The World's Best Book Summaries
What are prayers of appreciation? Who should you show gratitude to? Prayers of appreciation show gratitude for God, the people in your life, and the things that you have. Julia Cameron, the author of Seeking Wisdom, says showing appreciation can help you realize what’s truly important in your life. Here are three prayers of appreciation to express your love.
What is descriptive analysis? How do descriptive statistics help us make sense of data? What is the main pitfall of descriptive statistics as a research tool? Descriptive statistics take information in a data set and condense it into a meaningful figure like an average or percentile. Descriptive statistics help us summarize and describe data, characterize relationships, and make predictions. While descriptive statistics can help us make sense of data, they should be used with caution: Descriptive statistics tell us what happened, but they don’t necessarily tell us why. Keep reading to learn about the limitations of descriptive statistics.
How do you calculate investment risk? What do you need to know to calculate the expected payoff of a financial investment? Investors often use probability to assess risk when making financial decisions. This is typically done with a statistic called an “expected value.” To calculate the expected value of a financial investment, you need to know the probability of each possible outcome and its respective payoff. Here’s how to use the expected value statistic for calculating investment risk.
What is Steven Kotler’s flow state? Why does it help you achieve your most difficult goals? How can you get into a flow state? Bestselling author and journalist Steven Kotler wrote The Art of Impossible to share his step-by-step process for developing peak performance habits that will help you to achieve your most ambitious goals. Following Kotler’s process to achieve a flow state leads to better performance in all aspects of your life, including physical and mental performance. Keep reading to find out Steven Kotler’s three steps for getting into a flow state.
How is technology manipulating you? Is it your fault you have trouble focusing? Johann Hari, the author of Stolen Focus, believes the solutions put forward for the attention crisis aren’t working because they focus on personal responsibility. However, he claims that the tech industry is manipulating you to believe that it’s your fault. Continue reading to learn more about overcoming technology’s manipulation.
If you want to succeed with your startup, what must you believe to be true? What should you value? According to entrepreneurs Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba, your mindset determines your level of motivation and your ability to set ambitious but realistic goals. If you lack the right mindset, any action you take is less likely to succeed. We’ll look at two main aspects of the right mindset Ali and Kubba describe: first, believing that both hard work and luck matter, and, second, knowing your purpose. Keep reading to learn more about the optimal startup mindset.
What’s the goal of life? Did Aristotle get it right? Aristotle spent a lot of time thinking about life and its ultimate goal. He considered what we do and why we do it. He concluded that a good life is a happy life—and a happy life is a good life. Read more to better understand Aristotle’s view.
Is disappointment or boredom getting you off track in life? What does it mean to “gamify your life,” and how can it motivate you toward your goals? You might have experienced how gamification can help you stick to an exercise plan or a project at work. You can apply the same model to your life. Peak performance expert Eric Barker shows you how, discussing four features that your game must have if you want to stay motivated in life. Keep reading to learn how to gamify your life’s journey.
Are your business meetings productive? How can you get the most out of your meetings? According to Julie Zhuo in The Making of a Manager, a core function great managers perform to facilitate great outcomes is running productive meetings. Meetings take up a large portion of company time, so it’s essential to extract maximum value when people come together. Continue reading to learn how to run an effective meeting.
What are the dangers of big data? How do businesses use data to exploit their customers? In Everybody Lies, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz warns that big data can easily lend itself to exploitative practices by businesses and by governments. They do this by making inappropriate assumptions about individuals. Continue reading for more details about the dangers of big data.