Book Introductions from 2017
Every year, I’ve been trying to read a little bit more than I did last year. In 2017, I read 19 books, almost all of which are non-fiction. Here’s a short introduction to each of these.
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind — Yuval Noah Harari
Yuval Harari is an Israeli historian and philosopher who meditates. This may be one of the reasons because of which he’s able to bring incredible clarity in his understanding of the last 70,000 years of human history. More than a chronological tree of humanity’s growth, this book shall provide you with a map that helps you untangle seemingly separate concepts like agriculture, money, religion, cities and democracy, in the web of human history. Already on its way to becoming an all-time classic like A Brief History of Time.
“The greatest scientific discovery was the discovery of ignorance.”
2. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow — Yuval Noah Harari
In Sapiens, Yuval Harari helped us lay the foundation for an analysis of human history, by the end of which we develop a tool that we could apply to any time in the past to see how it fits in. In Homo Deus, he helps us use that tool to understand and see through the present and the future — What is the ‘religion’ of today? Is our relationship with individual rights one of obsession? What will be the construct of the future? Will we uphold information above human rights?
“When genetic engineering and artificial intelligence reveal their full potential, liberalism, democracy and free markets might become as obsolete as flint knives, tape cassettes, Islam and communism.”
3. The War Of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles — Steven Pressfield
If you read this as The Art Of War the first time, you’re probably in the majority. Artists, entrepreneurs and creators of various kind face many challenges, but their strongest opposition is themselves. Steven Pressfield personifies this opposition as Resistance, a living entity that a creator must fight to create art of all kinds. The overall lesson is simple: do. Just shut up, and do. There’s a lovely quote in this book that explains it better: “Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration strikes,” he replied. “Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
4. The Book On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are — Alan Watts
Alan Watts is probably the most quoted man in music. And in the last decade of his existence, he wrote The Book as a kind of summary of his exploration of theology, philosophy and spirituality. The title is also light satire. Like the Bible is for Christianity, the Quran is for Islam, this is ‘The Book’ On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. Your identity is a mirage. There is no distinct self that is separate from ‘the other’. You and the rest of the universe are parts of the singular process that is the whole cosmos.
5. The Wisdom Of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety — Alan Watts
A master of dissolving dualities, flipping a coin and showing us that both sides are actually one, Alan Watts puts a mirror to our face and shows us the insecurity that we peddle as individuals and as a society, and how we are desperate to fill this void whether through religion, consumerism or philosophy. But, counter-intuitively, it’s this very strong desire to be secure that traps us in insecurity, and recognizing this is our way towards true peace.
Not sure if it’s from this book, but here’s an Alan Watts quote to get you into the mood. “There is no end to the minuteness which you can unveil through physical investigation, for the simple reason that the investigation itself is what is chopping things into pieces. And, the sharper you can sharpen your knife, the finer you can cut it. And, the knife of the intellect is very sharp indeed.”
6. Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization — Dave Logan & John King
How do communities and groups develop? Unlike most books on this topic, Tribal Leadership comes with a wealth of research to help us understand the different stages that groups could be in. These stages are determined by the patterns in the language used by group members. The stage itself determines how well-equipped a group is to form, work on and achieve its shared goals. Reading this book can give you an intuitive understanding of how to gauge people and groups in relation to each other.
7. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World — Cal Newport
Irrespective of who we are, an information worker, a physical labourer, a home maker, we do our best work when we go deep. This is the work that has the most impact and also the one that makes us feel the most fulfilled. But as consumers in the distraction economy, everyone’s trying to buy our attention — social media, phone calls, emails, meetings, games. We are constantly out of focus. Take it from the former vice-president of user growth at Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya, “(social media is) ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”. Cal Newport explains what deep work is, why it’s important, and how we can increase how much of our lives we spend on deep work, making our lives more fulfilling and productive.
8. The Power Of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment — Eckhart Tolle
If this list was ranked by how often I’ve recommended each book to others, The Power Of Now would’ve been at the top, and I would’ve deleted all other books. This particular reading was my fourth time in three years. Haruki Murakami said, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” Suffering is caused within the confines of our thoughts. We reduce all problems and solutions to concepts, but it’s only when we stop thinking or observe our own thoughts do we realize that we’re co-creating this illusion. Eckhart Tolle is a master when it comes to writing from the beyond and finding what’s common among religions, philosophies and ideologies. This book is incredibly powerful, especially when applied in daily life. Meditate.
“The opportunity that is concealed within every crisis does not manifest until all the facts of any given situation are acknowledged and fully accepted.”
9. The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less — Barry Schwartz
As twenty-first century humans, we love freedom. We think it’s the central pillar of identity, and hence we get excited when our technological advances enable practically endless choice, whether it’s two dozen product choices for every single need in the supermarket, or the choice of a life partner or a workplace. We need to pause and realize that although the ability to make choices is great, the process of choosing itself might be severely impairing us, and encouraging our affinity for dissatisfaction. More might actually be way lesser.
10. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers — Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz of the famous venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is big into hip-hop. In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, he starts every chapter by quoting a rapper. It fits right in because he’s equally honest with his war stories as a CEO of LoudCloud/Opsware. The book is filled with practical advice for entrepreneurs on the types of decisions that CEOs take, like hiring and firing key members, going forward when your board disagrees with you, dealing with the consequences of bad decisions, how to sell your company, etc. Here’s some golden advice from the man:
“Some things that you want to encourage will be quantifiable, and some will not. If you report on the quantitative goals and ignore the qualitative ones, you won’t get the qualitative goals, which may be the most important ones. Management purely by numbers is sort of like painting by numbers — it’s strictly for amateurs.”
11. Rework — Jason Fried
Once you’ve read a few books on how to run a business, read Rework and unlearn all that outdated stuff. Jason Fried and his team are counter-intuitive with most things that they do. It’s a skill they developed running 37signals/Basecamp. Bite-size chapters unveil hacks on all aspects of entrepreneurship. Almost everything in this book is unconventional advice. Outside investment? Maybe not. Office? Maybe not. Worry about competition? Maybe not. Work very, very hard? Maybe not.
12. The Age Of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order — Paul Vigna
Not knowing about blockchain in 2017/18 is like not knowing how to use a computer in 2008. If you don’t know where to start, start here. With Bitcoin as the central focus, Paul Vigna takes us through the history of Bitcoin, why it could be a game changer, and why we should really pay attention to the underlying technology of blockchain. Blockchain is moving real fast, so this book might get slightly outdated between now and the end of this list.
13. The Hardware Startup: Building Your Product, Business and Brand — Renee DiResta
It covers the basics of starting and running a hardware start-up. I don’t really have anything more to say about this book.
14. Nightfall — Isaac Asimov
This is the only fictional book in this list, and Isaac Asimov is probably the only author who could make that happen. On a planet with 6 suns, darkness never comes, except as an eclipse every 2049 years. Of course, the civilization on the planet doesn’t completely understand why this is happening, and their social and mental fabrics tear as they try to make sense of it. An interesting read that made me think about how we abstract away the unknown; one with obvious parallels to religion.
15. The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying — Sogyal Rinpoche
A modern introduction to Tibetan Buddhism with a deep focus on confrontating death and its role in the cycle of karma. Here’s an apt introduction by Sogyal himself: “”To learn how to die is to learn how to live.” If you don’t really know anything about Buddhism, you may find this book to be a bit too mystical and rooted in Buddhist ritual.
“Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are. We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity — but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our “biography,” our partners, family, home, job, friends, credit cards… It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely for our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are?
Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn’t that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?”
16. The 4-Hour Workweek — Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss explains how it’s better to focus on growing appreciable wealth (experience) instead of countable wealth (money). You should be able to live a rich life with less than 4 hours of work per week. He shows how he did it, and how many others have done it. Most of this may not be directly applicable to us, but the strategies that they use definitely are. If you’re someone who’s considered quitting your job and doing something else, consider giving this a read.
17. Creative Guitar 1: Cutting Edge Tech — Guthrie Govan
Guthrie Govan is a genius, so when he writes about what he does best, it’s a great tool to improve one’s guitar skills. He describes an intelligent approach to guitar practice and theory. However, this book is better suited to you if you’ve been playing for a few years and need to get to the next level.
18. Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing — Vasant Lad
There are some limitations of allopathy that I’ve witnessed, and I wanted to explore Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, the ancient Hindu system of medicine, the self is one being, and hence parts of the body, the mind and emotions are not treated separately. The same underlying cause (which they describe through abstract energy systems called doshas) can manifest in various tangible and seemingly unrelated ways. Could a torn ligament in a knee, a fast metabolism, and a recurring cold be related?
19. The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph — Ryan Holiday
One of the faces of stoicism, Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” Ryan Holiday, builds on this stoic concept and writes about how, when life is approached correctly, obstacles give way to become the path rather than impede progress.
“The great psychologist Victor Frankl, survivor of three concentration camps, found presumptuousness in the age-old question: “What is the meaning of life?” As though it is someone else’s responsibility to tell you. Instead, he said, the world is asking you that question. And it’s your job to answer with your actions.”
Well, that’s it. I hope you found at least one book that you ended up adding to your to-read list. If you are interested in discussing the contents of any of these books, or if you have suggestions and recommendations for further reading, comment below. Ciao!
