“Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth – Book Summary
Angela Duckworth is the world’s leading authority on the science of grit, and she’s the author of the New York Times bestseller with the same title: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals,” she explains in her 2013 TED Talk. “Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking […]
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“Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work” by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal — Book Summary
Stealing Fire is a book about nonordinary states of consciousness (NOSC), written by the founders of the Flow Genome Project, Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal. You may recognize Kotler as the author of the highly popular The Rise of Superman, his previous book about flow, which is also a nonordinary state of consciousness. The premise of the […]
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“The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance” by Steven Kotler – Book Summary
The Rise of Superman is a book about flow written by Steven Kotler, a multiple NY Times bestselling author and co-founder of the Flow Research Collective. The story of the book is simple: Over the past three decades, action and adventure sports athletes have “pushed human performance farther and faster than at any other point in […]
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“Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Book Summary
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is a 1990 book on happiness and how to obtain it. According to Csikszentmihalyi, happiness is achieved not through external means (e.g., money, fame, influence, or material riches) but by controlling consciousness – by controlling our inner, moment-to-moment experience of life. It’s not about what happens “out there” in […]
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“How to Think Like a Roman Emperor” by Donald Robertson (Book Summary)
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson is an engaging introduction to one of history’s greatest figures: Marcus Aurelius. Thus the subtitle, “The Stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius.” “This entire book is designed to help you follow Marcus in acquiring strength of mind and eventually a more profound sense of fulfillment,” Robertson writes. […]
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“The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (Book Summary)
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday is a book that offers 366 Stoic meditations, one for every day of the year. Whatever your going through, there’s advice from the Stoics that can help. Despite the philosophy’s age, “the works of the Stoics have always been fresh and current,” as Stoicism is still highly relevant today. Holiday […]
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“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl (Book Summary)
Man’s Search for Meaning is a book by psychotherapist Viktor Frankl, who was a long-time prisoner in bestial concentration camps during the Second World War. The book details some of his personal experiences and how they led to his discovery of logotherapy. “A psychiatrist who personally has faced such extremity is a psychiatrist worth listening to,” […]
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“The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills” by Daniel Coyle (Book Summary)
Daniel Coyle is the author of The Talent Code, in which he explains how talent is made. The short story: talent is the result of practice + motivation + having a great coach. It’s not about innate traits; it’s all about (the right kind of!) practice, practice, practice. Coyle arrived at this conclusion after visiting nine so-called […]
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“The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown.” by Daniel Coyle (Book Summary)
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle takes a look at extraordinary performers and describes how they became so extraordinary in the first place. Over the course of 18 months, Coyle visited nine so-called talent hotbeds – places that produce Everest-size amounts of talent. When he investigated those hotbeds in detail, he found that they all shared […]
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Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson (Book Summary)
Anders Ericsson is the world’s leading scientist on elite performance and deliberate practice. His research involves finding expert performers who can reliably do things that others can’t, and then figuring out how they’re able to do it. Peak is the result of more than three decades of research. The book is packed with fascinating studies, eye-opening facts, […]
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