Ethan

The book is way too long and often buried in the weeds of this acronym versus that acronym, and you should track this and that so you can feel potentially one percent better for two extra years at the end of your life. And then there was the oddly deeply heartfelt last few chapters that didn't fit in with the scientifically analytical voice of the whole rest of the book. That said, I really liked how at the end of the day, the key points were that you should ONE get 8hrs of sleep TWO eat a normal (non-processed) diet, THREE spend time light-jogging in nature FOUR lift weights and FIVE avoid depressive modes of thought. I don't recall any chapter where it said that you should drink eight glasses of water per day, but I'm assuming that was implied.

I like the author's gift for storytelling, especially stories about his own life, and his own internal struggles. And I really appreciate that he read the audiobook himself because his voice is so crystal clear I could mostly blast through the book at 3.5x and skip over the acronym sections, thereby reducing 17hrs to a much more appropriate 6 hours or so.

Definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to start a company in tech. For everyone else, it's only useful if you're interested in what the CEO is thinking about.

A bit wordy and hard to follow occasionally. I feel the writing could be simplified for greater impact. But also very interesting and kind of useful info.

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

I so thoroughly respect this guy and his opinions. He touched very deeply on a lot of the more personal aspects of money and wealth. Plus the writing is fantastic; his educated anti-consumerist anti-socialist Christian ideology is so clearly articulated.

Basically an animals documentary in book form. Focuses on interesting examples of extreme versions of many different animal senses including sonar and electric. Overall concept is that different animals experience reality in different ways in proportion to the senses they fuse together to create their sense of awareness, which at the end enables them to direct their consciousness towards sustenance, safety, procreation, etc. The book encourages us to stretch the bounds our own human empathy to imagine stepping into the body of an animal with different senses and priorities. Also discusses impact of human produced sensory pollution such as cargo ship motors.

Writing-wise: captivating for the most part and very clearly explained. But also repeats itself a lot, gets lost in minute details often, and on the whole was longer than it should have been; found myself bored and skimming past a couple parts.

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.

No nonsense no bs no filler feels great. Can attest that after a few weeks I'm feeling more nimble and expect improvements to continue. Would appreciate a similar treatment focusing on hips or shoulders instead of knees.

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.

Has very useful and well-explained rules of thumb about how to save, invest, handle debt, etc.

I'm not knowledgeable about trauma from any prior books, so I learned a lot about what it is. In the end, it reminded me a lot of Dianetics. I didn't agree with about half of the author's numerous political and economic implications. Though I did like the author's perspective on dealing with other people: we should respect each person's views because their experiences, not ill will, led them there.

Found some really amazing interviews of the author on YouTube and read some of his brilliant blog pieces (via DHH). However, I read through this book and found it comparatively uninspiring and ultimately don't recommend it when the podcasts are so much better.

This book actually spoke to me. Especially the first 1/3rd or so. Then it became repetitive and long winded. There's a massive difference between an impact player and a well meaning participant, on the organization, team, and product. There are always opportunities to step up, think bigger, and cause multiples more to get done. But sometimes the key thing is to have the mindset to think on that level, and this book helps provide that.

Really interesting history of money.

I read the first 50 pages and found so many unconvincing opinions about how much better communism is than capitalism which led to unconvincing rants about how stupid Steven Pinker is and I just couldn't keep reading because the author lost his credibility with me.

It's an important book because I am going through some of these issues, and I can see it in people around me. I'm not sure it really gave me any answers but maybe it motivated me too try to be a better person to recognize everyone's struggles, and that different people deal with these struggles in ways that are counterproductive, but I should not hold it against them, including myself.

A lovely timeless empowering message. Don't let the world beat you into submission towards banal mediocrity. The author shows great command of the English language, which - if you don't mind working a bit harder to unravel wtf he's saying - is very beautiful.

A bit long and too much politics but very interesting characterization of inner turmoil.

Constantly restates the idea that you are the universe and compares eastern and western approaches to stating this. There are better options for reading about this topic. I did enjoy the book because I like the way the author writes, but I would not really recommend it.

Very wise character, but nothing especially stuck with me from this book.

Extremely clear and convincing way of handing aches and pains from squatting a barbell.

Learned so many things. The most profound thing I learned is that I don't want to invest in real estate.

The methods outlined in this book did not sound attractive to me as a lifestyle. This insight is life-changing. I could have spent so much effort to figure that out. I much prefer investing in ETFs like a “Boglehead”.

I also learned a lot about what landlords want in a tenant, and what their responsibilities are to the tenant. This helps me since I am still a renter and am planning to buy a house in a year or so.

I learned a lot of basics of homeownership. Next, I'm planning to read “The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs” by J Scott which was recommended herein.

Refreshing perspective, engaging writing.

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.

Part documentary, part geeky space thriller.

I enjoyed reading tales of pouring your life into a project and having it ultimately work out due to acts of bravery, diligence, and heroism. Plus it's all factual and very recent history of a story of commercial space flight which is still a nascent industry.

However, I'm not as into the space thriller genre and I'm more into engineering itself. This was not a book about engineering. It would bring up the name of these different types of engines and different spacecraft components but never tell you specifics about them. It's just not a technical intro to SpaceX, it's a startup-to-dominance, rose-tinted tale of early company days; like going to a company reunion and listening to people recall their favorite memories to each other. I'm sure technical aspects are available if I google it.

The thing that stuck with me from the book is an excitement about SpaceX and what it might do in the future. Also, the singularity of Elon Musk is astounding; everyone knows that but it comes through the book a bit as well. Also, any story of difficult engineering working out is inspirational to me as an engineer. I don't typically approach my work with this kind of insane zeal, but I hope some zeal has sept into me out of this book.