Impulse Buy

In Between the World and Me, Coates write to his fifteen-year-old son, Samori, about questions regarding the nation's history, culture, racial struggles and his experiences living in a black body in America. Forgetting about the past and the pain that comes with it is easy, but remembering and understanding is very…

Deep Work is a very powerful concept and skill. It is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. This book gets bonus points for the concept, even if the book didn't meet my…

A major theme was that ambitious people should create a company that doesn't just have a small incremental improvement, but a 5x-10x+ shift that has the potential to move humanity a bit forward. Thiel made many bold statements and some other contrarian views, and I loved it. Zero to One was an audaciously brilliant…

The core message of turning adversity into strength was something that truly resonated with me as I grew up in disadvantaged circumstances. David & Goliath is a very well written book, although I can see how people can get with Gladwell's style of writing as his books seem to rhyme with each other. Regardless, the…

On a personal note, this was an important book for me to read. Mullainathan and Shafir show that scarcity creates a similar psychology for everyone struggling to manage with less than they need. Growing up in a single-parent household right along with poverty line, I witnessed firsthand the "Scarcity Trap", that…

An insightful look into how we've lost some core aspects of living in a tribal society, living in an individualistic western culture. The tribal way means willing to make a substantive sacrifice for your community, holding a shared burden, loyalty, selflessness, and a sense of belonging to something larger than…

If Ego is the Enemy, then we're in for an endless war. At any point in our life, we are between the three cycles of Aspire, Success, & Failure. This book was born out of the need for a guide in facing the many obstacles that await through the pendulum of life's journey between these states. The thesis is that your ego…

The Obstacle is the way, leans a little towards the motivational / self-help area instead of a more technical and specific approach. The book has a lot of anecdotes and references to core stoic messages that help set the narrative for getting into a mindset where the obstacle is part of the course and not something…

In Who Owns the Future, Jaron Lanier makes the controversial case that the internet has destroyed more jobs than it created and looks into why this has happened and how to go about solving it. He focuses on the impact of artists and entrepreneurs who wanted to use the internet to sell their art, music, and other…