"In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero." ā Charles Munger, Warren Buffet's right hand man
| Name | Amazon Link | Genre | Difficulty | Why read it? | Start here |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oh, The Places You'll Go! | Short StoryFiction | Dock ReadKids | Classic. Has some great wisdom in it that is applicable to any age | ||
Principles for Success | Short Story | KidsDock Read | This is the kids' version of popular book called "Principles". I found Principles boring so this is like the summarized version of Principles. Very good concepts. | Yes | |
Unscripted | Business | MediumHard | You'll like this one if you like challenging "societal norms" even if they aren't right. He can come across as a douche but it's a great read. I could have read this instead of going to business school and learned most of business by just reading this. | Yes | |
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success | Psychology | Medium | One of my all time favourite reads. Not sure if it's still good or if it was just timely when I read it (in uni). Talks about how there are 3 types of people: givers, takes, and matchers. Most people are matchers ā> quid pro quo. But most successful people are actually givers. | ||
Zero to One | Business | Hard | Written by guy who founded Paypal and was first investor in Facebook. Might be a bit over your head (it was for me the first few times I read it). | ||
Designing Your Life | Defining success for yourself | ActivitiesEasy | My most recommended book, along with Springboard. | Yes | |
Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success | Defining success for yourself | ActivitiesMedium | My most recommended book, along with Designing Your Life. | Yes | |
The Wright Brothers | Biography | Dock Read | Easy read. Very cool guys and cool to learn about what they did, how hard they worked. | ||
Sapiens | How we got to now | MediumDock Read | Such a cool read if you're into understanding where we (as humans) have been. Especially interesting if you're into psychology and sociology. | ||
So Good They Can't Ignore You | Defining success for yourself | Medium | Contrary opinion on how to think about your career. We are told "follow your passion" but the author thinks that's BS and instead you should focus on what you're good at doing, make money doing that, and then use that money to spend time enjoying whatever it is you want to do. | ||
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products | Psychology | Dock Read | Talks about how apps are designed to get us "hooked" and we become addicted to them. Very easy read and very informative. | ||
This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life | Living a good lifeShort Story | Dock ReadEasy | I read this / listen to this once a year to ground myself. | ||
Chop Wood, Carry Water | Short StoryFiction | Dock ReadKidsEasy | Short story. Easy read. About falling in love with the process, which inevitably get you to the results you want. | Yes | |
Smarter, Faster, Better | BusinessPersonal Development | Medium | Talks about some cool little things you can do in your life and how you can change them to have a better life. Decently easily read and informative. | ||
The Score Takes Care of Itself | Biography | Medium | Autobiography of Bill Walsh, coach of 49ers when they won all their Super Bowls with Montana and that other QB. All about focusing on "the process" and then "the score will take care of itself". | ||
11 Rings | Biography | Easy | Phil Jackson's book ā the guy who coached MJ in Chicago and Kobe in LA. He has cool, unique philosophy too on sports and life. I think you'd find it refereshing. | ||
The (Illustrated) Happiness Trap | Defining success for yourself | EasyActivities | Challenges the "assumption" that the point of life is to be happy. Sort of like Springboard + Designing Your Life. | ||
The Art of Thinking Cleary | Psychology | Medium | Talks about all the psychological biases we fall for in a very easy to understand manner. It's important to know these so that you don't fool yourself + so that you can use them to influence other people. | ||
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World | How we got to now | Dock ReadEasy | Talks about how 6 random inventions have lead us to where we are today. Great camp/cottage book. | ||
Good to Great | Business | Dock ReadEasy | Easy business book. I like a lot of the concepts from it and find them useful to thinking about business but also life. | Yes | |
I Will Teach You To Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. No B.S. Just a 6-Week Program that Works | Personal Finance | EasyMedium | Very easy and funny way to learn about managing your money. He cracks a lot of jokes and it's kind of a page turner even for a stupid personal finance book. Don't just default to "professionals" who know how to manage your money. | ||
When Breath Becomes Air | Living a good life | Dock Read | Doctor finally becomes a surgeon and then gets cancer and dies. He's writing this book while he's dying. Makes you reflect on what's important in life. | ||
Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable | Biography | Easy | MJ, Kobe, and Dwayne Wade's personal trainer. Not just physical but also mental. | ||
The Last Lecture | Living a good life | Dock Read | Professor who is dying of cancer in mid 40s does lecture. Makes you reflect on what's important in life. I put the video of the lecture (which is arguably better than the book) within this page. | ||
How To Fight A Hydra | Short StoryFiction | Dock Read | Easy short story. About fighting a monster. | ||
Why We Sleep | Personal DevelopmentHealth | EasyDock ReadMedium | Sort of like Supple Leopard but super easy read and much smaller AND it's about sleep | ||
An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth | Biography | Dock Read | Never read this but you like space lol I heard it's good | ||
How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big | BiographyPsychology | Medium | Author/cartoonist who does Dilbert cartoon. He's a really cool guy. This book focuses a lot on why process is better than goals. And he talks about psychological biases we have. Just a good read. | ||
It's Not About You | Living a good life | Dock Read | Very short book ā you could read it in an hour, probably best book I read of 2020 (which is saying something). Point of book: it's not about you, constantly ask yourself, "How am I contributing to others?" | ||
Personal MBA | Business | Medium | Book that talks about all the concepts I learned in business school at a high level and only costs $25 bucks vs. the $100k I spent for Queen's š | ||
Letters of Note | BiographyHow we got to nowLiving a good life | Dock Read | Perfect "beside the toilet" read. It's a repository of random, cool letters that people have sent to each other in history. Definitely read Hunter Thompson's "Finding Your Purpose in Life". | ||
Great Mental Models 1 | Mental Models | Hard | You need to understand the mental models that are behind all of the things in the world. Things like Pareto Distribution, Normal Distribution, Circle of Competence, etc. (I have copies of this book if you can't get it) | ||
Great Mental Models 2 | Mental Models | Hard | Retweet Great Mental Models 1 (I have copies of this book if you can't get it) | ||
Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models | Mental Models | Hard | A simplified version of Great Mental Models series | ||
30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans | Living a good life | Medium | Learn from people who've already experienced life. They are more similar to us than you think. They have lots of wisdom to share. | ||
A Guide to the Goodlife | Philosophy | Hard | Stoic philosophy. There were lots of things you mentioned in our chat that aligned with this philosophy ā things like "loving fate", "dichotomy of control", etc. | ||
The Crazy Game: How I survived in the crease and beyond | Biography | Dock Read | Haven't read this one but a friend said it was really good read. About Clint Malarchuk ā> former NHL goalie. He had depression, OCD, tried to commit suicide. | ||
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster | Biography | EasyDock Read | Talks about a reporter who goes to climb Mt. Everest and it turns out to be the deadliest season of Mt. Everest ever. | ||
Aubrey Marcus (Blog) | Cool blog I started following | ||||
Into The Wild | Living a good lifeDefining success for yourselfBiography | EasyMedium | Never read the book but I really like the movie. | ||
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck | Living a good lifePersonal DevelopmentDefining success for yourself | Dock ReadEasyMedium | First time I read this, I thought this book was garbage. But then, like 6 months later, I tried it again and I really liked it. And I started following this guys blog and I really like it! | ||
Wait But Why (Blog) | Cool blog. I highlighted a few posts for you to check out. | ||||
Tuesdays with Morrie | Living a good life | Dock ReadEasy | Great book that reflects on what is really important in life. | ||
Let my people go surfing | BusinessBiography | Medium | Never read this one but have read a lot and watched documentaries on Yvon (the founder) of Patagonia. Cool guy. Has a different philosophy on business. | ||
She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman | Personal Development | Medium | Instead of being pussy whipped, you make your girl "tongue whipped" lol my philosophy is is that if you can make it good for them, then they will want to give out more so it will benefit you in the long run to get good at going down on girls. | ||
The Martian | Fiction | Easy | Never read this one but you love space lol I've watched the movie and it was good. It was a NY Times best seller as a book so I'm sure it's good | ||
Atomic Habits | Psychology | Easy | Similar to Hooked. Talks about how to get good habits and get rid of bad habits. Super easy read and very, very informative. | ||
Boundless | Personal DevelopmentHealth | Red Lights and Photobiomodulation. Mic drop. lol
I haven't read this one. But I heard the guys kind of a douche lol anyways, I'd take what he says with a grain of salt, find shit to try and then try it. |