Summaries, Notes
& Reviews

In an attempt to retain more information books, articles and podcasts, I recently started taking notes on most of the things I read and listen to. After seeing how Derek Sivers publishes his notes, I decided to do the same. You can use them to brush up on something you've read or to find something new to read.

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

A look into the mind of one of history's most powerful people. Filled with knowledge on how to interact with others, being a good person and dealing with life in general.

Letters From a Stoic

Seneca

The book is profoundly insightful, it calls you to action, and it has that 'quit your whining—this is life' attitude that so defines the Roman Stoics.

Antifragile

Nassim Taleb

This book is about the "opposite of fragile", things that benefit from stress, disorder and volatility. Important concepts, unusual ideas and wise advice presented in an entertaining way.

12 Rules for Life

Jordan Peterson

Peterson draws on psychology, history, philosophy and religion to craft an exploration into the essence of what it means to be human.

Finite and Infinite Games

James Carse

Once you've grasped the core concept of this book—the distinction between finite and infinite games—it's almost impossible to put it out of your mind.

Sapiens

Yuval Noah Harari

A mix of psychology, philosophy and economics rolled into a compelling history of humankind.

Discourses and Selected Writings

Epictetus

Epictetus's stoicism in a nutshell: when you try to control the incontrollable, you will only face disappointment, anger, sadness, anxiety, fear and suffering. Super easy to digest and packed with useful aphorisms and quotes.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Richard Feynman

Feynman tells a series of autobiographical stories which give an honest view into his philosophy and take on life. Be curious about everything. Experiment often. Focus on the real world, not on theory.

Stand Out of Our Light

James Williams

"There's a deep misalignment between the goals we have for ourselves, and the goals out technologies have for us". Williams argues that the liberation of human attention may be the defining moral and political struggle of our time.

How the Mind Works

Steven Pinker

Pinker weaves together a picture of the human psyche drawing from two big ideas in psychology: the computational theory of mind and the theory of natural selection. This topic is undoubtedly very complex, and if anything, this book shows just how much we don't know yet.

Influence

Robert Cialdini

The author went undercover to learn about 'compliance practitioners’ (salesmen, con artists, advertisers and fund-raisers). He distilled the tactics into a handful of “weapons of influence”.

Anything You Want

Derek Sivers

A useful book filled with philosophies on life and business.

Entrepreneurship

Man's Search For Meaning

Viktor Frankl

A moving account of Frankl's time in Nazi concentration camps. He explains how these experiences led him to develop the theory of logotherapy, the belief that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find meaning in life.

Lying

Sam Harris

A compelling case to never lie again. An interesting thought from the book: to tell a white lie is to infringe upon the freedom of those we care about.

The War of Art

Steven Pressfield

The definitive guide to overcoming procrastination. Key takeaways: become comfortable with patience, start leaning into anxiety and get good at being miserable. Also, the more you fear something, the more you can be sure you have to do it.

Thinking Fast & Slow

Daniel Khaneman

A book that will change the way you think... about how you think. Key takeaway: humans are deeply irrational and often make judgements based on poor intuition.

Mastery

Robert Greene

This book is a comprehensive guide to identifying your life's task and mastering the skills required to complete it.

Principles

Ray Dalio

An incredibly useful book on how to make better decisions, set more precise goals, and solve problems more effectively. These are my notes just from part 2, "Life Principles".

The Elements of Style

William Strunk

The gold standard for proper grammar and punctuation. Favourite rule: "Omit needless words."

The Design of Everyday Things

Don Norman

A must-read for anyone who's involved in the process of making things. It will have you questioning the design of just about every man-made object you come across.

Universal Principles of Design

William Lidwell

A great resource for designers of every kind. It's filled with concepts of psychology, architecture, human factors and interaction design.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Neil Postman

Whether it's the news, TV or social media, we all suffer from some form of information addiction. Postman argues that entertainment's place in society has reached a point where our addiction to it is undermining our independence. It's spooky how relevant his observations are today, given that they were made in a pre-internet era.

The Denial of Death

Ernest Becker

The premise of this book is that the most fundamental problem of humanity is our fear of death. It will give you a new perspective on what motivates people in life and why they behave in certain ways.

Emergency

Neil Strauss

A fun and entertaining story about the author's life as he finds ways to tackle his sense of vulnerability and ill-preparedness to deal with situations ranging from natural disasters to full-on apocalypse.

Don't Make Me Think

Steve Krug

A handbook on web and mobile usability that anyone with a stake in digital products will benefit from reading. The most useful part for me was the concept of usability testing presented as a lightweight, low-cost and repeatable process.

Black Swan

Nassim Taleb

A book that will change the way you think about sudden, unexpected events. Taleb explains that we're bad at predicting the future and that we overestimate what we know. He provides a useful model for maximising potential upside while reducing downside.

Homo Deus

Yuval Noah Harari

A thought-provoking look at how the current trends in science and technology may progress. It traces the origins of our present-day conditioning to loosen its grip and enable us to think in far more imaginative ways about our future.

Evil by Design

Chris Nodder

A collection of design patterns that aim to exploit human frailties and "make users emotionally involved in doing something that benefits the designer more than them." Each chapter deals with one of the Seven Deadly Sins (Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, and so on).

The Coddling of the American Mind

Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff

The authors posit that Generation Z (people born in the mid-1990s to early 2010s) have been raised to believe that their feelings are always right, they should avoid pain and discomfort, and they should look for faults in others and not themselves. Haidt and Lukianoff argue that these "untruths" are resulting in a slew of harmful effects on society.

Addiction by Design

Natasha Dow Schüll

The author goes deep on how slot machines hold gamblers, spellbound, in an endless loop of play. First published in 2012, but more relevant today than ever as we're starting to see these same stimulus-response methods spring up in the apps and websites we use every day.

The Best Interface is No Interface

Golden Krishna

This book is about our compulsion, as designers, to attempt to solve every problem with a smartphone or laptop. Krishna lays out three principles to help us move beyond today's screen-obsessed world.

What Every Body is Saying

Joe Navarro

Former FBI-agent shares a collection of incredibly useful tips on reading non-verbal behaviour—a means of communicating through facial expressions, gestures, touching, physical movements, posture and tone of voice. It's almost impossible to miss these non-verbal signals once you learn to recognise them.

Stillness is the Key

Ryan Holiday

Another great bite-sized philosophy book from Ryan Holiday. Stillness is choosing to pick up a book instead of your phone. It's learning to enjoy life, even when it isn't going your way. See my notes on Ego is the Enemy and The Obstacle is the Way if you like this kind of thing.

On Writing Well

William Zinsser

This book is filled with informative and insightful guidance on how to make your writing sing. An essential read for anyone who does any amount of writing.

Creative Confidence

David Kelly and Tom Kelly

A great book for anyone looking to develop their creative thinking.

Hooked

Nir Eyal

Not only did this book open my eyes to the methods used by product designers to engage and addict users, but it also proved incredibly useful in kicking my smartphone addiction.

The Art of Possibility

Rosamund Zander & Benjamin Zander

Inspiring, thought-provoking and packed with actionable life advice and feel-good stories.

Social Physics

Alex Pentland

Great book on how big data could help build a better world. Although, I feel the author brushed over the ethical implications of snooping on peoples smartphones and internet usage.

Linchpin

Seth Godin

This book is about your potential to make a difference at work. A linchpin combines deep knowledge and good judgement, makes work more personal, and collects, connects and nurtures relationships.

Entrepreneurship

The Dip

Seth Godin

If you don't have a desire to be the best at what you do, it may be time to quit.

Entrepreneurship

Nudge

Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

A good introduction to the core concepts of Behavioural Science. The book is based on the idea that it's ok to influence decision making if it makes peoples lives longer, healthier and better.

The 4-Hour Work Week

Tim Ferriss

This book teaches you how to say "no", set expectations on your own terms, and be more effective in much less time. The sections on productivity and time management alone make it worth a read.

Entrepreneurship

Scrum

Chris Sims and Hillary Johnson

A simple summary of the scrum method for managing projects and increasing productivity.

Entrepreneurship

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Cal Newport

Following your passion is bad career advice, the better approach is to master skills that people value.

Entrepreneurship

Ego is the Enemy

Ryan Holiday

A practical guide to confronting and overcoming your ego.

The Power of Habit

Charles Duhigg

An interesting and practical guide to understanding how habits work and experimenting with how they might change.

Show Your Work

Austin Kleon

A short book full of inspiring advice on how to share your work online.

Mindfulness

Mark Williams & Danny Penman

Meditation trains the mind to consciously ‘see’ your own thoughts as they occur so that you can live your life as it unfolds in the present moment.

🧘🏼‍♂️

Change by Design

Tim Brown

A strong introduction to design thinking. Brown argues that everyone can and should be a design thinker in whatever they do.

Sprint

Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky and Brad Kowitz

An all-in-one guide to test a big idea in just one week. Map out the problem, sketch out solutions, pick an idea, build a prototype and finally, test it with real live humans.

Entrepreneurship

Blitzscaling

Reid Hoffman

Hoffman goes into incredible detail on how to achieve scale in the tech business, presenting a set of techniques for driving and managing extremely rapid growth.

Entrepreneurship

Facilitating Collaboration

Brandon Klein & Dan Newman

A quick and straightforward introduction to group facilitation. It includes some interesting thoughts on the role artificial intelligence could have in collaborative workshops of the future.

Lean UX

Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seden

A short read on the use of lean methodologies to design digital products. Design only what you need, deliver it quickly and maintain enough customer contact to get meaningful feedback fast.

The Willpower Instinct

Kelly McGonigal

The author walks you through what goes on in your brain during a decision-making process and how to use that process to your advantage. A good book for improving willpower, goal setting and motivation.

Way of Zen

Alan Watts

A super easy to digest overview and history of Zen Buddhism.

🧘🏼‍♂️

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert

Gilbert's message is that we're bad at remembering how we felt in the past, and also terrible at predicting how we will feel in the future. His advice — find someone who is having the experience we are contemplating and ask them how they feel.

The Obstacle is The Way

Ryan Holiday

Every obstacle can be overcome through persistence in your efforts and resistance to distractions. Life is full of obstacles, there is no such thing as overcoming an obstacle and entering the land of no obstacles.

Extreme Ownership

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

As the leader, you're always responsible. If your team is not committed or if you don't accomplish the mission, you have to own those failures. An interesting book that's well worth the read.

Entrepreneurship

How to Take Smart Notes

Sönke Ahrens

A guide to note-taking that will help you clarify your thoughts and generate better insights about what you read. Ahrens offers a convincing argument that writing (in the form of note-taking) is synonymous with thinking and knowledge generation.

How to Lie With Statistics

Darrell Huff

A quick read that will teach you how to recognise the all-too-common sneaky use of statistics. Huff exposes the many flaws in statistics and how easy it is to manipulate findings.

Designing for Emotion

Aarron Walter

A quick read on how to design websites that users will enjoy and want to return to. The examples are pretty dated, but it's still worth a read given how short it is.

Irresistible

Adam Alter

This book is an overview of addictive behaviours, examining where they begin, who designs them, and the psychological tricks that make them so compelling. Alter offers some useful suggestions for changing your own bad habits.

Statistics Without Tears

Derek Rowntree

A pretty comprehensive guide to statistics for the non-technical reader. Rowntree focuses on the 'why' of quantitative methods so that the 'how' makes more sense.

Mindset

Carol Dweck

A powerful approach to reframe the way you think about life—everything is a learning opportunity. I don't recommend reading the whole book as it felt pretty fluffy at times.

Radical Acceptance

Tara Brach

A good, but rather flowery book on using Buddhist spirituality and mediation to deal with the emotional challenges of everyday life.

🧘🏼‍♂️

The Lean Startup

Eric Ries

After reading Reid Hoffman and Jeff Gothelf I was expecting a lot more from this one. The concepts lack detail and it's pretty dry at times. It still contains some useful ideas though.

Entrepreneurship

The Design of Everyday Things

Don Norman

A must-read for anyone who's involved in the process of making things. It will have you questioning the design of just about every man-made object you come across.

Universal Principles of Design

William Lidwell

A great resource for designers of every kind. It's filled with concepts of psychology, architecture, human factors and interaction design.

Don't Make Me Think

Steve Krug

A handbook on web and mobile usability that anyone with a stake in digital products will benefit from reading. The most useful part for me was the concept of usability testing presented as a lightweight, low-cost and repeatable process.

Evil by Design

Chris Nodder

A collection of design patterns that aim to exploit human frailties and "make users emotionally involved in doing something that benefits the designer more than them." Each chapter deals with one of the Seven Deadly Sins (Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, and so on).

Addiction by Design

Natasha Dow Schüll

The author goes deep on how slot machines hold gamblers, spellbound, in an endless loop of play. First published in 2012, but more relevant today than ever as we're starting to see these same stimulus-response methods spring up in the apps and websites we use every day.

The Best Interface is No Interface

Golden Krishna

This book is about our compulsion, as designers, to attempt to solve every problem with a smartphone or laptop. Krishna lays out three principles to help us move beyond today's screen-obsessed world.

Creative Confidence

David Kelly and Tom Kelly

A great book for anyone looking to develop their creative thinking.

Hooked

Nir Eyal

Not only did this book open my eyes to the methods used by product designers to engage and addict users, but it also proved incredibly useful in kicking my smartphone addiction.

Show Your Work

Austin Kleon

A short book full of inspiring advice on how to share your work online.

Change by Design

Tim Brown

A strong introduction to design thinking. Brown argues that everyone can and should be a design thinker in whatever they do.

Facilitating Collaboration

Brandon Klein & Dan Newman

A quick and straightforward introduction to group facilitation. It includes some interesting thoughts on the role artificial intelligence could have in collaborative workshops of the future.

Lean UX

Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seden

A short read on the use of lean methodologies to design digital products. Design only what you need, deliver it quickly and maintain enough customer contact to get meaningful feedback fast.

Designing for Emotion

Aarron Walter

A quick read on how to design websites that users will enjoy and want to return to. The examples are pretty dated, but it's still worth a read given how short it is.

Anything You Want

Derek Sivers

A useful book filled with philosophies on life and business.

Entrepreneurship

Linchpin

Seth Godin

This book is about your potential to make a difference at work. A linchpin combines deep knowledge and good judgement, makes work more personal, and collects, connects and nurtures relationships.

Entrepreneurship

The Dip

Seth Godin

If you don't have a desire to be the best at what you do, it may be time to quit.

Entrepreneurship

The 4-Hour Work Week

Tim Ferriss

This book teaches you how to say "no", set expectations on your own terms, and be more effective in much less time. The sections on productivity and time management alone make it worth a read.

Entrepreneurship

Scrum

Chris Sims and Hillary Johnson

A simple summary of the scrum method for managing projects and increasing productivity.

Entrepreneurship

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Cal Newport

Following your passion is bad career advice, the better approach is to master skills that people value.

Entrepreneurship

Sprint

Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky and Brad Kowitz

An all-in-one guide to test a big idea in just one week. Map out the problem, sketch out solutions, pick an idea, build a prototype and finally, test it with real live humans.

Entrepreneurship

Blitzscaling

Reid Hoffman

Hoffman goes into incredible detail on how to achieve scale in the tech business, presenting a set of techniques for driving and managing extremely rapid growth.

Entrepreneurship

Extreme Ownership

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

As the leader, you're always responsible. If your team is not committed or if you don't accomplish the mission, you have to own those failures. An interesting book that's well worth the read.

Entrepreneurship

The Lean Startup

Eric Ries

After reading Reid Hoffman and Jeff Gothelf I was expecting a lot more from this one. The concepts lack detail and it's pretty dry at times. It still contains some useful ideas though.

Entrepreneurship

Sapiens

Yuval Noah Harari

A mix of psychology, philosophy and economics rolled into a compelling history of humankind.

Homo Deus

Yuval Noah Harari

A thought-provoking look at how the current trends in science and technology may progress. It traces the origins of our present-day conditioning to loosen its grip and enable us to think in far more imaginative ways about our future.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Richard Feynman

Feynman tells a series of autobiographical stories which give an honest view into his philosophy and take on life. Be curious about everything. Experiment often. Focus on the real world, not on theory.

Mastery

Robert Greene

This book is a comprehensive guide to identifying your life's task and mastering the skills required to complete it.

Emergency

Neil Strauss

A fun and entertaining story about the author's life as he finds ways to tackle his sense of vulnerability and ill-preparedness to deal with situations ranging from natural disasters to full-on apocalypse.

How to Take Smart Notes

Sönke Ahrens

A guide to note-taking that will help you clarify your thoughts and generate better insights about what you read. Ahrens offers a convincing argument that writing (in the form of note-taking) is synonymous with thinking and knowledge generation.

How to Lie With Statistics

Darrell Huff

A quick read that will teach you how to recognise the all-too-common sneaky use of statistics. Huff exposes the many flaws in statistics and how easy it is to manipulate findings.

Statistics Without Tears

Derek Rowntree

A pretty comprehensive guide to statistics for the non-technical reader. Rowntree focuses on the 'why' of quantitative methods so that the 'how' makes more sense.

Stand Out of Our Light

James Williams

"There's a deep misalignment between the goals we have for ourselves, and the goals out technologies have for us". Williams argues that the liberation of human attention may be the defining moral and political struggle of our time.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Neil Postman

Whether it's the news, TV or social media, we all suffer from some form of information addiction. Postman argues that entertainment's place in society has reached a point where our addiction to it is undermining our independence. It's spooky how relevant his observations are today, given that they were made in a pre-internet era.

Mindfulness

Mark Williams & Danny Penman

Meditation trains the mind to consciously ‘see’ your own thoughts as they occur so that you can live your life as it unfolds in the present moment.

🧘🏼‍♂️

Way of Zen

Alan Watts

A super easy to digest overview and history of Zen Buddhism.

🧘🏼‍♂️

Radical Acceptance

Tara Brach

A good, but rather flowery book on using Buddhist spirituality and mediation to deal with the emotional challenges of everyday life.

🧘🏼‍♂️

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

A look into the mind of one of history's most powerful people. Filled with knowledge on how to interact with others, being a good person and dealing with life in general.

Letters From a Stoic

Seneca

The book is profoundly insightful, it calls you to action, and it has that 'quit your whining—this is life' attitude that so defines the Roman Stoics.

Antifragile

Nassim Taleb

This book is about the "opposite of fragile", things that benefit from stress, disorder and volatility. Important concepts, unusual ideas and wise advice presented in an entertaining way.

12 Rules for Life

Jordan Peterson

Peterson draws on psychology, history, philosophy and religion to craft an exploration into the essence of what it means to be human.

Finite and Infinite Games

James Carse

Once you've grasped the core concept of this book—the distinction between finite and infinite games—it's almost impossible to put it out of your mind.

Discourses and Selected Writings

Epictetus

Epictetus's stoicism in a nutshell: when you try to control the incontrollable, you will only face disappointment, anger, sadness, anxiety, fear and suffering. Super easy to digest and packed with useful aphorisms and quotes.

Man's Search For Meaning

Viktor Frankl

A moving account of Frankl's time in Nazi concentration camps. He explains how these experiences led him to develop the theory of logotherapy, the belief that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find meaning in life.

Lying

Sam Harris

A compelling case to never lie again. An interesting thought from the book: to tell a white lie is to infringe upon the freedom of those we care about.

Principles

Ray Dalio

An incredibly useful book on how to make better decisions, set more precise goals, and solve problems more effectively. These are my notes just from part 2, "Life Principles".

The Denial of Death

Ernest Becker

The premise of this book is that the most fundamental problem of humanity is our fear of death. It will give you a new perspective on what motivates people in life and why they behave in certain ways.

Black Swan

Nassim Taleb

A book that will change the way you think about sudden, unexpected events. Taleb explains that we're bad at predicting the future and that we overestimate what we know. He provides a useful model for maximising potential upside while reducing downside.

Stillness is the Key

Ryan Holiday

Another great bite-sized philosophy book from Ryan Holiday. Stillness is choosing to pick up a book instead of your phone. It's learning to enjoy life, even when it isn't going your way. See my notes on Ego is the Enemy and The Obstacle is the Way if you like this kind of thing.

The Art of Possibility

Rosamund Zander & Benjamin Zander

Inspiring, thought-provoking and packed with actionable life advice and feel-good stories.

Ego is the Enemy

Ryan Holiday

A practical guide to confronting and overcoming your ego.

The Obstacle is The Way

Ryan Holiday

Every obstacle can be overcome through persistence in your efforts and resistance to distractions. Life is full of obstacles, there is no such thing as overcoming an obstacle and entering the land of no obstacles.

How the Mind Works

Steven Pinker

Pinker weaves together a picture of the human psyche drawing from two big ideas in psychology: the computational theory of mind and the theory of natural selection. This topic is undoubtedly very complex, and if anything, this book shows just how much we don't know yet.

Influence

Robert Cialdini

The author went undercover to learn about 'compliance practitioners’ (salesmen, con artists, advertisers and fund-raisers). He distilled the tactics into a handful of “weapons of influence”.

Thinking Fast & Slow

Daniel Khaneman

A book that will change the way you think... about how you think. Key takeaway: humans are deeply irrational and often make judgements based on poor intuition.

The Coddling of the American Mind

Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff

The authors posit that Generation Z (people born in the mid-1990s to early 2010s) have been raised to believe that their feelings are always right, they should avoid pain and discomfort, and they should look for faults in others and not themselves. Haidt and Lukianoff argue that these "untruths" are resulting in a slew of harmful effects on society.

What Every Body is Saying

Joe Navarro

Former FBI-agent shares a collection of incredibly useful tips on reading non-verbal behaviour—a means of communicating through facial expressions, gestures, touching, physical movements, posture and tone of voice. It's almost impossible to miss these non-verbal signals once you learn to recognise them.

Social Physics

Alex Pentland

Great book on how big data could help build a better world. Although, I feel the author brushed over the ethical implications of snooping on peoples smartphones and internet usage.

Nudge

Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

A good introduction to the core concepts of Behavioural Science. The book is based on the idea that it's ok to influence decision making if it makes peoples lives longer, healthier and better.

The Power of Habit

Charles Duhigg

An interesting and practical guide to understanding how habits work and experimenting with how they might change.

The Willpower Instinct

Kelly McGonigal

The author walks you through what goes on in your brain during a decision-making process and how to use that process to your advantage. A good book for improving willpower, goal setting and motivation.

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert

Gilbert's message is that we're bad at remembering how we felt in the past, and also terrible at predicting how we will feel in the future. His advice — find someone who is having the experience we are contemplating and ask them how they feel.

Irresistible

Adam Alter

This book is an overview of addictive behaviours, examining where they begin, who designs them, and the psychological tricks that make them so compelling. Alter offers some useful suggestions for changing your own bad habits.

Mindset

Carol Dweck

A powerful approach to reframe the way you think about life—everything is a learning opportunity. I don't recommend reading the whole book as it felt pretty fluffy at times.

The War of Art

Steven Pressfield

The definitive guide to overcoming procrastination. Key takeaways: become comfortable with patience, start leaning into anxiety and get good at being miserable. Also, the more you fear something, the more you can be sure you have to do it.

The Elements of Style

William Strunk

The gold standard for proper grammar and punctuation. Favourite rule: "Omit needless words."

On Writing Well

William Zinsser

This book is filled with informative and insightful guidance on how to make your writing sing. An essential read for anyone who does any amount of writing.