Book Reviews

Book Reviews

The non exhaustive list of read books TLDR’s.

The Happiness Hypothesis: Putting Ancient Wisdom to the Test of Modern Science | Jonathan Haidt

Love and work are to people what water and sunshine are to plants.

  1. We’re all hypocrites, we all believe that what we think is the right reality (Naive Realism)
  2. H (happiness)= S(set points)+C (external conditions)+V (voluntary activities)

Ultra-Processed People | Chris van Tulleken

It’s not food. It’s an industrially produced edible substance.

  1. The “food” is engineered to be overeaten
  2. Flavorings trick your brain into thinking that the associated vitamins and minerals are coming. Plot twist, they don’t, and now you’re overeating.
  3. Avoid it at all cost!

The Digital Minimalist | Carl Newport

The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your “likes” is the new smoking.

Simply put, humans are not wired to be constantly wired.

  1. Connection fades compared with real communication due to the difference in information processing.
  2. Reclaim quality leisure (DIY, social groups, or rather, physical activities)
  3. Social media is incentivized to glue you to the screen, and they have all the resources to do so. Do you think you have a chance? Better quit!

So Good They Can’t Ignore You | Carl Newport

Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.

  1. Working right trumps the right work
  2. Practice deliberate practice
  3. Think about what you can offer rather than what the world has to offer you

Deep Work | Carl Newport

If you can’t learn, you can’t thrive.

Ironically, jobs are actually easier to enjoy than free time, because like flow activities they have built-in goals, feedback rules, and challenges, all of which encourage one to become involved in one’s work, to concentrate and lose oneself in it. Free time, on the other hand, is unstructured, and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed.

  1. Avoid distractions when working
  2. Embrace Boredom, it’s a source of creative thinking
  3. Quit social media
  4. Do not work overtime!

How to Win Friend and Influence People | Dale Carnegie

Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

  1. Why will anyone care about what you are if you are not interested in what they are?
  2. Spread the love, one smile at a time
  3. Remember the name, it is the only unique word assign to a person
  4. Leave others better than before
  5. Avoid arguments at all cost!

The Millionaire Next Door | Thomas J. Stanley , William D. Danko

Whatever your income, always live below your means.

  1. Be frugal
  2. Wealth is invisible
  3. If someone is having a £100k car, all you know is that he has £100k less than before

I Will Teach You To Be Rich | Ramit Sethi

“Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t.”

“The 85 Percent Solution: Getting started is more important than becoming an expert.”

  1. Negotiate everything, from phone bills to buying a new house
  2. Maximize the pension contribution
  3. Open an Investments Savings Account (ISA) account, preferably a target retirement fund by Vanguard
  4. Start investing … NOW
  5. Be frugal

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