Shortform Books

Expressing Love and Compassion in the Everyday Life

What exactly is meant by “love and compassion”? What are some ways you can cultivate genuine compassion towards all living things? As His Holiness the Dalai Lama aptly said, “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” However, when we get caught up in the everyday ebb and flow of life, acting with compassion is easier said than done. However, you don’t need to be a Buddhist saint to approach life from a place of love and compassion. Here’s how you can make an effort to show compassion in your daily life.

Jason Fung: Shedding Light on the Origins of Cancer

How does cancer start? How do carcinogens in the environment set off the chain of events that eventually leads to cancer? According to Dr. Jason Fung, cancer starts with damage inflicted by some type of carcinogen. Sometimes the body fixes that damage incorrectly, causing slight changes in the genetic material—in other words, mutations. From there, evolutionary pressure drives cellular reproduction. Keep reading to learn about the origins of cancer, according to Dr. Fung.

How to Ask the Right Questions: Targeting the Main Issue

When you’re solving a problem, what are the most effective questions to ask? How can you make sure you’re thinking in the right direction? The right questions are the ones that give you a relevant foundation and point you in a helpful direction. In The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird discuss the importance of asking the right questions and explain what makes them effective. Keep reading to learn how to ask the right questions to guide your thinking toward your next most important idea.

The 10 Best Books About Addiction Recovery

Are you in recovery from addiction? What are the best books to read about addiction recovery? Any type of addiction—whether it’s drugs, alcohol, or technology—is a serious disease to overcome. Millions of people suffer from addiction, and it can be hard to sort through the overwhelming amount of resources to find a recovery method that’s right for you. Here are some of the best addiction books that cover all kinds of addiction.

What Is the Monkey Mind & How to Tame It

What is the monkey mind? What causes it? How can you tame your monkey mind? Michael Singer is an American spiritual teacher, motivational speaker, and author. Through the lifelong practice of meditation and yoga, Singer recognized his unwanted mental chatter—his monkey mind—and described advice for silencing it in his book The Surrender Experiment. Keep reading to learn more about what the monkey mind is and how to tame it, according to Singer.

It’s Time to Break Up Big Tech: Here’s How to Do It

Are Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google monopolies? How can competition be encouraged? In The Four, entrepreneur and marketing professor Scott Galloway takes a close look at four technology companies that dominate the modern marketplace: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (the “Four”). He makes the case that it’s time for the law to treat them as monopolies. Keep reading for Galloway’s idea on how to break up Big Tech.

Putting the Challenge of Carbon Reduction Into Perspective

Is it possible to lower CO2 emissions to a safe level? How long do we have left until climate change is irreversible? Carbon reduction is one of the major challenges of the 21st century. According to Vaclav Smil, the author of Numbers Don’t Lie, the prospects of succeeding at this endeavor are not currently looking bright. Here’s why significantly curbing carbon emissions is nearly impossible, according to Smil.

Soviet Labor Camps: Insights From The Gulag Archipelago

What were Soviet labor camps designed to do? How were they like Nazi death camps? What happened to released prisoners? The Gulag Archipelago is a work of historical nonfiction that describes life in Soviet labor camps, popularly known as gulags, in the USSR from the late 1910s to the mid-50s. Prisoners such as author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn were arrested on minor or fabricated charges, tortured and robbed, and held in camps for decades. Keep reading to learn how gulags subjected prisoners to forced labor, physical abuse, long prison terms, and exile.

Barbara Minto’s Writing Advice for Struggling Writers

What is Barbara Minto’s best writing advice? How can her suggestions help you? In The Pyramid Principle, Barbara Minto shares a form of writing called the Conclusions-First Pyramid. She developed this writing approach when she noticed that her colleagues were producing unclear reports that failed to reflect the strength of their ideas. Learn more about Minto’s writing style below.

Shortform Reads: Trading an Elitist Attitude for Nerdom

What famous book does Aaron say everyone should read? What book should you go into reading blind? Located in Michigan, Aaron is a book guide writer and narration reviewer here at Shortform. He didn’t start reading speculative fiction until later in life, and now he’s an enthusiast.