Book notes

Notes, ratings, and summaries from books I’ve read

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. – Richard Feynman

Knowing of something isn’t the same as really knowing it. Knowledge means that you have an intuitive grasp of the underlying concepts, not just the ability to regurgitate what you’ve heard.

These book notes and summaries are my attempt to not just “copy and paste” knowledge. I try to translate things into my own words to clarify my thinking and show where I still have gaps.

Latest notes and summaries

30 May, 2020
Rating: 2 / 5

Overall a so-so book. It caught my eye because of the subtitle (“The Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy”), but there weren’t many of those included. The empirical references to past studies and quotes from actual wealthy people were useful, but about 60% of the book is the author (a journalist by trade) talking about his own personal journey and understanding of money. What’s here are the interesting/useful anecdotes I found.

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25 March, 2020
Rating: 4 / 5

I picked up this book on a recommendation from Ramit Sethi. Central thesis: (insert here) Overall the most useful concept for me was the one of energy being oscillatory. Take a moment to consider how broad a range of emotional muscles you have in your own life. In all liklihood you will discover that you have considerably more strength on one side of the spectrum than the other. Notice, too, the judgment that you bring to the relative merits of opposing qualities.

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19 August, 2019
Rating: 4 / 5

This book is a series of 75 short essays on succeeding in college, but I found much of it to be good general advice on working efficiently. These are brief summaries of the essays that resonated with me the most. Don’t do all your reading. Make tick marks next to important sentences that seem to obviously support the thesis. Pay attention in class to pick up the arguments you missed.

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