My favourite books
My favourite books
I love to learn, and one of the better ways to do it in my opinion is to find and read or listen to books on subjects that you want to learn that have gotten good reviews and are famous. I consume as much books I can to always learn more, and here you have my absolute gems, that I recommend everyone to consume
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The Elephant in the Brain
Hidden motives in everyday life
by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson
Are you interested in psychology and to understand human behaviour? Then this book is for you!
The main thesis of the book is that we as humans are very often not aware of our real reasons for most of our behaviors. Our behaviors are optimised for living in a social group and very often, from the point of view of natural selection, it is useful if we are not consciously aware of our real motivations. To me, Kevin and Robin gave me convincing explanations of human behaviour that I had no good explanation to before, explanations for behaviours related to consuption, medicine, art, laughter, education, charity, conversation, body language, religion and politics. I found them all very insightful, but also a bit disstressing, because more often than not, they suggested that us humans are more egoistic than we claim to be…
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Getting Things Done
The art of stress-free productivity
by David Allen
Do you ever feel like things that you want to get done in life slips through the cracks for you and you forget about them? Then this book is for you!
David describes how to keep track of everything that you want to do and all projects that you have, whether it is a personal one or related to your work, all by writing it down and keeping it in a system. After reading this book i feel less stressed and much more in control of my life because I am since then better at Getting things done.
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The 4-Hour Work Week
Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich
by Timothy Ferriss
Do you feel dissatisfied with how you spend your time, spending it at a job that you dont enjoy enough, or do you feel that there is more to life that you are not experiencing, and want to be more intentional in doing it? Then this book is for you!
Tim starts off by exaplaninig the situation for many
Then gives actionable ideas on how to do it
“Life is to short to spend it in a cubicle”
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How to Win Friends and Influence People
The only book you need to lead you to success
by Dale Carnegie
Would you like to think more about and learn how to act in any social situation, to be more empathic, persuasive and likeable? Then this book is for you!
Dale gives many ideas on what general things you can do to make your interactions with people around you better! He states many principles to follow such as “Arouse in the other person an eager want”, “Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely” and “Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
What I took away most clearly from the book is that usually when you interact with people you think about doing things that are valuable to them for their sake, and this is great to do of course, but what became clear to me was that even though you are completely egoistic, these things are good to do, because of course, whatever you do to make a person around you you better of, this person will most likely be thankful to you for bringing value, and therefore bring value to you if he ever gets the chance in the future, and the opposite is also true, this Dale conveyed with simple but strikingly clear reasoning similar to “I was almost about to scream at my conversation partner for doing the job that i told him to do, poorly, but then I realized that no matter how good or bad he did his job, screaming at him will only make him like me less, and make him far less likely to help me out in the future, which is very bad for me”.
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The Scout Mindset
Why some people see the things clearly and others don’t
by Julia Galef
Do you like and want to learn more about rationality, how to be good at learning the truth and not letting your emotions get in the way of it? Then this book is for you!
In the book, Julia introduces to mindsets, the scout mindset and the soldier mindset. The scout mindset is all about getting to the truth, no matter if it is good or bad. The soldier mindset on the other hand is all about how to getting what you want. She then proceed on focusing on the scout mindset, arguing for why it is the superior mindset to have, what it means to have it in prectise and with chapters about changing your mind and retinking identity. I have always been a sucker for the subject of rationality, taking well informed decicion and not letting emotions come in the way of who you want to be, and this book made me even more convinced to why this is a good mindset to have and that i want to continue to have thinking clearly as a virtue that I pursue!
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The Life You Can Save
How to do your part to end world poverty
by Peter Singer
Does it also bother you that many people in our world live lives that are far below what you believe is a good life? People in poorer countries struggling with and dying from diseases that are easily treatable and preventable, and that does not even exists in your part of the world? Do you feel like you want to do something about this, but never do? Then this book is for you!
Peter writes about how the poorest people are living, and also how you can actually prevent this if you want to, giving you a fact-based world-view and also practical ways on how to can act to save lives.
Final words
Did you like this list and want more? I have consumed more than 100 of books similar to these, and I am keeping a clear list of all of them, sorted by how much i liked them. Reach out to me and I gladly talk about it and give you more reccomendations!