A year and a half ago my buddy Noah Kagan and I were walking down the streets of New York trying almost every hole in the wall bar, taco, and chinese place. Somewhere between the Kung Pao Pastrami from Mission Chinese and a pitcher of Mimosa’s we started discussing the question, what were books that had changed our lives? Not just good books, but ones that permanently altered our perspective on an important element of our lives. Noah wrote a blog post about his list of 18 books, so I figured it was about time I write a post about my end of the conversation. Here is my list, in no particular order , with the points that impacted me most.
- Stick to humble, down to earth, common sense principles, and you will prevail in the long run.
- Every conversation won’t change your life, but any single conversation can.
- Getting beyond the surface level conversation we default to is the key to having more meaningful interactions.
- Nothing is a coincidence.
- Be aware of what and who consumes your energy as well as how you try to gain energy from others. You’ll quickly realize much of what consumes your energy can be redirected towards more meaningful endeavors.
The Way of The Peaceful Warrior
- Meaningful life endeavors are about the journey not the destination.
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger
- "Even people who aren’t geniuses can out-think the rest of mankind if they develop certain thinking habits." - Darwin
- Much of success comes down to ego-less independent thinking. The main reasons people get bad results is ego, greed, envy, fear, and mindless imitation of other people.
- There are a huge number of things that lead to psychological biases and false perceptions in our decision making. Way too many to list here. Read the book to learn them all.
- Optimize your energy, not your time. Your time is a finite resource. Your energy has much more head room to improve.
- Your physiology (heart rate, sleep cycle, breathing, etc) is based on a series of sprints and rests. Design your life (macro and micro) to reflect the same pattern.
- Focus on the proving or disproving of the assumptions of a new idea/venture. What you learn from that process will lead you to a successful evolution of your product/business.
- I have never ear marked a book so much in my life. My recommendation is to just get it.
- Happiness is largely a function of the chemicals in our brain and therefore 80% genetic. There are only three things that have been found to change this - exercise, drugs, and meditation.
- There are very few things that have meaningful effect on the other 20% (and they aren’t what you think).
- Just like your arms or legs, your brain needs fuel to do work, exercise to get stronger, and rest to recover.
- Different types of tasks/exercises consume different amounts of energy. Knowing how to order and align these tasks maximizes your mental stamina and effectiveness.
- Authentic networking and relationships is the key to getting more done in your professional career. Note: I read this book really early in my career.
Have a book that changed your life? I’d love to hear it. Send me a tweet @bbalfour. Subscribe to my email list to get essays about Growth.
Comments