Foundation Reading for Your 20's
I think reading is a super power.
Two of the wealthiest men in the world agree with me.
But Building a reading habit is tough. You can apply something like Farnam Street’s 25 Pages a Day. But 25 pages of what?
Below are my recommendation of books that make a solid foundation reading list for someone in their 20's
Master Your Mind
Moonwalking With Einstein by Josh Foer:
This book isn’t rich in technical material (for that read The Memory Book), however it’s an entertaining read about how Josh went from having a completely average memory (possibly even sub-par) to becoming a memory champion in the space of one year.
This is on the list to tackle any excuses one may have of putting accelerated learning principles into action or that they “just don’t have a good memory”.
The Four Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss:
A book on meta-learning disguised as a cook book. It’s actually a toolbox for deconstructing complex skills and learning them quickly.
Learn how to deconstruct top performers, and find the 20% of actions that correspond to 80% of their results
The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman:
The subject matter is much the same as the Four Hour Chef in terms of deconstructing a skill to its basic chunks, then learning the chunks in order of priority.
However, the value in this book lies in the thought shift that while it may take 10,000 hours to become a world class master at something, it only takes 20 to get good ENOUGH for almost any of our goals.
I don’t NEED to be world class at everything. I just need to be good enough to accomplish a particular goal.
Mastery by Robert Greene:
This book is when 20 hours isn’t enough.
You don’t want to be “good enough” at a skill, you want to be known for it, a World Champion.
A Master.
Robert Greene analyzes the lives of dozens of historical and contemporary masters to find the commonalities across their lives. These commonalities are then distilled into a life-path that you can follow, substituting in your desired skill. The chapters on Medieval Apprenticeship alone are worth reading.
Master Your Self
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg:
This book covers how influential habits are in our day to day lives and the cumulative returns you can get from cultivating the right habits. Also covers the neuroscience of habit formation and a lot of the contemporary research
The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday:
The Obstacle is The Way is a practical primer on Stoicism.
Stoicism is an ancient Hellenistic philosophy that’s noteworthy for not being bogged down with arcane gibberish, and perfectly surviving the test of time.
It teaches one to cultivate inner strength and resilience and turn obstacles one faces into opportunities for growing a power base and accomplishing your goals.
Ego is the Enemy is for when the biggest obstacle you’re facing is yourself.
Your pride.
You’re feeling that the world owes you something.
That you don’t have to Do The Work
Master Your Lifestyle
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi:
The BEST book on money
I Will Teach You To Be Rich doesn’t make you feel like shit for spending money you’ve earned.
It focuses on Big Wins (a $1/hr raise that makes you $2,000 a year) instead of nickle and diming shit (saving $3 on lattes for total savings of $1095 -if you buy one everyday).
Ramit somehow manages to be absolutely hilarious while explaining how to set-up an automated financial system and low-fee index investing.
This and the Defining Decade are probably the only books on the list that I think is really mandatory for EVERYONE in their 20’s.
The Defining Decade by Dr. Meg Jay:
30 is the new 20? Bullshit.
This book explains how your 20’s are a period of physiological and neurological change, and is an ideal time to build a lifestyle infrastructure.
Cultivating the right habits, and the philosophies, and spending your time with the right people.
Reading the right books.
Time is your only completely non-renewable resource.
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