8/10
Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect by Bob Rotella
Bob Rotella
Golf performance is 90% mental—embrace your mistakes, trust your routine, and free yourself from perfectionism to play your best.
Book Notes
A working library of everything worth keeping.
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.
8/10
On Writing by Stephen King
Stephen King
Good writing comes from reading a lot, writing a lot, and telling the truth—kill your darlings, avoid adverbs, and let the story lead you.
8/10
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon
Nothing is original—all creative work builds on what came before, so embrace your influences, copy what you love, and through the synthesis, your own voice emerges.
5/10
Indistractable by Nir Eyal
Nir Eyal
Distraction is not about your environment or technology—it's about escaping discomfort; becoming indistractable requires mastering internal triggers and designing your life for focus.
8/10
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday
Ego—the unhealthy belief in our own importance—is the enemy at every stage of life, blocking learning when we're aspiring, creating blind spots during success, and preventing recovery during failure.
7/10
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish
Shane Parrish
The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life—master your defaults, create space between stimulus and response, and build systems that support good judgment.
8/10
Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis
Sean Ellis
Growth hacking is cross-functional, data-driven experimentation focused on the entire customer journey—from acquisition through retention and referral.
6/10
This is Marketing by Seth Godin
Seth Godin
Marketing is about change—finding the smallest viable audience, understanding their worldview, and creating something they'll be proud to spread.
8/10
Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
Noah Kagan
Start a business this weekend by validating before building—find three customers willing to pay, then iterate from there instead of spending months on a product nobody wants.
9/10
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
We are blind to the role of luck and randomness in life, systematically attributing success to skill and failure to bad luck—an error that leads to poor decisions.
8/10
Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
Annie Duke
Quit argues that the real skill in life isn’t grinding forever, it’s knowing when to walk away from the wrong path so you can double down on the right one.
9/10
Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis
A firsthand account of the excess, greed, and absurdity of 1980s Wall Street that exposed how Salomon Brothers and the bond market worked—and eventually imploded.
8/10
The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert
Gary Halbert
A legendary copywriter's letters from prison to his son—raw, practical wisdom on direct response marketing, writing copy that sells, and living a good life.
8/10
Drive by Daniel Pink
Daniel Pink
Traditional carrot-and-stick motivation fails for creative work—true motivation comes from autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
9/10
How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis
Felix Dennis
Getting rich requires ownership, obsessive dedication, and the willingness to fail repeatedly—no salary will make you wealthy; only equity in a business you control.
8/10
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield
Resistance is the invisible enemy that stops you from doing your creative work—defeat it by showing up every day and treating your art like a professional treats their job.
8/10
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Charles Duhigg
Habits are loops of cue, routine, and reward—you can't eliminate bad habits, but you can change them by keeping the cue and reward while inserting a new routine.
10/10
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss
Escape the "deferred life plan" by designing a lifestyle that frees you from the 9-5 through automation, outsourcing, and the 80/20 principle—retire now, not at 65.
9/10
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Matt Ridley
Human prosperity has increased exponentially because trade and specialization allow ideas to "have sex"—combining and recombining to create innovation that benefits everyone.
7/10
Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy
Do your most important, challenging task first thing in the morning—"eat the frog"—and the rest of the day becomes easier.
8/10
The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant
Will & Ariel Durant
Human nature and the patterns of history repeat endlessly—understanding these lessons helps us see our own time more clearly.
9/10
Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Asymmetry of risk—people making decisions without bearing consequences—is the root of fragility, unfairness, and bad judgment in systems from finance to politics.
8/10
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan
Psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD, long dismissed as dangerous, are showing remarkable therapeutic potential for depression, addiction, and end-of-life anxiety by temporarily dissolving the ego and enabling new perspectives.
8/10
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
Mark Manson
True happiness comes not from avoiding problems but from choosing better problems to have—and accepting that life's meaning comes from what we struggle for, not what we achieve.
5/10
Effortless by Greg Mckeown
Greg Mckeown
After Essentialism teaches what to focus on, Effortless shows how to make the essential easier—not through more effort, but through better approaches that reduce friction.
10/10
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss
Distilled wisdom from 200+ world-class performers—the tactics, routines, and habits they use to achieve extraordinary results.
8/10
Just Keep Buying by Nick Maggiulli
Nick Maggiulli
The best investment strategy is simple: save what you can, invest consistently in diversified assets, and don't try to time the market—just keep buying.
8/10
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz
There's no formula for the hard decisions every CEO faces—this is a brutally honest guide to the struggles of building and running a company when there are no good options.
8/10
Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer
Benjamin Dreyer
A witty, practical guide to writing better English—from a legendary copy editor who shows that good grammar serves clarity, not arbitrary rules.
6/10
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal
Stanley McChrystal
In complex, fast-moving environments, traditional command-and-control hierarchies fail—success requires creating a "team of teams" with shared consciousness and empowered execution.
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