John Lanza

My Book Summaries

I'm adding all my book summaries here as I complete them. (And as time permits.)

The Effortless Life

by Babauta, Leo

Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life

by Bogle, John C.

Humankind: A Hopeful History

by Bregman, Rutger Moore, Erica and Manton, Elizabeth

Simple Marketing For Smart People

by Broas, Billy and Forte, Tiago

Finite and Infinite Games

by Carse, James

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

by Cialdini, Robert

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

by Clear, James

Summary: Just as atoms make up everything we see, habits make up almost everything we accomplish. What the world sees in us and others is the compounding effect of the totality of our habits, both effective and not. In this book, James Clear outlines how to build effective habits and break ineffective ones with a deceptively simple system. Habits work in loops — cue > craving > response > reward. Habit stacking — if this habit, then that habit — can help fuel the compounding of our good habits. Temptation bundling helps us pair what we want (reward) with what we must do (response). The automaticity of habits pushes us beyond boredom. We leverage consistency to make effective habits engines of achievement. A system of effective habits frees up our limited willpower to do the vital work of our lives.

Select notes and quotes:

  • "Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement."
  • "Complaining about not achieving success despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from twenty-five to thirty-one degrees. Your work was not wasted; it is just being stored. All the action happens at thirty-two degrees."
  • "Change can take years—before it happens all at once.*
  • "Winners and losers have the same goals."
  • "Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement."
  • "The process of building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself."
  • "Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it."
  • " 'Disciplined' people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control."
  • "For years, scientists assumed dopamine was all about pleasure, but now we know it plays a central role in many neurological processes, including motivation, learning and memory, punishment and aversion, and voluntary movement."
  • "Gambling addicts have a dopamine spike right before they place a bet, not after they win."
  • "Life feels reactive, but it is actually predictive. All day long, you are making your best guess of how to act given what you’ve just seen and what has worked for you in the past. You are endlessly predicting what will happen in the next moment."
  • "Desire is the difference between where you are now and where you want to be in the future."
  • "Saving money is often associated with sacrifice. However, you can associate it with freedom rather than limitation if you realize one simple truth: living below your current means increases your future means. The money you save this month increases your purchasing power next month."
  • "It is human nature to follow the Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work."
  • "We are motivated to do what is easy."
  • "The difference between a good day and a bad day is often a few productive and healthy choices made at decisive moments."
  • "The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details."
  • "Behavioral economists refer to this tendency as time inconsistency. That is, the way your brain evaluates rewards is inconsistent across time.* You value the present more than the future. Usually, this tendency serves us well. A reward that is certain right now is typically worth more than one that is merely possible in the future. But occasionally, our bias toward instant gratification causes problems."
  • "The costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future."
  • "Incentives can start a habit. Identity sustains a habit."
  • "Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit."
  • "Lost days hurt you more than successful days help you. If you start with $100, then a 50 percent gain will take you to $150. But you only need a 33 percent loss to take you back to $100. In other words, avoiding a 33 percent loss is just as valuable as achieving a 50 percent gain."
  • "It’s not always about what happens during the workout. It’s about being the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts."
  • "People get so caught up in the fact that they have limits that they rarely exert the effort required to get close to them."
  • "Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck."
  • "Pick the right habit and progress is easy. Pick the wrong habit and life is a struggle."
  • "The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us."
  • "In the words of investor Paul Graham, 'keep your identity small.' The more you let a single belief define you, the less capable you are of adapting when life challenges you."
  • "Can one tiny change transform your life? It’s unlikely you would say so. But what if you made another? And another? And another? At some point, you will have to admit that your life was transformed by one small change."
  • "It’s remarkable the friendships you can build if you don’t stop caring. Small habits don’t add up. They compound."
  • "*That’s the power of atomic habits. Tiny changes. Remarkable results."
  • "As Caed Budris says, 'Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming.' "
  • "This is the wisdom behind Seneca’s famous quote, 'Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more.' "

Goodreads Share

A Simple Path to Wealth

by Collins, JL

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

by Duhigg, Charles

Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending

by Dunn, Elizabeth and Norton, Michael

The Lessons of History

by Durant, Will and Ariel

The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated

by Ferriss, Tim

On Bullshit

by Frankfurt, Harry G.

Man's Search for Meaning

by Frankl, Viktor E., Kushner, Harold S. and Winslade, William J.

Escape from Freedom

by Fromm, Erich

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

by Gigerenzer, Gerd

Stumbling on Happiness

by Gilbert, Dan

This is Marketing

by Godin, Seth

The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

by Godin, Seth

Waking Up

by Harris, Sam

Same as Ever

by Housel, Morgan

The Psychology of Money

by Housel, Morgan

Napoleon: A Life

by Johnson, Paul

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

by Jorgenson, Eric

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

by Kelly, Kevin

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad

by Kleon, Austin

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

by McKeown, Greg

All Minus One: John Stuart Mill's Ideas on Free Speech Illustrated

by Mill, John Stuart (edited by Jonathan Haidt, David Cicirelli, and Richard Reeves)

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

by Newport, Cal

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

by Newport, Cal

Amusing Ourselves to Death

by Postman, Neil

Anything You Want

by Sivers, Derek

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

by Thiel, Peter with Masters, Blake

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

by Waitzkin, Josh