Books: the key takeaway

A short summary with my #1 takeaway from the best 100+ books I’ve read. 

I remember more than just one key point, but this exercise allowed me to make the knowledge more actionable.

This page will be constantly updated as I read more.

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	Influence – by Robert Cialdini ★★★★★ The rule for reciprocation says that we should try to repay what another person has provided us. This is one of the strongest weapons of influence. Example: The success rate for donations doubled when they gave a small unsolicited gift.
	The Power Of Habit – by Charles Duhigg ★★★★★ The habit loop: cue – routine – reward. To change a habit you must keep the old cue (a trigger that tells your brain which habit to use), the old reward, but insert a new routine. You can change any habit if the cue and reward stay the same.
	Sapiens – by Yuval Noah Harari ★★★★★ “One of history’s fews iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally they reach a point where they can’t live without it.”
	So Good They Can’t Ignore You – by Cal Newport ★★★★★ Don’t follow your passion. Get good at what you do and stick around. As a result you will become happy and passionate about your work.
	On The Shortness of Life – by Seneca ★★★★★ Sometimes we feel that time is limited, but there is plenty of it. What we need to do is stop wasting time on people, emotions and activities that don’t matter.
	Antifragile – by Nassim Taleb ★★★★★ Via negativa: Focus on what to avoid and remove instead of what to do and add.
	Meditations – by Marcus Aurelius ★★★★★ “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
	Lying – by Sam Harris ★★★★★ Telling the truth is always better than telling a (white) lie. You don’t have to be rude about it, but be honest. It improves your whole life.
	The War Of Art – by Steven Pressfield ★★★★★ You have to battle resistance everyday. It will never go away – just sit down and do the work.
	Man’s Search for Meaning – by Victor Frankl ★★★★★ “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
	Thinking Fast and Slow – by Daniel Kahneman ★★★★★ We can affect peoples opinions and experiences with the peak-end rule. People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.
	How to Live on 24 Hours a Day – by Arnold Bennett ★★★★★ We waste our time before and after work. We need to plan in work on projects and time for reading to be more productive. As a result we will feel energized during the week instead of this tired feeling that is hanging over many.
	Thinking in Systems – by Donella H. Meadows ★★★★★ Be aware of drifting goals. There is a gap between our desired state (our goal) and our current state. When we take action it takes time to see results. Often we feel pressured to achieve our goal immediately and the quickest way to close the gap is by lowering our goal.
	The Willpower Instinct – by Kelly McGonigal ★★★★☆ “We think about our future selves like different people. We often idealize them, expecting our future selves to do what our present selves cannot.” We think that our future selves have more time, more energy and more willpower than the present you.
	Ego Is The Enemy – by Ryan Holiday ★★★★☆ To master a skill you need a plus, a minus and an equal. Find someone who is better than you – from them you learn. Find someone who is less skilled than you – from them you learn by teaching. Finally find someone equally skilled to challenge you (article).
	How to Win Friends and Influence People – by Dale Carnegie ★★★★☆ Being truly interested in people is the easiest way to make new friends.
	The Art of Learning – by Josh Waitzkin ★★★★☆ To reach mastery you have to play against the best competition.
	Switch – by Chip & Dan Heath ★★★★☆ Good behaviour costs willpower and we only have a limited amount available each day. Habits are in essence behavioural autopilot. That means you can do a good behaviour task such as going to the gym or eating healthy without exhausting your willpower. To change yourself you need to change your habits.
	What I Learned Loosing a Million Dollars – by Jim Paul & Brendan Moynihan ★★★★☆ Dreaming of fancy holidays and buying yachts? When it comes to making financial decisions you need to set your feelings aside and make an objective decision. Take a deep breath, take step back and look at the decision without emotion.
	The Magic of Thinking Big – by David J. Schwartz ★★★★☆ Set bigs goals, believe it can be done and take action!
	Anything You Want – by Derek Sivers ★★★★☆ Keep things easy when you start a business, don’t overcomplicated it. Innovate and try until you find something that people love.
	Gratitude – by Oliver Sacks ★★★★☆ Always be productive, even when you get older. It will make you happy.
	The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster – by Darren Hardy ★★★★☆ “An inbox actually is the modern day mailroom! (So don’t work in the mailroom.)”
	The Black Swan – by Nassim Taleb ★★★★☆ A turkey is fed for 1000 days and expects that every visit from the farmer means more food. The turkey only experienced getting food and therefore expects that is all that can and all that will happen. Before Thanksgiving the farmer comes again this time with an ax. Using inductive reasoning to forecast future events, according to Taleb, has a negative value. Don’t be a turkey.
	Fooled By Randomness – by Nassim Taleb ★★★★☆ The $1,000,000 a janitor got by winning the lottery does not have the same value as the $1,000,000 a dentist earned in his practice. If both would live 1 million lives the janitor would live 999,999 lives with unsuccessful lottery tickets, whereas the dentists range of possible lives would be from a good to very good income. The janitor is more dependent on randomness.
	The Bed of Procrustes – by Nassim Taleb ★★★★☆ The quote that had the most impact on me: “What I learned on my own I still remember”
	Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) – by Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson ★★★★☆ People believe and do dumb things to maintain the feeling that they are in control and smart. Afterwards we give stories a spin to self justify that we were right.
	A Guide to the Good Life – by William B. Irvine ★★★★☆ Negative visualizations, imagining that you lost the things you value the most, makes you appreciate the things you have. Instead of using the most common ‘cure’ for boredom, buying something to have a brief experience of joy, wanting the things you already have a much easier way to gain happiness (article).
	Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking – by Malcolm Gladwell ★★★★☆ You can find patterns in events based on narrow windows of experience. This process is called thin-slicing. Example: strangers, rather than friends, are being able to more accurately identify someone’s personality based on a 15-minute look at his or her dorm room.
	Bad Science – by Ben Goldacre ★★★★☆ When you hear about ‘scientific’ research promoting pills that will improve your life in some way remember this: There is no free lunch, and no effects without side-effects. Companies set-up poor research projects and interpreted data in creative ways to increase sales.
	Deep Work – by Cal Newport ★★★★☆ You regularly need a couple hours of intense focus without distraction. You are at your best deeply immersed in something and the experience of flow – that will come as a result – will give you deep satisfaction.
	The Tipping Point – by Malcolm Gladwell ★★★★☆ How to make a product reach its tipping point: First find a few people who will spread the word. Next, make sure the product has a sticky factor (e.g. its one of a kind, perceived value for money etc). Finally, the product has to fit in the right context (e.g. removing graffiti reduced crime, the context changed).
	The Compound Effect – by Darren Hardy ★★★★☆ A lot of people blame, play the victim or expect the government to take care of their problems. You have to take 100% personal responsibility for everything that happens. That is when you can make great things happen.
	The Alchemist – by Paulo Coelho ★★★★☆ “Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
	The Undoing Project – by Michael Lewis ★★★★☆ The human species is complex. We often have no idea why we do what we do. Human behaviour is poorly understood and even experts make many judgement mistakes. We like to think we make rational decisions, but this is not often the case.
	Tribe – by Sebastian Junger ★★★★☆ There is a growing dissconect in our society. Tragedies bring us closer although that is only for a short time.
	Unbroken – by Laura Hillenbrand ★★★★☆ “A lifetime of glory is worth a moment of pain.”
	The 4-Hour Workweek – by Tim Ferriss ★★★★☆ A persons success can be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.
	The 4-Hour Body – by Tim Ferriss ★★★★☆ Find find out your minimum effective dose: the smallest dose that will produce a desired outcome.
	Mindwise – by Nicholas Epley ★★★★☆ Is someone in the group impressed by you? We think we know how we are uniquely viewed by a particular person in a group, but we don’t. “How your brain thinks of groups of anything: Instead of remembering exact details, you extract the “gist” of the information. The “gist” of a group is not its individual members but, rather, its average.”
	The Nazi Officer’s Wife – by Edith H. Beer ★★★★☆ “Life is beautiful and it begins tomorrow”
	The Obstacle is the Way – by Ryan Holiday ★★★★☆ “Take your situation and pretend it is not happening to you. Pretend it is not important, that is doesn’t matter. How much easier would it be for you to know what to do? How much more quickly and dispassionately could you size up the scenario and its options? You could write it off, greet it calmly.”
	The 48 Laws of Power – by Robert Greene ★★★★☆ Always say less than necessary. The more you say the less you seem to be in control, the more common you appear and the more likely you are to say something foolish. Powerful people impress by saying less.
	The 33 Strategies of War – by Robert Greene ★★★★☆ Always keep your goal in mind and calculate ahead. Don’t blindly try to win the battle you are in, instead figure out how to win the war and reach your goal.
	Mastery – by Robert Greene ★★★★☆ The 3 stages of mastery: First is the apprenticeship where you find and follow a mentor religiously. Next, you practise your new skills and get creative, making additional connections. Finally, after 10,000 hours of hard work you achieve mastery.
	The Art of Seduction – by Robert Greene ★★★★☆ “When our emotions are engaged, we often have trouble seeing things as they are.”
	The Emperor of All Maladies – by Siddhartha Mukherjee ★★★★☆ “The art of medicine is long, Hippocrates tells us, “and life is short; opportunity fleeting; the experiment perilous; judgment flawed.”
	Drive – by Daniel H. Pink ★★★★☆ We want to be able to work harder, work without the external motivation of a reward and sustain our motivation longer to work more hours. To achieve that we need three elements in the task: autonomy, master and purpose.
	Reinvent Yourself – by James Altucher ★★★★☆ There are two types of decisions: decisions made out of fear and decisions made out of growth.
	Essentialism – by Greg McKeown ★★★★☆ Focus on becoming good at one thing instead of making little progress in many things.
	Extreme Ownership – by Jocko Willink ★★★★☆ “Dicipline equals freedom.”
	Free Will – by Sam Harris ★★★★☆ We do not have the free will that we think we do. Yes, you can do what you want, but you don’t choose what you want in the first place. Everything that makes up our conscious choices, our thoughts, wants and desires are determined outside our control.
	Waking Up – by Sam Harris ★★★★☆ Our minds largely determine the quality of our lives. If we spend nearly every waking moment lost in thoughts we are at the mercy of whatever our thoughts happen to be. We can break this cycle with meditation.
	Steal Like an Artist – by Austin Kleon ★★★★☆ Our goal is to work smarter, not harder. Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. We have to plan and apply limitations to our work to gain more freedom (article).
	Show Your Work – by Austin Kleon ★★★★☆ You have to show your work online and learn in front of others. Don’t only show finished products – let people see how the sausage is made.
	The Fish That Ate the Whale – by Rich Cohen ★★★★☆ You can have a big edge over much larger competitors, who stay in the safety of their office, if you’re out in the field, know what is happening and can act quickly.
	The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – by Al Ries & Jack Trout ★★★★☆ Marketing is all about perceptions, not products. Therefore we should focus our marketing effort on changing perceptions.
	The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding – by Al Ries & Laura Ries ★★★★☆ A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.
	Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart – by Gordon Livingston ★★★★☆ “The three components of happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.”
	The Charisma Myth – by Olivia Fox Cabane ★★★★☆ In a test students wore bright yellow Barry Manilow t-shirts to class. Afterwards they greatly overestimated how many people they thought had noticed the t-shirts. This is known as the spotlight effect. Confidence is important for charisma and if you feel to self conscious be assured that few people will notice what’s wrong.
	A Short History of Nearly Everything – by Bill Bryson ★★★★☆ “It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.”
	The Paradox of Choice – by Barry Schwartz ★★★★☆ A maximizer tries to make the best possible choice in all the options available. This takes a lot of time and leaves people often in doubt. Satisficers settle for a choice that is good enough. These people are generally happier with their choice and have more free time to enjoy other things.
	The Checklist Manifesto – by Atul Gawande ★★★★☆ A checklist, in complex situations, greatly improves your results. Don’t feel overqualified to use one.
	Siddhartha – by Herman Hesse ★★★★☆ “When someone seeks,” said Siddhartha, “then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.”
	Behind the Beautiful Forevers – by Katherine Boo ★★★★☆ “It seemed to him that in Annawadi, fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but from the accidents and catastrophes they dodged. A decent life was the train that hadn’t hit you, the slumlord you hadn’t offended, the malaria you hadn’t caught.”
	Do the Work – by Steven Pressfield ★★★★☆ To make a plan start with the end, than the beginning and than the middle. Work backwards: “If you’re writing a movie, solve the climax first. If you’re opening a restaurant, begin with the experience you want the diner to have when she walks in and enjoys a meal.”
	Quiet – by Susan Cain ★★★★☆ Introverts are pressured to act like extroverts. If you’re an introvert stay close to yourself and don’t feel pressured into changing. You will add more value and be happier that way.
	Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman! – by Richard P. Feynman ★★★★☆ Always be curious. Try a lot of different things, ask questions and stay open-minded.
	The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – by Mark Manson ★★★★☆ If you experience negative emotions it is a call to action. On the contrary, positive emotions you experience are a reward for taking the proper action.
	How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big – by Scott Adams ★★★★☆ Goals are for losers – you need a system. A system is a process of continuous improvement. For example, a goal is to lose 10 kilo whereas a system is to get get fit and educate yourself about health (article).
	Elon Musk – by Ashlee Vance ★★★★☆ Constantly question yourself and think about how you could be doing things better.
	Marketing A Love Story – by Bernadette Jiwa ★★★★☆ You have to tell people what they can do with the product, not what the product does.
	The Grain Brain – by David Perlmutter ★★★★☆ Improve your brain health by eating a high fat and low carb diet. That means no processed foods (almost anything that is branded in the supermarket), or white flour foods (bread, pasta, white rice etc). Instead eat lots of healthy fats like avocados, fish, eggs, coconut oil, nuts and lots of vegetables.
	Total Recall – by Arnold Schwarzenegger ★★★★☆ “I never went to a competition to compete. I went to win.”
	Getting Past No – by William Ury ★★★★☆ Helping your ‘opponent’ to regain their mental balance is crucial to a successful negotiation.
	Flash Boys – by Michael Lewis ★★★★☆ The stock market is run by computers. If you think you can outsmart them you are probably wrong.
	The Truth – by Neil Strauss ★★★★☆ “Lying is about controlling someone else’s reality, hoping that what they don’t know won’t hurt you.”
	Love Yourself – by Kamal Ravikant ★★★★☆ Love yourself, really love yourself, and magic will happen in your life.
	The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon – by Brad Stone ★★★★☆ In a world with limited choice you fight for location, while in a world with infinite choice you fight for attention. Therefore in todays world you need to focus on your costumers and not on your competitors.
	The Art of War – by Sun Tzu ★★★★☆ “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
	Zero to One – by Peter Thiel ★★★☆☆ It’s great to create value, but that alone is not enough. What you need to do is capture some of the value you create.
	Freakonomics – by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner ★★★☆☆ Thinking about selling your house with a real-estate agent? Remember this: a real estate agent keeps her own home on the market an average of ten days longer and sells it for an extra 3%, or $10,000 on a $300,000 house.
	Swimming with Sharks – by Joris Luyendijk ★★★☆☆ Very few people understand what risks are being taken in the financial sector.
	Sam Walton: Made in America – by Sam Walton ★★★☆☆ To become great you have to completely embrace yourself in what you are doing.
	Leaders Eat Last – by Simon Sinek ★★★☆☆ The most important value in an organization is trust. To build trust you have to tell the truth.
	The Wisdom of No Escape – by Pema Chödrön ★★★☆☆ Follow one path of wisdom when you educate yourself about life. Don’t follow to many different teachings at the same time. By sticking to your path you will find a deeper truth.
	The Mental Game of Poker – by Jared Tendler ★★★☆☆ It can be very tempting to only do the things we’re good at. We also tend to prefer to improve our strengths instead of studying to mitigate our weaknesses. But to improve any skill in the most efficient way it is crucial that we focus as much on improving our weaknesses as we focus on building on our strengths (article).
	Outliers – by Malcolm Gladwell ★★★☆☆ To achieve mastery you need to practise a skill for 10,000 hours.
	David & Goliath – by Malcolm Gladwell ★★★☆☆ What gives a giant strength can also be its greatest weakness. If you know how to identify that weakness and use it to your advantage you can become a David.
	No More Mr Nice Guy – by Robert A. Glover ★★★☆☆ ‘Nice Guys’ have a negative impact on themselves and the people around them. Contrary to what they think Nice Guys need to set clear boundaries, have male friends and put their needs first.
	Trust Me I’m Lying – by Ryan Holiday ★★★☆☆ Use iterative journalism to create buzz for your company. First leak a (fake) story to some blogs. Because the story runs on multiple websites other media outlets assume the story is fact checked and true. This way a story can move up the media ladder and end up with national coverage.
	The Miracle Morning – by Hal Elrod ★★★☆☆ A morning routine can transform your life. The routine should consist of the following elements: Silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and journaling.
	Delivering Happiness – by Tony Hsieh ★★★☆☆ The 4 components of happiness in a job: perceived control, perceived progress, number and depth of your relationships and being part of something bigger than yourself.
	A Geek in Japan – by Hector Garcia ★★★☆☆ Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement. If you make small changes every day they will compound to the massive change you want (article).
	Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? – by William Poundstone ★★★☆☆ Job interviews appear to have little or no power to predict success on the job, beyond what might already be predicted from work experience or education.
	What Do You Care What Other People Think? – by Richard P. Feynman ★★★☆☆ If you want to find out what is wrong with a company it is better to ask the people on the work floor instead of management.
	The Top Five Regrets of the Dying – by Bronnie Ware ★★★☆☆ Allow yourself to be happy and dont get stuck in old patterns or habits.
	Rework – by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson ★★★☆☆ If you want to hire someone the years of experience don’t really matter. It doesn’t matter how long someone is doing something, it matters how well they do it.
	Brain Maker – by David Perlmutter ★★★☆☆ Your gut health is essential for your wellbeing. Therefore, in addition to a grain free diet add pre- and probiotics, eat more fermented foods such as kimchi and sauerkraut and drink kombucha.
	Choose Yourself – by James Altucher ★★★☆☆ No matter what you do there will always be 30 percent of people who love you, 30 percent who hate you and 30 percent who couldn’t care less.
	Tiny Beautiful Things – by Cheryl Strayed ★★★☆☆ When you don’t know how to solve a problem write it on a piece of paper. Leave it for a while, take a step back and then read it as if someone else wrote it. You can often find the solution by imagining you give someone else advice, reading between the lines and noticing what words you used to describe a situation.
	Turning Pro – by Steven Pressfield ★★★☆☆ Amateurs run away from their calling- meaning their work. They do compulsive browsing, serie watching, Facebooking etc. Everything to not sit down and follow their calling. On the other hand, professionals sit down, do the work and show up every day. It is painful and hard, but professionals follow their souls calling.
	Live Your Truth – by Kamal Ravikant ★★★☆☆ To unlock your potential your have to find out what you stand for, and that requires a conscious serious commitment.
	No Easy Day – by Mark Owen ★★★☆☆ “Don’t just live, but live for a purpose bigger than yourself. Be an asset to your family, community, and country.”
	Made to Stick – by Chip & Dan Heath ★★★☆☆ The Curse of Knowledge prevents experts to explain something in a compelling, simple way. Therefore, if you’re new to a company and have a question you’re better of asking a peer than a senior executive (Harvard Business Review article).
	Race of a Lifetime – by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin ★★★☆☆ The key to political success is having a stellar strategy.
	Mijn Stijl – by Toon Gerbrands ★★★☆☆ You have have approximately 3 months of work on your to-do list at home and work combined. If you take the time to finish everything the entire list, thats when you truly can get creative.
	The Peter Principle – by Laurence J. Peter ★★☆☆☆ To get a promotion the performance in your current role is more important than the abilities relevant to the intended role. Therefore, people get promoted until they reach their level of incompetence.
	What the Dog Saw – by Malcolm Gladwell ★★☆☆☆ Nassim Taleb buys options, not stocks, because he believes that he knows nothing, while other people believe they know more than they do.
	Bird by Bird – by Anne Lamott ★★☆☆☆ Create a routine to start work at the same time every day. This way you train your unconscious to start being creative when you need it.