READING LIST 2021!!! š
š āTHE BAD FOOD BIBLEā by AARON CARROLL (2017) š
A fantastic book addressing the fears behind the demonization of foods and ingredients like butter, meat, gluten, GMOs, and MSG. But rather than be another book where the author cherry-picks studies and uses his personal opinions to justify food fears, author Aaron Carroll takes a strict, science-based approach.
The most shocking point youāll be reminded of over and over again while reading is that the majority of common food fears are based on VERY limited evidence, some on no evidence at all! Unfortunately these fears are now taken advantage of by food companies with marketing labels like āOrganicā, āNon-GMOā, and āAll Naturalā which mean practically nothing when it comes to the actual safety of foods.
OTHER FUN FACTS FROM THE BOOK:
- When it comes to scientific studies, the cream of the crop are META-ANALYSES (statistical analysis which combines multiple scientific studies for a more accurate picture) and SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS (strict method of summarizing all quality data on a particular topic). And most nutritional science you hear about on the news or food documentaries donāt meet this criteria AT ALL!
- The nutritional field is filled with JUNK SCIENCE: studies which only show correlation (but not causation) and studies which only include tests on animals like mice (but mice are not the same as humans). That said, a lot of impediments to nutritional studies include the ethical problem of testing on humans, the financial costs to fund long-term studies, and the fact that the people most willing to fund these studies are food corporations that have a financial incentive to produce studies which favor their products (e.g. In the 60ās, a lot of scientific studies favoring sugar turned out to have been funded by the Sugar Research Foundation).
- Thereās a societal fear of āchemicalsā in our food and things like GMOs being demonized as āunnaturalā. These claims arenāt based on any solid evidence but appeal to our naturalness bias, the idea that just because something is produced naturally (versus being created in a lab) we automatically assume itās healthier. Itās one reason why the marketing term āorganicā is so alluring. Butā¦strychnine is also all natural, and it can kill you if you ingest it.
- So, whatās the solution? The author advocates for moderation. You wonāt harm yourself from having a sugary drink or a piece of chocolate cake once in a while. The problem is not with WHAT weāre eating but in HOW weāre eating it. If we can master the HOW, there is little scientific evidence to suggest that most things nutrition circles love to demonize canāt be consumed with moderation.
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š ā15 INVALUABLE LAWS OF GROWTHā by JOHN C. MAXWELL (2012) š
š ā5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIPā by JOHN C. MAXWELL (2011) š
š āHOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLEā by DALE CARNEGIE (1936) š
This was the first personal development book I ever read at age 12. Being a depressed, lonely child with few friends I came across this book by accident at my local library. I remember searching on the computerās library catalog: āhow to get friendsā, and this was the book that came up. Little did I know this book was going to essentially become a Bible for me in developing my social skills throughout my adolescence.
I took this book with me everywhere I went, including on my camping trips with the Boy Scouts. At first glance, you may read the principles in this book and go: āthis is just common senseā. But you may have also heard the quote: ācommon sense isnāt commonā.
How many of us actively make an effort to genuinely smile and be empathetic towards others? How may of us jump to criticizing others without considering the other personās point of view? How many of us condemn others without remembering it wonāt make the other person want to change their mind?
This book, without hyperbole, really changed my life! And while the book does have an aim towards business and sales people, as a teen the ideas still really resonated!
Seeing some more recent reviews on this book, I am genuinely surprised at the cynicism, one going so far as to call the book ātools for manipulationā. The way I see it: this is a book with tools to develop your social skills. As with any tool, it can also be used and abused. It can make for a very effective leader as well as a very effective tyrant. Both Warren Buffett and Charles Manson have cited this bookās tools, each of them being on very opposite sides of the moral spectrum.
Add to that, the author himself says multiple times in the book not to treat his principles as a ābag of tricksā. At many points he emphasizes these tools must be used in an honest and genuine manner. If youāre going to smile, you got to genuinely find something to smile about. If youāre going to praise someone you need to sincerely find something you can praise. If youāre going to express appreciation, you need to honestly find something to express appreciation about.
A passage from Chapter 2: āIn the long run, flattery will do you more harm than good. Flattery is counterfeit, and like counterfeit money, it will eventually get you into trouble if you pass it to someone else. The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.ā
For those who do read the book, as much as I recommend everyone give it a read, I hope they also use the tools responsibly. Or to quote Spiderman: āWith great power comes great responsibilityā.
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š āKING, WARRIOR, MAGICIAN, LOVERā by ROBERT L. MOORE & DOUGLAS GILLETTE (1990) š
š āAPOLLOāS ARROW: THE PROFOUND AND ENDURING IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS ON THE WAY WE LIVEā by NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS (2020) š
š āPERSONAL FINANCE FOR DUMMIESā by ERIC TYSON (2012) š
š āBAD BLOOD: SECRETS AND LIES IN A SILICON VALLEY STARTUPā by JOHN CARREYROU (2018) š
Iāve spent a lot amount of time in the entrepreneur community. And if thereās any qualities I greatly admire in this community it is their optimism, their desire to innovate, to think outside the box, and a hard work ethic to make oneās dreams a reality. Simply put, they dare to dream big!
But hereās the funny thing: those same qualities I just mentioned were on full display in this book! In reading this I was constantly reminded that any good thing taken to its extreme can become harmful. In the case of Elizabeth Holmes and her startup Theranos, these qualities became her vices for denial and destruction.
š Itās one thing to be optimistic; itās another to never assess a situation objectively.
š Itās one thing to think outside the box; itās another to think so outside youāre no longer even near the box.
š Itās one thing to not care about what āthe hatersā say; itās another when āthe hatersā actually have legitimate and constructive criticisms to share.
Imagine a workplace where youāre constantly micro-managed, where your superiors are so paranoid and distrustful they document every move you make, where any form of constructive criticism is dismissed as ānot caring about the missionā, where your top superior is a man-child who uses intimidation and bullying to get you to comply with him, where signing non-disclosure agreements are an excessive occurrence, and where turnover is extremely commonplace.
Welcome to Theranos!
If Elizabeth Holmes had just been making a smartphone app, perhaps her overpromising to investors wouldāve fared out better in the long run. But in her case she was overpromising miracle medical devices which would put innocent peoplesā lives at risk if they didnāt work correctly. And they didnāt!
Reading this book itās shocking to learn how many investors Holmes duped, from the Walton family (Walmart) to Walgreens to Safeway to Betsy DeVos to Rupert Murdoch! Elizabeth Holmes turned out to be a modern day snake oil salesman, all under the guise of marketing herself as the next Steve Jobs, the first female Silicon Valley billionaire, the one who would ārevolutionize the world of medicineā.
As insane as this story is, the fact is that it all happened. If it wasnāt for the author (who works for the Wall Street Journal) breaking the initial story and the brave Theranos employees standing up against Holmesās intimidation tactics we may not have found out all this.
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š āBRAVE NEW WORLDā by ALDOUS HUXLEY (1932) š
The ideas are brilliant, and thereās a very good reason why itās placed alongside George Orwellās ā1984ā as an essential book to read. If anything, Iād argue our current society resembles more of Huxleyās vision than of Orwellās. What especially fascinated me reading this book were the eerie parallels between the bookās dystopia and today.
I think the bookās soma drug is already here in many more ways than one, in many more forms than just a pill!
But as a story, I honestly didnāt find it very engaging. Quite frankly, I got bored a lot reading. It was only until the final few chapters when things finally picked up and the crux of the story was finally examined did I read until it was finished.
If you want to read this book for the ideas, I think youāll enjoy it. But if you also want it combined with an engaging story to go along with it, you may be disappointed. As with many intellectual authors who create fiction, thereās a tendency for them to be better at exploring thoughtful ideas rather than creating great stories with three-dimensional characters as well (e.g. The Matrix).
Again, not a bad book. But I probably would not read it again.
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š āTHE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLEā by STEPHEN COVEY (1989) š
š āFACTFULNESS: 10 REASONS WEāRE WRONG ABOUT THE WORLD ā AND WHY THINGS ARE BETTER THAN YOU THINKā by HANS ROSLING (2018) š
Swedish physician and academic Hans Rosling shares the paradox of our modern society; āThe image of a dangerous world has never been broadcast MORE effectively than it is now, while the world has never been LESS violent and more safe.ā
Indeed, looking solely at the facts and data, the world has never been safer, wealthier, and more prosperous! Itās by no means perfect, but the problems weāre dealing with in modern day are NOT the same problems we dealt with a century ago. Itās also not to say there still arenāt problems we need to address, but that in our everyday pessimism and cynicism weāre diluting ourselves from seeing the world as it actually is.
Activists and journalists, beware: the author doesnāt hold punches when it comes to stating how your areas of work can be further adding to this problem. Itās one thing to believe climate change is real and advocate for solutions citing actual scientific data; itās another for climate change activists to fearmonger people into making irrational decisions which may cause even more harm than good. The former comes from a place of thoughtfulness and critical thinking; the latter comes from a place of fear. If anything, the passion of climate change activists may have inadvertently created the passion of climate change denialists we see today.
Rosling proposes we embrace a worldview he coins āfactfulnessā, one where weāre aware of our cognitive biases AND focus solely on the facts and data to help make the world a better place.
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š āDEEP WORKā by CAL NEWPORT (2016) š
š āFAILING FORWARDā by JOHN C. MAXWELL (2000) š
š āHOUSE OF SAND AND FOGā by ANDREW DUBUS III (1999) š
A modern day Shakespearian tragedy. There is no happy ending, and youāll feel as emotionally wiped out as the main character does by the end. Nevertheless, itās one of the best feel-bad stories Iāve ever read/watched!
Full disclosure: I first saw the movie adaptation when it came out, and it was a movie that haunted me. I had been wanting to read the book for a while, and I finally took the chance this past month to do so.
In many respects, the book is superior to the movie. The characters are much more fleshed out, you learn a lot more of their histories, and each chapter (minus any chapter numbers) is told through the perspective of one of the characters so youāre always inside someoneās head.
In other respects, the movie is superior to the book. The fat from the book is trimmed down, from additional dialogue to scenes that slowed down the pacing in the book. The ending has also been tweaked but in my opinion itās a better one (and arguably more tragic because you sympathize with the characters more than you will in the book). I lastly have to point out the amazing performances of Jennifer Connolly and Ben Kingsley which bring the characters to life. They bring their all to the film, and it shows! (If you have Amazon Prime, the film is currently free to watch on Amazon Video.)
With all that said, there are some fantastic summaries and analyses of this book out there so I wonāt add one of my own. But what I will point out about the story is how it illustrates even one bad decision (or lack of decision) can create a ripple effect of negative consequences. What makes the story so tragic is youāre able to understand where both characters are coming from as they fight over the house. You wonāt always agree with their decisions, perhaps theyāll even anger you like they did for me, but you will always understand why theyāre making them.
Indeed, both characters have a right to the house. But if only either of them decided to better understand each otherās situationsā¦if only either of them decided to let go of his/her self-righteousness and pride for a momentā¦if only either of them decided to be more honest with their family membersā¦if only either them decided to give up the fight and see this fight was not worth itā¦could tragedy have been avoided.
And while some might argue the ending is too depressing, thatās kind of the point. Like the great ancient stories of tragedy, itās the main characterās inability to see their own flaws which bring about their downfall.
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š āTHE CONSTITUTION OF KNOWLEDGE: A DEFENSE OF TRUTHā by JONATHAN RAUCH (2021) š
An extremely important book diagnosing the root problems contributing to our current post-truth society. I think the author has truly hit the nail on the head here! I mean likeā¦WOW!
Thereās many insights, but if thereās 1 key takeaway I got from the book itās that keeping objective truth at the forefront of a society and emphasizing its importance has always been a historic struggle in one form or another. To provide an example from the book: journalism initially started out like the Wild West before regulations and ethical codes influenced big changes within the industry. In a way, it seems like the author hints the same thing will eventually happen with the current Wild West of social media (and in many cases it already has started including their hiring of third-party fact checkers).
That said, this book is definitely more of an intellectual read, and I can see a lot of people not reading it because of it. At its simplest, this book argues that a commitment to free speech is not enough. We need to collectively embrace the search for objective truth (using his metaphor āthe Constitution of Knowledgeā). At its most complex, this book spends lots of time breaking down the problems that are steering us away further away from this ideal. Itās very thorough!
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š āTRANSCEND: THE NEW SCIENCE OF SELF-ACTUALIZATIONā by SCOTT BARRY KAUFMAN (2020) š
š āTHE 5TH AGREEMENTā by DON MIGUEL RUIZ (2009) š
š āBATTLE CRY: WAGING AND WINNING THE WAR WITHINā by JASON WILSON (2021) š
If thereās one thing I can really appreciate about the author itās his authenticity. Heās openly a Christian, so this book is filled with religious context and Bible verses. Heās also very candid about his past and wrongdoings. At times I found myself raising my eyebrows at how open he was sharing them. He clearly shows he doesnāt want to leave any stone unturned, and I admire him all the more for that.
With that said, I do think the core audience that would get the most out of this self-help book on masculinity would be Christians and those he already teaches in his CATTA martial arts academy. I initially learned about the author from the viral video where he was working with an emotional boy, but it was a surprise when I learned the CATTA program is also quite religious-driven as well.
Donāt get me wrong, Iām not saying this in a derogatory way, only that as a secular person myself thereās a few elements within the book I personally did not find useful. Nevertheless I took what was useful to me, and I genuinely think thereās a lot of wisdom here whether youāre religious or not. If not, you just may find yourself skimming through biblical references here and there. But youāll still get some great pointers (I love his analogy of men escaping āemotional incarcerationā and his chapter emphasizing the importance of self-care).
Again, itās because of how open and authentic the author is that I wouldnāt ask the book be written any other way. Heās not catering to a secular audience, and I wouldnāt expect him to. While the book may not have always been my cup of tea, I know it definitely will be for many others though!
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š āON WRITINGā by STEPHEN KING (2000) š
š āTHE BROTHERS KARAMAZOVā by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY (1879) š
š āCARE OF THE SOULā by THOMAS MOORE (1992) š
š āTHE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLDā by CARL SAGAN (1995) š
š āTHE 360 DEGREE LEADERā by JOHN C. MAXWELL (2005) š
š āTHE DEATH OF EXPERTISEā by TOM NICHOLS (2017) š
Did Not Finish
An important book I recommend for those not familiar with this ongoing problem. You will definitely get some insights!
But as someone whoās been reading about this problem for a while (and already agree with the authorās concerns) I didnāt find much I didnāt already know, just some useful analogies here and there to illustrate the problem.
If Carl Sagan ever made a book expanding on his concerns about the ādumbing downā of American society, this book may have met his criteria.
KEY POINTS:
- Oneās ignorance should not be equal or carry the same weight as another personās knowledge.
- The author does acknowledge experts at times have been critically wrong. The problem is that we as the general public are informed about all the moments the experts were wrong and rarely all the moments theyāve been right because of their expertise.
- Colleges are becoming more corporatized, and students are treated more like customers. In the authorās words: āCollege as a client-centered experience caters to adolescents instead of escorting them away from adolescenceā¦Thereās nothing wrong with creating an attractive student center or offering a slew of activities, but at some point itās like having a hospital entice heart patients to choose it for a coronary bypass because it has great food.ā (Another book that expand on this problem with elite universities is āThe Coddling of the American Mindā by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff)
- The paradox of the internet is we have so much more access to information yet have never been as misinformed as we are now.
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š āTHE RATIONAL MALEā by ROLLO TOMASSI (2013) š
Did Not Finish
It seems in our day and age itās very easy for any of us to find a sense of meaning within ideologies and with individuals who seem to āhave it all figured outā. We feel a sense of quasi-religious awakening to be introduced to a perspective about the world we had never thought of before.
But rather than consider weāve merely switched one pair of glasses for another, we treat these new pair of glasses as being the ārealā and āfinalā pair. On the surface, the glasses seem to help us see things so much more clearly. Little do we see weāve become stuck with a pair of glasses we no longer treat as glasses. To us, theyāve become irrefutable facts.
This book, along with its author, wishes to promote another such ideology. As what feminism blames on the āpatriarchyā, this book for men blames on the āfemale-centric value systemā. In what seems like an attempt to right the wrongs of anti-men sentiment expressed in our society, this book indulges in its very own misogyny, being just the opposite side of the same radicalism coin.
There were moments I did genuinely find myself agreeing with 1 or 2 things, but most of the time it was surrounded around the authorās personal opinions and self-proclaimed expertise (his expertise being heās spent years giving advice on an online message board). There is no evidence or data to cite any of the things he saying, but you as the reader are simply to take everything he says as gospel.
Some key premises he expects new readers to already agree upon:
- You need to ātake the Red Pillā in order to enter the āmanosphereā he presents in the book.
- Feminism is the problem with modern society, and men are actually the more oppressed individuals.
This book is also shrouded in jargon and redefining of words like āpowerā. The ideas in here are simple, at times even ridiculous, so perhaps the jargon is merely part of what makes people think theyāre reading something more ādeeperā and āprofoundā than it actually is. For an author to tell readers theyāre āentering the manosphereā and emphasize the problem of āONEitisā sounds far cooler than just saying: āIt is my perspective that monogamous relationships are intentionally limiting men because I believe we live in a society that actually favors supporting femaleās needs over menās needsā. In other words, this book is like a āwokeā creed for men in relationships but instead gives really horrible advice.
According to the author, you should always keep your relationships with women open. (To make it sound more groundbreaking than it is, he calls it Plate Theory i.e. to āspin more platesā) Why?
According to the author:
- Because in doing this men wonāt feel constrained and limited which in turn decreases their feelings of confidence and control. For a man to always have his options open will help him consistently feel in control, thus gain more confidence in the process. (Never mind how the woman in the relationship feels about this; she is just keeping the man down.)
- Because men arenāt as picky when it comes to choosing a partner. Therefore, a woman should not limit a man to just her because that oppresses his ability to be authentically himself (which is having the ability to spread his seed wherever he wants). This happens with other species, so the author thinks men should be able to do it too.
But wait, what about a man being responsible and committing to a life partner, in good times and in bad? What about a man being virtuous and treating women with respect? According to the author, these ideals are simply āfeminized social conventions that attempt to thwart a manās options in order to establish and/or maintain women as the prime selectors in inter-sexual relationsāā¦His words, not mine!
40 pages in, and I had read enough of this ābookā if you can even call it one. For a much healthier definition of masculinity, Iām sticking to āKing, Warrior, Magician, Loverā by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette.
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š āIRON JOHNā by ROBERT BLY (1990) š
Did Not Finish
As a fan of āKing, Warrior, Magician, and Loverā I was really expecting to like this book as itās in the same field. Unfortunately the writing here is (dare I say) too filled up with analogies, metaphors, and symbolism (not to mention lots of vague poems). And the reason I find the last sentence I just wrote so shocking is because KWML has these very same elements.
The difference is KWML was willing to be more accessible. It used analogies, metaphors, and symbolism in service to practical application. It was willing to use modern-day references to further illustrate its points to the reader.
This book, however, is more an intellectual exercise than a practical book. Itās a book that indulges in exploring ideas but not about using them. If youāre not well-versed in older literature (myself included), a lot of the references here will go over your head.
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š āTHE ANTIDOTE: HAPPINESS FOR PEOPLE WHO CANāT STAND POSITIVE THINKINGā by OLIVER BURKEMAN (2012) š
š āCONNECTED: THE SURPRISING POWER OF OUR SOCIAL NETWORKSā by NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS (2009) š
š āZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCEā by ROBERT M. PIRSIG (1974) š
Did Not Finish
I tried reading this book as a teenager a few times. To be honest, I was more fascinated by the hype of the book itself than the text inside. After multiple attempts, I never finished the book and usually lost interest as I got into Part 2.
Over a decade later I decided to give it another go, and while I made it halfway through this time (not to mention I donāt like quitting books halfway through them) I lost interest again! Iām genuinely surprised as I really enjoy philosophical ideas!
Perhaps itās because Iām already familiar with the ideas in this book that it often comes off as long-winded, less like a book and more like 2 separate books loosely tied together. And the title barely applies to the book as a whole! Ironically, it feels like the book lacks the very Quality itās wanting to explore.
Maybe itās just me, but the narrator often comes off as really pompous. Because of it, I was more inclined to roll my eyes at his āTortured Geniusā sorrows than feel any sympathy for him. Contrary to what the narrator thinks, thereās MANY people out in the world besides him who have asked the same philosophical questions heās trying to address AND were not as self-important about it.
Iām sorry to say all this as Iāve read how many people find this book so important and meaningful to their lives. Because of that, I WANTED to like this book. But personally, all I could think of is how much better this book couldāve been, how much more Quality it wouldāve added, had it gotten a better editor.
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š āGIVE AND TAKEā by ADAM GRANT (2013) š
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š āTHE OMNI-AMERICANS: SOME ALTERNATIVES TO THE FOLKLORE OF WHITE SUPREMACYā by ALBERT MURRAY (1970) š
A collection of essays written over 50 years ago that are more relevant now than ever. With the rise of Black Lives Matter, antiracism, and books like āWhite Fragilityā, this book is a reminder how the problems of the past repeat themselves when we fail to remember them (like right now).
