Montly Reads: Apr & May 2024

First and foremost, I apologize for missing my monthly reads edition for April. As I was getting ready to draft the blog, tragedy struck our life. On May 3rd, 2024, my grandmother passed away. I was emotionally derailed for a couple of weeks, only taking care of basic needs like eating. However, I realized that instead of mourning the loss, I should celebrate my grandmother’s life by showing the values and disciplines she taught. I bet my grandmother would have said the same to me.

Despite this emotional upset, I managed to read a book in May. For this month, I will combine summaries of books read in April and May. I don’t want to procrastinate and would like to maintain discipline for regularly writing articles.

Focus on What Matters: A Collection of Stoic Letters on Living Well

This is the first book about Stoicism that I have read. I’ve been hearing a lot and getting many YouTube recommendations on Stoicism. This book revolves around the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who, after serving as a senator and later as an advisor to Nero, started traveling. While traveling, he wrote a collection of letters to his friend Lucilius. Through these letters, Seneca shares Stoic thoughts and philosophy, trying to convince his friend to pursue tranquility and focus on what’s within his control. The Stoics believed that to live a happy life, you need to go against the herd.

Focusing on what we can control, author Darius Foroux clarifies that it does not mean detaching or running away from daily realities, but rather having a balance on:

1. The Inner World: Everything related to mastering our own mind.
2. The Outer World: Everything related to becoming the master of our own destiny.

In my opinion, this is an amazing book for beginners who want to learn about Stoicism and incorporate these principles into their daily lives.

I’m easily drawn to acquiring knowledge, and Stoicism has great principles in this regard. Stoic philosophy says, “When you’re lost, unfocused, or lacking motivation, grab a book about a topic you’re interested in,” and “When you make an effort to acquire knowledge, you nourish your spirit. Learning gives you energy, even if you don’t use everything you learn.” I really enjoyed reading this book.

Same as Ever

In this book, the famed author of “The Psychology of Money,” Morgan Housel, presents insights that focus on timeless principles and perspectives on human behavior, finance, and life. Here are some impactful themes and lessons from the book:

1. Human nature is consistent.
2. The power of patience.
3. The illusion of control.
4. Simplicity over complexity.
5. Long-term perspective.
6. Behavior over technical knowledge.
7. The value of humility.
8. The importance of stories.
9. Focus on fundamentals.

I was particularly drawn to his chapter “Expectations and Reality,” where he explains the first rule of happiness is to have low expectations. However, we measure our well-being relative to those around us, and luxuries quickly become necessities when people around us become better off. The author rightly says that the world isn’t driven by greed; it’s driven by envy.

Social media today exaggerates this, as everyone can see the often inflated, faked, and airbrushed lifestyles of others. We often compare ourselves to our peers through a curated highlight reel of their lives, where positives are decorated and negatives are hidden. Author also says “Today’s economy is good at generating three things: wealth, the ability to show off wealth, and great envy for other people’s wealth.”

Slow Productivity

Since its release in March, I’ve wanted to read this book by an author I admire, Cal Newport.

In an era where fast-paced productivity is the trend, Cal suggests slowing it down. It may seem like a bold prediction, and you might think to hide this from your boss. Cal explains the concept of Slow Productivity with examples of great minds in history pacing themselves to breakthroughs by focusing on quality and taking it slow. Cal begins with three principles:

1. Do fewer things.
2. Work at a natural pace.
3. Obsess over quality.

Throughout the book, Cal delves into each principle in depth, giving propositions and methods for implementing these principles in your daily life.

Cal makes a distinctive point of choosing quality over wealth or fame, giving a real-life scenario of a graphic designer who initially charged clients $15 per hour to make a sustainable living capital of $100,000 per year. As the graphic designer focused on developing his skills, he began receiving many client requests. Instead of taking more clients, he increased his base price from $15 to $100 per hour to maintain his sustainable living capital and work fewer hours. He gave up wealth for freedom and used the free time to focus on his skills, gaining a better advantage in the market.

Overall, a very insightful book, with suggestions to ward off the busyness that comes with pseudo-productivity. I also got a few interesting book recommendations related to this topic.

That’s it for this edition of monthly reads. Again, I apologize for missing the previous month due to my circumstances. I’d like to leave you with a small message my grandparents taught me: “It’s a wonderful life.”