23 Book Recommendations From Someone Who Quit Reading Books
You know a crazy fact?
I've had a book publisher say to my face that I needed to write a book and they would help me publish it.
And I turned it down.
Not because I think my book would suck.
But for two other reasons.
Mostly because I'm still not sure if, net-net, books have been a beneficial tool for humanity to invent.
And also because I wasn't sure his publishing house was that solid of a business, and it ended up folding eventually in COVID, so... you know... there was that.
Just trying to be a real one.
So how much have you personally studied the history of the book?
Obviously, it's not taught as a traditional subject inside of our education system. It's also usually left out of the random learning people do for fun whilst scrolling the internet. How come such a vital and important tool of the world is itself so understudied?
Of course, the answer is that the 1% don't want us to know how they've built their world. If you haven't clocked yet that the main purpose of books - as in the physical tool invented by a people - throughout history has been to help the 1% teach each other how to dominate, oppress, and pwn the people... maybe you should slow down trying to read 50 books a year and instead start growing up.
You know who loved teaching the 1% how to dominate, oppress, and pwn the people?
Aristotle.
Yeah, his shtick wasn't about excellence through habits. It was about helping the 1% build effective tyrannies by getting the people tricked into the right habits... of internal and external oppression... der.
You know who I think we can also justifiably argue invented mansplaining?
(Like obviously that's been happening for longer than we've been writing but...) If we really want to source the first written or recorded instance of a mansplainer, I think we can do worse than this:
"For the courage of the man consists in commanding, the woman's in obeying... "Silence is a woman's ornament, but it is not a man's"
Aristotle - Politics 1260a
This part is often left out of classrooms.
Just like so much of what's in this book list.
I've read somewhere between 300-500 books so far in life.
The only reason the range is so broad is that I know I used to own the 300 I'd read cover to cover, and the others I quit halfway through cos they were either trash or I got it. I'm not sure if those count? I also ended up giving all my books away after realising I'd kinda gotten the gist. Of the valuable knowledge I could gain from books in one life.
Also, my landlord had some random smoke-detector-checking guy come by to check the apartment for fire hazards, and we were formally warned that the number of books I had was creating an unsafe fire environment.
That really happened.
Anyway, the point of reading books is to help you understand life and the world, and it's also to help you understand that if you're not careful, you can be a good person who reads 50 books a year, loves working at your AI climate startup, and still get buckets for the big business structures you apparently exist to dismantle every day of the week.
Capitalism is smarter and more logical than all of us. The easiest way to get pwned by it is to think you're Neo and can see it.
These books might help you gain some of the wisdom needed to see that ultimately, all of the coolest lessons you can learn in this world can't be learned from books. They can only be learned from people and life.
I've tried to pick from a variety of different subject areas and truly hope it helps.
Matt
Ps - I haven't linked any of the books as you'll have your own preference. Please note that in two instances, no one has written a good enough book about the research area or subject matter I'd like to introduce you to, so I've given you the best entry point I can.
In another two instances, I actively discourage you from reading the book I put on the list; I just put it there to try and help more fake nerds who purchased a product called a PhD from an institution that was ultimately founded by the creators of the climate crisis and capitalism realise:
A) who Kurt Godel is and
B) what the subject called 'history' really is.
Kurt might be more important than that guy we call Bert Eienstien.
BREAKING NEWS! Big Bert definitely never took climate crisis money from two different big oil families in his career. Shh.
WHAT? The Nobel Prize wasn't created by the family that created the oil tanker? Shh.
SO WHAT THAT IT HAPPENED? When are we going to talk about the irony of Al Gore accepting a prize from the families that created the climate crisis for his work on... helping with the climate crisis?
You shut up, you saucy little minx!
Anyway... I hope you've laughed reading this. If you haven't, definitely think about avoiding my podcast at all costs.
Enjoy the books. They are in no particular order.
1. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber
Okay, so a few things you can say out loud to show you're a noob about history.
1. Civilisation is as natural as something like a tree or QFT and as been net-net positive as an invention by the few cultures that did it.
2. There is only one way to define time. Seriously.
It's quite hard to get through the full impact of both of these arguments in one book, but this one does a good job.
Defining time in a weird way could arguably be used by some cultures to duck the smoke of their criminal enterprises we call... business. But shh.
2. First Footprints: The Epic Story of the First Australians by Scott Cane
Is there any more impressive achievement than not only these people's continued existence and integrity, but also the fact that they had national, local, and state government that functioned so effectively for 50-65,000* years that anywhere from a few hundred million to maybe a billion human beings maintained their right to eat food for free and not have to fight war for thousands of years?
Remember when we all had the right to eat food for free? It's one of the biggest things the 1% wipes from history.
What da hell.
*I just don't know about those termites for 65k or that hearth for 100kish, but I'm so open so I'll just put 50-65k if that's okay
*
3. The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics was written by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith
There was a time in my life I believed democracy was the coolest way people could ever imagine making a government. I'm now much wiser.
Democracy was invented by the ancient Athenians as a response to tyranny; that is correct.
They also invented the word Democracy, also correct.
You know who couldn't vote in their system?
Women.
Well, why do they need a vote?
You know who else doesn't get a vote in the OG Democracy?
Slaves. Sorry, no votes for you. Otherwise you'd obviously vote to end the slavery we're doing to you.
Okay, who else? What about foreigners?
No vote for you.
Okay, what about if we come to Athens and for 3 generations we live here?
Shut up and go back to your jobs; no vote for you.
Well, what if I get lucky cos of my sick moves on the DF with a person that has a vote, cos they are Athenian, and we have a kid. Does our kid have a vote?
No.
k.
Yeah, history is a bit more complicated than the Disney version you get taught in school and by the daft things like podcasters who bought a product from an institution called a Ph.d without realising that said institution ultimately exists to service the family who are currently benefiting the most from capitalism.
Like, we are clear a bunch of dudes sat in a room and voted the Ph.D into existence, right?
How is the falsification crisis in string theory going for everyone anyway?
Anyway... this book isn't really about the above but will really change the way you see the government and the 1%. It's also hilariously 100% to do with the above once you learn enough.
You can also watch this video, which is based on it. I haven't fully watched that video, just the first 3 mins, but I've read the book and it blew my mind. The video seems to get the gist of the book.
Lastly, I totally appreciate people from where I'm from telling me that I should be grateful to live in the democracy called Australia. I love where I live and realise this is a nuanced conversation, but let's not forget we don't technically live in a democracy. Not only is it called 'Constitutional Monarchy', but we live in an outpost of the British Empire.
That's why the coins changed recently? Right?
Always was, always will be et al.
4. The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease was by Daniel E. Lieberman
How dope is having a HUMAN BODY! Did you know how ridiculous the journey of your body has been to become... your body?
When most of us think of the Big Bang, we think of a big explosion, and in our mind's eye we visualise a small dot going MASSIVE!
It's way better to think of a tiny dot that you're actually inside spontaneously, and simultaneously both appearing and then expanding.
Just cos.
That's why all the physics people in the world say the big bang happened. I think it happened because of algebra, but don't get me started, as my mathshake brings people of all genders to my yard.
Cos obvs we were both there when the universe was the size of a pin. You and me.
Now, quite a bit has happened since then.
Your atoms were stars for a while. Same as mine.
Then they were in a cloud-type thing for a bit.
And then that cloud-type thing got over being a cloud and decided to get in shape and get dem abs for the festival season.
And so your atoms were now all become the earth.
And then so and so and something and something and you're now reading this list. Hopefully I'm outperforming expectations so far.
Anyway... this probably isn't your first book-reading list, and I won't take it personally. At least one of my clients has probably thought one time that once you got Matt, you can't go back, but each to their own.
This book doesn't really cover a lot of that, but gosh, it's cool to learn about your body.
Don't forget, a master life lesson I help all my clients with. All 3 of these things apply to all of us, myself included.
1 - The universe is awesome. So are you.
2 - Planet Earth and life are awesome. So are you.
3 - Human beings are often douche canoes. Including you.
Don't let 3 get in the way of 1 and 2. And be careful of being number 3 too much.
5. The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor was written by Eddie Jaku
*If you've been through extreme trauma, be careful with this book.
I met this guy twice before he died at the casual age of 101.
I met him once when he was 87, and one time I spoke to him on the phone about 8 months before he passed. We spoke for 3 minutes. I managed to get a letter to his people and to him where I tried to give him his flowers. I wanted to give him his respect this close to passing, you know. I couldn't believe he might actually read my letter, you know.
He changed my life, and I really think people from everywhere can learn from his lesson.
It sounds so trivial when I say this, but as someone with PTSD from when I broke my growing up... he taught me that even in a life as challenging as mine, I need to #killmyexcuses and find joy no matter what.
I'm so grateful to him and will never forget him teaching me that around the time I broke my neck at 17.
Anyway, he offered to have me come to the nursing home and have lunch with him. I was aware I would be one of the last 50 people he would have lunch with like this. I decided, after a week of sitting with the offer he gave on the phone, that out of respect, he didn't need to have lunch with a bum like me that close to his passing.
It would be better for him to spend that time with his family. I wanted to meet him so bad, being in the room when he was 87 and hearing his life story of surviving 3 camps, hearing him talk about overcoming his PTSD by using art and the love of his wife... shit.
I still can't believe I've seen his tattoo. With my own eyes, you know?
One more PS...
You know what else is sometimes hard to pin down?
Billionaires.
Like I've met billionaires.
But what does it mean to be a billionaire? Is it cash? Assets? Business valuation that you founded? Hard to pin down. Anyway, I've only met one for sure, for sure, for sure billionaire. Turned down an offer from him to play cards TBH. Mostly because his wife never smiled with her eyes when she looked at him #bigtellmartialproblems.
Card game with him = boring night of stories ft people who don't realise their model of the atom was taught to them incorrectly at school. P.A.S.S.
Anyway, you know what is wild about them folk? There is a line in life where every dollar you get actually makes your life worse.
Eddie died a successful businessman, would have definitely been a millionaire, and went to the gym twice a week in his nursing home at 100 years old. What are your excuses again?
Don't be a billionaire. If you know your history, the Emperor of Rome often went to bed after his evening bath, unable to write his own letters because of his shaky hands.
Be someone like Eddie.
Read his book.
Ps I screened his call. Eddie's. It was a random number, OK! I didn't mean to. Like after he read my letter and invited me to lunch. Anyway. I was in the bathroom and rarely use a phone. So I screen every call I ever get from numbers I don't know because realistically, even if you're Rihanna, you're still not my Wife, so I don't need to take your call. My Wife has her own phone number she can reach me on that I pick up much more reliably. It's also why I'm one of those #crazypeople who are one of the 30% of people on the earth who still don't use social media. I really think it peaked at MSN. Are you aware we still exist?
#justkeptinvestinginlivedexperience
Five books that are so helpful to business owners, I think non-business owners should read them as well.
Two types of business.
1. When you run out of money, go find a rich person. Probably golfing? That's where all the ones stuck in marriages where the woman never smiles are. Sell them part of your company and inherit a boss stuck in a passionless marriage who is going to want you to work really, really hard. They will solve your problems through connections.
2. When you run out of money, go find a customer. Welcome to the land of lead gen. Where are all the customers? Who knows. Time to go find out.
I only really help the second type of people. That first type of business is usually cooking the earth. The second type of people are small to medium-sized business owners who wake up every day to smash their customers' expectations in the hope that good old-fashioned word of mouth and loyal clients will keep them in business.
The fact that I've personally closed millions of dollars into my own personal coaching business with basically no online footprint will be mildly impressive to you, or it won't.
6. Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz
Cash flow crisis?
This book will help so much.
7. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It... and Why the Rest Don't was written by Verne Harnish
But how go from one person to many people?
This book will help so much.
8. The Excellence Dividend: Principles for Prospering in Turbulent Times by Tom Peters
How do I get so good my staff like my product so much they actually want to sell it and want to work for me?
This book will help so much.
9. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
But I'm such a good consultant/artist/skill worker and smashed my previous job.
Why is business so hard for me?
This book will help so much.
10. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
Hard to know exactly what to put here. There are multiple routes to a proper system. The reason I chose this one is because of his intense focus on the importance of not using your brain for keeping all your to-do lists but using your brain for creativity and focus. Dayum. That's the other thing I don't understand about people on social media - where do you do all your mental planning? That takes me ages. Sometimes figuring out what to say in session to my clients takes me a whole day of thinking. For real.
Lastly, you need to sit with the paradox that businesses are things invented by shifty folk...
11. The Corporation Documentary
Haven't read the book, have watched a documentary based off book. Just important to understand where businesses really come from and that you should be focused on helping people.
12. This Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations
Like. What?
Why does Christopher Nolan make "art" about #maincharacter big oil executives like Bruce Wayne and anti-democratic psychopaths like Odysseus and not pull stories from this Wikipedia page?
Are we all kidding?
Look at how we really moved over the world.
Why did so much war happen in Europe but not in Australia until Europeans came to Australia?
12. What the Colonists Never Knew: A History of Aboriginal Sydney by Dennis Foley and Peter Read
* If you've been through extreme trauma, be careful with this book.
Research the Vagabonds Act and unpack the time when big business could arrest you for not having a job.
Read that sentence again.
I know Dennis personally. I don't believe in the concepts of heroes, but I admire him deeply. He has welcomed me to the country that I live in, and I consider that to be an achievement a gazillion times more awesome than having a Ph.d in something useless like philosophy.
13. When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim Holt
* No need to actually read this book
So, we all leave school with this idea that math is black and white and everything in math is true and concrete and makes sense.
Except for the fact that we have proven that there are some things that are true that we can never fully prove true. And math will always find statements like that.
TBH, it's a long, long story, but BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) - there is a guy who Albert #ClimateCrisisMoney Eienstien walked home with at Princeton a while ago. His name is Kurt. Bert said that he went to Princeton because that's where he could be boyz with Kurt. Seriously, just to have the pleasure of walking home with ya boy Kurt each day.
Basically, have you ever heard of someone talk about why first principles thinking is the ultimate way of thinking? Well, the big mathematical problem with that is that there is an assumption in that - which is that all truths can be put into principles.
They cannot. So... we've kinda sorta 100% a little bit proven that reason, logic, and rationality are actually not very good tools. Like in math.
Don't worry, math is fine. But logic? Dead. We just can't talk about it because if we did, the 1%'s system would collapse.
Sweet.
I talked about Kurt.
Okay, don't read the book. Just here so I can talk about Kurt.
14. helpingcultureheal.com program
Shameless plug. Well, I mean it's free.
Also not a book, but you should go watch the video titled The Sinister Side Of Our Kids Stories Ft Harry Potter And The Lion King.
The next 3 books are grouped to help you realise your brain actually can change, and ergo, so can you if you put the effort in.
15. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. by Daniel Coyle.
16. The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge
17. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
18. Songspirals: Sharing Women's Wisdom of Country Through Songlines by the Gay'wu Group of Women
Enough said.
19. The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm by Winston S. Churchill
* No need to actually read this book, but maybe you should, you know?
Okay, so I put this here mostly because I like saying things about British History to British people that they think cannot be true, but I know when they go home and source it they will prove to be true. It gives good chuckles. Old Winnie himself caused a famine that killed millions. Are you sure we shouldn't talk about it?
Are you sure we shouldn't talk about The Master and Servant Acts?
Or how oldmate Bill Shakesfear (William Shakespeare) participated in profiting from a famine? #bestbardever
Don't read the above book if you don't want to. It's honestly eerie, just here to make some points.
20. When are we going to talk about the fact that Plato is the reason we don't see women, people of colour or regular people in our Art?
And he founded the ultimate ancestor of the academic system that trained at least one or two decision-makers down throughout history?
Read politics. I haven't read it cover to cover as I got the gist... but I've read a LOT of it and quote it a lot to people. He is the reason we use the term academic and hate women in our Art. Also read Politics by Aristotle. First maybe 800 words? Then just skip to the chapter on Tyranny. Connect with The Prince by Machiavelli - who got tortured by the people he dedicated that book to. You'll start to connect some dots.
The Republic by Plato and Politics by Aristotle.
21. All the books you do not need to finish
Seriously. Don't quit a book you find excuses not to read because it's rattling your perspective. It's okay to have a somewhat shaky understanding of the human story and human history. But for sure quit books that are trash. Not everyone is a great writer, and it's not that hard to publish a book.
22. All the books you won't read
Seriously. Stop reading books and start building your dream life.
23. None of it matters if you're empty inside
For real.