Books
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How a Book on Negative Thinking Made Me 20% Happier
There’s one passage from The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman that has been a more potent wake-up call for my happiness than blasting trumpets, buckets of icy water, and a double espresso shot combined. It goes like this: The startling conclusion at which they [reputable psychologists and philosophers] had all arrived, in different ways, was this:…
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Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport: 5 Lessons to Tame Technology
“I finally finished it!” my brother told me on a train headed to the north of Germany. By “it,” I could tell, he meant Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. Not just because I had recommended the book to him a few months prior, but also because there was a smugness in his voice that probably…
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Dopamine Nation: 5 Lessons on Pain, Pleasure, and Balance
When I was stuck in a deep rut and YouTube rabbit hole a few months ago, I randomly came across an interview with Dr. Anna Lembke — a psychiatrist, author, and addiction specialist. Unexpectedly, I heard her say something that pierced through my apathetic slumber: “We’ve reached a tipping point where abundance itself has become a physiological…
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‘The Longing for Less’ by Kyle Chayka: 5 Key Lessons on Minimalism
I have a strange problem with most content on minimalism: It’s all a bit too convenient. See, the typical minimalist hero’s journey goes like this: (1) discover you feel miserable, (2) blame all your problems on your stuff, (3) get rid of as many possessions as you can, and (4) be happy. It’s a neatly…
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Finish More Books: How to Unlock the Power of Patient Reading
Until recently, reading anything felt straight-up strainful. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to read. I kept buying more books, my TBR had grown like bamboo on fertilizer, and, as a writer and philosophy student, reading is part of my job. And yet, reading patiently — let alone finishing books — had become as tough as opening a pickle…
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Don’t Remember What You Read (In Praise of Forgetfulness)
Advice on how to remember everything you read is plastered all over the internet. And to me — someone who juggles writing with studying languages and philosophy — this used to sound like the key to the promised land. Here was the antidote to living in a world of information overload. At last, I could escape the torturing anxiety…
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Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman: Top 5 Lessons
One of the things I love most about this book is the author’s personal history. You see, long before publishing Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman wrote a weekly column on productivity. He’s a productivity geek. A guru. He knows every trick in the book — and added a few chapters. Did it make him happier, though? Complete,…
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3 Deep Lessons from Greenlights (and Why You Should Get the Audiobook)
Ironically, I’ve never been a huge fan of Matthew McConaughey. The only noteworthy thing I used to know about him was the insane number of “Murphs” he dropped in Interstellar. But then, I picked up his memoir Greenlights on a whim. (It was a long train ride, and I needed some soothing words in my…
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3 Key Lessons From Rest by Alex Pang
Sometimes you’re lucky enough to read a book when you really need it. For me, Rest by Alex Pang was such a book. See, at the time, I was spinning too many plates. Heavy plates. On the one hand, I did a full-time master’s program where I was head over heels in projects and courses.…
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Deep Reading: The Skill to Absorb Everything You Read
Deep reading helped me level up my reading practice in every possible way: Ironically, I discovered it after a long and painful reading drought that was caused by… reading too much. See, I stopped getting value out of books. I only wanted results but stopped enjoying the process of reading altogether. Deep reading, however, brought…