Blog Archive

Here are all the book-related posts I’ve written, sorted by book title:

• Atomic Habits by James Clear:
  • Atomic Habits vs Tiny Habits: Which is Better?
  • Problems
• Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber:
  • Criticisms
  • My 7 categories of “bullshit jobs”
  • What Graeber got right
• Calling Bullshit by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West:
  • Prosecutor’s fallacy and base rate fallacy
• Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni:
  • Why you have so many unnecessary or ineffective meetings
• Deep Work by Cal Newport:
  • My experience with time-blocking
  • Getting Things Done vs Deep Work
• Economics: The User’s Guide by Ha-Joon Chang:
  • Criticisms
• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman:
  • Is the quest for “productivity” misguided?
  • Living in the future vs the present
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
  • Getting Things Done vs Deep Work
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond:
  • Criticisms
  • Sapiens vs Guns, Germs and Steel
• How to Decide by Annie Duke:
  • The “Shock Test”
• Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass Sunstein:
  • Decision Hygiene
  • How to reduce noise and objections to reducing noise
  • Objective ignorance
• Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie:
  • Environmental myths debunked
  • Solutions discussed
• Range by David Epstein:
  • Range at an individual level vs a societal level
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari:
  • Sapiens vs Guns, Germs and Steel
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
  • Criticisms
• Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell:
  • Criticisms
• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene:
  • Is “The 48 Laws of Power” Evil?
  • Should we even seek power?
  • The 48 Laws of Power is not a “How To” book
  • The 48 Laws of Power vs The Prince
• The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan:
  • Criticisms (Pt 1 — it’s The Case Against Higher Education)
  • Criticisms (Pt 2 — Inflated Signalling Estimates)
  • Criticisms (Pt 3 — Checking the Math)
• The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz:
  • Can maximisers become satisficers? If so, how?
  • Problems
  • Why should you want to be a satisficer?
• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli:
  • The 48 Laws of Power vs The Prince
• The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt:
  • Criticisms
• The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich
  • Is it better to be WEIRD?
• Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows:
  • “Thinking in Systems” and Economics
• Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg:
  • Atomic Habits vs Tiny Habits: Which is Better?

Here’s everything else, sorted by date:

• Fact-checking an AI optimist article in The EconomistFebruary 23, 2026
• 2025 Round-upDecember 30, 2025
• How Asia Works with causal diagramsSeptember 22, 2025
• How AI might cause GDP and well-being to (further) decoupleSeptember 15, 2025
• GDP has never been a measure of well-beingJune 20, 2025
• Shouldn’t productivity improvements reduce GDP?June 16, 2025
• Can zero-sum games negate productivity gains?January 24, 2025
• How Beast Games helped me understand non-causal decision theoryJanuary 4, 2025
• 2024 round-upDecember 30, 2024
• We all play different status gamesNovember 10, 2024
• Overrated or Underrated is OverratedOctober 15, 2024
• Thought Experiment: Would You Give Up the Ability to Enjoy Food?September 5, 2024
• The most underrated part of Costco’s business modelMarch 25, 2024
• 2023 round-upDecember 26, 2023
• Are Self-Improvement Books Worth Reading?December 17, 2023
• Why I write criticisms of booksSeptember 16, 2023
• Summaries are not substitutes for booksJune 19, 2023
• Is using ChatGPT cheating? How ChatGPT helped me write a blog postJune 1, 2023
• Anecdotes are not EvidenceMay 18, 2023
• Could ChatGPT End Up *Raising* the Quality of Writing and Public Discourse?May 16, 2023
• Why ChatGPT Will NOT Replace Human WritingApril 10, 2023
• Motivation, Morality and DemandingnessFebruary 22, 2023
• 2022 RoundupDecember 28, 2022
• Problems with the Total View of Population EthicsAugust 28, 2022
• Causality is so much harder than we normally thinkJune 8, 2022
• Why I started this siteApril 14, 2022