Smart Quarantine: Ultimate List of What to Read, Study, and Watch
The whole world (at least responsible people or those from countries with responsible governments) is now spending time almost exclusively at home. I recommend using this as an opportunity for growth and self-development, reading insightful books, watching educational videos and completing online courses that you’ve been long bookmarking for later.
Here is my ultimate list of what to read, study, and watch while quarantined (all content is in English).
Of course, the list is subjective, but I have some expertise in the area: 350,000 subscribers of my channels across various social media platforms follow my blogs because I recommend high-quality longreads, books, and other educational content — hence my nickname, Mustreader. For five years, I’ve been curating insightful and educational content for my followers (originally only those from Russia, where I’m from, now international as well).
Contents (you can skip to the part that interests you most):
I. Online courses and lectures
II. Non-fiction books
III. Fiction books
IV. YouTube channels
I. Online courses and lectures
It’s 2020, and you can take online courses on almost any topic imaginable, most of which are free. I recommend starting with this page: qz.com/1821327/450-free-ivy-league-university-courses-you-can-take-online. Here, you can find 450 online courses from Ivy League schools (such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.) in areas like Computer Science, Data Science, Programming, Humanities, Business, Art and Design, Science, Social Sciences, Health and Medicine, Engineering, Education and Teaching, Math, and Personal Development.
You can also check out top courses on Coursera, edX, Udemy, Khan Academy, and the websites of Harvard, Stanford, or other universities.
My personal top of online courses (all free):
1. Justice (LINK)
In my opinion, the best (and most thought-provoking) university course I have ever taken, online or offline, was “Justice” by Michael Sandel, a Harvard Professor and a true rockstar of philosophy. Dozens of millions of people have watched his lectures online and on TV, as the course was adapted into a PBS television series.
Sandel conducts his lectures as a public debate and explains complex philosophical, legal, and ethical problems using practical examples. Let’s take the famous “trolley problem”: should you push one person onto the trolley rails in order to save five people? As another dilemma states, should a shipwrecked crew in a small boat with no food kill and eat the weakest member?
What would Immanuel Kant say against one-night stands? How can you put a price on a human life? Is surrogate motherhood ethical? What are the strongest arguments for and against affirmative action? Or abortion?
Watching lectures from this course will definitely broaden your mind and make you fall in love with philosophy. They are all available for free.
If you prefer reading to watching content, most of the topics covered in the course are in Sandel’s bestselling book Justice: https://amzn.to/2RiNNYQ
2. Learning How To Learn (LINK)
A legendary course from Coursera, one of the most popular and high-rated courses on this platform. The course teaches you mental models and tools helping you to grasp new knowledge in a faster and a more efficient way.
I would say that it is a ‘meta-course’ that helps you study other courses and absorb information and difficult concepts like a sponge. The course authors promise it will give you ideas for ‘turbocharging successful learning, including counter-intuitive test-taking tips and insights that will help you make the best use of your time on homework and problem sets’, and they deliver on this promise.
3. Effective Altruism (LINK)
Effective Altruism is a philisophy and social movement that attempts to answer a difficult question: how to help the the world in the most effective way, considering the limited resources we have?
Imagine that you have decided to donate 100$ to charities and created a short-list of several potential candidates for receiving your donation:
1. A fund that supports people with cancer
2. A non-profit that runs feeding centers in Africa
3. A beggar on the streets
4. A fund that distributes insecticidal nets in poor countries
5. Buying a red iPhone, since a part of proceeds therefrom goes to fighting HIV and AIDS.
According to research, some of these choices will bring much less benefit than others (or will even lead to negative consequences). In some of these options, you may obtain similar value by donating fifty dollars instead of a hundread, but to a different fund, which deals with the same problem. And there is a clear leader in this example — donating a hundred dollars to one of these charitable causes will bring on much more value and save more lives than donating several hundred to each of other options.
This course helps you put effective altruism (EA) in practice in your own life and will help you do more good and be happier — there is a vast body of research supporting the fact that those who regularly donate to charities are on average much happoier than those who do not. In addition, the course examines the philosophical underpinnings of EA and tells inspiring stories of remarkable people who have restructured their lives in accordance with it. This is a dose of inspiration that we all need in today’s difficult times.
The course is run by Peter Singer, the ‘founding father’ of EA and animal rights movement, a Professor of Princeton University, who also happens to be the world’s most influential living philosopher (according to The New Yorker and many others).
4. How to Start a Startup by Y Combinator (LINK)
Let the numbers speak for themselves: every speaker in this course owns or has been involved in the creation of at least one $1billion+ company: Peter Thiel (PayPal, Palantir), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook), Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz), Brian Chesky (AirBnB).
Y Combinator is the most successful and most famous startup accelerator in the world. The combined valuation of startups in the portfolio of YC exceeds $150 billion (Stripe, AirBnB, Dropbox, Instacart and many others).
Each lecture in this course contais a ton of insights for anyone who wants to start their own startup or has already started one. Moreover, I recommend that anyone should watch and re-watch all these videos — even if you do not intend to go into startups, much of these insights are universally applicable.
All lectures are available on YouTube. You can start watching from the first lecture by Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator and, in my opinion, one of the most interesting influencers out there.
II. Non-fiction books
If we speak about non-fiction, I would first and foremost recommend the books that help you remain stable, strong and sane in these difficult times. Here are some of the best must-reads of that kind:
- Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday (AMAZON LINK)
Ryan Holiday is the most famous promoter of stoicism of our time. In this cult book (#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller), he analyses recipes of resilience in difficult times and situations of ancient Stoics and other famous people throughout the history from Benjamin Franklin to Steve Jobs.
This book makes many of its readers less susceptible to anxiety, pessimism, unproductive thoughts and impulsive decisions. It helps you grow mentally stronger and overcome difficulties. One of my favourites, which I always recommend, and today — especially.
Another must-read by Ryan Holiday that I like no less that the aforementioned one is Ego Is The Enemy
2. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (AMAZON LINK)
The best Stoic book of all times, which I recommend keeping at your bed at all times. The author is a Roman emperor who happened to be a real sage and whose diaries (that’s essentially what Meditations is) are now considered a classical work of philosophy. The book is short, but full of wisdom and practical advice that has aged well.
The book has been translated into English many times, the author of the best translation, in my opinion (I am not alone in that), is Gregory Hays.
3. Antifragile by Nassim Taleb (AMAZON LINK)
An absolute must-read by one of the leading thinkers of our time, author of two other great bestsellers, Black Swan and Skin in the Game.
Each of us could benefit from being antifragile. Unlike fragile items, which break when you bend or hit them, antifragile ones thrive in the times of volatility and radical transformation. Taleb is a real polymath and an extremely profound thinker. If you like an intelligent read with a lot of historical and cultural references, you will enjoy every word of his — although I must admit that this all comes at the expense of brevity and consiceness, since Taleb often goes off trail and gets distracted from his own storytelling.
One of the most important conclusions of the book is that the more you try to eliminate volatility from your life, the less you are prepared for it. Once I started recalling the content of this must-read, I immediately started thinking about opportunities for growth that the current unfortunate situation creates for various industries: BioTech, EdTech, food delivery, online streaming, blogging etc. I am sure many of my subscribers could profit from perceiving every situtation in life through the prism of antifragility.
4. Mindfulness. An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World by M. Williams & D. Penman (AMAZON LINK)
The statement that the world is getting more and more hectic is more obvious than the neccessity to wash your hands. However, this statement is still true, as well as the fact that most people lack mindfulness.
It is easy to get carried away in the moment forgetting about the big picture. Or get lost in the Netflix binge during the quarantine, instead of implementing your plans for completing the online course, which you have long been planning to get around to. Or lose your temper easily when you have been locked with your spouse and kids for several weeks.
Here, meditation comes to the rescue. Many successful people — entrepreneurs, sport stars, politicians — attribute their successes to meditating regularly and staying mindful.
Mindfulness is co-authored by an Oxford professor of clinical psychology Mark Williams and a Biochemistry PhD Danny Penman. Williams is the inventor of MBCT (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy**)**. The Department of Health and Social Care of the UK officially recommends this technique as an effective way of treating early-stage depression.
So, this book is written by scientists and not some esoteric monks, which makes its advice on mindfulness and meditation even more valuable. If you are curious about the scientific research on the topic, you can find hundreds of scientific publications on the benefits of meditation on Pubmed.
The theoretical part of the book takes the first 70 pages. The rest of the book is comprised of concise practical recommendations for eight weeks ahead. Helpful and hands-on.
BONUS. I meditate regularly using the Waking Up app by the famous neurioscientist Sam Harris. Here is a link to a free month of using this app (I did not get any money for this, but the app is amazing): share.wakingup.com/7d7736.
Another great app for meditation is HeadSpace. It is more popular and has over 50 million users. I have used and enjoyed both apps but think that Waking Up is slightly better, although it is a matter of taste.
III. Fiction Books
Quarantine is a great time for reading long novels that require long periods of concetration. Below are some of my favourite novels that meet the following criteria:
(i) are universally acclaimed as a historical or a modern classical masterpiece;
(ii) have a huge array of topics raised in them and deep ideas;
(iii) have a captivating plot;
(iv) are close to a thousand pages long or are even longer.
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (AMAZON LINK)
An unputdownable and hearbreaking story of lives of four friends in New York City from college through to middle-age. Topics raised include: growing up, finding your place in life, career, racial discrimination, LGBT issues, sexual violence, trauma, love, depression, disability, self-harm, and many others. The novel is difficult to read at times, there are many soul-shattering and controversial scenes, powerfully described.
The book was ranked among The Guardian’s ‘100 best books of the 21st century’.
2. The Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (AMAZON LINK)
A magnum opus of the most talented American writer of his generation, who committed suicide in 2008 but left a cult following. In the novel’s future world, the United States, Canada, and Mexico together compose a unified North American superstate known as the Organization of North American Nations (ONAN). The plot revolves about the topics of addiction, professional sports, media, science, politics, cinema, and depression (you can guess that Wallace was a walking encyclopeadia on any of these branches of knowledge).
This book has made it into various lists of greatest novels of XX century or of all time. And into lists of books that are difficult to finish, because The Infinite Jest is long and sophisticated. On many pages, there are digressions that involve endnotes, some of which themselves have footnotes, which makes reading the book all the more complicated and satisfying at the same time.
You can dig as deep into this metamodernist work of fiction as you wish. Dozens of books have been written on how to read The Infinite Jest, how to understand its ingenious neologisms and follow all plots and sub-plots. I recommend simply starting to read this book, dive headfirst and get immersed in it.
3. War and Piece by Leo Tolstoy (AMAZON LINK)
Arguably the greatest novel of all time. A grandiose tale of love, friendship, courage, honour, moral struggle and intrigues amidst Napoleon’s war with Russia, peppered with Tolstoy’s ruminations on history and Russian spirit. You do not always agree with them, but it is difficult not to be impressed by their depth. As a British poet and critic Matthew Arnold said, ‘A novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life.’
Let me also remind you that in the 1900s Tolstoy was the most admired influencer in the world. Even Mahatma Gandhi wrote to him exuberant letters. Later on, Martin Luther King cited Tolstoy as one of his main influences.
4. Honorable mentions
Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Litell, 4321 by Paul Auster, Ulysses by James Joice (the hardest one to read, I have to warn you).
5. Best lists of greatest books
For further reference, here are some lists of top books of all times (mostly fiction) and top books of selected centuries.
- The 100 best English-language novels published since 1923 (Time Magazine): entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/all
- The best books of the 21st century (Guardian): theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century
- Top 200 books of all time (BBC): bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top200.shtml
- 83 books that are a must-read for any intelligent person (Joseph Brodsky, a Nobel laureate and an amazing poet and essayist): openculture.com/2013/11/joseph-brodskys-reading-list-for-having-an-intelligent-conversation.html
- The 20th Centrury’s Greatest Hits: 100 English Language Books of Fiction (American Book Review): litline.org/abr/issues/volume20/issue6/abr100.html
- 100 greatest novels of all time (The Telegraph): telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-greatest-novels-of-all-time
- 100 Books of the 20th Century (Le Monde): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monde’s_100_Books_of_the_Century
IV. YouTube channels
For many people its is easier to consume content in the form of video. Here, many YouTube channels with educational and thought-provoking content come to the rescue. Below are some of my top recommendations.
1. Kurzgesagt (link)
The highest-quality pop-science channel out there with over 10 million subscribers. Topics range from artificial intelligence to the Fermi Paradox, from black holes to pros and cons of being vegan for health or legalisation of marijuana.
Each video on Kurzgesagt takes more than a thousand man-hours to make. A huge team of researchers, fact-checkers, animators, illustrators, storytellers and sound designers work on each video. The result is the content that is both artistically beautiful and scientifically enlightening.
2. Exurb1a (link)
The British Youtuber who prefers to call himself Exurb1a is, in my opinion, an outstanding philisopher and storyteller of our time. If I had a billion dollars, I would definitely give several millions to this guy and ask him make a blockbuster movie based on the script of one of his YouTube videos. I think that sooner or later it will happen and Hollywood producers will discover this creator.
I recommend that you binge-watch dozens of his videos — you will not be disappointed. His storytelling sometimes makes you get into an existential crisis, but then it inspires you, helps you feel happier and more mindful. He speaks about the human species and trajectory of its development, about the Universe, quantum physics, the nature of conscienceness and many other topics.
3. Nerdwriter1 (link)
Nerdwriter is, as you may have guessed, a true nerd. He is also the best video essayist out there on topics such as cinema, music, pop culture and many other forms of art. In his five to ten-minute videos, he explains how micro expressions make Anthony Hopkins such a great actor, why Parasites’ montage is perfect, how Rembrandt’s masterpieces work, and why Bob Dylan deserves a Nobel prize. In every video, Nerdwriter digs deep and creates a captivating story even out of the most trivial aspects of art and life.
4. Bill Wurtz (link)
Unfortunately, Bill Wurtz has stopped making YouTube videos, although his channel boasts almost 4 million subscribers and his most popular video, History of the Entire World, I Guess, has 85 million views. But you can and should watch the videos that he made prior to quitting blogging. They combine retrowave music, psychedelic animation and witty narration/singing. It is difficult to describe unless you’ve seen it.
5. Mustreader (link)
Honestly, I would recommend this channel even if it wasn’t mine, because I have created a channel that I wish existed out there. On my video podcast Mustreader, I speak with prominent guests on transhumanism, biohacking, philosophy, productivity, Quantified Self, trends of development of society, and other topics.
My most favourite interviews include the one with Peter Singer on effective altruism, with Aubrey de Grey on transhumanism and longevity, and with Chris Dancy on biohacking gadgets and using your data to improve your life. Soon, I am going to speak to Yuval Noah Harari — do not miss that.
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