The World's Best Book Summaries
How should companies allocate capital? How important is it for businesses to resist trends? If you’re looking at a company as a potential investment, you need to assess its leadership. Warren Buffett looks for three things: how they allocate capital, how transparent they are with their finances, and how resistant they are to trends. Continue reading to discover how to evaluate management in the same way that Warren Buffett does.
Should you pay bonuses before or after the performance period? What’s the best way to use social incentives within a team? In The Voltage Effect, economist and professor John A. List offers his advice for how to take things from the small scale to the big stage. He shares a set of strategies designed to increase your business’s chances of success as it grows. One of these is using reward-based motivation. Read more to learn how to scale successfully by setting the right incentives to motivate your team.
Why are Americans so politically divided? Can anything be done about it? Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein argues that Americans are split into two sharply contrasting groups rooted in partisan identities. He believes this is a departure from previous eras when political divides were more about issues than identities. Continue reading for an overview of this book that provides insight into what’s going on in America today.
Are you just getting started in your career (or a new career)? What are you willing to sacrifice now in order to succeed in the long run? When author Alex Banayan wanted to find out how the people at the top got there, he set out to interview them. Here’s what he learned from musician Pitbull and executive Qi Lu: Work hard today for a payoff tomorrow. Read more to learn why you are your best investment.
Are you always in a rush? Does it feel like there’s never enough time to do everything you need to do? Pastor and author John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry explores our cultural obsession with rushing and examines how it harms our relationships, health, and spirituality. Comer argues that you can escape this culture of rushing by following the lifestyle of Jesus. Continue reading for an overview of this insightful book that can put you on the path to an unhurried life.
When should you give up on an idea or a project? What’s the best way to identify diminishing returns? Sometimes it’s hard to give up, especially when you’ve invested so much and you don’t want to be a quitter. But, sometimes cutting your losses and moving on is the best course of action. In The Voltage Effect, economist John A. List explains why, sometimes, quitting is for winners. Continue reading to learn how to avoid the sunk cost fallacy and stop wasting valuable resources.
Are you ready to make some lifestyle changes? What could you do differently to get more out of life? In The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer shares insights on what it means to rush through life, why we rush, and how doing so harms us and others. He provides practical advice on how to live a slower, more fulfilling life by following Jesus’s lifestyle. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry study guide below will help you apply the book’s principles to your life.
Do you tend to give up when you don’t reach a breakthrough right away? What’s the best way to find a solution without wasting a lot of time? In The Third Door, Alex Banayan shares the insights into success that he learned from interviewing inventor Dean Kamen. Kamen’s secret is kissing frogs—in other words, persistently trying lots of solutions. Kamen cautions, though, that this must be done strategically so that you don’t waste time. Keep reading to learn how kissing frogs might be your ticket to success as it has been for Kamen.
What’s focus investing? How is it different from modern portfolio theory? Which approach does Warren Buffett take? According to Robert G. Hagstrom, Warren Buffett departs significantly from the mainstream when it comes to portfolio management. While most investors diversify their portfolios broadly to minimize volatility, Buffett focuses on a select handful of stocks to maximize his chances of above-market returns. Read more to learn about focus investing and why Buffett prefers it to the modern portfolio approach.
Do you feel the need to be productive all the time? Do you feel guilty when you do nothing? It’s easy to feel like you have to constantly be doing something. Social media declares that, to be a good person, you have to pay attention to the right post or cause; you feel like your time is money and you have to constantly use it productively. Jenny Odell says we must understand and resist this mindset. Keep reading for an overview of Odell’s book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.