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How I Use Books to Solve Almost Every Problem
Some years ago I had to solve a big problem: whether it would be a good idea to pursue a different career, or to keep pursuing my dream (at least I thought it was). At first, I tried to find the right advice that would give me the best outcome. I thought things could be even better if I found a mentor. So I spent a year trying to find the right advice and the right mentor who could change my life. But in the end, I couldn't find either one.
However, the solution to my problem came eventually. And when it arrived, I realized I had wasted a lot of time trying to solve my problems by looking for a solution in a book or podcast. One of the problems with that approach is that the experts and coaches don't share the outcomes of your decisions. Almost every piece of advice you get is a useless opinion that isn't tailored to your context. I could list a dozen more problems with taking someone else's advice, but that will have to be a dedicated post someday.
What I did was take different ideas from books and podcasts and try them out in my daily routine to see if they would help in some way. If something turned out to be useful, I didn't just get an idea or some information, but a real experience. I came across this framework by chance, but it worked well for me because I had to earn a living and couldn't afford to spend too much time on theory.
For example, I read a lot of books about money and decided to put some of the ideas into practice. It took me a few years to get the hang of it, and I lost some money and energy along the way, but now I'm much better at spotting bullshit. I was also able to change a lot of bad habits. Another belief that was holding me back was that I didn't have time to study what I needed to in order to get ahead. Once again, I took some ideas from people around the world and put them into practice. I decided that I would eventually work remotely (this was long before Covid), figure out how to sleep more and better, skip social events and give up a pretty interesting hobby, and delegate my chores as much as possible, even if it meant spending some money.
I'm not saying you should do anything, but just that all of those things were very unpopular in my context, but worked pretty well for me. Of course, lots of ideas won't help at all, but you get a lot of experience by trying different approaches to your problems. On top of it, after some time you start combining those experiences and thoughts, they have sex and procreate. For example, I once got an excellent insight about improving my vacations from a book on productivity at work. I also learned a bunch about my impostor syndrome when meditating over a text on asset management.
I'm not saying you should solve your problems this way, but just giving you an idea by telling how I've been solving mine in the last five years.
These books have given me a lot of ideas:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change EN | PT-BR
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind EN | PT-BR
Richest Man in Babylon EN | PT-BR
A Tríade do Tempo PT-BR
The book of Proverbs EN | PT-BR
Ponto de Inflexão PT-BR
Do Mil ao Milhão. Sem Cortar o Cafezinho. PT-BR
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It EN | PT-BR
The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness EN | PT-BR
Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life EN | PT-BR
The Miracle Morning EN | PT-BR
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World EN | PT-BR
The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts EN
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant EN | PT-BR
When the reader is ready, the book appears.- Naval Ravikant
The following books are worth mentioning:
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
An End to the Bull - Gary Norden
The selfish gene - Richard Dawkins
The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley
Genome - Matt Ridley
Skin in the Game - Nassim Taleb
Books on my shelf that I think I will like:
The 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene
Mastery - Robert Greene
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Zero to One - Peter Thiel
The Secret Pulse of Time - Stefan Klein
The other books of Nassim Taleb
Podcasts (Castbox says I've listened 900 hours of):
The Jordan Harbinger Show, Joe Rogan, My First Million, The Art of Manliness, Tim Ferris, Lex Fridman, Revolutions and Jordan Peterson.