5 things I learned from my first five books of 2022
Psychedelics, dog training, and the art of achieving more by doing less (lifetothemax #33)
Last year, I set myself the goal of reading 30 minutes a day. I had read a grand total of 7 books the previous year, and I knew I wanted to make a change. After watching the following Youtube documentary by Max Joseph (friend of Casey Neistat) about bookstores, in which he talks about what it takes to become “someone who has read everything”, I found out that 30 minutes a day was all I needed to make a positive change in my life.
(Note: I’ve recommended this video before, but I can not recommend it enough. If you haven’t yet, go watch it! It’s one of my favorite videos on YouTube hands down.)
After a successful start to 2021, having finished my tenth book in just under 5 months, I decided to write about my master plan of reading 1000 books by the time I die:
I eventually finished the year having read 23 books, and feeling like I was truly a changed person, with each book imparting me with new knowledge and perspectives on a wide range of topics. So when I looked back on 2021, I knew at the very least I would be taking this habit with me into 2022.
I ended up setting myself an even more ambitious goal for 2022 of reading an hour a day! My hope with this new goal is that I’ll be able to read 50 books this year, allowing me to reach the life goal of reading 1000 even faster! And so far I’ve already finished five books! Hence, I will be writing 5 lessons I learned from the first five books I finished this year (similar to this post that I made last year). I intend to do this every time I finish 5 books, so please subscribe if you find any value in this.
Some rules of thumb1: For each book, I’ll be giving a rating and a general idea that I took away from the book. This idea is not necessarily what the book was about, or may be a very small portion of what was covered in the book. It is more-so what I personally got out of the book. I invite you to read the descriptions of these books online to get a better, more general idea of what they may be about.
Now for the content!
Book 1: “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence”
by Michael Pollan
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Main idea: There is a lot we don’t know about consciousness and psychedelics can help explore that.
This book was truly fascinating. It’s a deep look into the history and science of psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin and newer forms) and what they can tell us about our mind and consciousness in general. Both the applications in various forms of therapy for a plethora of mental illnesses as well as the potential for personal exploration of the mind were really captivating.
Michael Pollan spends the first few chapters of the book (it is split into six major chapters) going over the ancient history of the substances and how they were “rediscovered” in modern times in labs. He does this in a purely journalistic way, meeting with important figures in the world of psychedelics and interviewing them. He discusses in detail how psychedelics got to be outlawed in the US as part of the war on drugs, due to the fact that they were portrayed as much more dangerous than they actually were and as a symbol of the “counterculture”. (Many parallels are drawn with Marijuana, as both drugs are very safe if users are educated about their effects, which would be much easier to control if they were legalized.)
The author eventually gets to his own “Travelogue” in chapter 4 of the book, where he describes in detail three experiences he has with three different psychedelics, what was going through his mind during these “trips”, and what he “saw”. It’s an incredibly raw and intense part of the book, that by his account gives a really positive and profound view of these drugs. He discusses, as a sceptic at first, all the experiences that people on psychedelics have with seeing a “higher being” of some kind, or having deep spiritual visions. After observing these for himself, to varying degrees, he declares that he now understands the extensive history of these accounts.
It seems inevitable that these drugs will eventually become legal in some form or another, if only for use in various forms of therapy, as they seem to have such strong positive effects on the people who take them. I find it exciting that there is this avenue to explore our minds and the bounds of our perceptions of the world, and I recommend that anyone interested in the topic at all, if even from a skeptical point of view, give this book a read.
Book 2: “The Martian”
by Andy Weir
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Main idea: Science and engineering can be quite creative.
This novel was a super fun read. I loved how technical it seemed to get and unapologetically so, all while being fun and light hearted when it needed to be. Overall, going to Mars seems like a bad idea, like a really bad idea. Everything is trying to kill you, always. But I guess the point of science and engineering is to solve problems like trying to survive on a remote planet.
I like how engineering-heavy this book was. Andy Weir is clearly very passionate about space — to a nerdy level — yet has such a great writing style where he’s able to show his character’s wit all while describing a quite technical problem he is facing. As someone who did an engineering degree in college, I sometimes find it hard to marry my CS background with my creative side. This book was inspirational in this regard.
Last week’s newsletter was quite technical, and as I was writing it I worried that I was straying too far from my usual content and might alienate my regular audience. The reception of last week’s newsletter, however, was quite positive overall. This book really shows me that I don’t have to shy away from the technical, and that it can coexist and even thrive with creativity.
But yeah, other than that, let’s definitely not go to Mars! Although it would be cool in theory, it definitely doesn’t seem worth the effort all things considered (at least not according to this book).
Book 3: “Cesar's Rules: Your Way to Train a Well-Behaved Dog”
by Cesar Millan
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Main idea: To raise a good dog, you need to be aware of its needs as an animal, as a dog, as a breed, and finally as a pet.
As I’ve said in previous newsletters, Charlotte (my girlfriend) and I recently adopted a small dog we named Adobo.
She’s super cool, but she’s also a lot to handle at times as she has some behavior problems (specifically when strangers come into the home). Knowing this, my brother got me this book about dog training for Christmas, by celebrity dog trainer and absolute legend Cesar Millan.
The main idea of the book is to be aware of your dog’s needs. Cesar — since we’ve been so avidly watching his show “Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog” on Disney+, we are now on first name basis — specifically describes how your pet’s needs must be met in the following order: their needs as an animal, then as a dog, then as their specific breed, and finally as a pet.
What does this mean in practice? It means being aware that your dog, above being a pet, is first and foremost an animal with animal needs (proper nutrition and exercise). It then has needs as a dog (going out on walks, general fulfillment), as a breed (certain breeds need more space, more time outside, more exercise, etc.) and only then as a pet (building a loving relationship with your dog). He discusses how a lot of the cases where dogs are misbehaving do not come from the fact that their owner is mean to their pets or not loving them enough, but instead, it is owners who think loving and caring for their dogs is enough while not meeting their other needs.
It has been immediately obvious with Adobo that when she does not get the proper amount of exercise (like when it is raining buckets outside and she doesn’t want to stay outside for very long), she usually is more hyper and less receptive to commands inside the home. This book has forced me to see her very real animal needs, and I think we have been and are able to give her a very fulfilling life, and hopefully with time even get her trained out of her occasionally negative behavior.
Note: Part of us “training” our dog to fix her behavior has involved us hiring an actual, professionally trained and certified dog trainer and animal behaviorist. After one of our recent sessions with her, I briefly mentioned that I had read this book, to which she very adamantly exclaimed, “Oh no! That man does not know what he is talking about. He always talks about energy and being ‘calm-confident’, but look at you, you are calm and your dog is not. A lot of the methods he uses set the dogs up for failure down the line.” As much as we love Cesar, maybe taking advice from a reality TV star isn’t the best idea…
Book 4: “The Call of the Wild”
by Jack London
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Main idea: There’s a little bit of wild in even the tamest dog.
I happened to have this book lying around, and since I don’t read enough literature/fiction, I thought I would give it a try. It was quite short, so I knew it would only take me a few days to finish. This book, interestingly, fit in quite well with the previous lesson from Cesar’s book.
Buck is the protagonist dog from the The Call of the Wild. After being stolen from his original owner, he gets passed from owner to owner during the time of the Klondike Gold Rush, where the need for big fluffy dogs powerful enough to pull dogsleds and withstand the cold were in high demand for the migration up to Yukon. Each of his owners varies in kindness and/or violence towards Buck, who slowly becomes tougher and more wild, even outsmarting and overpowering dogs who had previously been pack leaders, and going so far as to joining a wolf pack as the leader by the end of the book.
Throughout his ups and downs, you see that Buck is able to always be the best and most loyal dog to the owners who treat him kindly and fulfill him. He is able to prove his love for these owners, going so far as performing superhuman (or should I say, super-canine) feats such as single-handedly pulling 1000 pounds on a dogsled. Of course, all of this is fiction, but if you take this with the lesson from the previous book, you get the real sense that as long as you treat a dog kindly and with respect, and fulfill their needs, they will in turn treat you with kindness.
On the other hand, you must remember that there is still a little bit of wildness in any dog, and if they are not fulfilled, they will go back to their untamed roots. I think this is an overarching theme of the book which applies to humans as well: the dichotomy between our natural, instinctual selves, and our tame, rational selves. It is easy to act logically and reasonably when all things are going well, but during hard times, we can tend to revert back to an emotional — or a more raw and untamed — version of ourselves.
Anyway, no need to get too philosophical either. It mostly seemed like Jack London wanted to write a cool historical fiction from the perspective of a dog. Let’s leave it at that.
Book 5: “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”
by Greg McKeown
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Main idea: Multitasking is a lie, and people can achieve much more profound wins when fully focused on one thing rather than moving an inch in every direction.
This image is the best way to summarize the book. We have a set amount of energy (or time, money, etc.), and you can either expend your energy on lots of small tasks, or all your energy on one large task. In the first case, you will achieve a little bit in a lot of difference directions. In the second, you will achieve a lot towards one main goal. The key is to choose what that ultimate goal is, and be an essentialist in how you expend your energy to get there as efficiently as possible.
When it comes to my own life, I definitely spread myself too thin, partly because of my constant fear of not achieving enough in the little time that I have on this planet. Part of me wants to be successful in everything, but it’s too much to handle. Last year, I had organized my life around a very strict and very packed daily schedule, that consisted of mostly thirty minute blocks dedicated to many different things. “Read for thirty minutes”, “work on the newsletter for 30 minutes”, “work out for 30 minutes”, “work on TikTok for 30 minutes”… If I wasn’t doing everything, everyday, I felt like I was falling behind on the stuff that I hadn’t done.
This model was not only detrimental to my mental health, but also wildly inefficient, simply based on the setup time alone for these various activities. For example, when I sit down to write my newsletter, it usually takes me 10-15 minutes to really get situated, remember where I had left off and get back into the groove of writing. Then by the time I had written two paragraphs, my thirty minute block was done and I could check that off my list for the day. The stupid thing is that I would get to the weekend when I had to finish my newsletter, and although I had spent a cumulative 3 hours on the newsletter throughout the week (in 30 minute blocks), half of that was spent setting up and so I hadn’t written anywhere near how much I wanted. The same applies for every other task on my list.
The key: I need more focus, and specifically I need to focus more on one thing at a time to make real progress. What I have instead been doing recently is writing my newsletter during two 1.5-hour blocks of time throughout the week, which reduces my total “setup” time to 30 minutes (15 mins * 2), with 2.5 hours of quality writing (compared to the previous ~1.5). And to be clear, I’m still sitting in front of the computer for the same amount of time! If I can apply this to all of the things in my life, my hope is that I can achieve a lot more.
Of course, a real essentialist would focus on one main thing, not a bunch of different things like I tend to do. Hopefully, if at the very least I set aside time to focus on one thing at a time, then I can make more progress in a few directions.
I hope you enjoyed these few lessons. As you can see, I like to read a pretty wide variety of genres/styles/qualities of books. I find that this is the best way to keep me entertained, and as bad as a book may be, I always feel like I am getting at least something out of each of them. Reading a lot since last year has really been a game changer in my life, and I recommend everyone who can make the time do the same. As I said before, all it takes is thirty minutes a day. I’m happy to give book recommendations if you are looking for a good read, and will gladly take any recommendations you may have in the comments:
You can also follow what I am reading and what I think of each book on my Goodreads account. And lastly, if you are new here, please consider subscribing. It means a lot that I am able to write to all of you every week (or so), and I would love to welcome any newcomers as well.
I’ll see you next time! ❤️
There is a folk etymology of the phrase “rule of thumb” that is quite insane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb (read the first few paragraphs)
if you're looking for a good book to read I highly recommend the tsar of love and techno
Awesome book choices! Do you tend to buy hard copies of each book or do you prefer digital formats? If so, what is your set up!?