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Category: books

Book Reviews

  • Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

    Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom is an interesting book, one that is mentioned in Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris, the title and description piqued my interest so I gave it a read.

    Summary of Superintelligence

    The books describes how we as humans are rulers of the world, top of the food chain not because we are the strongest, fastest or have the sharpest teeth or claws but we are the smartest we are the only ones that can successfully use our brains to adapt and overcome near any challenge that’s presented to us. But what if we inherently invent our own downfall by creating something smarter than us?

    How would we attempt to contain such superintelligence? Surely like us it could have the ability to deceive and subvert us as its inherent captors and what would a superintelligence do if given free rein?

    My Takeaways from Superintelligence

    The book starts quite complex describing the mathematical equations used to create an AI my initial thoughts when reading this was “what on earth have I got myself into, this is way over my head” but alas soon topics move into more theoretical challenges that ask some really tough questions around the creation or invention of a more intelligent being.

    It’s a very thought provoking book and I enjoied that aspect many of the what if’s and how would we do this, I found very intresting and dwelled on them a bit while I walked my dog as many of the questions asked could very well become a reality in my lifetime.

    Favourite Quotes

    “The computer scientist Donald Knuth was struck that “AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires ‘thinking’ but has failed to do most of what people and animals do ‘without thinking’—that, somehow, is much harder!”― Nick Bostrom

    “Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization—a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.”― Nick Bostrom

    “The gap between a dumb and a clever person may appear large from an anthropocentric perspective, yet in a less parochial view the two have nearly indistinguishable minds.” ― Nick Bostrom

    “Nature might be a great experimentalist, but one who would never pass muster with an ethics review board – contravening the Helsinki Declaration and every norm of moral decency, left, right, and centre.” ― Nick Bostrom

    Closing Words

    I enjoyed the book but would I recommend it probably not, it is pretty niche and can be quite a slog at points, I liked the thought-provoking thoughts it presented, it is never really a genre of book that I have looked at before but if anyone has further suggestions on thought-provoking books let me know in the comments below.

    A short post this week, if you are intrested in any of my other posts you can see them here.

  • Show Your Work

    Summary of Show Your Work

    Show Your Work is a great little book, pretty short you can easily get through it in a couple of hours. It’s about Showing Your Work and how it doesn’t matter what other people think if you are enjoying it go for it. It speaks about how becoming good or an expert in an area is not an overnight process and the process of becoming is where the real achievement lies rather than at the end once the goal is achieved. One of the big concepts is around just doing it, it makes you wonder how many people refrain from doing something they want to do through the fear of other’s opinions or that they won’t be good at it.

    Show Your Work
    Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

    It gives another example where a teacher splits a class of 30 photography students into two and tells them there will be the best photo competition, the first group to research everything they can on photography and related concepts but must take and submit just one picture. The other group must do no research but take at least one picture every day and submit their best, can you guess which group produced the best results?

    My Takeaways from Show Your Work

    I really liked the book, it’s kind of the basis of why I started blogging plus Atomic Habits, I cast a wide net with some of the topics I cover here but through posting weekly I should slowly improve and if it comes down to it who would you condier a better blogger/writter someone with a minorly succesful blog or someone that has all the credentails but has never published?

    Favorite Quotes

    “Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple.”
    ― Austin Kleon

    “The worst troll is the one that lives in your head.”
    ― Austin Kleon

    “The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.”
    ― Austin Kleon

    “It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist.”
    ― Austin Kleon

    Closing Words

    Austin Kleon does a few other books on my reading list, I am looking forward to Steal like an Artist.

    Show Your Work is a great book I would encourage everyone to read it, it’s quite inspiring. It really makes you think about how people are more interested in the process more than the final product, while yea the final product can be great seeing it come to fruition as time goes on is even better like you are a passenger along for the ride.

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  • Tools of Titans Most Gifted Books

    I just finished reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris for some reason I thought the book was a brand new release, not sure where I got that idea when I found out it was published in 2016. The book is a collection of interviews of people that have featured on the Tim Ferris Show. I enjoyed the book I listened to Tools of Titans to it through Audible.

    Tools of Titans

    It’s a difficult one to write an article reviewing as each chapter is a different person with only 3 overarching themes of Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

    Part of the book Tim asks the guests what is your most recommended or most gifted book so I figured why not collect the recommendations up and post them here. I am always on the hunt for new book suggestions and those in Tools of Titans seem as good as any.

    Tools of Titans Recommended

    The below list notes the most recommended books listed in Tools of Titans. I have left off who has recommended them so if you want that extra level of infomation I would suggest picking up the book.

    Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (5 mentions)

    Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (4)

    Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (4)

    Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (4)

    The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss (4)

    The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande (4)

    Dune by Frank Herbert (3)

    Influence by Robert Cialdini (3)

    Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (3)

    Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom (3

    Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman (3)

    The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss (3)

    The Bible (3)

    The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz (3)

    The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (3)

    Watchmen by Alan Moore (3)

    Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters (3)

    Conclusions

    Overall I enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to others, chapters are short enough to drag on and with the variety of people interviewed it makes of nice reading as every new chapter is almost like starting from the beginning with a different perspective. I listened to the book in audiobook format, I do think a hard copy would be a good purchase to use for reference and inspiration, jumping to a chapter or a specific person as you please rather than reading/listening to it cover to cover as I did.

    Interestingly or maybe not I have already checked off The 4-Hour Work Week, Dune, The Bible and Watchmen over the years.

    If you enjoyed this article I would appreciate it if you had a look at some of my others here.

  • Anything You Want

    Summary of Anything You Want

    Derek Sivers a musician disrupts the music industry and creates CD Baby after being turned away from music distributors as “only record labels are allowed to deal with us, we don’t work directly with the artists”. Sivers creates CD Baby to sell his music. Anything You Want describes 40 lessons learned during this time.

    My Takeaways from Anything You Want

    Anything You Want is a short book meant to be read in about an hour, I really liked it, I think because it’s so short it really cuts to the chase without any of the usual bumf. I like Sivers cynicism of how he didn’t really want to have a business or expand as rapidly as he did. With the book being so short I don’t have a huge amount to say about it, being able to get through it in an hour does anything I think really matter you may as well just pick it up and see for yourself.

    Favorite Quotes

    “Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own. They spend decades in pursuit of something that someone convinced them they should want, without realizing that it won’t make them happy. Don’t” – Derek Sivers

    “Don’t be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.” – Derek Sivers

    “In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have.” – Derek Sivers

    “If you think your life’s purpose needs to hit you like a lightning bolt, you’ll overlook the little day-to-day things that fascinate you.” – Derek Sivers

    “any business that’s in business to sell you a cure is motivated not to focus on prevention” – Derek Sivers

    Closing Words

    A short blog post for a short book, I would recommend Anything You Want as a must-read, I really enjoyed it, I enjoyed Sivers humour and had an interest in what he had to say. Buy it, read it, if you like it great, if not you’ve only lost an hour.

    If you like this article I would really appreciate it if you had a look at some of my others.

  • Atomic Habits

    Summary of Atomic Habits

    Atomic Habits by James Clear is one of those books you see recommended by everyone and after reading I can see why. I started reading the book in November last year but, most of my reading stopped in December and have only gotten around to finishing it off now. The books like its title suggest is about habits. How habits are created, how to form good habits, how to stick with new habits, how to break bad habits. It describes the process of forming or breaking habits.

    Atomic Habits describes a process of breaking habits down into tiny “atomic” increments where it takes only a short time to complete (5-10 minutes max). An example would be teaching yourself piano, rather than learn a whole song learn only a few keys, practice these keys daily until they become second nature then move on to the next keys. While slow at first eventually you will be able to play a whole song, the process of learning and practising these small increments each day compounds until it’s a habit of yours that you play the piano.

    Atomic Habits
    Atomic Habits

    My Takeaways from Atomic Habits

    I enjoyed the book although I have found the topic of habits interesting and have had previous exposure to the topic when reading about getting a better nights sleep. I hope James Clears words to stick when I am trying out something new I have a tendency to dive in headfirst, obsess over a topic then burn out, either because I am not seeing progress quick enough or I don’t have the skills required to get where I want to be.

    Adopting some of the methods described in Atomic Habits will allow me to see more projects/activities through to the end. I read the book on my kindle I would say it would be better in print form as there are a few tables within the book that I found hard to digest on my e-reader.

    Favorite Quotes from Atomic Habits

    “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” – James Clear

    “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.” – James Clear

    “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement” – James Clear

    “Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.” – James Clear

    Closing Words

    Would I recommend the book? I would if you have an interest in habits and like to do many hobbies or activities but struggle to keep them up or see them through to where you wish to be.

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  • The Happiness Advantage

    Summary of The Happiness Advantage

    The Happiness Advantage a book that I have seen mentioned all over the net, I decided to take the plunge and give it a listen on Audible. The author Shawn Achor preaches positive psychology and is one of TEDx most popular speakers, finding success through happiness and that happiness is a choice rather than just an emotion.

    Happiness Advantage

    The book outlines some key principles and like most self-help books then goes on to present a number of examples of how a “happiness advantage” can be practised, like where Shawn was brought into large financial institutions to speak about happiness in the midst of the 2008 financial crash and how he managed to show some stockbrokers that had just lost multiple millions that the crash wasn’t such a bad thing for them.

    The book speaks a lot about how happiness is a choice rather than just an emotion, you can choose to be happy and its completely up to you to make this choice, good things tend to come to those that are happy and has a cascading effect on you and those you interact with. The book speaks about a “fake it till you make it” approach when everything seems against you you can trick your brain into being happy and over time your mindset will change.

    My Takeaways from The Happiness Advantage

    I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but I largely already practice much that was mentioned, I am generally a pretty happy guy, I am pretty blessed in life to never to have had to face any adversity, with any I have experienced I’ve overcome without true difficulty or hardship and have climbed my respective career ladder quickly and with relative ease.

    Perhaps that means the words that Shawn Achor the author writes about ring true. I am always smiling and can always find the positives in even the biggest negatives where I could be considered an eternal optimist finding the good side in everything where others only see bad or negatives. Sometimes I feel like self-help books like The Happiness Advantage can deliver a point or advice in less than 100 pages then use another 200 filling out the pages to make a book.

    Favourite Quotes from The Happiness Advantage

    “Each one of us is like that butterfly the Butterfly Effect. And each tiny move toward a more positive mindset can send ripples of positivity through our organizations our families and our communities.” – Shawn Achor

    “..the more you believe in your own ability to success the more likely it is that you will.” – Shawn Achor

    “Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost. It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation and ability to accomplish goals.” – Shawn Achor

    “Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can.” – Shawn Achor

    “I started to realize just how much our interpretation of reality changes our experience of that reality.” ― Shawn Achor

    Closing Words

    I liked The Happiness Advantage, I think I will buy a paper copy for the bookcase for future reference and would definitely recommend giving it a read, it’s not a long book at 256 pages.

    The “fake it till you make it” approach to happiness certainly opened my eyes, as well as the smiling for even 15min, will make you feel happier I practised this during my daily dog walks, where I would walk around this streets or in the park grinning with a big smile that went ear to ear and I will admit it felt great.

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  • How to Win Friends and Influence People

    How to Win Friends and Influence People my second review comes a decision to format each book review article in the same way. This should provide commonality across them as they grow in number and provide me with a clear format on what I should be including a set amount of information. So each review from now on will begin with a summary, my takeaways then finally some of my favourite quotes. So lets yet into it 🙂

    Summary of How to Win Friends and Influence People

    How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is a pretty old book, first published in 1937 its sold over 30 million copies and is listed as one of the best selling and most influential books of all time. The version I have recently finished is an updated version that reframes Carnegie’s original topics and frames them around using social media and the Internet, things that were pure imagination back in the 30’s.

    The book goes through a number of key principles of communication, self-expression, leadership and how your or business actions in certain situations can go different ways depending on how you take them and react either in good or bad ways. It poses a number of scenarios in story format of ways in which businesses or people have addresses situations and the consequences of such actions advising you as the reader on the good and bad things so should you find yourself in a similar situation you are better equipped through your learnings of the book.

    My Takeaways from How to Win Friends and Influence People

    I have heard about How to Win Friends and Influence People a bunch of times over the years, it’s much shorter than I thought it would be. It’s more of guidelines on how to be a nice person more than anything else and how just being a good person generally leads to great things somewhere or another. After reading it, what is hyped as one of the must-reads of one’s lifetime I didn’t really think it was that great, maybe this was the first book back in the 30’s to say these mantras to live by, but I feel like I’ve read them all a dozen times now over the years in other self-help/growth books and blogs.

    The version I read was published in 2011, adding the digital age to the title kind of means it gets outdated fast, with tech and the technology industry moving at a blistering pace it speaks about Facebook back then not the raging behemoth it is now and doesn’t even mention Instagram, I guess that this update needs updating again.

    Favourite Quotes

    “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie

    “Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.” – Dale Carnegie

    “When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.” – Dale Carnegie

    “You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.” – Dale Carnegie

    “By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.” – Dale Carnegie

    Closing Words

    Would I recommend How to Win Friends and Influence People, probably I would ask a question on how many self-help books the reader has already read if only a couple, crack on but if you have read a fair number you have likely already heard most of the teachings but its short enough to blast through in a week or so?

    If you enjoied this summary please check out some of my other here.

  • 5 am Club

    5 am Club a book by Robin S. Sharma speaks about the benefits of waking up at 5 am every day before the rest of the world rises. The self-help book takes the form of a story where 2 people meet a homeless man at a conference in New York, the homeless man turns out to be a world eccentric business mogul and billionaire Stone Riley. Stone takes it upon himself to teach his new found friends the ways for the 5 am club as they travel the globe on his private jets learning they ways to bulletproof your life and achieve greatness through rising at 5 am.

    5 am club
    5 am Club

    The 5 am club speaks of the 20/20/20 concept where you wake at 5 am, perform 20 minutes of intense exercise, 20 minutes of self-reflection such as meditation or journaling and 20 minutes of growth through reading and learning, the idea of doing this at 5 am gives you 1hr of pure self-care without distraction before everyone else starts to begin their days. It also touches on subjects that we as humans are meant to rise with the sun like our ancestors of old and that the human mind and body is at the most productive at first light rather than burning the midnight oil before going to sleep.

    The 5 am club doesn’t shy away from delivering hard truths, it bluntly states that most people lack the ability to rise at 5 am that the temptation is just too much to fall back onto the pillow and go back to sleep and that waking at 5 am is a true mind over matter battle that only the most dedicated can achieve. The books discuss issues on social media and our inability to escape news and current affairs keeping us in an endless trap glued to our smartphones scrolling through social media for a quick happiness fix when all it really does it leave us hungering for more.

    The story of The 5 am Club itself following the three protagonists around is somewhat shallow, you can predict what going to happen next quite easily, although I do understand the story is only present to provide a framework for delivering a larger methodology I felt it quite corny at times.

    Ironically my major takeaway from the book is not that waking at 5am will solve all of your problems but the fact that implementing small but good habits and sticking to them overtime can result in a great amount of self improvement and a level of increased happiness.

    Favorite Quotes from The 5 am Club

    “Limitation is nothing more than a mentality that too many good people practice daily until they believe it’s reality.” – Robin S. Sharma

    “All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.” – Robin S. Sharma

    “Limitation is nothing more than a mentality that too many good people practise daily until they believe it’s reality. It breaks my heart to see so many potentially powerful human beings stuck in a story about why they can’t be extraordinary, professionally and personally. You need to remember that your excuses are seducers, your fears are liars and your doubts are thieves.” ― Robin Sharma

    Conclusions

    I enjoyed the book, I might read another of the author’s publications in good time, but I won’t be rushing out to the pick it up straight away. If you have any interest in picking the book up yourself I would appreciate if you used my link here to give me a tiny kickback from Amazon.

    I have a bunch of book reviews and plan to keep adding to these over time I would appreciate it if you would check out all of the stuff I have written here.