Books

The big ideas from popular books, without giving the whole thing away. Get the GIST, then decide if you want the REST.

FiltersComputers & TechnologySelf-HelpHealth & PsychologyClear

42 summaries, page 1 of 2

Jordan B. Peterson

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

A clinical psychologist's twelve blunt, oddly named rules for carrying responsibility, telling the truth and finding meaning in a life that will include suffering.

Mindset
7 min read
Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson

Altered Traits

A science journalist and a neuroscientist sort the hype from the hard evidence to show how meditation can lastingly change who we are.

Neuroscience
Stress
9 min read
James Clear

Atomic Habits

James Clear's case that tiny daily habits, backed by good systems and a new sense of identity, compound into remarkable change.

Habits
Focus and Productivity
8 min read
James Nestor

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

A journalist plugs his own nose for ten days to show why breathing slowly and through the nose may be one of the most overlooked foundations of health.

Breathwork
Sleep
8 min read
Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

Burnout

Twin sisters explain why stress stays stuck in the body, why women burn out in a rigged game, and the simple, shared ways to recover.

Stress
Mental Health
8 min read
Emily Nagoski

Come As You Are

Sex educator Emily Nagoski uses the science of accelerators, brakes and context to show women that their sexuality is not broken, only theirs.

Relationships
8 min read
Shanna H. Swan

Count Down

A leading reproductive epidemiologist explains why sperm counts in the West have halved in forty years, what everyday chemicals have to do with it, and what you can change at home.

Hormones
Fertility
9 min read
Cal Newport

Deep Work

Cal Newport argues that undistracted concentration on hard problems is becoming rare and valuable, and gives four rules for building a working life around it.

Focus and Productivity
Habits
9 min read
Suzanne Humphries

Dissolving Illusions

Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk argue that sanitation and nutrition, not vaccines, ended the great infectious diseases, a claim mainstream science rejects.

Public Health
Politics and History
8 min read
Nicole LePera

Do the Work

The Holistic Psychologist's guide to why willpower fails, how childhood wires our automatic patterns, and the daily mind-and-body practices that let you choose who you become.

Mental Health
Psychology
9 min read
Anna Lembke

Dopamine Nation

Stanford psychiatrist Anna Lembke explains why chasing pleasure leaves us in pain, and how abstinence, self-binding and honesty restore balance.

Dopamine and Motivation
Mental Health
6 min read
Susan David

Emotional Agility

A Harvard psychologist shows how to face hard feelings, step back from them and act on your values through small, deliberate changes.

Psychology
Mental Health
8 min read
Greg McKeown

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Greg McKeown's method for finding the few things that truly matter, cutting the rest, and making the vital work almost effortless.

Focus and Productivity
8 min read
Gregg D. Jacobs

Goodnight Insomnia

Gregg D. Jacobs's six-week, drug-free CBT program retrains thoughts and habits to end chronic insomnia.

Sleep
Mental Health
6 min read
Michael Pollan

How to Change Your Mind

A skeptical journalist explores the science, history and first-hand experience of psychedelics, and what they reveal about the mind, the ego and healing.

Consciousness
Mental Health
8 min read
Héctor García and Francesc Miralles

Ikigai

What the centenarians of an Okinawan village can teach the rest of us about purpose, calm, food, friends and a reason to get up in the morning.

Longevity
Mindset
8 min read
Sandra Kahn and Paul Ehrlich

Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic

An orthodontist and an evolutionary biologist argue that modern life is shrinking our jaws, crowding our teeth and narrowing our airways, and that parents can do something about it early.

Sleep
Parenting
9 min read
Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

A Viennese psychiatrist's account of surviving the Nazi camps, and the idea he carried out of them: people can bear almost anything if they have a reason to.

Psychology
Mental Health
6 min read
Robert Greene

Mastery

Robert Greene argues that greatness is a path anyone can walk: find your calling, serve a long apprenticeship, learn from mentors, read people well, and let deep immersion ripen into intuition.

Mindset
Psychology
10 min read
Andrew Huberman

Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body

Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman's 47-protocol field manual for sleep, exercise, stress, food, light, focus and personal growth, built on one rule: behavior first, molecules second.

Sleep
Fitness
8 min read
Alex Berenson

Tell Your Children

A former New York Times reporter argues that marijuana causes psychosis and violence and that legalization has outrun the science, a case many experts dispute.

Mental Health
Psychology
8 min read
Brian P. Moran & Michael Lennington

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

Stop planning by the calendar year: treat every twelve weeks as a year of its own and let a near deadline, a weekly plan and an honest score do the work.

Focus and Productivity
8 min read
Robert Greene

The 33 Strategies of War

Robert Greene turns three thousand years of military thinking into 33 strategies for everyday conflict, starting with the war inside your own head.

Business Strategy
Mindset
8 min read
Tim Ferriss

The 4-Hour Chef

Tim Ferriss uses cooking as a training ground for meta-learning, a system for picking up any skill far faster than the conventional route allows.

Education
Focus and Productivity
9 min read