Shortform Books

What Did Jordan Belfort Do to End Up in Prison?

A pair of handcuffed hands sitting outside prison bars.

What did Jordan Belfort do to become a financial criminal? What type of financial crimes did he commit? Though Belfort did many things that were against the law, it was his financial crimes that both enriched him and eventually sent him to prison. So many of Belfort’s business dealings were against federal and state regulations because he invented schemes to hide his transactions from regulatory institutions. Let’s look at the principles upon which Belfort’s firm, Stratton Oakmont, was founded and the crimes he committed under its name.

How to Minimize Social Harms: 3 Inspiring Approaches

A woman feeding a homeless person on the street to avoid social harms.

How should we address social harms such as war and poverty? Do you sense a call to take on such issues in your community or the world? The 2023 book Life Worth Living urges you to adopt a philosophy of life. Oftentimes, such personal life philosophies entail an obligation to minimize social harms such as crime and bigotry. The authors share approaches from Mary Wollstonecraft, James Baldwin, and Confucius. Read more to draw inspiration from these thought leaders.

How to Understand Emotions & Relate to Them in a Healthy Way

A black and white image of a person trying to understand emotions, and holding up three different emoted masks.

What are emotions? When is it healthy to have challenging emotions? How aware of your own feelings are you? According to Dr. Julie Smith, the most important thing to know about emotions is that they are a normal part of the human experience. That goes for the highs and the lows. What matters most is that they match the situation. Read more to learn how to understand emotions and work with them in a healthy way.

Stratton Oakmont Scandal: Stock Manipulation by Proxies

What was the Stratton Oakmont scandal? How did employees at Stratton Oakmont participate in stock manipulation? While there are many ways for investment firms to make money, the practice of choice for Stratton Oakmont was stock price manipulation. Jordan Belfort’s traders artificially inflated the stock price of a company during its Initial Public Offering (IPO) while holding on to more shares of that company than was allowed by SEC rules. Continue reading to learn more about Stratton Oakmont’s scandalous method of making money.

Focus on the Little Things: Email & Housework Organization

An illustration of a woman focusing on the little things as she holds coffee and works on a laptop

What are the little things you need to take care of? Do you have an inbox with hundreds of unread emails? Is your house cluttered? Sometimes dealing with little things can make you feel more in control. To get your life together, Sarah Knight recommends starting small with tasks like emptying your email inbox and keeping the house clean. Learn how to focus on the little things before tackling the big projects.

What Is the Winter Solstice & Why Does It Matter So Much?

What is the winter solstice? What makes the winter solstice the shortest, darkest day of the year? Why have humans marked the occasion since prehistory? Each year, the astronomical winter begins with the shortest day of the year: the winter solstice, the day with the fewest hours of sunlight. In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs every year on December 21 or 22. After that point, the days begin to grow longer. Here’s a look at what the winter solstice actually is and why it’s so historically and culturally significant.

How to Deal With Hardship in a Way That Inspires Others

A young man with a slight smile, trying to deal with hardship.

How do you deal with hardship? Do you respond in a way that inspires others? Every year, Yale professors Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz teach a course on living well. Their book Life Worth Living captures the course’s concepts. One of the matters they discuss is how to deal with hardship in the context of a life well lived. Keep reading for their advice based on insights from philosophers, religious traditions, and literary greats.

Self-Help for Low Mood: How to Lift Your Mood Without Therapy

A smiling woman in front of a large building who's happy from doing self-help for low mood.

What exactly are moods? Are you frequently stuck in a low mood, even when the situation doesn’t call for it? Is there a way to shift out of a low mood without going to therapy? Dr. Julie Smith writes that you can understand your moods and assert control over them to a large degree. Depression and sadness don’t necessarily warrant formal therapy. She offers several insights and tips for elevating your outlook in her book Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? Read more to get some self-help for low mood conditions.

The Asshole Survival Guide by Robert Sutton (Book Overview)

Do you feel helpless or angry when confronted with mean people? Do you wish you had better strategies for dealing with them? The Asshole Survival Guide by Robert Sutton offers wisdom for dealing with jerks—rude and tyrannical people of all kinds. Focusing primarily on bad behavior in the workplace, he argues that, with the right tools, you can take away a jerk’s power, lessen their effect on you, and keep them from harming others. Continue reading for an overview of this practical book.

Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman: A Donald Trump Biography

What can we learn from Confidence Man, by Maggie Haberman? How did Donald Trump become the public figure that he is? In Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman, we learn how Donald Trump’s family values led to a transactional mindset in relationships that fed his success in business and politics. To understand why Trump carried the presidency the way that he did, it helps to hear New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman’s analysis. Continue reading to learn more from this biography of Donald Trump.