Intro: Ancient Rome Called, They Have Advice for Your Twitter Addiction
Ryan Holiday (yes, the guy who also wrote Ego Is the Enemy) teamed up with Stephen Hanselman to create The Daily Stoic — a modern devotional based on Stoic philosophy.
The format: 366 daily entries, each built around a quote from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca,…
Brendi
Intro: The Anti-Gladwell Brothers
Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point) told us why ideas spread. Chip and Dan Heath — a professor + education consultant duo — tell us how to make ideas spread.
Their book Made to Stick (2007) is basically a recipe for making messages unforgettable. Whether you’re pitching a startup, teaching a class,…
Intro: The Book That Made “Virality” a Thing Before Hashtags
Before memes, before influencers, before TikTok dances, there was Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (2000). Gladwell’s big question:
👉 Why do some ideas, products, or social movements suddenly explode — while others fizzle?
He calls the moment of explosive spread the tipping point — that…
(and How to Spot the Jedi Mind Tricks)
Intro: The Godfather of Persuasion
If you’ve ever impulse-bought a kitchen gadget after watching a late-night infomercial, congratulations: you’ve been Cialdinied.
Robert Cialdini, a psychology professor, spent years going undercover with salespeople, fundraisers, and advertisers to figure out why humans say yes. The result, Influence (1984, updated…
Intro: Ancient Toltec Wisdom Meets Modern Self-Help
Some self-help books throw statistics at you. Others give 10-step productivity hacks. Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements takes a different route: it’s short, almost poetic, rooted in Toltec spiritual tradition, and somehow still one of the most practical life manuals ever written.
Its thesis is simple: most…
Intro: The Holocaust Survivor Who Out-Philosophized Despair
Most self-help books tell you how to be more productive or how to stop checking email at midnight. Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning asks a deeper question:
👉 How do you find meaning when life itself collapses?
Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who survived Nazi concentration camps,…
(and Maybe Ruin Thanksgiving Dinner)
Intro: The Hedge Fund Guy Who Wrote a Self-Help Bible
Ray Dalio isn’t your typical guru. He’s not a monk or a professor. He’s a hedge fund billionaire — founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Imagine Gordon Gekko but with Zen vibes and a whiteboard full of…
Intro: The Book That Makes Forecasting Feel Like Astrology
If you’ve ever heard someone say, “Well, nobody could’ve seen that coming”, congratulations: you’ve just met a Black Swan.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan (2007) is not a birdwatching manual. It’s a brutal takedown of how humans (and experts, especially experts) are terrible at predicting…
Why Your Calendar Is a Mess and What Stephen Covey Would Say About It
Intro: The Self-Help Classic That Refuses to Die
Some books trend for a summer and disappear (remember The Secret?). Others become so foundational that managers still hand them out like sacred texts decades later. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly…
(and Other Things That Make Boomers Mad)
Intro: The Book That Turned Personal Finance Into a Soap Opera
Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad is one of those books people either swear changed their life… or roll their eyes at because it oversimplifies. But love it or hate it, it’s a financial literacy gateway drug.…