Hannah Aster

SEO Team Lead

Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.

Expertise

Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing

What Are the Disadvantages of Job Specialization?

What are some of the disadvantages of job specialization? How does being an expert in one area narrow your perspective? David Epstein, the author of Range, says that one of the big downfalls of being a specialist in anything is that it can narrow your perspective. He says that the more details you know about something, the more confident you’ll be in your opinion of that matter, even if your opinion is extreme. This overconfidence can lead to a number of issues. Here is what Epstein has to say about job specialization.

The 3 Major Problems With the Caste System

What are the three biggest problems with the caste system? Where do these problems stem from? According to Isabel Wilkerson, the author of Caste, the dominant caste’s beliefs in an innate right to be in control give them a sense of entitlement and the authority to police the actions of the subordinate caste. This causes three general problems. First, upper-caste entitlement can lead to violence, second, people in the lower caste internalize and reproduce that violence, and third, society misses out on the lower class’s contributions. Here are the three problems, explained.

Angela Duckworth: Grit—Book Review

Is Angela Duckworth’s Grit worth all the hype? Is having grit really more important than intelligence or natural talent? Angela Duckworth’s book Grit was published in 2016 and became an instant bestseller—remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for years. Although there have been many criticisms of the book, many swear that Duckworth’s research is revolutionary. Continue reading for our Grit book review including the book’s context, impact, and critical reception.

Who Not How Book Advice: Invest in Personnel

What does the book Who Not How say about investing in personnel? How can spending money to hire more employees benefit you? In their book Who Not How, Sullivan and Hardy give four reasons why you should hire more personnel. They say that having more personnel will grow your business faster, will make you more money, will improve your personal relationships, and will help you optimize your purpose. Here’s why you should invest in more personnel, according to Sullivan and Hardy.

Why You Must Stop Setting Low Goals

Do your low goals help you achieve a higher-level goal? Why should you be picky about which goals you pursue? If you are pursuing a goal that does not directly connect to your high-level goals (e.g. writing a novel or starting a business), you should drop it. Otherwise, you are wasting valuable time that could be spent pursuing your high-level goals. Here is why you should prioritize which goals you spend time on.

Self-Teaching: You Are Your Own Best Teacher

What are the benefits of self-teaching? Do you really learn more through slow, directionless learning? Is there such thing as overlearning? In his book Range, David Epstein asserts that the slow and directionless self-learning process is more effective than structured learning. This is because when you learn on your own, you’re forced to struggle through experimentation—which ultimately leads to a better understanding of the subject matter. Here is why learning through self-teaching may actually be better than taking structured classes.

The Aftermath of the 2016 Presidential Election

Why did the rates of violence increase following the 2016 presidential election? How did the election of Donald Trump invoke white supremacism? In her book Caste, Isabel Wilkerson discusses how the caste system in America led to violence after Donald Trump’s election. According to Wilkerson, many white Americans had been feeling threatened because people of color were gaining more recognition and the election of Trump gave them permission to act on their white supremacist beliefs. Here’s what happened in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election.

How to Overcome Learned Helplessness With Optimism

What is learned helplessness? How can learned helplessness lead to depression and hopelessness? Learned helplessness is when you’re taught that bad things can’t be prevented or controlled. This is a dangerous way of thinking because it makes you give up and suffer through negative events rather than trying to escape or prevent them. Learn how to overcome learned helplessness through grit.

David Epstein: How Innovations Happen

What drives innovation? How does efficiency prevent people from generating innovative ideas? In his book Range, David Epstein explains that trying to work efficiently and seriously—as many scientists and innovators do—will actually make it more difficult to innovate. When you let go of expectations and the fear of failure and experiment for the joy of experimenting, that’s when many breakthroughs tend to happen. Here is how innovation happens, according to David Epstein.

The 3 Reasons to Prioritize Short-Term Objectives

Why is it better to focus on short-term objectives rather than planning for the long term? Should you always have an end goal in mind when pursuing something? David Epstein, the author of Range, explains that it’s better to chase your current opportunities and passions than trying to create a long-term plan. There are three major reasons for this: you will change, you can’t predict the future, and you can’t know if a certain job would even fit you well. Here’s why you should shift your focus to your short-term objectives.