Ethan

Basics of stoicism via a Buddha/Jesus/spirituality/trauma psychology lens. Summary: don't overreact to the present based on scars from your past. Very repetitive. Very interesting in the beginning where there was a thought experiment about why are we here through a process of atom fusion in stars. Very practically oriented and written in a way that is very easy to understand but not condescending.

Had some good common sense reminders about how to be an effective corporate leader but it was slow moving and repetitive and not that insightful. I would not recommend this book. I only read the first half them skimmed through the second half of it.

Had a great time with this book. Is this genre young adult fantasy? It's been years since I read one of these. At 33 somehow I didn't feel too old for this; I still was able to connect enough with the 18 year old protagonist. Unlike Enders Game which as I recall I didn't finish the whole series because it felt increasingly childish as I got older. Planning to continue with this series. Excited to discover what else this genre has maybe I enjoy these.

Overly academic tone (which was perhaps the style at that time) made it not a real page turner. But overall I really enjoyed it. He makes it all seem so obvious when he makes his critiques of socialism. But when I talk to about these points to a socialist, they didn't realize this stuff, and they never thought about it that way.

For example, socialists often assume that the state should be run in a way that enforces rules about not exploiting workers and not allowing racism. That requires a lot of “power”. And what kind of people end up typically acquiring roles that have a lot of power? It's not people like you. It's narcissists and sociopaths, naturally; just look at the past 2000 years or so. Sure, there are exceptions. And typically when these people get all that power it's not ending worker exploitation that gets them out of bed in the morning. It's their own ego. So the benefit of capitalism is that it relegates these egomaniacs to set their sights on building electric cars, or functioning within a limited congress, or making feature films, etc. Does it create a perfect egalitarian economy? In many senses it leaves a lot to be desired. But look at where we came from, before capitalism; the divides in society used to be a lot worse. And the societies that have “progressed” the most have often been the most capitalist ones. There are exceptions. But do we really want to hand over responsibility for choosing what's best for us to someone who only ostensibly has our interests at heart, but in reality is a flawed corruptible human being? I'd say no. And this book also spends a lot of time pointing out from direct experience of the propaganda machine, the direct connection between that Marxist line reasoning and the rise of the Nazi state. Conveniently most socialists I know choose not to believe that connection, and I don't blame them, because it would be too embarrassing to admit it.

Another interesting point was about how the heck would “planning the economy” work on a practical level? How can someone else tell you what to do when they don't know you and what you're actually good at? How can someone dictate the prices of bread when they don't know how much grain is available for sale? How can they take in all the numbers and construct all the formulas for setting everything up in a balanced way? And how could we all agree on what a balanced formulas outcome would be? It all would easily devolve into a corrupted power-grab. Maybe we should just let people decide on their own careers and set the prices of the goods that they sell, and consumers can make their own purchasing decisions about whether the price is worth it or not.

Interesting hot takes on various topics. Brilliant man. Very repetitive. I was repeatedly put off by his attitude where he says he's much smarter than everyone and he's got everything figured out. But then again I think of his track record and it is hard to argue with that. Made me realize I may not want to have him as my pal because he's annoyingly condescending, but it's worth taking the time to listen to what he thinks anyway because he makes a lot of good points.

Thoroughly entertaining. Easy to speed read. Lots of practical advice. Probably not going to do anything he recommended. Loved his passion and energy.

Practical, easy to read, easy to understand, good advice, no condescending nor overly academic tone.

Best novel I've read in a long time. I don't even like fiction. So well written. Painfully vivid and heart wrenching. I intend to read another book by this author.

Ironically the book suffered from a lack of focus. Bounced between grandiose takes on spirituality, the modern economy, and personal productivity. And then got into a strikingly opinionated deep dive on how to become an Internet personality with products to sell. In general I'd say the book started out great then lost me then I got back into around the middle, then it slowly became worse until by the end I was like please stop talking. Will I read his next book? Yeah, since he's probably around my age, and I like his overall perspective and persona, of being straightforward, aloof, introspective, individualistic, and analytical. I hope as he grows up he loses a bit of what seems to be a chip on his shoulder.

Pretty good, for a leadership book. Typical format and message but easy to follow and relate to.

If you want to communicate, you must connect. This involves being warm towards your audience. Knowing, believing in, and enjoying the message you want to convey. Be brief, be lighthearted and good natured. Repeat your message from various perspectives. Understand your listener, and speak to the place they are coming from; this is easier with fewer audience members.

Very brave to write a book like this which takes on the dominant historical narrative and shoots arrows at it made of logic and historical fact. As usual, I think this book was too long. And the tone was too scholarly. But the main point came through very powerfully: the way the white liberal portrays the black redneck is historically inaccurate. Eg the false assumption that African Americans' advancement has been primarily hamstrung by the outfall of the uniquely cruel history of cotton enslavement. This portrayal also does not serve the best interests for advancement, especially this narrative that the whole system of racial privilege needs to be gone before black individuals can succeed, undersells the ability to advance in the face of the headwinds, which has been demonstrated many times already.

Kept trying to like this book but found it too stylised and boring. It's like a pimp comic book. Very graphic, lots of metaphors and descriptive language. Vivid storytelling. But somehow I just never got sucked into this one, seemed like more of a chore to read it. Ultimately only got like 15% through it over 3 months or so and now it's time to give up.

It's a useful read I guess, worth the time skimming through it. More like a blog than a book. Boringly repetitive, but also informative. More insight into what the interviewer's takeaways from these questions are would have been useful. More insight in general would be nice; it feels incomplete as is.

Finally a book not so much longer than it needs to be. Started out strong with lots of important reminders of effective ways to think about mastery. Then slowly declined into boring and repetitive territory till the end. Lots of potential for a more powerful book to use this as a starting point.

Quick read, not groundbreaking, a bit repetitive. That said, as usual, Cal Newport has a very refreshing and empowering perspective / timely reminder: take the time to actually focus on important tasks of high quality and avoid the frenzy of trying look busy. You will get more done and feel better along the way.

30% fascinating, 50% interesting, 20% boring. Don't let the title mislead you, this isn't a history of the home. This is a series of tangents about daily life in the 16th-19th century in Britain and America. In parts gruesome. Very well researched and written.

I didn't find it insightful and I didn't like the writing style.

Boring and corny. Reminded me of a bad religious sermon. Lacked depth and poignancy.

Astoundingly eloquent. Great choices of areas to cover. Understandable to the layperson. Makes you think. For that reason it took me >6 months to finish listening to it. On that note, the narrator also deserves mad props. The book has mostly facts but yes throws some opinions in along the way. As I learn basic economics better I notice my own opinions change. The common sense approach and appeals to “ethics” don't stand up to rigorous analysis. I now intend to read some of his other books, especially ones that are less political and more about practical knowledge like this one.

Very well written and organized. Confirmed many of my closely held beliefs. Ultimately could have gone much deeper, but definitely still worth a read.

Enjoyed author's perspective. Execution is more important than strategy since you have nothing without execution. I enjoyed the author's professional story: from economics academic to tech business up to ceo then sailing champion then back to ceo. The book was very serious in tone which made it a bit boring, and a lot of the details got repetitive which was also boring. Not sure I got much value from it. With better execution and more creative thinking, this book could have easily been 4 stars.

It's not a perfect book, but the reason I gave it so many stars is because other books on this topic have been so much worse. It's extremely difficult to write about this topic in a way that is generic to apply across companies but still easy to understand, and this book does so admirably well. The writing was very repetitive at times and some of the sub topics would have been better left out. But overall absolutely worth reading and I may even read it again in the future after reading some other books on the topic, since many seem to have been getting published in the past 5 years.

High value, low bs. Learnt a lot about distributed systems, their design, and how to think about the associated interviews, all at once! Very well explained, though a quick round of copy editing would be nice for the 2nd edition. Very well organized. Expensive book but I'd say worth the price.

Great storyteller. Definitely better on audible read by the author. Not multidimensional in the sense it's mostly a highlight reel of what he thinks of as his greatest accomplishments and nothing else. Thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it.

Well written, enjoyed it, learned a lot, I agree to disagree with the author on various aspects of it.