Book Notes
Detailed notes on every book that earned a re-read. The point isn't a reading list — it's a place I return to when I need an idea I half-remember from somewhere.
Robert Greene
Master power dynamics with Robert Greene's 48 Laws, distilled from 3,000 years of history. Learn how power really works in relationships, business, and life—plus how to defend yourself from those who use these tactics against you.
Robert Greene
Robert Greene reveals the psychology of influence through 9 seducer archetypes and a 24-step seduction process. Learn powerful persuasion techniques from history's greatest seducers—from Cleopatra to Casanova—and recognize when they're being used on you.
Robert Greene
Robert Greene's most comprehensive work on social psychology, teaching 18 laws for understanding human behavior. Decode people's true motivations, master empathy, see through manipulation tactics, and understand the hidden forces that drive all human action.
Robert Greene
Apply military strategy to business and life with Robert Greene's 33 battle-tested tactics. From Napoleon to Sun Tzu, learn to think strategically, anticipate opponents' moves, and win conflicts before they begin.
Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel's 19 counterintuitive lessons reveal why financial success is 80% psychology, 20% knowledge. Learn why doing well with money isn't about what you know—it's how you behave, how you think about risk, and how you understand compounding.
Matthew Walker
UC Berkeley sleep researcher Matthew Walker reveals the science behind sleep and why modern life is destroying it. Learn how sleep deprivation wrecks memory, creativity, immune function, and lifespan—plus practical strategies to fix your sleep.
Robert Cialdini
Six universal principles of persuasion—reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity—drive human compliance and can be used ethically or exploitatively.
Robert Greene
Master your craft through apprenticeship, creative practice, and embracing challenges—Robert Greene reveals how history's greatest masters achieved excellence through deliberate practice and deep immersion in their fields.
Peter Attia
Dr. Peter Attia's evidence-based guide to extending healthspan and preventing the 4 Horsemen (heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes). Learn Medicine 3.0's focus on prevention over treatment, plus the exercise and nutrition strategies that actually extend life.
Mark Manson
True attractiveness comes not from tactics or techniques, but from living with honesty, vulnerability, and a lifestyle aligned with your values.
Cal Newport
In an economy that rewards rare and valuable skills, the ability to perform distraction-free, cognitively demanding work—deep work—is becoming both increasingly valuable and increasingly rare.
James Clear
James Clear's proven framework for building good habits and breaking bad ones through tiny 1% improvements. Learn the 4 Laws of Behavior Change, habit stacking, and environment design—practical strategies from the #1 NYT Bestseller with 15M+ copies sold.
Peter Thiel
The most valuable companies are built by creating something entirely new (going from 0 to 1) rather than copying what exists (going from 1 to n)—and this requires contrarian thinking about secrets, monopolies, and the future.
Eric Jorgenson
This book distills Naval Ravikant’s philosophy on how to build wealth, think clearly, and cultivate lasting happiness by combining specific knowledge, leverage, judgment, and inner freedom.
Greg McKeown
Success comes from doing less but better—by deliberately choosing what is essential and eliminating everything else, we make our highest contribution.
Robert Greene
A collaboration between Robert Greene and rapper 50 Cent that distills one ultimate law of power: fearlessness — arguing that the greatest obstacle to success is not external but the fear that lives inside us.
Scott Young
Ultralearning is a self-directed, intense approach to mastering hard skills quickly by mapping the territory (metalearning), focusing deeply, practicing directly, drilling weaknesses, testing yourself, seeking sharp feedback, retaining what you learn, building intuition, and constantly experimenting.
Chris Voss
The best negotiators use tactical empathy and calibrated questions to understand the other side's perspective and guide them toward your desired outcome without direct confrontation.
David Deida
Key insights and lessons from The Way of the Superior Man—practical wisdom distilled from David Deida's work.
Robert T. Kiyosaki
The rich don't work for money—they make money work for them through assets like real estate and businesses, while the poor and middle class stay trapped in the rat race.
Sun Tzu
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting—through superior strategy, knowing yourself and your enemy, and exploiting circumstances.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Some things benefit from shocks—they are antifragile; our goal should be to position ourselves and our systems to gain from disorder rather than merely survive it.
Kim Scott
The best managers care personally about their team while challenging them directly—anything less leads to ruinous empathy, obnoxious aggression, or manipulative insincerity.
Rolf Dobelli
We are predictably irrational—understanding the 99 cognitive biases that distort our thinking is the first step to making better decisions.
Yuval Noah Harari
Homo sapiens conquered the world not through physical superiority but through our unique ability to believe in shared fictions—myths, religions, nations, and money—that enable mass cooperation.
Daniel Kahneman
Key insights and lessons from Thinking, Fast and Slow—practical wisdom distilled from Daniel Kahneman's work.
Tim Ferriss
The quality of your life depends on the quality of your questions—these 17 questions help cut through fear, clarify priorities, and unlock unconventional paths.
James Dale Davidson & Lord William Rees-Mogg
A roadmap for how individuals can thrive as nation-states weaken, technology decentralizes power, and society transitions into the Information Age.
Charlie Munger
Wisdom comes from building a latticework of mental models across disciplines—and applying them to make better decisions while avoiding stupidity.
Jordan Peterson
A blend of psychology, philosophy, mythology, and self-help that offers 12 practical rules for navigating the chaos of life — arguing that meaning comes from taking responsibility, confronting suffering, and pursuing what is meaningful rather than what is expedient.
One short summary every time I add a new note to the library. About once a week.
Get my weekly newsletter — one idea + the best of what I read.
Join 25,000+ readers. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.