Photo via Samuel Ross
I like books.
I like them so much I wrote my own. It’s called Art for Money and it's short. Basically a glorified pamphlet.
In the spirit of making art and earning money, here’s a short list of 5 books that address the topics of creativity, curiosity, improvement, and living well.
If you read all of the below books and act on them, you are in danger of becoming the most interesting and prolific person in your social group.
Rory Sutherland
This is a marketing book, but it’s really a book about human behavior and persuasion.
Read it to remind yourself of how hilariously irrational we all are (and why that’s a good thing), and also to be entertained.
It’s basically The Undoing Project, but fun to read.
Scott Galloway
This is a personal finance book, but a really good one, because it incorporates career advice from a guy who started poor, ended up rich, remained empathetic, and seems to have his priorities straight.
It does not draw a divide between employees and business owners, but instead highlights how to become a high performer and reach financial independence regardless of which route you choose.
If I were a “shouldy” type of person, I would say that everyone “should” read this book — it would make the world a more prosperous place.
Spoilers: move to a high stakes environment, get out of the house, and mix it up with people smarter than you — that's Scott's advice to young people who want to build wealth.
James Clear
You already know this book, even if you haven’t read it. It’s popular because it’s profound, but like most books, it’s also guilty of being unnecessarily long. That’s because people like to read about taking
action more than they like taking action.
So if you don’t feel like reading the entire book, I’ll summarize it for you:
Think of 2-3 things you’d like to prioritize being better at
(I’m guessing it’s productivity and fitness)
Block an hour for each of them in the earliest possible part of your day
Use willpower to execute both for the first 65 days
On the 66th day they’ll become a habit
You have now put your top two priorities on autopilot — congratulations, the entire rest of your life will be improved
THE ALMANACK OF NAVAL RAVIKANT
Eric Jorgensen
In this book are extreme views that will challenge your thinking. If you’re a business owner or independent contractor, you’ll want to put this book directly into practice, no questions asked.
If you’re a salaried person, you’ll want to use these principles as a starting point for thinking about how your time and energy should be allocated, and how that approach can evolve over the long term.
Naval unfortunately doesn’t care about cool things like V12 sportscars and vintage furniture and fashion design (he’s a techy type), but you do, so just read his principles and adapt them to what you personally want out of life.
Friend of Intro Limited Eric Jorgenson did an incredible job writing and compiling this short book, and I do not exaggerate when I say that it is the most important piece of reading you could do as a professional.
Kevin Kelly
My favorite Kevin Kelly concept is the idea that, on the day before you die, you become your most complete self.
What that means to me personally is that growth and improvement can continue forever — that life becomes more exciting every day until death, instead of peaking in the middle.
It also means that getting old and "retiring" can look like this.
