instead of starting new ventures, acquiring existing businesses with steady cash flow and established customer bases offers a more reliable path to wealth.
• Creative Financing: Utilizing methods such as seller financing, SBA loans, and private equity partnerships can facilitate business acquisitions with minimal personal capital.
• Modernization and Growth: Implementing technology solutions, updating marketing strategies, and streamlining operations can significantly enhance the profitability of acquired businesses.

Stillness is the Key – Ryan Holiday
My Score – 8/10

“To be steady while the world spins around you”

• Become Present – instead of enjoying the sunset, we’re taking a picture of it.
• Start Journaling – For the writer, not the reader. Gives you objectivity when fear, anxiety, frustrations rule your mind.
• Build a Routine – Order is a prerequisite of excellence. Removes decision-making, and automates.

Grit – Angela Duckworth
My Score – 8/10

“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina.”

• Talent vs. Effort: Effort counts twice as much as talent in achieving success
  • “Talent” x “Effort” = Skill
  • “Skill” x “Effort” = Achievement
• Growth Mindset: Adopting a growth mindset, where challenges are viewed as opportunities to learn and improve, is crucial for developing grit.
• Support Systems: Family, mentors, and communities play a significant role in fostering grit by providing support and encouragement.

The Art of Thinking Clearly – Rolf Dobelli
My Score – 8/10

“The human brain is a jumble of thoroughly unreliable heuristics and biases.”

Hot Take – Outlining and explaining all our cognitive biases and presuppositions. Maybe there’s was a bit too many as it was hard to keep track, but still really enlightening

Doing Good Better – William MacAskill
My Score – 8/10

Effective Altruism: Focus on using evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to benefit others.

• Cause Prioritization: Not all causes are equal; some interventions have significantly more impact than others.
• Career Choices: Choosing a career that allows you to earn to give can be more impactful than working directly in non-profits.
• Evaluating Charities: Use rigorous criteria to assess the effectiveness of charities, such as cost-effectiveness and transparency.

Principles – Ray Dalio
My Score – 8/10

Radical Transparency and Radical Open-Mindedness

• Develop a Meritocracy – Constant improvement. Conflict is good. There should be no hierarchy based on age or seniority. Power should lie in the reasoning. The best ideas win no matter who they come from
  • The need to know the truth has to be greater than the need to be right. Goal is not to convince the other party you’re right. The goal is to figure out what’s true
• Modus Operandi: Try, Fail, Diagnose, Re-design, Try (again) 
  • Acceptable to make mistakes. Unacceptable not to learn from them.
• Delegate – The greatest success you can have is others doing things well without you

The Personal MBA – Josh Kaufman
My Score – 8/10

Real-world experience and self-education can be more valuable than traditional business school.

MBA programs have three major systemic issues…

• Cost – Have become so expensive that you have to mortgage your life to pay the cost of admission. Hard to justify the ROI when the “I” gets increasingly large.
• Old Concepts – Teach many outdated and damaging concepts.
• No Guarantees – Will not guarantee you a high paying job, or make you a skilled manager or leader with a shot at the executive suite

Can learn about how to creating a business by actually creating a business; saving you the loans which instead could be used to seed-fund your business.

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
My Score – 8/10

Hot Take – Speaks to humanity and our world (earth and space) in great detail. Started a bit slow but some chapters are really eye opening. It’s like Planet Earth but in audiobook form (and I do recommend the audiobook) and the narrator really brings it to life.

Growth Hacker Marketing – Ryan Holiday
My Score – 8/10

Growth Hacker Marketing

Alternative to traditional paid media advertising, with the absence of big budgets. Self-perpetual marketing machine that reaches millions by itself.

• Product Market Fit (PMF) – Need to have a good product to market
• Early Adopters – You need to grow with and because of them. Tweak your product! Get feedback!
• Must be easily share-able and provoke a desire to share

Example: Hotmail. Put a message at the bottom of every email “PS I love You. Get your Free Email at Hotmail”. Now, every email hotmail users sent is an advertisement. Gmail used the same strategy by “invite only” with a superior product

Purple Cow – Seth Godin
My Score – 8/10

Driving through the country, seeing an endless amount of cows. And then you see a Purple Cow! You’ll notice it, remember it, and tell others about it. Be the Purple Cow.

• Unique and Remarkable – Don’t try to do what others do. It made them remarkable but you’re too late. Find a niche, make a remarkable product and target early adopters and sneezers.
  • Sneezers – Early adopters that can’t help but talk about a new (remarkable) product or service. They don’t do it for your benefit, but to benefit their social circle.
• Advertising Alone Wont Work – You can’t advertise an unremarkable product. There’s too much noise and consumers will ignore you. Marketing needs to be involved in product development and ideation
• Storytelling Is Important – It’s not just about the product or service, it’s about the story and how it makes your customers feel.
• Target Innovators (Sneezers) – Wow them. Take their feedback. Make them a part of the journey. They will propel your marketing to Early Adopters and so forth.

Tribe – Sebastian Junger
My Score – 8/10

“Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary.”

• Human Need for Belonging: Humans have an innate desire to belong to a group, which has evolutionary roots. This sense of community contributes significantly to mental health and well-being.
• Impact of Modern Society: Modern Western society, with its emphasis on individualism, often leads to feelings of isolation and disconnection, which can negatively impact mental health.
• Community During Hard Times: Difficult circumstances, such as wars and disasters, often bring people closer together, fostering a sense of unity and purpose.

The Inevitable – Kevin Kelly
My Score – 8/10

“The future of everything is becoming more. More options, more opportunities, more connectedness, more complexity, more choices, more freedom.”

• Becoming – we’re at the very beginning of the dawn of the internet
• Cognifying – AI and Robots will get smarter/faster and take our jobs
• Flowing – everything flows to you immediately before you ask for it (push). Simultaneity trumps quality.
• Screening – We are people of the screen. Quick cuts and 1/2 baked ideas. We’ll read words/images in real time
• Accessing – Lower ownership, everyone rents things in real time. Uber, Airbnb, etc.
• Sharing – (above), also sharing content (facebook, insta). We value sharing over privacy
• Filtering – need filters b/c there will be SO MUCH data to digest.
• Remixing – growth doesn’t come from new tech, it comes from remixing existing tech
• Interacting – VR will be huge. Won’t be able to distinguish from real life.
• Tracking – Will sit on our skin or in our skin. Everything will be tracked and measured (i.e. health vitals)
• Questioning – humans will need to ask better questions to have a value.
• Beginning – Reaching the singularity, where we co-exist with AI/robots (instead of being enslaved by them)

The Anxious Generation – Jonathan Haidt
My Score – 8/10

“The Anxious Generation” delves into the pervasive anxiety affecting modern youth, exploring its origins (smartphones), impacts (anxiety), and potential solutions (phone bans until high school).

• Social Media Impact: The constant pressure to present a perfect life online contributes to increased anxiety levels.
  • Addictive – Designed by algorithms and social scientists! Kids don’t stand a chance
  • Digital Overload – The omnipresence of technology and information overload can lead to constant over-stimulation and anxiety.
• Academic and Career Pressures: Intense competition and high expectations in academics and career prospects are major sources of stress.
• Parental Influence: Overprotective parenting styles can hinder the development of coping mechanisms in children, leading to higher anxiety.

Coddling of the American Mind – Jonathan Haidt
My Score – 8/10

“Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child”

Three Untruth’s: That are harming young people

1. What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker
2. Always trust your feelings
3. Life is a battle between good people and evil people.

• Safetyism Culture: Overprotective parenting and a culture of “safetyism” have contributed to the idea that young people need protection from ideas and experiences that might cause discomfort or harm.
• Impact of Social Media: The rise of social media has amplified fears and anxieties, increased tribalism, and made young people more vulnerable to peer pressure and online bullying.
• University Role: Colleges and universities have a critical role in preparing young people for adulthood by exposing them to diverse viewpoints and encouraging critical thinking.
• Free Speech: The authors argue that a commitment to free speech and open debate is essential for personal and societal growth, and that attempts to silence dissenting opinions are counterproductive.

Lying – Sam Harris
My Score – 8/10

• Definition: Intentionally misleading others when they are expecting honest communication
  • This includes intentionally withholding information (ex: find out friend is cheating of wife, sworn to secrecy. By not telling their spouse, this feels indistinguishable from lying)
• Moral Clarity: Lying, even so-called “white lies,” undermines trust and damages relationships.
  • If you lie – “can I trust this person?”
  • If you don’t lie – “I know I can trust what they say”
  • ex: “if you lie about Santa, I now think you may be lying about other things.” This damages trust.
• Practical Benefits: Telling the truth simplifies life, reducing the mental burden of keeping track of lies and fabrications.
• White Lies: “Do I look fat in this dress?”
  • Subtext: “tell me you love me”
  • By telling the truth you might allow her to find a better dress
  • Maybe she is fat, single, and could lose more weight to help her date better.

Waking Up – Sam Harris
My Score – 8/10

Hot Take – Short book diving into how to be happy through spirituality in the absence of religion. It also provides a thorough look at the difference between happiness and pleasure.

(need to re-read and take notes)

Courage is Calling – Ryan Holiday
My Score – 8/10

Fear is a natural human emotion, but it should not paralyze action. Confronting and managing fear is essential for courageous living.

• “Fortune Favors the Brave”
• Courage vs Heroism – If courage is putting one’s ass on the line then the definition of heroism is quite simple. It’s putting it on the line for someone else
• Courage is Contagious – one man with courage makes a majority. It doesn’t start that way but it ends that way (i.e. the parent that puts on the brave face helps their child fight cancer)
• Bold is Not Rash – courage is not about measuring dicks or bravado. It’s about risk, but not unnecessary risk, only carefully considered risk
• Agency is Taken, Not Given – what fear does is deprive you of power and make you think you don’t have any.
• The Cause Makes All – There were a lot of brave soldiers in the Confederate army but what were they fighting for?

Right Thing, Right Now – Ryan Holiday
My Score – 8/10

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

• Focus on What You Can Control: Concentrate on your own actions and decisions rather than external factors.
• Consistency is Key: Regular, small steps are more effective than sporadic, grand gestures.
• Be Great, Not Good: It’s easier to be a great man rather than a good one 
• Integrity: Living by what you think is right. Not what you can get away with, not what everyone else is doing.
  • In only a handful of cases is breaking your word a crime. In fact, in America lying is egregiously is protected by the First amendment. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.
  • “A person’s integrity can give them something to rely on when their perspective seems to blur. When rules and principles seem to waiver, and when you’re faced with hard choices of right and wrong, it’s something to keep him on the right track. Something to keep them afloat when he’s drowning.”

Expecting Better – Emily Oster
My Score – 8/10

Hot Take – Great book, dispels a lot of the “old wives tales” with science and data. Written by an economist, it does a good job at giving you a realistic expectation of the do’s and dont’s in pregnancy. The chapters are summarized nicely at the end and supported with research throughout.

• Ex: “You can have sushi while you are pregnant. The risk of listeria from sushi is quite low, and the benefits of eating fish are high.”

Excellent Advice for Living – Kevin Kelly
My Score – 8/10

Hot Take – A bunch of quick-hitting advice for how to live life! Everything from…

• “Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points”
• “How to apologize: quickly, specifically, sincerely. Don’t ruin an apology with an excuse”
• “Go with the option that opens up yet more options”

The E-Myth Revisited – Michael E. Gerber
My Score – 8/10

The E-Myth Concept: Many small businesses fail because their owners are technicians suffering from an “Entrepreneurial Myth” – believing technical skill alone ensures business success.

• 3 “hats” as a business owner:
  • 1) Entrepreneur – innovator, inventor. Pie in the sky, lofty goals and vision
  • 2) Manager – manages employees, team members. Take product feedback
  • 3) Technician – operational process and solutions. Systematize, and improve.
• Work ON your business, not IN it!
• Your Primary Aim: what do I value? Your business should help you live a more fulfilling life. Your business should support YOU, not you trying to support your business.
• Turn-Key Revolution: Standardize processes and operations to ensure consistency and efficiency across the business. “The system is the solution.”

HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business – Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
My Score – 7/10

“Small business acquisition is not just a financial transaction—it’s a career and lifestyle choice.”

• Acquisition as an Alternative to Starting from Scratch: Buying an existing small business is often less risky and more rewarding than starting a company from zero.
• Focus on a Lifestyle-Friendly Business: Look for businesses with stable cash flow, manageable operations, and the potential to support your desired work-life balance.

The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas Stanley and William Danko
My Score – 7/10

“It is seldom luck or inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that enables people to amass fortunes. Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and, most of all, se”It is seldom luck or inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that enables people to amass fortunes. Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and, most of all, self-discipline.”

The Body – Bill Bryson
My Score – 7/10

Hot Take – Lots of really interesting fun facts on the body, delivered well in a digestible narrative, but it doesn’t really ladder up into anything actionable or a ‘eureka’ type conclusion

Wrath of the Khans – Dan Carlin
My Score – 7/10

(Technically a Podcast, but it’s told like an Audiobook and it’s my site so I’ll do what I want!)

Hot Take – It wasn’t just a historical tale of the Mongol empire (which is was and was amazing storytelling!) but also a tale of how we remember history. It also speaks to how, when enough time passes, we tend to remember the good that came out of atrocities. The Mongols killed perhaps as much as 11% of the World’s Population, but historians may say there was a “net” good because they connected the West to the East. Dan explores the philosophical dilemmas with this and how, if history changed, we may have viewed the Nazi’s through a similar lens.

Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
My Score – 7/10

Advantage begets advantage. Compounding effect.

• If you have an early advantage you are put in the smarter classes –> you’re able to practice with better teachers –> you are told you are good at what you do –> you like doing what you’re doing more
• All of which leads you to getting better and better and leaving behind the competition.

Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
My Score – 7/10

Hot Take – All about our unconscious that happens under the surface and better understanding ourselves. The Pepsi vs Coke chapter was especially riveting.

The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
My Score – 7/10

Hot Take – Apparently I give all his books a “7”. It just feels like he starts with the hypothesis and then finds the examples that support his foregone conclusion. It’s probably more storytelling than what is normally to my liking – as in, it takes him too long to get to the point with his really long-winded examples. But nonetheless, still a good listen!

The 5 Love Languages – Gary Chapman
My Score – 7/10

1. Quality time
2. Acts of kindness
3. Words of affirmation
4. Receiving gifts
5. Physical touch

Have to speak to people in their love language or they might not know that your expressing love to them

Never Split the Difference – Chris Voss
My Score – 7/10

Negotiation is a process of discovery:

• Ask “how” and “what” questions
• Slow down. Let the silence do the work
• Smile, be friendly
• Let them talk, this puts you at an advantage as you learn more

Label their pain – “It seems like…” –> “that’s right”

Ackerman Offer – 65, 85, 95, 100%

And never split the difference! Bad deal for both parties. Brown shoe and black shoe. (although I don’t know how much I agree with this one. I don’t think it inherently makes it lose-lose)

Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari
My Score – 7/10

Industrial Rev vs AI Rev – Industrial Revolution left humans with other cognitive jobs they can perform. But what happens when cognitive algorithms can handle cognitive tasks better than us?

The Coming Wave – Mustafa Suleymon
My Score – 7/10

Hot Take – Maybe a bit “doom and gloom” regarding the future, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it approached the future and technology in a sensible way, and was well presented. Very much through the lens of “this is going to happen, just a matter of when not if“

Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
My Score – 7/10

Hot Take – It was entertaining but felt very shallow (but that was the purpose). Just didn’t feel real fulfilling and I didn’t come out knowing any more than I did from watching the movie “Waiting”, but nonetheless, still a fun book from a great storyteller.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – Al Ries and Jack Trout
My Score – 7/10

Marketing is a game of perceptions, not products. You want to be first! If you can’t be, carve out a niche.

Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert
My Score – 7/10

Happiness is relative to previous experiences and people.

• Why are conjoined twins so happy? Do they not know what true happiness is? Is happiness relative?
• Can I enjoy golf now without a cigar and beer?

The Dip – Seth Godin
My Score – 7/10

Quitting isn’t bad! Quit the dead end’s and hustle thru the dip. The dip creates scarcity and a scarcity creates value

Digital Minimalism – Cal Newport
My Score – 7/10

Exhaustion – Its not that any one app or website is bad when considered in isolation. Its the overall impact of so many pulling at one’s attention that make it exhausting. These tools create behavioral addictions to check/update that shatters uninterrupted time to live an intentional life.

2 Forces:

• Intermittent positive reinforcement
• The drive for social approval

ReWork – David Heinemeier Hansson & Jason Fried
My Score – 7/10

• Simplicity – getting to great requires cutting a lot of good
• Efficiency – maximize efficiency, minimize effort
• Action-Oriented – act instead of talk. Do instead of meet. Don’t wait for the perfect solution; decide to move forward.

Optimize Your BnB – Daniel Rusteen
My Score – 7/10

Hot Take – Needs a new edition. Good starter book on how to set up your Airbnb for success, a lot of which directly agreed with me based on my own experiences. A good look into the objectives of Airbnb and how you can have them reward your listing based on your shared goals (make guests happy! make your home accessible!)

What’s Our Problem? – Tim Urban
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – I love me some Tim Urban but I didn’t love the way this one played out. I’m completely on board with his “high rung” and “low rung” political standpoint, but he really goes in circles making his point. This book should have been half as long and not so heavy handed with the biases.

Breath – James Nestor
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – Book all about the powers of breathing through your nose, but based on the evidence provided I think the author over-sensationalizes the effect of nose-breathing. The “perfect breath” is 5.5 seconds through the nose on the inhale and on the exhale, and if you do that it’ll be like taking the “limitless” pill…

4,000 Weeks – Oliver Burkeman
My Score – 6/10

• Your to-do list will never get done. Learn to live with that discomfort and create boundaries for yourself (specified work hours, pausing inbox, etc.).
• The process of getting through your email generates more emails. (by not answering, others figure out the problem on their own)
• When people stop believing in an afterlife, everything depends on making the most of this life

DeepWork – Cal Newport
My Score – 6/10

You can’t do Deep, impactful work in small blocks. You need dedicated, distraction free time

• You can do Shallow, logistical-style work (email) while being distracted
• There is attention residue when you keep changing tasks (i.e. keep thinking of the last problem)
• Need to enter a state of Flow

You will be happier when you do more meaningful work

Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – I feel bad for not liking this book more… It’s such a powerful tale through one of the darkest periods of human existence, and how these humans mentally coped with such tragic levels of despair. Perhaps the reason I didn’t ‘like‘ it was because you’re forced to understand some of that pain. Doesn’t make you feel good, but still very important to understand.

“Those who have a ‘why‘ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how‘.”

Breathe – Andrew Yang
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – Fun book, and a look behind the machinery of politics and most specifically the #YangGang campaign. A lot less of what his political policies are and much more a time-lapse of how their campaign ran, what they did, why they did it, etc.

The Book Direct Playbook – Mark Simpson
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – I don’t think I agreed with the overall narrative. “Don’t build your house on someone else’s land” is a bit too oversimplified. We live in an era where Airbnb completely changed the ecosystem, and to ignore that is too narrow minded. I agree that having a direct booking strategy is important, but the book puts too much focus on that

The Precipice – Toby Ord
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – A fair look at humanity and our likelihood to continue as a species. Ord is a super smart guy, I really like the way he objectively forms conclusions, but it was maybe a little too in the weeds and kept it from being as enjoyable (not that a book on the damming of our species should be enjoyable!).

The Four Hour Body – Tim Ferriss
My Score – 6/10

• Don’t eat carbs
• Track and measure your success
• Give yourself a cheat day so the diet is sustainable for the long haul

How To Live – Derek Sivers
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – neat book, laying out 27 different ways to live your life in short 2-3 page chapters. Its really thought provoking and helps identify which life paths are available and how you may wish to approach yours.

Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely
My Score – 6/10

Humans evaluate things in relative terms, comparing it to others

• We tend to choose the middle option (not the high or the low)
• We don’t know how much a 6 cylinder car is worth but we assume it’s more than a 4 cylinder car

Train yourself to question your repeated behaviors

• Get coffee every day. Why?
• Same haircut whole life. Why? Just first haircut a got and stuck with it? Did I assess all other potential haircuts?

Entrusted – Andrew Howell & David York
My Score – 6/10

Seven principles of entrusted planning:

• Design and implement dynamic governance
• Know who you are and what you believe
• Prepare the family for the wealth
• Maximize the price aspects of the financial wealth and minimize the negative effects
• Focus on “flint and kindling” and not the fire
• Generous
• Preserve/protect wealth

Letter to a Christian Nation – Sam Harris
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – A bit lower on my list compared to Harris’ other work but still very good. Per usual, Harris carefully constructs his arguments and uses really sound scientific evidence. I especially like his counter-argument to Intelligent Design! Good, quick read (or listen!).

Start with Why – Simon Sinek
My Score – 6/10

What’s the Why of your organization? It’s not making money, that is the result.

When a leader of an organization has a clear direction of Why…

• Employees – they will follow because they believe in the cause! Work harder. Less money. “I’m not building this wall, I’m building a cathedral!”
• Customers – will be loyal to you because they share the same belief system. Pay more. Repeat business. Apple customers. Harley-Davidson tattoos.

Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
My Score – 6/10

• Focus on yourself, not on others
• If they wrong you, that’s their fault, not yours
• Always be honest
• Never get too high or too low. Show restraint.
• See though emotions as they truly are
  • ex: I’m mad. Why? Someone keyed my car. What does that really mean? This material object I own doesn’t look the same way it did when I got it.
• Strive to help others and the society you live in

The $100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau
My Score – 6/10

A feature is descriptive. A benefit is emotional

• Ex: restaurant feature – food and drinks… Benefit– relax and let us take care of you at the end of a busy week!

What People Really Want – this is critical. We want more of some things, less of others

• Want: Money, Love Acceptance, Free Time
• Undesirables: Stress, Long Commutes, Bad Relationships
• Figure out what people want and find a way to give it to them

Becoming a Category of One – Joe Calloway
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – How to make/take a business to a level where you own a category, focusing primarily on the customer and what they know about you (the business).

Permission Marketing – Seth Godin
My Score – 6/10

You wouldn’t go to a singles bar and start asking people to be your wife, would you?

• You need to be dating. Lots of touch points, proving value
• You can pick the perfect bar, outfit, etc but it still not going to work

Trillion Dollar Coach – Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – Wow, what guy. This book is part story, part playbook, part postmortem of truly an amazing person. While you can take pieces from this book on how to be a better leader, Bill Campbell was a special breed and it’d be hard to replicate the impact he had on so many influential people.

Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – Not what I expected, but was still an enjoyable listen. Book was told through the lens of a few different current events, what went wrong in those cases, and why (primarily racially charged). I felt like it lacked a bit of the “pull through” to weave all the stories together with a common theme but it was still enjoyable to hear how a great thinker like Gladwell views them.

Greenlights – Matthew McConaughey
My Score – 6/10

Hot Take – Fun stories and anecdotes – told really well in the audiobook. The “Greenlights” ideology felt shallow to me and he tended to get a bit too spiritual at times for my liking. Great storyteller and very fun stories, but it didn’t really hit home on the “betterment” front for me.

Sum: Tales from the Afterlives – Stephen Fry
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – Fun, short book on what the afterlife could be. Probably about 50 different scenarios in little 5-10 minute sections describing what happens when you pass over.

From Zero to One – Peter Thiel
My Score – 5/10

When you’re 10x better your eliminate competition

• 10x the books – Amazon
• 10x easier payment on eBay – PayPal

Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek
My Score – 5/10

• A organization’s success is dependent on leadership excellence, not  on managerial acumen
• Leaders eat last because of the true embodiment of placing others’ needs above your own
• Teams that share values and are valued succeed through the best and worst of times
• To earn trust, you must extend trust. Treat your employees like people. Be empathetic. Be a caring environment.

The Truth Detector – Jack Schafer
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – It was pretty duplicative of “The Like Switch” (a booked that I LOVED), using a lot of the same stories and strategies. Where the strategies differed, they didn’t resonate with me as well. I guess I’m not really in the line of work to be extracting the truth out of people in a high-stakes game, so the in-depth strategies that he detailed left me uninspired.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry – Neil DeGrasse Tyson
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – I listen/watch a lot of NDT’s content and this was kind of his “greatest hits”. I would have probably enjoyed it more if I were earlier into the cosmos game but it ended up being repetitive to me.

As a teaser… “There’s more H20 molecules in a cup of water than cups of water for the Earth’s whole water supply”

Originals – Adam Grant
My Score – 5/10

• Sarick Effect – Top 5 reasons you should not invest with us
• Seek opinions from critical peers

The Four Agreements – don Miguel Ruiz
My Score – 5/10

• Be Impeccable with Your Word (1st): Speak with integrity. Avoid using your words to speak against yourself or gossip about others. Use your words in the direction of truth and love.
• Don’t Take Anything Personally (2nd): What others say and do is a projection of their own reality. When you don’t take things personally, you avoid needless suffering.
• Don’t Make Assumptions (3rd): Communicate clearly to avoid misunderstandings. Ask questions and express what you really want.
• Always Do Your Best (4th): Your best will vary from moment to moment, but if you give your best effort, you will avoid self-judgment, regret, and guilt.

The Art of Business Wars – David Brown
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – Pretty much a few Business Wars podcast episodes lightly repurposed into a book, laddering into the theme of “the art of war”. Entertaining, but might as well just listen to the podcast.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – Mark Manson
My Score – 5/10

• You have to give a f*ck about some things but not all things. Picks the things that actually, truly matter to care about. And remember, life is fragile and death is inevitable. We’re only here for a short amount of time so make it valuable and enjoy the ride 🙂

The Happiest Baby on the Block – Harvey Karp
My Score – 5/10

5 S’s: Mimic the womb!

• Sucking
• Swaddling
• Side-stomach position
• Shushing
• Swinging

Clockwork – Mike Michalowicz
My Score – 5/10

Moving from Doing –> Designing

• Doing – every entrepreneur starts here. You know it well, you do it well. Most businesses get stuck here
• Deciding – you assign tasks to other people but they are just task rabbits. They complete a task and then ask you “what should I do next?”. They don’t make decisions.
• Delegating – you empower them to make decisions on how to complete that ask. You must reward your employees ownership of a task, not the outcome. If you punish them for making the wrong decision, they will come back to you for you to make the decision for them. Must get past this perfection mindset.
• Designing – The business runs the day to day on its own, and you are the architect of the flow. You are overseeing the work, to the degree that you want to.

Age of Spiritual Machines – Ray Kurzweil
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – This book is just over 20 years old and talks about what the next 10-20 years will look like. Obviously predicting the future is a tall task and his predictions ended up being a bit ambitious. But because of this, it was a fun read, looking back at how a great mind predicted things would be in 2019.

The Art of Selling Your Business – John Warrillow
My Score – 5/10

• Push versus Pull factors – push factors are what is pushing you to sell your business. Pull factors are what you’re excited to explore next
  When to sell? To get the most value you want to sell when you have momentum. Winning streak.
  If you’re doing it, DO IT – you can damage your company’s value by testing the waters and deciding not to sell.
  Slow Reveal of Information – like a striptease, keeping them interested to see more
  Properties Deal – was running when an acquirer convinces you to sell your business to them without creating a marketplace for it (competition)
  Second bite of the apple – keep a certain percentage of the business to stick around and lead it, with a future exit being worth considerably more and being able to cash out again

Here’s the Deal – Joel Ankney
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – Didn’t cover too many topics that I didn’t already know. Worth a re-read when actively buying a business, but HBR, Buy Then Build and others cover many of these topics.

The Lifestyle Business Owner – Aaron Muller
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – Really didn’t hit on anything knew. Would have been a better 1st book to read on the topic instead of a 7th

God is Not Great – Christopher Hitchens
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – It’s an influential book by a brilliant mind but the information came quick in the audiobook version. If I really hunkered in and thought hard about it, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more but it was challenging for me to digest in its entirety.

The Expectant Father – Armin Brott and Jennifer Ash
My Score – 5/10

Hot Take – Pretty good book with some insightful anecdotes. The statistics felt very unsupported and there were mentioned of the infamous “food pyramid” which made me question many of the other scientific recommendations. Good directionally but don’t take it as gospel.

Win Every Argument – Mehdi Hasan
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – I thought this was going to be more thoughtful and about the art of persuasion and compromise. Instead, it was really heavy-handed and about beating your “opponent” into submission to the point where they’d actively hate you for it (debate-style). He was also really self-aggrandizing, using a lot of his own debate points to convince reader.

48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – I’m disappointed in myself for not liking this book. I later heard the end of the book ties the laws of power together in a meaningful way, but I gave up around power law ~30.

12 Rules for Life – Jordan B. Peterson
My Score – 4/10

• Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back
• Rule 2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping
• Rule 3: Make friends with people who want the best for you
• Rule 4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is
• Rule 5: Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
• Rule 6: Set your house in perfect order before your criticize the world
• Rule 7: Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)
• Rule 8: Tell the truth or at least don’t lie
• Rule 9: Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t
• Rule 10: Be precise in your speech
• Rule 11: Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
• Rule 12: Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – The logic felt a bit scattershot to me. I accurately called out a lot of religious fallacies and paradoxes but they all felt very one-off and not rolling back to a centralized thesis I guess? Hard for me to put my finger on, but wasn’t really a page turner and lacked an “aha!” moment for me.

The Scientist in the Crib – Gopnik, Meltzoff, Kuhl
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – Not really a parenting book. It was more geared towards behavioral scientists, using what we know about the baby brain to understand our behaviors in adulthood. I was expecting something else but there were still some good nuggets in there.

Linchpin – Seth Godin
My Score – 4/10

The difference between how much an employee is paid and the value he produces leads to profit.

• If a worker captures all their value in their salary, there is no profit
• So the goal is to hire as many obedient, competent workers as cheaply as you can

The problem- someone will always be able to how cheaper than you. Need to adopt a “trader Joe’s” strategy where you empower your employee and make a remarkable experience

The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure – Chris Thurber & Hendrie Weisinger
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – Felt like it was speaking to very emotionally abusive parents and what not to do. It felt a little too obvious for me. Yeah, maybe don’t chide your kid for getting a B+. Got it.

Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – I am a big fan of the “Extreme Ownership” philosophy and have also heard of it described as “it’s always your fault” by David Heinemeier Hansson. However, the book was too rooted in these long military examples which only briefly touched on the philosophy.

Free Range Kids – Lenore Skenazy
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – I’m on board with the content; we do protect our kids too much against impossibly unlikely events (all drummed up by the media), however, the delivery and tone of the book was too much. Really made it feel like you’re being unreasonable (and borderline insane) for wanting to protect your kids. Felt too heavy-handed in the adiobook version and some of Jonathan Haidt’s books (The Anxious Generation and Coddling of the American Mind) get the points across with less emotion.

The Willpower Instinct – Kelly McGonigal
My Score – 4/10

Hot Take – I may have just read this at the wrong time… I had just re-read ‘Atomic Habits’ and I feel like that serves as a better guide while this is less action-oriented and more understanding-oriented.

Traction – Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
My Score – 3/10

Hot Take – I wasn’t looking for a magic bullet but this book didn’t go deep enough. It outlines a bunch of traction channels and tells you to test them independently so you know what works.

The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel
My Score – 3/10

Hot Take – Dollar cost averaging into a low-cost index fund. Don’t touch the money unless you absolutely have to. Start early, end late. You’ll never beat the market on “smarts” unless you’re cheating.

Felt like it was a lot of unexciting stories to support the above. Didn’t learn much here.

The One Week Marketing Plan – Mark Satterfield
My Score – 3/10

• Day 1: Choose which niche market to focus on. The key is to have a marketing message that speaks to a specific group.
• Day 2: Create a compelling free offer
• Day 3: Create a simple 1 page website that promotes the offer and captures emails
• Day 4: write 5-7 drip marketing messages that are delivered to the clients after they sign up for the free trial, converting them to paying customers
• Day 5: Driving traffic to your website and getting more paid customers. Write ads and run them on Bing, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn…

Who the Hell Wants to Work for You? – David Eisenhauer
My Score – 3/10

Hot Take – I might have not been the right audience for this book but it didn’t really pack a punch or say anything that was eye opening. Challenge employees, make them feel wanted. Truthfully, only made it about half way through.

Sleep Smarter – Shawn Stevenson
My Score – 3/10

Hot Take – The book was a bit too obvious. Blue light is bad. Don’t be on your phone late in the day. Instead, try talking to people… Also, coffee late in the day is bad. Instead, try drinking tea… Sleep is a big mystery and we’re still learning about it but this book felt very elementary.

Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
My Score – 3/10

Hot Take – It was a really obvious “vision board” concept. Believe in yourself and you can achieve anything! Was probably groundbreaking at the time but its overly obvious now. And I really didn’t like how the whole beginning of the book was trying to convince the reader to have faith and trust in the book. Felt cult-like.

Open – Andre Agassi
My Score – 2/10

Hot Take – Sounds mean saying it but it was a real bummer of a book (from what I read). Maybe it turns around, but it was just his tragic tale with very little “lessons learned” or “takeaways”. It was hard to listen to that level of abuse without any positivity interwoven.

A Short Guide to a Happy Life – Anna Quindlen
My Score – 2/10

Hot Take – Being a very short book I was hoping for more word-for-word impactfulness and it left me uninspired. Generally boils down to “stop and smell the roses” and “enjoy the journey, not the destination”.