Book Reviews & Beyond

Is stoicism past its due date as a mindset?

The philosophy articulated by the embattled Marcus Aurelius as his personal life and empire threatened to collapse around him in 170 BC. It's over 2000 years old, and we are now living in a world utterly inconceivable to even the most imaginative Roman aristocrat in the midst of a psychedelic Dionysian fever dream. Modernity seems architected to conflict directly with every facet of evolutionary psychology and the philosophical values that have edified men and women for millennia. While new science, thinking, and practice from the fields of Biohacking and personal growth seem to offer pragmatic solutions in a world doing its damnedest to claw away our free will with digital talons.
In a world utterly corrupted by politics, big business, big government, and devouring ideology, is stoicism as a mindset an individualistic "cope" to keep your metaphorical hands off pitchforks that should be raised?
That's the question I'll be exploring today with Will R. Young, a behavioral finance strategist, philosopher, top-performing superforecasters in the Good Judgment Project, author of a new book, "The Enough Equation," and avid surfer - he knows a thing or two about dodging shark fins.

Book Review: An underrated book full of seriously effective holistic health hacks

I kept hearing about The Tao of Health as I investigated tantric sex techniques, something I was curious about since I'd heard it discussed on a daygame podcast interview years ago.

You've probably heard of Taoism and are maybe thinking: That's some wu-wu eastern spirituality, right? It has some religious undertones (that I don't subscribe to), but mostly it's just a holistic tradition for health, developed over thousands of years and now adopted by many biohackers. Taoism as presented in the book is very pragmatic; a set of techniques to exercise greater control over your autonomic nervous system. A lot of what you'll learn is breath control methods, which are prerequisites to tantric sex and being able to achieve multiple orgasms as a man. Check out my article and podcast on, How to Breath like a Jedi.

As I wrote in-depth about in my book, cultivating myself as a tantric man has resulted in the beautiful, harmonious relationship I have with my wife - it's made a difference for us...

Two years ago, I started reading Boundless Parenting shortly after hearing the heartbeat of what I now think of as my first son.

But we lost him in the seventh month due to a random cord incident. For a while, I said, "We lost the pregnancy," instead of, "I lost a child" -- maybe because I never saw his face. I stopped reading it, but nearly nine months ago, I picked it back up again, after discovering we had another one on the way. Becoming a new father is a page flip without equal to a new chapter of life, and I have a lot to learn, so finishing a thousand-page book on the topic seems smart!

Book review: Masterful magical realism!

I recently finished the third book in the compelling historical fiction series ”War God” by Graham Hancock, about the Spanish conquest of Mexico by Cortés and his band of conquistadors.

What captures your attention for hours on end and makes the novel such a page-turner is its descriptions of the scale and severity of violence. This book is a snapshot of probably one of the very most violent episodes in human history; when one of the most ambitious men in the world, Hernán Cortés, with a technologically superior force of several hundred conquistadors took on an empire of possibly as many as 30 million Aztecs and ultimately prevailed.

Book Review: An HRV-Hackers Guide to Living Fully for Every Beat

HRV is a topic I've been interested in for a while as a Biohacker. I've completed over 300 HRV training sessions with HeartMath's devices; which has made me a better meditator and generally, a cooler cat. HRV is a particularly pragmatic metric for the Biohacker thanks to the abundance of science done on the topic and the advent of consumer-grade devices you can use to track yours.

The Pulse Cure, by Dr. Torkil Færø, is the most recent (and, in my opinion, approachable and actionable) book on the topic. The book is the result of a study group of 198 Norwegian volunteers that Dr. Torkil (as he refers to himself on his popular Instagram account) led in using HRV wearables. It is punctuated by a number of anecdotes from Dr. Torkil's Garmin watch study group. For example: Melina, 41, adds

Don’t get stressed out thinking that you have to follow all of the scores and data every single day. Go at your own pace! Eventually you won’t need to track all the data. You will learn when it is the right time to check your status. (p. 94)

Tusen takk (Norwegian for “a thousand thank-yous”), Melina!

Book Review: Bitcoin will make civilization sane again

This is the first book I've read about cryptocurrency, and I took away from it something invaluable, hope. Jason A. Williams, the author, gives us a lot of reason to be optimistic about a Bitcoin-powered future.

I highly recommend reading two books at a time. Usually something fiction and something non-fiction.

Not only will it satisfy a bit of your appetite for novelty, but it will also really stimulate your ability to synthesize big ideas.

Book Review: Why human nature is antithetical to human rights...

This book begins with a treatise on free speech by Quintus Curtius, he makes the point that we assume incorrectly that society will just get better and better. We assume that we will just become freer and freer, we see the tremendous improvement in human quality of life in the past hundred years of history recorded via grainy photographs, shaky newsreel, and newspaper clippings and we assume that it's just going to get better but Quintus warns that progress is not our birthright...

Book Review: The Internet Killed the News. Duh. What to do about It...

Lately, I've been reviewing books that would make you feel optimistic and happy about the world so I figured I'd review one that will make you think that it's all FUBAR'd (a great acronym for fucked up beyond any recognition).

The book shows how journalism has died in the digital age because of how the economics of the Internet reward the worst behavior from journalists and news websites. The subtitle of the book is Confessions of a Media Manipulator, the author is a PR consultant who would cleverly orchestrate the media to do his bidding and draw millions of eyeballs.