7 Books To Read When It Feels Like The World Is Falling Apart: This is the best new book I’ve read in some time. The Stoics–who are quoted liberally in this book–believed that character was destiny. They believed that accomplishments and power mattered little if a person could not be trusted and did not hold themselves to high standards.

7 Ways to be an Insanely Productive, Happy Person:

1. Keep texting for friends only. If there are too many ways for people to reach you, the day never ends and you’ll never have time to think. I try to not do any business texting, only email and phone. 2. Save time in the mornings before you do email or social media. Write in a journal, have breakfast with your kids, take a long shower. Don’t jump immediately into the noise. Have some peace and thoughtful time first.

Do you think you're the first person to live through political dysfunction? Do you think you're the first person to live in a time when it feels like
the world is falling apart? Do you think you're the first person to live alongside cruel people?

38 Lessons from Turning 38 (Pt 1): 1. You are what you won’t do for money. Your priorities and principles are demonstrated by what you say no to.

7 More Ways to Be An Insanely Productive, Happy Person 1. Fire crazy people from your life. That is: people who send too many emails, people who stir up drama, people who can’t be counted on, people who waste your time with projects that don’t go anywhere. It’s not fair to you, it’s not fair to your clients/employer, it’s not fair to your family.

5 Biographies to Base Your Life On: I bought 1,000 copies of this book. Literally. I turn to this book over and over again when times seem dark. Montaigne lived through
fear, persecution, civil strife, and more. Yet, he did the impossible. He, as Zweig described, “maintain[ed] one’s intellectual and moral independence and preserved it unsullied through a mass cataclysm.”

How to Read — A Lot More When you read a lot of books, people inevitably assume you speed read. People ask me this question all the time. They see all the books I recommend every month in my reading newsletter and assume I must have some secret. So they ask me to teach them how to speed read.

4 (Stoic) Lessons on Success from Warren Buffet: “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

Ruthlessly protect your time. Seneca reminds us that while we might be good at protecting our physical property, we are far too lax at enforcing our mental boundaries. Property can be regained. But time? Time is our most irreplaceable asset, and we cannot buy more of it.

The Naval Academy canceled my lecture on wisdom:

Don't follow your passion, it's what's holding you back. Passion can be disguised as ego. Pure and plain destructive ego. It’s self-absorption at the expense of reality.

Before you freak out, ask yourself these questions: Does getting upset provide you with more options?

23 pieces of career advice I wish I’d known earlier.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking to make a big change, or aiming to reach new heights in your current role, I hope you’ll find something here that helps you navigate your own unique path: 1. Be quiet, work hard, and stay healthy. It’s not ambition or skill that is going to set you apart but sanity.

“I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world,” Walter Mosley said. “I’m saying it helps.”

Here are a bunch of books—some new, some old—that will help you live and be better in 2024: 1. The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton

On a ski vacation in 1964, Robert Kennedy was loaned a copy of this book and ended up spending most of the trip in his room reading it.

This book changed the political trajectory of the entire Kennedy family. It's a must read.

This Is The Word I'm Trying To Live By This Year:

These Are 11 Things Stoics DON'T Do: 1. Don't suffer imagined troubles

Seneca said, "we suffer more in imagination than in reality."

“Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole,” Marcus Aurelius reminded himself.

Focus on the present. Don't think about the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.

6 pieces of timeless parenting advice from three great Stoic sages: 1. We don't control what happens, only how we respond

Circumstances are not up to us, but we always have the ability to control what kind of parent we are.

Parents who only focus on what they can control are much happier than those battling against what they can’t control.

The best parenting advice I've ever gotten.

From some of history’s greatest thinkers and parents: 1. When your child offers you a hand to hold, take it.

That’s a rule I picked up from @EconTalker. You might be tired, you might be busy, you might be on the other line—but whenever they reach out, whenever they offer you a hand to hold, take the opportunity.

19 Keys To Being a More Disciplined Person: 1. Attack the dawn

The morning hours are the most productive hours.

Because in the morning, you are free.

Hemingway would talk about how he’d get up early because early, there was, “no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write."

100 (very) short rules for a better life: 1/ Wake up early
2/ Ask: Am I using this technology, or is it using me?
3/ Forget about outcomes — focus on making a little progress every day
4/ Say no (a lot)
5/ Read something every day
6/ Don’t watch TV news
7/ Comparison leads to unhappiness
8/ Journal

100 (very) short rules for a better life: 1/ Wake up early.
2/ Ask: Am I using this technology, or is it using me?
3/ Forget about outcomes — focus on making a little progress every day.
4/ Say no (a lot).
5/ Read something every day.
6/ Don’t watch TV news.
7/ Comparison leads to unhappiness.
8/ Journal.

The best parenting advice I've ever gotten.

From some of history’s greatest thinkers and parents: 1/ When your child offers you a hand to hold, take it.

That’s a rule I picked up from @EconTalker. You might be tired, you might be busy, you might be on the other line—but whenever they reach out, whenever they offer you a hand to hold, take the opportunity.