Thinking, breathing, and attaining financial success
There are good books and there are bad books.
Multiple typos, many grammatical mistakes, annoying sentence structures, and low-quality research are the hallmarks of ‘bad’ books.
Fear not! Because we are bringing you a collection of good books only. Once you go through the overviews, you are bound to choose a few for this winter.
Curled up in a blanket, perhaps with a cup of hot cocoa, you will relish what these books offer.
Let’s go!
A look in the command center of our body.
This book brings us face to face with the biases and lapses that exist in our brains.
You might think, oh I am so logical. I don’t let emotions rule me.
Whether you like it or not, your brain is affected by many things. Many of those are outside your realm of control. But they shape your decisions and actions.
“If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do.”
This is exactly what Kahneman discusses in this book. He acquaints us with the two systems in our brains. One of them is impulsive. The other one is rational. With the mix of these two, we navigate this world.
Similarly, we have two selves as well. The experiencing self and the remembering self. Our experiencing self experiences everything. Meanwhile, we don’t remember the whole experience.
What we experience and what our memories of it are two different things.
“Familiarity breeds liking.”
This book will teach you about the limits of your brain.
Stop breathing wrong!
I have been sick for a few days. The usual nose and throat stuff. And honestly, I can’t stop thinking about this book as I take shallow and quick breaths through my mouth.
“…our capacity to breathe has changed through the long processes of human evolution, and that the way we breathe has gotten markedly worse since the dawn of the Industrial Age.”
James Nestor warns us, clearly and repeatedly about the dangers of mouth breathing.
He explains that due to the human shift to processed foods, we have increasingly started to breathe from our mouths.
The result?
Less than optimal absorption of oxygen in the lungs, sleep apnea, snoring, and a multitude of other health issues.
“I call this a ‘lost art’ because so many of these new discoveries aren’t new at all.”
The author motivates us to practice breathing exercises, which honestly reminds me of my yoga class. Guess I am well on my way to relearn the ‘lost art’.
A new look at common observations.
The authors apply economic theory to a vast variety of areas and bring us fascinating results.
Every action is governed by incentives, which are either economic, social, or moral.
In the first chapter, they examine cheating and the various motives behind it. For Example, sumo wrestlers, known to be highly moral, would lose to a friend if the friend is in danger of being demoted.
“Experts — economists, educators, parenting gurus — often fall prey to a temptation to provide simple, easy answers to complicated questions.”
Throughout the book, the authors share many mind-blowing facts which are sure to knock your socks off. Some of them are… well, controversial.
Chapter 5 examines the effect of parenting on children’s success. The book tells us that many things that we think matter, don’t. The education of parents and their socioeconomic status matters the most.
In short, who you are, will shape how your kids turn out.
“If you are smart, hardworking, well educated, well paid, and married to someone equally as fortunate, then your children are more likely to succeed.”
This book is an amazing one, to say the least. Even if you don’t agree with the authors on everything, you are sure to come away with a lot of knowledge.
You have been fooled by the news.
This book gives us a list of 13 multiple-choice questions. They focus on things such as literacy and poverty.
The author tells us that this list of questions is not answered correctly by everyone. Even the most educated.
“Every group of people I ask thinks the world is more frightening, more violent, and more hopeless — in short, more dramatic — than it really is.”
Why?
Because our view of the world is skewed by what we see on the news and social media.
The author tells us about 10 instincts that distort our view of reality. Hence, in our mind everything is exaggerated.
“Forming your worldview by relying on the media would be like forming your view about me by looking only at a picture of my foot.”
Learning about these instincts can help us be wary of our preconceived notions and emotions affecting our view of the facts.
This book is a hopeful one. While the world might not be getting better in every aspect every year, it is definitely improving bit by bit. And the data confirms this.
Where did we come from?
Six different species of humans used to share the earth. We are the survivors.
Harari traces the various revolutions mankind went through, the ups and downs, the rise and fall of empires, the discoveries, and more.
“How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.”
The fascinating concept of all that the author gives us is ‘myths’. He tells us that humans are the only ones that collaborate in large groups. That is because their imagination allows them to believe in collective yet intangible ideas.
The author calls out the naive view that at some point in history, we lived in harmony with nature. Man has always been the killer.
“Don’t believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature.”
This book provides a good and concise look at human history. If you are a history buff or like to learn more in general, you’ll like it.
Advice from a seasoned entrepreneur.
Naval Ravikant is an American entrepreneur and investor. This almanac is a collection of his ideas.
Imagine being so good at what you do, that people compile your sayings and advice. I wouldn’t fool myself by thinking it could be me someday.
“Making money is not a thing you do — it’s a skill you learn.”
Anyways, back to the book.
Ravikant teaches us not to view money as evil. In fact, money can give you more freedom. It will allow you to help others and spend time with loved ones, he says.
“You’re never going to get rich renting out your time.”
Ravikant also teaches us to use compounding interest in order to build wealth.
Compounding doesn’t only apply to money, he says. This also applies to social relationships. When you grow your network and cultivate goodwill, those people connect you to more people.
“No one can compete with you on being you. Most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most.”
This book will teach you a lot about life and financial freedom. If that is something you are interested in, be sure to get your hands on it.
You might never lie after reading this book.
Lying is bad. We all know that.
But any lie that we might tell, we have a myriad of reasons to justify it. ‘I didn’t want to hurt him (or her).’ ‘I’ll lose respect if I let the truth out.’ etc.
“There are many reasons to believe that lying is precisely the sort of behavior we need to outgrow in order to build a better world.”
Harris’s book will flip your view 180 degrees. Through examples and reason, he shows us how detrimental lying is. Even the small white lies.
He gives us examples of people who kept their deadly illnesses from their families. Or those who lie just so their friends don’t feel bad.
“Most of us are now painfully aware that our trust in government, corporations, and other public institutions has been undermined by lies.”
The liar always has to do ‘mental accounting’. He or she has to keep track of what was said to whom.
All this can be avoided by one simple thing. Telling the truth.
“One of the greatest problems for the liar is that he must keep track of his lies.”
The author makes us realize that in order to have an honest relationship with our loved ones we need to get rid of lying once and for all.
Hate has no place in the world.
Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist.
In this much-needed book, he explores why morality differs across cultures and ideologies.
Intuition comes first. Rationality comes later. In short, we determine our beliefs first and find arguments to support them later on.
“You can’t make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can’t change people’s minds by utterly refuting their arguments.”
Religion and politics sort us into groups because humans have a ‘tribal, groupish, righteous nature.’
The book invites us to expand our view on morality by understanding those who are different from others.
“Understanding the simple fact that morality differs around the world, and even within societies, is the first step toward understanding your righteous mind.”
Haidt also shares his Moral Foundations theory, according to which morality has six different foundations.
Care/Harm
Fairness/Cheating
Loyalty/Betrayal
Authority/Subversion
Sanctity/Degradation
Liberty/Oppression
Different groups focus on different foundations hence disagreements arise.
The author also attempts to bridge the divides between liberals and conservatives using this theory.
Death through the eyes of a mortician.
Caitlin Doughty is a mortician.
Through her memoir, she invites us to shed our negative view of death. She calls the silence of death a ‘reward for a life well lived.’ Death motivates us to live our lives and do creative things, she says.
“Even if you’ve been programmed to fear death, that particular pathway isn’t set in stone.”
Doughty shares a lot of observations from her career. The bodies she cared for and her own reflections. Some bodies have no mourners. Some are infants.
“We do not (and will not) have the resources to properly care for our increasing elderly population, yet we insist on medical intervention to keep them alive.”
The author also shares different cultural practices from around the world regarding funerals and death.
This book will bring you face-to-face with death, but it will do so in a positive way.
There is an ongoing mass extinction, courtesy of Homo Sapiens.
Kolbert wants us to act now. She lays out how our actions are disrupting life on this planet.
She shares the past events of extinction that happened on Earth. The ongoing one is caused by humans, the sixth extinction.
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.”
Even the species that might seem insignificant to us, play an important role in sustaining the biosphere of this earth.
The author has interviewed many scientific experts to bring us the facts. Through them, she draws our attention to climate change and the crisis that is unfolding right beneath our noses.
“The sixth extinction is a profound reminder that we are not separate from nature, but deeply entwined with it.”
The book also discusses various conservation projects and the success they have achieved.
The actions outlined in this book should have been taken yesterday.
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