I’ve recently revamped this page as the list of summaries was getting rather long. If you’re having any problems with the table, you can go back to the old All Summaries page here.
Topics: Business/Work | History | Philosophy | Policy/Govt | Relationships/Psychology | Self-improvement
I’ve tried to limit the number of topics overall and per book, so some of these may be an awkward fit. But I figured it was better than nothing.
Rating. These are just my personal opinions. I don’t like the idea of rating books because whether a book resonates depends on what I’m looking for at the time I read it. A great book may fall flat if I’ve already heard its best points repeated elsewhere, or if the writing style just doesn’t click with me. So don’t put too much stock in my ratings and don’t take offence if I give low ratings to your favourite books. An “Okay” rating is already pretty good, since I generally won’t bother to read or summarise truly terrible books.
Podcast summaries. I didn’t rate these since there are only 4. Given how many podcasts I listen to, these 4 had to be pretty good for me to bother summarising.
| Author | Title | Date of summary | Topic | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schneier, Bruce | A Hacker’s Mind | 2025-03-24 | Relationships/Psychology, Policy/Govt | 3 (Okay) |
| Klein, Ezra | Why We’re Polarized | 2025-03-12 | Policy/Govt | 4 (I liked it) |
| Pearl and McKenzie | The Book of Why | 2025-02-20 | Other | 4 (I liked it) |
| Waitzkin, Joshua | The Art of Learning | 2025-02-10 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Minto, Barbara | The Pyramid Principle | 2025-01-18 | Business/Work, Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Cheng, Eugenia | The Art of Logic | 2025-01-06 | Philosophy, Other | 4 (I liked it) |
| Helland and Tabarrok | Why Are the Prices So D*mn High? | 2024-12-05 | Policy/Govt | 4 (I liked it) |
| Housel, Morgan | The Psychology of Money | 2024-11-20 | Business/Work, Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Yudkowsky, Eliezer | Inadequate Equilibria | 2024-11-07 | Philosophy, Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Dalio, Ray | Principles: Life and Work | 2024-10-17 | Business/Work, Self-improvement | 2 (Not recommended) |
| Galef, Julia | The Scout Mindset | 2024-10-05 | Philosophy, Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Caplan, Bryan | The Case Against Education | 2024-09-12 | Policy/Govt | 3 (Okay) |
| Rumelt, Richard | Good Strategy, Bad Strategy | 2024-08-20 | Business/Work | 3 (Okay) |
| Henrich, Joseph | The WEIRDest People in the World | 2024-08-12 | History, Relationships/Psychology | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Allen, David | Getting Things Done | 2024-07-16 | Self-improvement, Business/Work | 4 (I liked it) |
| Mullainathan and Shafir | Scarcity | 2024-07-08 | Policy/Govt | 3 (Okay) |
| Marshall, Tim | Prisoners of Geography | 2024-06-09 | History | 3 (Okay) |
| Haidt, Jonathan | The Righteous Mind | 2024-05-07 | Relationships/Psychology, Philosophy | 4 (I liked it) |
| Ritchie, Hannah | Not the End of the World | 2024-04-21 | Policy/Govt | 4 (I liked it) |
| Flyvbjerg and Gardner | How Big Things Get Done | 2024-03-21 | Business/Work, Policy/Govt | 3 (Okay) |
| Knapp and Zeratsky | Make Time | 2024-03-07 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Franco, Marisa | Platonic | 2024-02-23 | Relationships/Psychology, Self-improvement | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Levitsky and Ziblatt | How Democracies Die | 2024-02-05 | Policy/Govt | 3 (Okay) |
| Meadows, Donella | Thinking in Systems | 2024-01-15 | Policy/Govt | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Abdaal, Ali | Feel-Good Productivity | 2024-01-02 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Gawande, Atul | The Checklist Manifesto | 2023-12-07 | Business/Work, Policy/Govt | 3 (Okay) |
| Loehr and Schwartz | The Power of Full Engagement | 2023-11-20 | Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Lewis, Michael | The Big Short | 2023-11-07 | Business/Work | 3 (Okay) |
| Gilbert, Daniel | Stumbling on Happiness | 2023-10-19 | Relationships/Psychology | 4 (I liked it) |
| Durant and Durant | The Lessons of History | 2023-10-05 | History | 2 (Not recommended) |
| Schwartz, Barry | The Paradox of Choice | 2023-09-19 | Relationships/Psychology | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Lencioni, Patrick | Death by Meeting | 2023-09-04 | Business/Work | 1 (Stay away) |
| Stone, Patton and Heen | Difficult Conversations | 2023-08-20 | Relationships/Psychology, Business/Work | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Pfeffer, Jeffrey | Power | 2023-08-03 | Self-improvement, Business/Work | 4 (I liked it) |
| Newport, Cal | Deep Work | 2023-07-18 | Self-improvement, Business/Work | 4 (I liked it) |
| Chang, Ha-Joon | Economics: The User’s Guide | 2023-07-03 | Policy/Govt | 4 (I liked it) |
| Newport, Cal | So Good They Can’t Ignore You | 2023-06-05 | Self-improvement, Business/Work | 3 (Okay) |
| Christian, Brian | The Most Human Human | 2023-05-21 | Philosophy | 2 (Not recommended) |
| Machiavelli, Niccolo | The Prince | 2023-05-06 | Philosophy | 2 (Not recommended) |
| Christian and Griffiths | Algorithms to Live By | 2023-04-18 | Self-improvement | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Dicks, Matthew | Storyworthy | 2023-03-22 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Purser, Ronald | McMindfulness | 2023-03-04 | Philosophy | 1 (Stay away) |
| Epstein, David | Range | 2023-02-15 | Business/Work, Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Clear, James | Atomic Habits | 2023-02-02 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Fogg, BJ | Tiny Habits | 2023-01-23 | Self-improvement, Relationships/Psychology | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Blattman, Chris | Why We Fight | 2023-01-11 | Policy/Govt | 4 (I liked it) |
| Burkeman, Oliver | Four Thousand Weeks | 2022-12-12 | Self-improvement, Philosophy | 4 (I liked it) |
| Adler and Van Doren | How to Read a Book | 2022-11-27 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Podcast (EconTalk) | Will MacAskill on Longtermism and What We Owe the Future | 2022-11-24 | Philosophy | |
| Podcast (EconTalk) | David McRaney on How Minds Change | 2022-11-22 | Relationships/Psychology | |
| Greene, Robert | The 48 Laws of Power | 2022-11-05 | Self-improvement, Business/Work | 3 (Okay) |
| Podcast (80,000 Hours) | Will MacAskill on what we owe the future | 2022-10-23 | Philosophy | |
| Podcast (80,000 Hours) | Hilary Greaves on Pascal’s mugging, strong longtermism and whether existing can be good for us | 2022-10-09 | Philosophy | |
| Oakley, Barbara | A Mind for Numbers | 2022-10-04 | Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Spoonley, Paul | The New New Zealand | 2022-09-22 | Policy/Govt | 2 (Not recommended) |
| Gottlieb, Lori | Maybe You Should Talk to Someone | 2022-09-10 | Relationships/Psychology | 3 (Okay) |
| MacAskill, William | Doing Good Better | 2022-08-25 | Policy/Govt, Philosophy | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Manson, Mark | The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | 2022-08-05 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Koga and Kishimi | The Courage to be Disliked | 2022-07-18 | Philosophy, Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Desmond, Matthew | Evicted | 2022-07-02 | Policy/Govt | 3 (Okay) |
| Harari, Yuval Noah | Sapiens | 2022-06-24 | History | 4 (I liked it) |
| Duke, Annie | How to Decide | 2022-05-25 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Godin, Seth | The Practice | 2022-05-14 | Business/Work | 2 (Not recommended) |
| Diamond, Jared | Guns, Germs and Steel | 2022-05-08 | History | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Voss, Chris | Never Split the Difference | 2022-04-30 | Business/Work, Relationships/Psychology | 3 (Okay) |
| Graeber, David | Bullshit Jobs | 2022-04-12 | Business/Work | 3 (Okay) |
| Allison, Graham | Destined for War | 2022-04-10 | History, Policy/Govt | 4 (I liked it) |
| Gladwell, Malcolm | Talking to Strangers | 2022-03-28 | Relationships/Psychology | 1 (Stay away) |
| Duke, Annie | Thinking In Bets | 2022-03-24 | Self-improvement | 3 (Okay) |
| Kahneman, Siboney and Sunstein | Noise | 2022-03-19 | Business/Work, Self-improvement | 4 (I liked it) |
| Kleon, Austin | Show Your Work | 2022-03-18 | Business/Work | 3 (Okay) |
| Junger, Sebastian | Tribe | 2022-03-16 | Relationships/Psychology | 2 (Not recommended) |
| Bergstrom and West | Calling Bullshit | 2022-03-13 | Self-improvement, Policy/Govt | 5 (Personal fave) |
| Kleon, Austin | Steal Like An Artist | 2022-03-08 | Business/Work | 4 (I liked it) |
| Chua, Amy | Political Tribes | 2022-03-06 | Policy/Govt, History | 3 (Okay) |
| Ahrens, Sonke | How to Take Smart Notes | 2022-03-05 | Self-improvement | 2 (Not recommended) |