I enjoy life; I might almost say that with every year that passes I enjoy it more This is due partly to having discovered what were the things that I most desired and having gradually acquired many of these things Partly it is due to having successfully dismissed certain objects of desire – such as…More
Category Archives: Books
Four Thousand Weeks: Oliver Burkeman
The spirit of the times is one of joyless urgency,” writes the essayist Marilynne Robinson If I could get enough work done, my subconscious had apparently concluded, I wouldn’t need to ask if it was all that healthy to be deriving so much of my sense of self-worth from work in the first place the…More
Escape from Freedom: Erich Fromm
Human nature is neither a biologically fixed and innate sum total of drives nor is it a lifeless shadow of cultural patterns to which it adapts itself smoothly; it is the product of human evolution, but it also has certain inherent mechanisms and laws. There are certain factors in man’s nature which are fixed and…More
How Brands Grow: Byron Sharp
1. Growth in market share comes by increasing popularity; that is, by gaining many more buyers (of all types), most of whom are light customers buying the brand only very occasionally. 2. Brands, even though they are usually slightly differentiated, mainly compete as if they are near lookalikes; though they vary in popularity (and hence…More
Smarter Investing: Tim Hale
In a nutshell:– Invest in index funds– Use a platform like Vanguard (lowest fees I’ve found so far)– Pick an index you want to track e.g. FTSE (by national economic index), by sector (fashion, Tech, energy), by geography (Europe, US, emerging markets)– Choose the stocks and shares ISA– Decide how risky you want your portfolio…More
The Untethered Soul: Michael Singer
Summary A simple but profound insight into how to improve your inner life Favourite Lines The best way to free yourself from this incessant chatter [of your monkey mind] is to step back and view it objectively In fact, the only way to get your distance from this voice is to stop differentiating what it’s saying.…More
Psychology of Money: Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel uses short stories to show that “how you behave is more important than what you know” when it comes to financial success. The underappreciated soft skills of money are conveyed through short stories that help us make better financial decisions. Favourite Lines “History never repeats itself; man always does.” Your personal experiences with…More
Michael Nketsiah 