Books That Make You Better
Over the years I’ve been fortunate to come across many different books, articles, podcasts, blogs and papers that helped build the mental models and ways to think and reason about the world which I heavily lean on today. I won’t cover every single one that gave me an AHA moment or make a me readjust my thinking, because there’s way too many to hold your attention in this format, but I’ll share some of the top selections.
No referral links, just quick reviews for you to decide what you like and want to pick up in print or as an audiobook. You could read all of books once or every year to keep the ideas fresh. If not re-reading, you could search for summaries of them online and just watch those every so often as understanding and iterating upon the key concepts is most important to building out your mind’s capacity to soak up more knowledge. Your ability to process, understand and react to make good decisions and your nack for spotting other’s blindspots and misinformed notions so when you disagree, you still see and acknowledge their perspective, is also a superpower in today’s age. If you want to know more, be better, achieve more, then you will. So let’s get to it!
1) 12 Rules For Life
Jordan Peterson is a master at psychology, relationships and general self improvement tactics that cannot help but make you live better if you take his words to heart. He’s also been pivotal to pushing back against the extreme and unhealthy ideas coming from postmodernism and provokes deep thought and questioning why we do the things we do. He extensively goes into how we can setup ourselves up to be successful as well as the opportunity to find meaning, do what we do best and understand our significant others, the differences between sexes and be the best version of ourselves.
His following book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules is more of the same fantastic material, diving into many other important aspects of life.
2) 100 Mental Models
This is the book which is included in the Wisdom Theory MM package on Gum Road. It introduces the concept of mental models, extensively covers at least 100 of them and provides invaluable ways to understand key ideas in the world of economics, psychology, sociology and science. This mental models help people who are interested in improving their thinking simply get better, it’s great material.
3) The Almanak of Naval Ravikant
If you only read one book on the list, make it this one. Naval is a successful entrepreneur who has a strong mind, body and spirit and is thus overflowing with wisdom. He’s contrarian at times, focused the relationship between happiness and desire, always looking to optimize life and really understands what matters to him and how to find what matters to you. If you want to understand people, your inner potential, psychology and wealth creation, you should find his works quite satisfying: timeless wisdom that never gets old.
4) Can’t Hurt Me
I’m usually not much for life stories, but David Goggins has really told an inspiration tale of strength, perseverance and tenacity that reinforces the idea that, “You are stronger than you think”. So many people give up too easy or never try at all, but if you get into this book, especially the audio version with the conversations between the author and narrator, it may speak to you and let you hear a calming and encouraging voice whenever you encounter adversity.
5) How To Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie is a fantastic story teller and this book, and along with Influence by Robert Caldini, it will change how you see conversations, relationships and human interaction for the better. It won’t make you manipulative (unless you let it), but it will give you the tools for an upper hand in negotiation. It’s a classic, along with The Richest Man in Babylon and Think and Grow Rich for a foundational growth mindset, it should not be missed.
6) Rich Dad, Poor Dad
One of the best, if not the best, modern investing and mindset book I’ve came across. The change of thinking from, “I can’t afford it” to “How can I afford it?” really changes the way you see yourself and the world. No more living your life by your own self-imposed limits while still living within your means. Be careful as this book, in the kindest way, will make love to your mind if you let it. The board game is also super fun and underrated! And just wait until Rich Dad finds out about Hex, I imagine he’d fall in love with staking system and truth engine.
7) Scivive
And finally one from The King, Richard Heart himself. This book makes self-help cool and exciting. Money, Respect, Power, Meaning, how to win at life and rock and roll, it’s got it all (except admittedly missing crypto, for now). The link below is for a copy on a fan-made website, but you can find the latest on the Telegram channel and or online via audiobook from a couple kind sources listed below. You can also check Richard’s self improvement videos on his channel here and here.
And that’s a wrap! Let me know on twitter if you’ve read any of these, all of them or if there’s another you’d add to the list. Be sensitive to opportunities and you’ll make your own luck. Seek knowledge and it will find you. Seek understanding and your eyes will open. If you want to think better, read more!
