Books & Ideas
Reading notes, philosophy and reflections on living and thinking well.
The Watercourse Way: Alan Watts' "The Way of Zen"
Alan Watts' The Way of Zen: Zen's roots in Buddhism and Taoism, direct experience beyond concepts, koans and the watercourse way.
Grace and Justice: Redemption in Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables"
Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is one of the great sprawling epics of world literature, a novel of enormous scope and even greater heart.
Passion and Perseverance: Angela Duckworth on Grit
Angela Duckworth on grit: why passion and perseverance predict success better than talent, why effort counts twice and how grit can grow.
How One Becomes What One Is: Nietzsche's "Ecce Homo"
Ecce Homo was the last book Friedrich Nietzsche wrote before his final mental collapse, and it is one of the strangest autobiographies ever penned.
Washing the Dishes to Wash the Dishes: Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Miracle of Mindfulness"
Thich Nhat Hanh's The Miracle of Mindfulness: wash the dishes to wash the dishes, breathing as an anchor and mindfulness in ordinary life.
Tilting at Windmills: Idealism and Madness in Cervantes' "Don Quixote"
Cervantes' Don Quixote: idealism and madness, Quixote and Sancho as dreamer and realist, tilting at windmills and the first modern novel.
Explaining the World to Yourself: Seligman's "Learned Optimism"
Martin Seligman is one of the founders of what became "positive psychology," and Learned Optimism is the book where his shift began.
Strange Loops and the Mystery of Mind: Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach"
Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach explained: strange loops, Gödel's incompleteness, self-reference in art and music and how the mind emerges.
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Lifeline for Professional and Personal Growth
Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: web usability principles that shaped my professional work and personal habits of continuous improvement.
The Story Behind Success: Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers"
Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: the hidden advantages behind success, timing and culture, the 10,000-hour rule and how far to trust it.
Three Generations on an Egyptian Street: Mahfouz's "Cairo Trilogy"
Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy: three generations of one Cairo family, the contradictory patriarch, tradition versus modernity and history lived at home.
The Power of the Introvert: Susan Cain's "Quiet"
Susan Cain's Quiet: the Extrovert Ideal, introversion as temperament rather than flaw and the real strengths quiet people bring.
Why History Unfolded Unequally: Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: why geography, not race, shaped which societies conquered others, and how to read its big picture critically.
The Loop That Runs Your Life: Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit"
Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit: the cue-routine-reward loop, how to change a habit by swapping the routine and the power of keystone habits.
Teaching the Mind to Dance: Kazantzakis' "Zorba the Greek"
Nikos Kazantzakis's Zorba the Greek is a novel about the collision of two ways of being.
Why Violence Has Declined: Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature"
Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: why violence has declined over history, the forces of peace and how to read the thesis critically.
The Strange Worlds of the Brain: Oliver Sacks' Clinical Tales
Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: clinical tales of how the brain builds reality and why patients are people, not deficits.
The Devil Comes to Moscow: Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita"
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: the Devil in Soviet Moscow, satire under Stalin, "manuscripts don't burn" and redemption through love.
Fixed vs. Growth: Carol Dweck's "Mindset" and the Power of Yet
Carol Dweck's Mindset is built around a deceptively simple idea that turns out to have enormous consequences.
A Map of the Mind's Long Journey: Russell's "A History of Western Philosophy"
Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy: a witty, opinionated tour from the Greeks to the 20th century, and why it is still worth reading.
The Psychology of Yes: Robert Cialdini's "Influence"
Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is the classic study of how, and why, we say yes.
A Man Can Be Destroyed But Not Defeated: Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea"
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is short enough to read in a single sitting, and large enough to carry for a lifetime.
The Stories That Built Us: Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens"
Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: shared fictions, the cognitive and agricultural revolutions and whether progress has made us happier.
The Possessed and the Possibility of Meaning: Dostoevsky’s Warning to the Modern World
Lessons from Dostoevsky's The Possessed (Demons): ideology without morality, the crisis of meaning without faith and why true change begins within.