0) Booklist to Solve Daily Problems

1. Money: The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason in 1926 (and maybe Think and Grow Rich or Rich Dad, Poor Dad) – Short, easy read. How to make money. If not enough money. If financial struggles. Financial Advisors recommend. Nobody gets anywhere in this modern day without some cash stacks. Whether we like it or not, money management is a building block upon which many other lifestyle choices rest. Short, easy read. Perhaps the first step to a fortunate financial future. This book provides a handful of tips but more so this quick read reframes the mind when it comes to finances: Throw a stone a day.
   
2. Live the Dream: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 1988 – Perhaps the cornerstone of modern reads for finding purpose in life… or at least the pursuit of happiness.
   
3. Time Mgt: 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman 2021 – A manifesto for those of us in the corporate machine. Tasks, responsibilities, priorities – How do you make time for everything when everything demands all our attention all the time and all of it’s important. Emails. Taskers. Bosses. Coworkers. This tool-based philosophy has taught me how to handle the tasks in the first place. Caught up in a bit of the hamster wheel of the 9-5 this book totally reframed how I prioritize my day and what is truly important at the end of it. This feels like a philosophy book disguised as self-help.
   
4. 12 Rules for Life (a morale compass?) by Psychologist Jordan Peterson 2018 – Essentially a modern day playbook for a meaningful life. After what I imagine is thousands of hours with clients and lectures Dr. Peterson has a wealth of knowledge surrounding meaningful lives and I don’t know that I’ve listened to an interview by him that hasn’t made me rethink the way I am living. His objectivity, reasoning, and passion make his wisdom exponentially more enjoyable to retain. If there was one modern book to set you straight, offering advice of meaning and happiness sustainably through life it’d likely be this one.
   
5. Perspective/Fk the World: Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins or Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (more historical) – This dude showed that you can crawl your way out of any hell hole that exists. The book touches on racism, domestic abusive, overeating, household growing up. I didn’t think you could teach grit in a book… and then I read this. Any time I find myself at the bottom of the barrel with nothing left to give I think of this man running an ultramarathon on Ritz crackers and gushers… and I find more within. Goggins challenges you to question who the hell you are and what you stand for. He makes you question if the problems we’re having are real problems.
   
6. Life Priorities: Essentialism by Greg McKeown – The speed of modern day life only seems to get faster and faster. Ancient philosophers have been sorting this stuff out for thousands of years, this book just happens to be a modern day adaptation with modern day examples and an easily digestible (but thought provoking) way of how to determine what truly matters to me as an individual. “What is the most important thing right now”. I was in a bit of a rut, looking to improve my decision making, this book was it. Not only decisions, but also deciding which decisions are even important in the first place. Eliminating the useless bs (incredibly hard to do) and devote a larger portion of that energy to the ones that matter.
   
7. Life Priorities: Die With Zero by Bill Perkins- Helped me w hyper frugality, was terrified of going broke. You’re always going to be working to make more money to acheive wealth. What the fuck is wealth to you. There’s a compelling story of a dude who has $4 billion and keeps saying – I’ll retire next year. He doesn’t. We continue to live the life of the habits we build. In an ideal world, everyone has enough money to survive, this book flips the notion of saving on its head, discussing money as a tool and how to use it to get what you truly want (even if you don’t know it yet). After we have the absolute bare minimum to live off of, I’d suggest this book to nearly anyone with basic financial knowledge. It offers an unconventional way to use the money we’ve got.
   
8. Human Connection/Negotiations: Never Split the Difference or Crucial Conversations – Easily one of the most influential books I’ve ever read. As someone who likes to argue, this book blatantly pointed out how obviously wrong I was going about it. It completely rehauled my approach to debates, relationships, conversation and attacking the problem not the person. Labels. Mirrors. Tone of voice. Body language. Picking an agreed upon point in the future. Written by a former FBI hostage negotiator, this book is good shit.
   
   15 minutes in and I knew I’d have to reread. I’ve come to learn relationships are the core to nearly all good lives and come to appreciate this book even more. As a riled up, fiery, frustrated, self conscious, self aware, insecure, adventurous, thoughtful but misunderstood and passionate kid, this book rocked my world. It completely transformed how I approach conversations, colleagues, friends, bosses, family, coworkers, and romantic relationships. This book hit even harder when I learned of the 5 Regrets of the Dying.
   
9. Way of Life: Meditations? – Stair Step to big boy reading. Perhaps more influential when you’ve got some stability and not trying to figure out the immediate path forward. Chief Ellis.
   
10. Life Purpose/Stress: Ikigai or Peace is Every Step

“If you haven’t read 100s of books you are functionally illiterate. Your experiences alone are not enough to sustain you”

Marine General Jim Mattis – Call Sign Chaos

“What you don’t know can and will hurt you”

Unknown

Honorable Mentions

• Meditations – Easy read. Should be mandatory, can be a dense read
• Emotional Intelligence 2.0 – Easy read
• 5 Regrets of the Dying (article works just fine)
• Ikigai
• Digital Minimalism
• How to Live 24 Hours a Day

“The truth is, I don’t read for self-improvement. I read out of curiosity and interest. The best book is the one you’ll devour“

– Naval Ravikant

Too Lazy

If you’re too lazy to read (or can’t, I get it) here are the most useful quotes, short articles, and videos I’ve watched.

10 Under 20 (minutes)

NEEDS:

• Clean up – Paragraphs look jumbled as is. 3 books per topic?
  • Change link colors (Naval Green?)
• NEED Book then link to page w actionable steps

1. The Alchemist
2. Design Your Life

Related

• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon – For the longest time I didn’t have any hobbies. I had a single sport from age 6-21. It dominated my childhood, high school and finally college career. I didn’t have time for hobbies, or so I thought. It took hundreds of convos with my buddy a couple more years of experiment to figure out that hobbies aren’t something to be done ‘on the side’ ‘on the weekends’ or ‘when there’s time’… but to be the source of joy in my days and why I work. I work so that I can fuel my enjoyment… Hobbies are that enjoyment. I finally started showing my work and a few years of that helped me to realize these side passions and small stuff we’re interested in is what gives life life. That’s how you meet similar minded ppl. So now I’ve got this website and show my work.

>> Purpose

Badass Humans (Bios)

What better way to get good than study the most influential people in modern day and history?

• Green Lights
• Malcom X
• Seabiscuit
• Jobs
• The Setup
• Unbroken
• Cant Hurt Me
• Kiss of Kill
• Let My People Go Surft
• Call Sign Chaos – I’ve had military buddies highly recommend this book. Combine the 12 hour audiobook with my free spirit and it wasn’t a personal favorite. For adventurous, somewhat delinquint, or highly opinionated people I’d much rather recommend Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Col John Boyd wasn’t promoted to General because he was an asshole and stuck to his belief system over the usual brown-nosing to promotion. Badass article about him To Do or To Be (5 mins).

Related – All 3 of these are on my list

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius ~170 AD – Thoughts from, at the time, likely the most powerful man alive. These are essentially insights into this man’s mind, showing that at no point do problems go away. We constantly wrestle with our own minds
• The Analects by Confucius, ~400 BC

Relations & Communication

Romantic and otherwise. Never Split the Difference has maybe been the single most impactful book in my life. Use it for good, please. Hot take: Negotiations are literally the core of all interactions and miscommunication is literally the core of all arguments
(Self awareness and empathy also help)

1. Never Split the Difference by former FBI Negotiator Chris Voss – Easily a top 3 book I’ve ever read. Easily. This book has revolutionized how I operate on a daily basis – The words I use, how I treat people, the questions I ask, the conversations I have. Anything good about how I treat people can damn near be attributed to this book. It’s helped with interpersonal relationships, negotiations, getting what I want, helping other people get what they want, the whole 9 yards. Some major takeways were an emphasis on tone of voice. We convey a tremendous amount of information by our tone, improv hammered this home. 7-38-55 >> 7% of our meaning is conveyed with words. 38% by tone. And 55% by body language. Mirrors. Labels. How questions. You vs I. I vs you. Going to the balcony. That’s right. Agreeable future point in time. Chris Voss is a former hostage negotiator for the FBI and includes examples after examples, it’s impossible not to fuse his message into everyday life. 15 minutes into this audiobook and I knew I’d have to read it again. “You don’t have to agree with their point of view but you do have to understand it”. Study where 2 antithesis organizations argued incessantly >> new rule implemented where you have to restate your opponents POV before sharing yours. 0 arguments.
2. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 – Short, easy read with tons of practical tips… especially coming from someone who self identifies as overly logical (I don’t always factor in the human element). Emotional Quotient is far more malleable than our IQ, and not only that but it’s a far greater predictor of success than IQ.
3. Never Eat Alone – Taken me awhile to appreciate the value of interpersonals.

Romantic

1. Crucial Conversations – Recommended to me by one of the goofiest and wholesome people I know. “Sometimes that fiery kid from New York just comes out of me” He recommended to me this book
2. Never Split the Difference – ‘The secret to negotiation is not winning or losing… it’s about collaborating to find the best possible solution’

Importance of Relations

1. The 5 Regrets of the Dying – This memoir has slow-roasted my brain. I didn’t find it earth-shattering at the time of reading, but it’s been over a year now and it keeps on seeping into my thoughts. Her 5 min article is fascinating too. Bronnie Ware takes care of elderly dying folk in their home and documents her experience and their regrets.

People Don’t Make Any Damn Sense

1. Please Understand Me – Humans all think differently. How do you think and how do I think? Personality tests, sure, may have some truth may not… 1 thing is for certain > Humans think very differently. As a Myers-Briggs NT, specifically INTP, understanding my own mind and how it differs from others has been perhaps the single greatest confidence in self I’ve gotten.
2. 5 Frames of Mind – There are different types of intelligence. Each of us is good at different things and understanding how humans think differently.

Leadership Communication

• Radical Candor – “Communication from a leadership perspective”

Relationship Related

• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High – Not a book on negotiations… but a book on negotiations. We don’t get to choose when we enter a high stakes negotiation. All of a sudden someone walks in the room and boom, we’re in it
• Getting Past No by William Ury – A short 2 hour book on negotiations. A delightful refresher after reading Never Split the Difference. Recommended by Tim Ferriss. I listened as a brush up when I was pitching lots of things to my boss and coworkers. Going to the balcony. Having an alternative to negotiate off of. Understanding your opponents POV and building a golden bridge backward. Phrasing your arguments as asking for advice. Saving opponents reputation. Everyone reports to someone, that includes constituents. Humans are naturally good creatures who just want what’s best for themselves and close ones. Once we can stop claiming that x person is evil or y person is going to end the world, we’ll be a hell of a lot better off – Creating calm conversation to negotiate a better future for everyone.
• Innovation Code – “Your worldview is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness”. Different personality types fuel different parts of the innovation curve. Some people are good at making NEW, some are good at sustainment, some are rule based, and some are goal based. It was helpful to understand that my brain likes breaking things and building new but gets bored easily – helped me to see blind spots and the types of people I need on my teams.

Sex

To have this topic be taboo to me seems so silly. One things American culture does far better than other countries is the open marketplace. This allows us to tap in to taboo markets rather easily and perhaps one of the reasons I love comedy so very much. It’s a topic 100% of people face, yet so few talk about. Why the female orgasm need ramin a mystery shall be a mystery to me. In the words of my good buddy Finn “There’s books on that shit… and I promise they ain’t using their dick”

• She Comes First – Yup, exactly how it sounds. Admittedly, I was seriously skeptical reading this knowing it was written by a man. That being said he is some sex doctor (whatever the hell that is) and provides substantial information and tips on the female orgasm from a scientific perspective. Anecdotally have had more success and been able to be more open with partners as well. Nobody teaches you how to satisfy your partner, so we learn through trial and error (and lots of error) and potentially from friends. Ironically, an old roommate recommended this book and it has been quite interesting, informative, and useful. Another problem solved.
• The Setup by Dan Bilzerian – Certainly a controversial book on this list, but my wish is not to withold knowledge from people, and instead give options. Growing up I was extremely timid and constantly felt I inconvenienced people (thanks childhood). This guy very clearly objectifies women and is a self-admitted sex addict, but also a surprisingly principled and honesty driven person. Seeing the extreme end of the spectrum helped with my shyness and talking to girls (without obejectifying them). It helped me out of my shell. With that, it’s important to understand your specific brain and what you need solved. For ex I’ve got a buddy who has slight tendencies to manipulate, but is conscious of this, and made a conscious effort not to read 48 Laws of Power. It all comes down to what we need. Ironically, this book helped me have healthier relationships.

Related

• Never Split the Difference
• Crucial Conversations

>> Relationships with Others

Generalized Anxiety

Perpetually in between fight or flight. Can’t fully relax. Always mildly worried about something. That being said, for me anxiety comes from a whole host of different sources: feeling lost, social, understanding self, future. Identifying the source of the anxiety can help decide which book to read. If unsure, I’d start with the 1st one and understanding the way the mind works and where this anxiety comes from.

1. Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day – For the longest time I was looking for an excuse to meditate. Similar to the way I was looking for an excuse to start writing but couldn’t find one, the practice of meditation evaded me for a long time. I was nervous to start, a little bit embarrassed. I never did quite find the perfect solution, but my Therapist friend who lived with monks certainly helped. The free trial on HeadSpace was useful, though I wish I got more background knowledge. Neuroscientist and psychology professor Dr. Amishi Jha has a decent 1 hour podcast with Brene Brown and this is her book.
2. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Dr. Jordan Peterson – I don’t know that I’ve watched a Jordan Peterson video and not gotten a full plate of food for thought. He’s Canadian Psychologist and condensed his wealth of knowledge into this book
3. Defining Decade by Dr. Meg Jay – Common pitfalls in your 20s and how to avoid them. Author is a clinical psychologist who works with primarily people in their 20s – growing up and trying to navigate this insanity. She consolidates lessons from dozens if not hundreds of anxious, aimless, misunderstood young clients. I found their stories relatable and useful.
4. How to Change Your Mind – Story of psychedelics and how they can offer life-altering effects. I’ve seen many people draw parallels between psychedelics and rigorous meditation practices.

Related

• Peace is Every Step by Nhat Thich Hanh – Most Peaceful man alive? rec by jon kabat zin? Found in some Reddit rabbit hole, this thread for book recs on anxiety has been quite useful and many users recommended Nhat Thich Hanh. I guess this guy has been described as ‘the most peaceful man alive’ and opens with a quote from his inspiration, the Dalai Lama. Will report back with more that I find. Hundreds of other Reddit users found this thread incredibly useful for anxiety, sharing experiences and how they overcame it.
• Breath – This is a cool read that straddles the line between health and anthropology. James Nestor essentially travels the world talking to different specialists (completing a study with Stanford Med at one point on nasal breathing) uncovering (among many things) that Americans are ‘over-breathing’ ourselves into anxiety and don’t use our diaphragm. Mouth breathing is awful and reduces our oxygen levels. I’ve changed the way I breath on a daily basis as a result of this book and also deal with less anxiety. Correlation? Maybe. There’s so much than goes into it and if breathing is one of them, I want the most effective method possible. Nasal breathing only baby.
• 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – I used to overwork myself in to oblivion (okay I still do to a degree) but this book helped tremendously. There’s only so much time on this Earth, we won’t get to all we want to do. This book helps find solace in that. Sometimes our duress comes not from not knowing where to go, but from doing too much. I often find myself chasing so many waterfalls. It’s not sorted but I at least understand now we’ve got a threshold as to what we can take on

Character

1. Extreme Ownership
2. 12 Rules for Life

Peaceful Inner Environment

“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else”

Arthur Schopenhauer

Seems like life is a journey to find peace, but we’ve got to have some form of self expression, art, music, writing-somethin’ , some outlet in the meantime.

1. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson
2. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – Former Roman Emporer, perhaps most powerful man alive at the time? This book is a collection of his journals that he didn’t anticipate to be published. It pulls back the veil – no matter who you are, everyone deals with the internal monologue dilemma and this book is straight from the source
3. (3 hrs) Peace is Every Step by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh – Written by some say the most ‘peaceful man alive’ and a friend of MLK Jr, Nhat Thich Hanh. I thought this book was going to be a bit hippie dippie, and to be fair I have to be in the right mood to read it, but it has frankly helped more than I expected. Only half way through.
4. Please Understand Me by David Kiersey – As a Myers-Briggs INTP I found myself very confused growing up trying to figure out why the hell it didn’t feel like I fit in. I didn’t understand people. I didn’t understand myself. This book (specifically this 20 min article) completely changed that (A ‘Rational’ tends to be Abstract and Utilitarian in nature (vs Concrete or Cooperative) and contains ENTP, ENTJ, INTJs).

Related

• On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
• The Courage to Be Happy
• Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza – Goodbye childhood trauma

Write, mother f**ker: I don’t know that any habit, idea, or book has helped me more than physically handwriting each day. I don’t know why. I don’t know how. But 15 minutes writing daily rewires my brain. It helps me understand how tf myself and the people around me operate. I’m more at peace because of it.

“Thoughts disentangle themselves through lips and fingertips”

Dawson Trotman

Resilience – Be a savage

Similar to leadership, I used to think you couldn’t teach it in a book. But by learning what others are capable of – their stories and internal dialogues, people like David Goggins, we can train our selves to be more like them.

• Cant Hurt Me by David Goggins- Some people believe this dude is legitimately clinically insane because this dude is so hard core. He’s the only person to ever have completed Navy Seal, Army Ranger, and Air Force AFTAC training. His childhood was insane and he was abused, abandoned, and outcast. Hearing his story and his tips and ways he dug himself out of the hole are unbelievable. I find myself constantly referencing David Goggins when going through adversity and believing what the human is capable of. ‘Don’t put me on a pedestal. As soon as you put me on a pedestal you are relieved from your duties of making yourself the most savage person you can be’ ^^ Paraphrasing
• Unbroken – About a POW from WWII who was targeted in Japanese camps. This is the type of book where I had to set down out of sheer disbelief how a human could endure so much. It was the 1st book to truly open my mind as to what we are capable of and continues to make me incredibly grateful for what I’ve got because it could always be soooo much worse.
• Kiss or Kill

Related

• Gates of Fire – “This book made me feel like I could run through walls”

Related

• Extreme Ownership – Feels like the world works against us a lot of the time. A simple concept from this book totally reframed my perspective – “Even if it’s not my fault, I look at ways in which I made the situation worse and could have done it better”. The simple act of always finding ways I could have improved help me dramatically
• Happiness Hypothesis – I’ve become the most frustrated and desperate when I felt I had no control over a situation. This book, written by a psychologist, gives insights onto how to regain control from a scientific perspective… and ultimately happiness over life.

Man in Nature – Incredible Feats

Anytime I read one of these, my whole life is put in to perspective. What matters and what, in the grand scheme of things, is a blip on the radar?

• Kiss or Kill: The Confessions of a Serial Climber by Mark Twight – In a tie with David Goggins’ book Can’t Hurt Me for absolute most visceral, raw, and emotion evoking grit out there. In true stories of his life, Twight recounts near death, and sometimes deathly experiences alpine climbing in the mountains.
• Into the Void
• Way of the Rock Warrior
• Eric Horst Episodes 21, 23, 24, 26, 28
• Uphill Athlete?
• Training for the New Alpinism?

Self Belief

(Miles, me, Deems) – “Not all those who wander are lost”. I wish I had a little more guidance growing up through High School and then later in college. I knew I didn’t quite want the 9-5 grind, but wasn’t sure what I was looking for. These books along with, Custom Life & Happy, have been of serious benefit. I wish I found them a couple years earlier, so I’m here to share them with you.

1. Biographies – “Your idols determine your values.” Reading about people who inspire me – George Carlin, Steve Jobs, Hunter Thompson, Mark Twight – has totally opened my eyes as to what’s possible. It’s also helped me zero in on what I value. Creating Apple was badass, but Jobs also did it at the expense of several of his closest relationships for ex. Learning about the lives of people who inspire me only makes me more and more excited to live out my own life and figure out what the hell is possible.
2. The Alchemist –
3. The Mountain is You –
4. 12 Rules for Life

Related

1. The Courage to Be Disliked
2. Think and Grow Rich – Self belief from a financial perspective. Haven’t read personally but been told how influential.
3. Excellent Sheep – Helped me reverse engineer why I so desperately sought approval and validation… that’s what we’re taught in school. It’s a constant comparison game, don’t color outside the lines, and follow this path we’ve given you. Don’t ever deviate.
4. 7 Spiritual Laws of Success
5. It’s All in Your Head by Russ – This book is written by Russ, one of my favorite music artists, which is the why it’s on the list. Weird right. I only include it because he’s written a lot of music about rising up as an independent artist against all odds over 10 years and finally making it. “Ain’t got s**t but my confidence and focus”. He details some of the tactics he uses here. Nothing out of the ordinary but still a useful book for me because it’s somebody who inspires me.
6. A New Earth

Reading about badass humans has been one of the most effective ways to open my mind to what’s possible. People do the impossible, just gotta know it.

Trapped, Trauma, Chains of the Mind

1. Breaking Habits of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza – Reommended to me by a therapist. “Dr. Joe Dispenza shares that you are not doomed by your genes and hardwired to be a certain way for the rest of your life. This is a cool recommendation because it’s not the traditional self-help genre and is instead a scientific approach to how to reprogram your biology, thinking, and quite literally rewire the brain, combining the fields of quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics.
2. Courage to Be Disliked – For recovering People Pleasers – someone who has done the things and checked the boxes and still somehow found herself not too happy with the job that levied itself upon her. “If you need something done give it to the person that’s busy”. I’m told this book illuminates the path we ourselves have to pave – Nobody else tells us how to live. The 2nd book by the same author is The Courage to Be Happy and is written from a similar perspective.
3. A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, 2005 – Of the dozens of books read clawing her way out of an unfulfilling 10 year marriage, this is my therapist friends #1 recommendation.
4. Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz, 2014 – The education system is set up against you. It isn’t set up to help the individual, rather validate the top 5% and pat you on the back – that becomes addicting. But life doesn’t give you any gold stars or pats on the back. An old friend from High School had read this book, going off the Brazil, staring an online business. After college, this book proved showed me our path to walk is ours alone even when others open doors we aren’t fulfilled by.
5. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan, 2018 – “There’s a good book Michael Pollan wrote recently called How to Change your Mind, and I think it is a brilliant book everybody should read. Psychedelics are a bit of a cheat code in self-observation. I don’t recommend drugs for anybody, you can do it all through pure meditation. If you want to accelerate ahead, you know, psychedelics are good for that.” Naval Ravikant

Related

• Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins – I can’t imagine enduring the abuse, racism, weight loss, and suffering this dude went and continues to go through. I don’t know there’s a better living example of “choose your suffering”. Makes you feel you can run through walls… and shows how he does.
• 4000 Weeks – Perfect if in the workplace grinder. We want to please everyone and do well in work and life and relationships… there’s only so much time in the day. You don’t get to do everything. Our lives are finite.

Understand Your Mind (the human mind)

1. StrengthFinders 2.0 – A test you can take as well, focuses on specific strengths each of us has. I thought this was going to be just another broadsweep ‘personality test’ but actually found it fairly useful. I’m not sure the origins of this book/test, but it helped me identify that I was good at identifying individual differences between people. I’m incredibly good at noticing what makes each individual different from another – This has helped me be a better coach, change my language around people, and honestly give better gifts. Having the book explicitly identify some strengths helped me understand what I’m uniquely good at (and not so good at). It gives actionable tips for each trait – pros and cons.
2. Please Understand Me by David Kiersey. People think differently. Unbelievably validating as and MBTI INTP (for whatever weight that carries) this book, and specifically this passage made the whole world click Passage for INTPs (or any NT for that matter) here
3. 5 Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences rec by Robert Green – Robert Green (author of 48 Laws of Power) has noted “There’s a book I recommend for everybody: It’s Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind. It has helped me immensely.” Each human mind ticks and processes information differently, this book identifies some of those differences.
4. Innovation Code by Jeff DeGraff – Although approached from an ‘innovation’ perspective, this book offers subtle insights into the different ways people think. “Your worldview is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness” Part of it genetic, part of it environment. This book doesn’t describe a personality, but rather 4 worldviews that each of us have. Everyone has pieces of the Artist, Engineer, Sage, and Athlete in our brain, but 1-2 primarily dominate our worldviews. Are we idea, systems, people, or goal oriented. Without understanding the frameworks, as a creative (frenetic) ‘Artist’ I sometimes struggle to execute on my grand vision in a practical manner. I’ve since realized that by pairing with people with other dominant ideologies (namely Engineers and Sages), I am able to involve other people that can help me make it a reality. The idea is that our dominant worldview is our greatest strength because it makes us unique, but it also gives us blind spots others may not have. Working with others makes this far more efficient. Jeff DeGraff has been called the ‘Father of Innovation’ and whose ideas Project Mercury are largely based on.

Related

• Never Split the Difference
• How to Change Your Mind
• Peak Mind
• Biographies – “Your idols give you insight in to your values”

(Perspective, Discipline, and Perseverance)

“All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”

Naval Ravikant

Long term thinking and actions seem to be at the core of being human and what sets Winners apart from Losers. Being able to create a “counter factual reality” is a skill no other animal alive has. We don’t succeed without long and short term goals… Each day is a short term goal and habits are the daily goals.

Goals n Habits

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear – You likely don’t need to read this whole book. I personally haven’t. But his visuals helped me tremendously.
2. Infinite Game by Simon Sinek – Mental. Sometimes we get caught up chasing our tails… in work, school, relationships… and from what I can tell, it happens all the time in Business – CEOs need to please their stockholders… that means quarterly profit. Consistent quarterly means safety, and sometimes that doesn’t mean taking the necessary risk. This dude’s books (and vids ~20 mins) are always good. But you can’t win the game of life. Everyone finishes it the same. It’s infinite, how will you play?

Related

• Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins – Wanted to fight a grizzly after reading this book. I use its principles on a fairly regular basis.
• Grit – Seems weird that you could teach grit in a book, but hey, I would’ve said the same thing about leadership before reading this book (turn ship). I heard once upon a time they did a study to see who’d graduate the United States Military Academy West Point and found ‘Grit’ to be the primary determiner, independent of intelligence, talent, background, socioeconomic class, or any other variable. I haven’t read it myself, I suppose I’m skeptical that a book teaches this, but hey, David Goggins book shaped me tf up.
• Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action – “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” – Friedrich Nietzsche. I want to read this book just because the 20 minute Ted Talk was so damn good. I use those principles fairly regularly. I have no doubt this is a phenomenal book for both self and leadership roles.

>> Goals and Habits

Desperately Needed Habits

1. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport – Was gifted this book by a friend and didn’t really have a huge draw to it, but sitting on my dresser one afternoon I started it. I’ve been frustrated at times by the social media time suck but didn’t have a huge problem with it per se. This book made a surprisingly large impact and helped me shape a more effective relationship with social media. I took a 30 day hiatus just to try it per the book and noticed a remarked difference. I see my phone as far more of a tool now rather than a source for entertainment and use it for the tangible benefits (ie genuinely contacting friends) rather than by default.
2. 4000 Weeks – A wildly effective book that changed how I operate through my days and the activities I take part in. There’s a limited amount of time in this life, and to think we’ll accomplish everything is plain silly. If then we’re restricted by time, how do we complete what we want to complete. ‘Treat your to-do list not as something to finish, but as a river to go fishing in’… What’s the most important thing right now.
3. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day written 1908 by Arnold Bennett – A short read, I stumbled across this book because of another I’d read in what my buddy andre calls “Chain Smoking Books” and was interested to see it written over 100 years ago. Books that a long time give me more confidence in them because the words of wisdom have survived the time trials. Pre-tech, it was cool to see that humans have stayed struggling figuring out how to spend their time, tech is just a new way to suck it up. This book gave some nice actionable tips and further helped my relationship with myself, tech, and how I spend my time. “The mind doesn’t tire like a muscle in an arm or leg would, but rather merely needs variety”
4. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Best way we can be better is to learn from people who already are better

Related

1. 48 Laws of Power – Case studies of influential people throughout history: Carnegie, Chanelle, Tolstoy, etc

“If you don’t take your food as medicine you’ll have to take your medicine as food”

(For discipline, see Resilience)

• 4000 Weeks
• Essentialism
• How to Live on 24 Hours/Day
• On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
• Digital Minimalism

Related

• Die With Zero
• Time Surfing

Money Mindset??

Struggled Relationship w Money (Frugal or Spendy)

• Richest man in babylon
• Rich dad poor dad
• Think n Grow rich
  
• Random Walk
• Psychology of Money

Related

• 4 Hour Work Week
• Crush It
• Real Artists Don’t Starve

“Enable people to make their own decisions so you don’t have to make them for them”

‘Superiority is the single best way to erode a human relation’

Kim Scott, Sr Manager (at Apple or Google can’t remember)

Environmentalism

• Omnivores Dilemma

Related

• Let My People Go Surfing: Lessons from a Reluctant Business Man – Written by Yvon Chouinard, the man who just wanted to surf and climb but started Patagonia, a company to help people surf and climb.

Travel the World

• Vagabond Ralph Potts – Whether planning solo trip, backpacking, or moving to another country, this book helped give me courage to buy my one way ticket to Europe. It helped me to experience more of my experience and fully envelop myself in my travels. Ralph Potts shares his personal vagabonding journey in a manner that can easily be applied to daily life, citing story after story of juicy richness noting how we can use travel to enrich even our daily lives.
• Alchemist

Related

• Never Split the Difference – People are the most transformative part of travel in my opinion. The ability to deepen connections with people has far and away been the most influential part of my travels to the 12+ countries I’ve visited or lived in.

Classics

“Wouldn’t have read if wasn’t forced in school, but bc I was, turned out useful”

• 1984 –
• Fahrenheit 451
• Lord of the Flies
• The Jungle
  
• Undaunted Courage – Do not give to a 7th grader. I assume it is good, but holy fuck so far removed from shit that is useful to us.
• Guns Germs Steel – So fucking dense not even remotely useful. Perhaps I just was not interested in this book, but it was 0% relavent to my life at the time so I retained very little of the book. Maybe other kids found interesting, I could not keep my eyes or ears open for more than 120 seconds of this book at a time. If a book stops being useful, stop reading it.
  
• Animal Farm
• Catch 22
  
• Count of Monte Cristo
• How to Kill a Mockingbird

Innovation

• How to Fly a Horse by Kevin Ashton – Although I have not gotten around to reading this book personally, a man by the name of Dr. Evil, after having got his PhD in aerospace engineering is substantially involved in the innovation and has personally told me this is the book on innovation that people come back to him saying it was riveting. I’m excited to read, currently wrestling The Silo Effect at the time of this writing. “If you asked people then what they wanted they would have told you faster horses”
• The Silo Effect – Will report back when I finish.
• Innovation Code – Each of us has defaults in the ways we think… and they’re very different from others. By understanding how we think we can also be wary of our blindspots, finding the correct people in a team to help us cover them. As an introverted-idea guy, I very much thrive when working with more social people who execute. Have had several examples of this and it makes work soo much more fun. Meaghanne. Seth. Hayes. Shane.
• Range – Recommended by Air Force’s Osan Spark Cell, this book was highly recommended to me by 2 people I admire, discussing how often times the most creative ideas come not from specialists that have spent 25 years mastering their craft, but rather from those that have sufficient knowledge of many different fields. Nothing was new about the car – It mixed carriages with the internal combustion engine. Nothing was new about GPS – It mixxed satellite tech, radio signals, and mapping software. Nothing was new about the iPhone – It mixed the cameras, internet and phones. This book describes how oftentimes innovation isn’t as crazy as it might seem – It’s taking specialized information from lots of different fields and meshing them (thanks Sages and Artists)
• Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries – As an Artist, this one seriously piques my interest. I love a good Loonshot. I haven’t yet read but heard very good things from the guy who hired me into the innovation space. Capt Bord

Business

1. Crush It by Gary Vee
2. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
3. Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

Related

1. How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey Fox
2. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon (and rest of the series)
3. Real Artists Don’t Steal by Jeff Goins
4. Skin in the Game rec by Naval Ravikant

Side Hustle/Solopreneur

1. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon, 2014 – Perhaps the shortest, easiest, most encouraging book for combining passions and creative arts into daily life. This book was the push that got me to start my first podcast, newsletter, blog, and this very website. Without, it all might just be an idea. His whole 3-part series is wonderful. Thanks Ali Abdaal for the rec.
2. 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, 2007 – Gives a good mental reframe. Forward thinking. Tim points out the whole point of his book is to make himself obsolete, which I appreciate. The point of it isn’t to sell copies, but to inspire others to create fulfilling lives they’re proud of. Do, Have, Be came from this book.
3. Crush It by Gary Vee
   • Practical points to implement. Gary’s energy you either love it or hate it. His passion and experience makes it hard to believe every crazy word he speaks. There are ways out.

Related

• Let My People Go Surfing: The Lessons of a Reluctant Business Man – Straddles the line between business, purpose of life, and genuinely enjoying the days. “If I was going to build a company, my employees were going to come to work on the balls of their feet and up the stairs 2 at a time”. Heavily discusses the environmental effects our actions take but also the building of a business with what Yvon saw as ethical and moral business practices – Patagonia. I became a full supporter of Patagonia upon reading this.
• StoryBranding – Importance of a story in a brand, that includes personal brand as well

Note: I cannot stress this enough – Study people you’re interested in. That’s the best way to create a custom life. You’ll slowly pull useful tidbits from people you’re inspired by and subtly craft your own dream version of reality.

Miscellaneous Self Help

People dog on self-help. The words might not be Marcus Aurelius or Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela, but the palatability of these books can make them easily digestible. The more you read the more the same concepts are hounded hone… that doesn’t make them any less useful in the short term.

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey 1989 – Haven’t personally read becuase, you know, I’m already effective… jk, studying any wildly influential people will be beneficial – If we can learn the habits and understand the day-to-days of people we aspire to be… well, the sooner we start those habits, the sooner we’ll get there.
• How to Win Friends and Influence by Dale Carnegie 1936 – Good stuff, studies influential people
• 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
• Essentialism
• Think and Grow Rich
• 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
• Mental Maps by Jordan Peterson

Related

• 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – friggin awesome read for those of us in the workplace grinder

Psychology

(Understand Human Minds)

• Thinking Fast and Slow
• Freakanomics – Genuinely fun read if into weird psych situations. Fascinating examples of how the human mind works. Biases. Persuasions. Rationalizations. Cool statistics ie the best doctors might, counterintuitively, have the highest death rates (because they have the hardest patients) “They set out to explore the inner workings of a crack gang, the truth about real estate agents, the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, and much more.” Humans are slightly more likely to marry people with names that sound similar (John and Joan). Nominative determinism – 2002 by psychologists Brett Pelham, Matthew Mirenberg, and John Jones: For example, they found more dentists named “Dennis” or “Denise” than would be expected by chance.
• 6 Weapons of Influence
• 48 Laws of Power

Related

• Never Split the Difference – Not only did this book entirely rework the way I communicate with people but it has also been the single greatest tool to understanding how and why people act the way they do – Understand how they think first
• Crucial Conversations – “Not a book on negotiations… but it’s a book on negotiations”
• Outliers
• Debt: The First 5000 Years?

Want: Female Orgasm

• She Comes First – The taboo nature of this topic makes it difficult to talk about and next thing you know you’ve got a bunch of clueless overgrown 8th graders talking about girls having no idea how to please them. Blind leading the blind out here. I used to have a fair amount of anxiety around this topic… turns out there’s a book for this shit. (This Reddit thread and this X porno also helped)

Want: Less Messy

• The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo – Marie is a Japanese professional organizer and consultant (Japan, so I already knew it’d be good). I got about 20 pages in and had to put the book down because I knew I was not yet in a state of mind prepared to totally revamp how I organize and thing about things in my space. I didn’t want to half ass reading this book, so I fully intend to pick it up again when I’m ready for a full mindset shift (uh-oh spring cleaning). No. 1 tip – Everything needs a place to live.

Want: Less Things

• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse – Minimalism/Spirituality Had someone recommend this book to me as “life changing”. A spiritual journey through ancient India of a man who renounces all physical possessions

Related to Minimalism

• Let My People Go Surfing: The Lessons of a Reluctant Business Man – Business/Love Life: A blend of business and enjoying the f**k out life. The non-fiction recount of Yvon Chouinard, the man behind Patagonia tells his story: “We’d come to work on the balls of our feet, 2 stairs at a time”. It gives me similar Point Break vibes. Just a guy who wanted to surf, climb, and suck the marrow out of life, and surprisingly helped me have more focus on ethics and environment
• The Man Who Quit Money – recommended by Tim Ferriss, on my list, have yet to read

Want: Less People-Pleasing

• Courage to Be Disliked by Fumitake Koga – Relationship with Self/Others – Simultaneously solved problem of poor relationships with my parents – or helped with it. The past is the past and we can’t control it. But the present is our very own decisions. Our parents did their oh very best with what they had… what they knew. At the time, sometimes that felt like not enough. But the present is our own choice and we can either hold resentment or let it go. An old girlfriend recommended to me this book and the Courage to Be Happy and found a tremendous amount of benefit from it – Deviating from what people expect from you. Excellent Sheep does a decent job of explaning how that came to be and the origins of the gold-star-school system… this book does a good job of walking you out of it.

Want: Less Phone Time

• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport – 30 day hiatus. Defining the benefit of tools. What value DO they bring? How can we get this same benefit without sucking up our souls. I was gifted this on Christmas by some I very much care about and it sat on my shelf for a year… so glad I read it. I still get sucked in to the Instagram rabbit holes, but this book totally transformed how I see social media now. I view it much more as a tool rather than the attention-siphoning dollar-sucker that CEOs wish it so very much to be

Related

1. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett – Super quick and easy read, with good bit of value. Written in 1907, this book predates modern day day… by a lot. Despite that, it grapples with many of the issues that we blame on our phones. Everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day. It just depends what we do with them. Before tech people were sitting around wondering ‘what the hell do I do with myself’. This book has got options.

Want: Be Creative

• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon – Essentially a picture book and completely transformed my relationship with my work and other people. I became much less scared to put it in front of others. Hence…this website

Top of Graduating Class (Rule-Followers)

• Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz – Historical/Relationship with Self – From a more historical standpoint, how Ivy Leagues originated, how we’re funneled through school and taught to conform. It subtly poses the question: Is this really what you want? It pulled back the veil that helped me see I’d been chasing gold stars all through school and not thinking about my own life… I was doing what we were taught to do, and I did it damn well. Little did I know I was walking through life with Blinders and like a good little Excellent Sheep

Related

• Courage to Be Happy – Relationship with Self/Relations w Others – A similar vibe, but a more self help oriented. Does a deeper dive into relationships with self and others

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

Niche,
Lotta effort, or
Useful to others but concepts I got thru other means

• Getting Past No by William Ury
• 5 Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware
• Ikigai by – Not the one-stop-shop to solving all your problems but a short, useful read on fulfilling life. The Japanese just seem to have it figured out, man. (Plus they have the highest average life expectancy in the world)
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand – The story of a former Olympic Runner turned WW2 POW Louis Zamperini – I don’t know that my eyes were more opened to the world from many other books. Almost made the first list but Can’t Hurt Me takes the cake.
• Meditations – “One stop shop stoicism” rec by Chris Williamson and CMSgt Ellis
• Beginning of Infinity – Naval huuuuge rec, Using mathematics to describe understanding
• Fabric of Reality
• Flatland by Edwin Abbott – jake hanns rec perseptive w math short 80pg ei Beginning of Infinity
• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon –
• Atomic Habits by James Clear – The more I learn, dream, do, and experience, the more I internalize that life is all compounding interest. Money. Skills. Courage. Relationships. It’s all about the day by days. Success, in any realm, never happens overnight. The best people in the world got there over years of toil. The joys of life seem to come from the Pursuit Of. What are the habits that bring us joy, what’s a Perfect Day look like, and how do we set up our lives to get those over and over? And how do we get there? Habits. “The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint, the greats were great because they paint a lot”.
• Circadian Code – I reccomend this in part because of how passionate I am about sleep but also because of how god damn important it is yet we don’t take it seriously. My buddy told me this book put the fear of god in him and he’s never getting a bad nights sleep again.
• The Bible – Despite not being overly religious, there have been 0 books that have sold more copies. If I were trying to create a Universal education for all of mankind and I was God… I would have written the Bible too. Haven’t personally read but I hear it’s good shit. “Most widely sold book ever”
• Getting Past No – Originally rec’d by Tim Ferriss, this short audiobook (2 hours) was a beautiful follow-on and short refresher (similar principles) to Never Split the Difference. I hold that one as gospel, but this one helped me during a stressful time when I was pitching a lot. It helped me with arguments in my romantic relationships. I have since been complemented on my “ability to stay calm” and “negotiation skills”… not perfect but much better than I was, gotta pick your battles I guess.
• Your Idols’ Biographies. Walter Isaacson phenomenal
  • Green Lights – It’s always a pleasure to read an entertaining book that’s useful. The audiobook is read by Mcconaughey as he tells story after story of his personal and professional life how he became to be him. Some great nuggets, straddling the line between stories and useful info.
  • Brain Droppings by George Carlin
  • Let My People Go Surfing: Lessons by a Reluctant Business Man by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia
  • Steve Jobs
  • Malcom X by Malcom X – Fun, easy read of Malcom X journey. Damn near a thriller

EVEN OTHER RECS

Widely read self help or
Recommended to me and haven’t read yet or
Useful and reiterated previously understood concepts – still good

• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Happiness Hypothesis
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Digital Minimalism
• Sapiens
• 1984 – Easily number 1. One of the few books I was mandated to read that I couldn’t wait to. Incredible story, depiction, and food for thought.
• Brave New World
• Kiss or Kill
• Unbroken
• Crucial Conversations – Conversations are the core of human existence. Reccommended to me by a goofy, charismatic, fiery 40 yr old dude who’s “just an angry kid from New York ready to beat someone’s ass”