Category: books

This was a book that wanted to read for some time as Robert Green is mentioned a lot by Ryan Holiday.

I haven’t read “The Prince” from Machiavelli but one of the most interesting things I found in the book is the several references to Baltasar Gracian. So I have a new author to read about.

This is not a book about how to be a good person, it is about characteristics you need to achieve power. I am not an expert but I think many points are valid. If they are ethical, it is a different topic.

My favourites:

Always say less than necessary, reputation, win through actions not arguments, avoid the unhappy, crush your enemy, unpredictability, isolation is dangerous, Disdain things you cannot have and free lunch, aim to the head, seem effortless, not look perfect, learn when to stop.

1- Never outshine the master

2- Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies

3- Conceal your intentions

4- Always say less than necessary

5- So much depends on reputation – guard it with your life

6- Court attention at all cost

7- Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit

8- Make other people come to you – use bait if neccesary

9- Win through your actions, never through argument

10- Infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky

11- Learn to keep people dependent on you

12- Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim

13- When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude

14- Pose as a friend, work as a spy

15- Crush your enemy totally

16- Use absence to increase respect and honor

17- Keep others in suspended terror: Cultivate an air of unpredictability

18- Do not build fortresses to protect yourself – isolation is dangerous

19- Know who you’re dealing with – do not offend the wrong person

20- Do not commit to anyone

21- Play a sucker to catch a sucker – seem dumber than your mark

22- Use the surrender tactic: Transform weakness into power

23- Concentrate your forces

24- Play the perfect courtier

25- Re-create yourself

26- Keep your hands clean

27- Play on people’s need to believe to create a cultlike following

28- Enter action with boldness

29- Plan all the way to the end

30- Make your accomplishments seem effortless

31- Control the options: Get others to play with cards you deal

32- Play to people’s fantasies

33- Discover each man’s thumbscrew

34- Be royal in your own fashion: Act like a king to be treated like one

35- Master the art of timing

36-Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them is the best revenge

37- Create compelling spectacles

38- Think as you like but behave like others

39- Stir up waters to catch fish

40- Despise the free lunch

41- Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes

42- Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter

43- Work on the hearts and minds of others

44- Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect

45- Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once

46- Never appear too perfect

47- Do not go past the mark you aimed for: In victory, learn when to stop

48- Assume formlessness

This was a recommendation from a very good friend that was sitting in my kindle for a while. I dont normally read Sci-Fi. Apart from Foundation, Dune and Three body problem. And honestly I liked the book. It was engaging, you wanted to know how things were going to finish, and I really like the end twist, the different personalities, etc.

And with all the new rocket companies trying to reach the moon, mars, etc. Maybe we will have a situation like the book in the long future: Earth, Mars and the Belt.

I will read the next book.

I bought this ebook as an offer and I was surprised about how short it was. It is easy to digest as it is not a hardcore science book

The most interesting lesson was the last one about “Probability, time and heat”. “the difference between past and future only exists when there is heat”. And the reason the heats from from hotter to cooler things is just probability…

And I dont mean I fully understood everything but It was a nice and light read.

I bought this ebook after watching this video.

It is quite dense and practical. The author cuts most of the technical terms and make it easy to understand. It is a about psychology and the split between Human/Rational brain and Chimp/Emotional brain. It reminds me again to this book. Although he adds the concept of the computer too inside our brain. The Chimp is the strongest so you need to learn to tame it and live with it, you can force the chimp as he always beat the rational side. The computer is the fastest answering and it is used by the chimp so you need to have a good programming on it: your live values.

So the whole book runs around those three concepts so you can build a balance between them and live a stable life.

I liked it as I felt resonated with several concepts. I think they match a lot with Stoicism in the sense to accept the world, create your values and take action.

It a funny book about about math errors in real life. An many of those errors are not isolated, they are like several slices of melted Swiss Cheese that are aligned and then is when shit happens as at some point there is line that can cross all holes. The important thing is to learn from mistakes, that are rarely published and make systems more robust (and i would say “simpler”) The errors in the books go from falling bridges, blow up space aircrafts, nearly missed fly accidents, medicines, etc.

Another things, correlation is not causality.

Interesting book for “Choice” architects. A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. The intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. A sludge, is the contrary, things that make your the choice process hard: ie, cancel your broadband subscription, etc

I think the main term in the book is the “Choice” Architect, and anybody that builds anything is one. An the main take of the book is, if you want people to do something, “make it easy”. This goes from buying healthy food in a supermarket, cafeteria, taxes, retirement investment, organ donations, etc etc.

The authors talk about “Libertarian Paternalism”, is like the economic concept of “Libertarian” but with a nudge, “Paternalism” so a tiny hand pushing you via the correct path.

Very interesting book, as per the title, it is about happiness and how to get there. There is a significant focus in Buddhism and Stoicism, as these philosophies started to look at this “problem” a long time a go and can help us to understand it. Both are focus in the individual and mainly in your interior. You only control your opinions and actions. You can’t control anything outside your skin, and if you try, you are doomed. Stoicism is something that really resonates with me and is giving me a lot of support.

The core of the book is the concept of the elephant and the rider inside your mind. We think the rider is in charge, but it is the elephant. The goal is how to guide the elephant for the correct path. The elephant is our “animal” past and it was been there for a long time so it requires a lot of touch to dominate it.

But the author says that not all happiness is in the individual. Human beings are social creatures so we that connection too as par of the happiness. And we need also espiritual happiness.

At the end, he says this is ying-yang and there is no perfect solution, it is just finding the balance.

To be honest, I think I have done a shitty summary of the book. It needs more credit.

I have read “The Black Swan” some years ago and wanted to read something else from the same author.

I took me a while to read the book, it is dense and wide, but interesting nonetheless.

Antifragility can be used for all aspects of life: economy, health, etc.

As it was an ebook, I didnt take notes, but there are several things I remember. Antifragile is not too flexible (you can’t keep your form) and not too regid (dinosaur). I like a lot the example between Extremistan (our current world) vs Mediocristan (antifragile world). An antifragile world is not perfect, is built to cope with problems so you can be prepared for the big ones or avoid the big ones. It was very funny the example of Switzerland, nobody knows the president of the country, but most of us know the president of USA, UK, Germany, France, etc. Switzerland is an the example of Mediocristan at political level, the country has several cantons, they govern themselves, they deal with local issues locally. The idea, is the “too big” too fail is wrong, and size doesnt assure success or survival. War is a sensitive topic, we have big wars, because we dont have small ones, so the little issues, escalate with time and they blow up big time. I think Italy in the Renaissance is a clear example of that, Italy wasn’t a country, just powerful city-states focus in trading. There was a spike in science, art, architecture without precedent but the cities fought constantly but never to annihilation. So this is a bit curios and a bit difficult to digest. But it “could” be logical, so get stronger through difficult things: weights, problems, study, etc.

I like the references to Stoicism and other religions giving a philosophical touch to the overall argument. And it is funny the attacks in Socrates.

Another thing, that was interesting, it something has been around 100 years (books, religion, etc), it is likely to last that amount of time again. So this is a recommendation for books to read…