Outlive is about optimizing your health to minimize risks from longer term diseases. There are four primary disease categories that represent the major causes of old age mortality: 1) cardiovascular, 2) cancer, 3) neurodegenerative (e.g. Alzheimer’s), and 4) metabolic (e.g., diabetes). These conditions often develop slowly over decades, so preventative medicine is a far better…
[Book 44] Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
Slow Productivity is a guide to producing high-quality work in an era of increased busyness. This philosophy is broken down into three components: 1) do fewer things, 2) work at a natural pace, and 3) obsess over quality. Do Fewer ThingsLimiting the number of tasks helps reduce the administrative burden of managing an extensive list.…
[Book 43] Getting Things Done by David Allen
Getting Things Done describes an effective system for organizing your daily tasks. Start by capturing every to-do item in a single place outside of your head. This can be in physical folders and notebooks, although my own system is almost exclusively digital. Once everything has been captured, go through each item to identify the single…
[Book 42] The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto
The Pyramid Principle clarifies business writing by providing a framework to logically and succinctly organize research and analysis. Research is a deductive process where insights lead to further research, iterating until the desired solution is found. In contrast, an inductive process should be used when sharing results. This involves stating conclusions up front and supporting…
[Book 41] Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
Hidden Potential reveals several science-backed ways to grow, improve and succeed. To begin, focus on enhancing your character, which is the capacity to prioritize your values over instincts. Unlike personality, character is a learned skill and to improve it, we need to embrace discomfort. Akin to working out, accepting temporary discomfort while pushing the limits…
[Book 40] The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The Psychology of Money explains how behavioral forces in personal finance play a larger role than the underlying math and logic of investing. Morgan explains that the optimal approach to investing is having a barbelled personality, where you’re optimistic about the future but paranoid about what will prevent you from getting there. This mindset allows…
[Book 39] Right Kind of Wrong by Amy Edmondson
Right Kind of Wrong deconstructs failure into three types (intelligent, basic, and complex), with a focus on explaining how to fail well. Intelligent failures result from taking carefully selected and survivable risks in new domains where the ability to succeed cannot be known in advance. This is the learning that propels us forward. In contrast,…
[Book 38] The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
The Infinite Game argues that leaders of companies should manage to an existence in perpetuity rather than chasing short-term wins. Companies adopting this mindset attract talent with a just cause – an inspiring vision of the future they are constantly striving towards. When anchored to a just cause rather than a product or service, companies…
[Book 37] Writing for Busy Readers by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink
Writing for Busy Readers is a guide to crafting effective written communication for daily needs, such as emails, presentations and short memos. Above all, this book teaches you to be empathetic towards your recipients by writing in a way that makes it easy for them to understand and act on your message. We all face…
[Book 36] The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
The Organized Mind applies brain science to improve how we manage information. Given that our brain’s evolution has not caught up with the recent exponential growth in the data we encounter, we need techniques to adapt. One way make optimal decisions and sustain happiness is to practice satisficing (a combination of satisfying and sufficient). People…