Thread by @robkhenderson

Best books I read in 2022

1. The Daily Laws @robertgreene

"long term goals tend to generate anxiety...break tasks into smaller bites...have microgoals..what you are after is a series of practical results and accomplishments, not a list of unrealized dreams and aborted projects"

2. Quit by @AnnieDuke

"Every time you rationalize away new information to cling to a belief, that belief becomes more woven into the fabric of your identity...the next time you discover conflicting information...you're going to be even more motivated to stick to those beliefs"

3. Talent

"Raising the aspirations of other people is one of the most beneficial things you can do with your time...Don't underestimate how little people think of themselves. There is an ongoing crisis of confidence in many human beings" amzn.to/3MWwEiM

Hidden Games @erezyoeli

People with lots of positive attributes can afford to be modest because odds are at least one of their good traits will be uncovered. People with only one particular strength will be eager to show it, because it's all they have amzn.to/3iMqW59

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

"Generation X is, by almost any barometer, the least significant of the canonical demographics. Yet one accolade can be applied with conviction: Among the generations that have yet to go extinct, Generation X remains the least annoying."

Friends by Robin Dunbar

"loneliness is an evolutionary alarm signal that something is wrong...Even just the perception of being socially isolated can be enough to disrupt your physiology...that, if unchecked, can lead to a downward spiral and early death" amzn.to/3Ftjpmk

Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature

"personality predicts how long you are likely to live...most important traits conducive to living a long life are high conscientiousness, positive emotionality (extraversion), low hostility, and low neuroticism."

Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam

"Surveys in the 1940s and 1950s found that younger people were happier than older people. By 1975 age and happiness were essentially uncorrelated. By 1999, however, younger people were unhappier than older people." amzn.to/3cC9JeM

Writing Life Stories

"Good writing is an illusion. The primary illusion is of ease. We read a beautifully constructed book with pleasure and admiration, forgetting the writer had to sit down day after day to do the job. We forget—because it’s the writer’s job to make us forget"

Don't Trust Your Gut by @SethS_D

"A 6-foot man earning $62,500 per year is, on average, as desirable as a similar 5'6" man who earns $237,500. In other words, those six inches of height are worth about $175,000 in salary on the dating market." amzn.to/3uddDRu

Sadly, Porn by Edward Teach (The Last Psychiatrist)

From The Third World To The First by Lee Kuan Yew

My Grandfather's Son

Of Boys and Men

"The most common high school grade for girls is now an A; for boys, it is a B...girls now account for two-thirds of high schoolers in the top 10%, ranked by GPA, while the proportions are reversed on the bottom rung." amzn.to/3Siwmo1

Anything Goes by Theodore Dalrymple

"Communists were inclined to believe people who wore glasses were their enemies...shortsightedness is particularly prevalent among intellectuals, and intellectuals..have ideas that might cast doubt on the ultimate truth of communist ideology"

Naturally Selected

"Young men...without male role models are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning how to conform to societal norms...if a parent is not around to provide leadership, a child will frequently turn to less positive role models" amzn.to/3rPWADk

Chinese Shadows by Simon Leys

Promises I Can Keep by Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas

The Sixties by Jenny Diski

The Sweet Spot by @paulbloomatyale

"We are not built to be happy. Evolution doesn't want us to be in constant bliss...Some degree of unsettledness, anxiety, and ambition might be baked into the human condition." amzn.to/3IDPBDD

"a pretty high proportion of successful individuals seem to be ADHD in some manner...they have learned to redirect their cognitive impatience as a force that propels them through an enormous amount of work and learning" amzn.to/3JdJ0AZ

"bullies in childhood were more likely to become juvenile delinquents in adolescence & criminals in adulthood. An astonishing 65% of boys classified by their Grade 6 teachers as bullies ended up having felony convictions by the time they were 24 years old" mheducation.com/highered/produ…

Pride by Jessica Tracy

"This general principle—that narcissists react to perceived threats against their ego with intensified anger and aggression—has been replicated...narcissists can’t deal with any negative feedback—in any domain they might have staked their ego on—at all"

"Men's friendships, like their conversations, are typically more confrontational than women's, involving more joking at the other's expense...in a way that is perceived by men to be friendly but by women as threatening or even intentionally aggressive" amzn.to/3Rd2t97

"People will say almost anything to justify their actions, to give them a moral or sanctimonious veneer...Judge people by the results of their actions and maneuvers, and not by the stories they tell." amzn.to/3tMatDY

Ritual by @xygalatas

"our cognition did not evolve to be rational; it evolved to be efficient in dealing with the kinds of problems our ancestors faced in their environment. Rituals are found in every human culture because they help solve some of those problems"

"pay less attention to the words people say and greater attention to their actions. People will say all kinds of things about their motives and intentions...Their actions, however, say much more about what is going on underneath the surface." amzn.to/3LISQMr

"human nature is complicated. The primate inside us craves power and dominance because that is how we spread our genes. Yet our evolutionary history as foragers has taught us the benefits of cooperation and equipped us with an egalitarian ethos" amzn.to/3EKApWK

"people who score highly on Machiavellianism and narcissism often surface as temporary leaders because their charm and enthusiasm attract followers. In the long run, however, their selfishness and exploitative nature bring them,and often their group, down" amzn.to/3Sx979V

A thread of the best books I read in 2021:

Here are the best books I read in 2020:

And here are the best books I read in 2019:

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