Shortform Books

Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition: Background

What do you need to know before learning about the Endurance shipwreck? Was Ernest Shackleton qualified to lead an Antarctic expedition? In Endurance, Alfred Lansing recounts the unsuccessful Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. But before getting into the details of the shipwreck, he gives a brief overview of other Antarctic expeditions that inspired Shackleton to conduct his own expedition. Read below for a background of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition.

Challenge Your Beliefs: Are They Yours or Society’s?

Why is it important to challenge your beliefs? How do you know whether your beliefs and opinions about the world are true? What are the consequences of living with blind beliefs? Challenging your beliefs is an important step in self-growth. The more you question the validity of your thoughts and beliefs, the less likely you are to accept other people’s opinions as your own. The following questions will help you question your beliefs to see whether they align with who you really are.

Plato’s Symposium: Diotima’s Speech on Love

What does Diotima say about love in Plato’s Symposium? How does her concept of love relate to beauty? In Plato’s Symposium, Diotima’s speech centers on the human experience of love rather than its purpose or benefits. She concludes that the main object of love is not beauty. Rather, it’s goodness. However, she argues that beauty is integral to a good life and introduces the concept of the “ascent”—a process of learning to appreciate beauty in all its forms. In this article, we’ll explore Diotima’s views on love by explaining what humans love, why humans love, and how humans should love.

Annual Wealth Tax: What Is It & How Would It Work?

What is an annual wealth tax? How can it help increase wealth equality? A wealth tax is an annual tax on a person’s net worth, which includes personal assets and ownerships. In the book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty says that a global wealth tax has many benefits, including the even distribution of economic resources. Continue reading for an overview of the proposed wealth tax.

Tapping Into Intuition: Make Your Dreams a Reality

What are the most effective ways of tapping into intuition? How can using intuition help you make positive changes in life? Embracing your intuition involves being guided by a deep sense of inner truth. According to self-help author Glennon Doyle, when you deeply understand yourself, you can make confident decisions. Keep reading to learn why tapping into intuition is key for changing your dreams into reality.

The Stanford Prison Experiment: Zimbardo Lied?

What was the Stanford Prison Experiment? What do the results of the experiment tell us about human nature? In 1971, a team of psychologists led by Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo turned the basement of the Stanford psychology department into a “jail.” Zimbardo recruited 24 male college students, half of whom would play the role of guards and the other half the role of prisoners. After a few days, the guards began to treat the prisoners with brutality—they subjected them to strip searches, emotionally and verbally tormented them, and even physically abused them. Here’s why we shouldn’t make sweeping conclusions about

Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit: Check Your Beliefs

What’s Carl Sagan’s baloney detection kit? How can you use it to get at the truth about science and everything else? Scientists are trained with what Carl Sagan calls a “baloney detection kit.” They’re given tools for critical thinking and healthy skepticism that help them cut through the fog in the pursuit of truth. Sagan argues that we all need this kit, whether we’re trying to figure out the truth about the moon landing or an ad’s claim about toothpaste. In The Demon-Haunted World, Sagan explains how commercial culture tends to discourage critical thinking, shares three questions that foster healthy

What Makes a Good Presentation? Do These 2 Things

What makes a good presentation? What are some things you should keep in mind when delivering a business presentation? An effective presentation is one that distills your message clearly and concisely, leaving no room for interpretation in your audience’s mind. To that end, you must define one main idea your want to convey and flesh out your talking points around it. Here are a few tips on how to prepare and deliver an effective presentation that gets your message across.

Why Passive Income Is Important (Naval Ravikant)

Why should you have passive income? What can passive income do that active income can’t? Working for wages is no way to achieve financial freedom. That’s the view of Naval Ravikant, who argues that passive income is the way to go. He explains why that is, and he identifies what he thinks is the best way to generate passive income. Keep reading to learn Ravikant’s view on why passive income is important.

The Importance of Being Optimistic About the Future

Why Having No Hope for the Future Causes Depression

Why should we be optimistic about the future? Why is infinite knowledge vital for our future? There are so many pessimistic predictions about the future, but there are based on our current knowledge. Accepting that there is more to learn can better improve lives and create an optimistic outlook for the future. Read why The Beginning of Infinity‘s author David Deutsch says infinite knowledge creates infinite optimism.