I summarise non-fiction books with more detail and critical analysis than you'll find elsewhere. Join my newsletter to get new summaries delivered straight to your inbox!
October monthly round-up
October has been a bit lighter on the content, primarily due to some travelling. But I still managed to complete two book summaries and one blog post, so I consider that a success.
Book summaries
Blog posts
- Problems with "The Paradox of Choice"- pretty self-explanatory. This is the last in my trio of blog posts about The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, which I posted last month.
Right now I'm finishing up a summary for Michael Lewis's The Big Short, which you can expect in early November. Yeah, I know I'm over 10 years late with this one but I've been following the Sam Bankman-Fried trial on Lewis's podcast, Against the Rules and decided to check out some of his earlier books. If you've read his latest book, Going Infinite, let me know if it's any good.
Thanks and until next time,
To Summarise
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I summarise non-fiction books with more detail and critical analysis than you'll find elsewhere. Join my newsletter to get new summaries delivered straight to your inbox!
My latest summary is for Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C Scott. The book explores how states simplify and standardize complex societies to make them “legible” to distant rulers. In doing so, the state ends up reshaping reality to fit its narrow view. As usual, the key takeaways are below, and you can find the full summary by clicking the link above. KEY TAKEAWAYS States try hard to make their subjects legible: State power is...
In the past, I've sent monthly updates, but I haven't been publishing enough in the past several months for that. So you're getting a quarterly update instead for now. This quarter, I posted only 1 book summary and 1 blog post: Book summaries Essentialism by Greg McKeown (23 mins). This can be a useful read, if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed and hoping to get your priorities straight heading into 2026. You've probably heard much of the advice before, but I still find I need the reminder...
I know it's been a while since my last update. Somewhat ironically, reading and summarising Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown played a role in that. The book helped me see how my commitments had accumulated over time, so I decided to put this summary on the backburner as I focused on other priorities. While reading and learning are still “Essential” for me, publishing two summaries a month (an arbitrary, self-imposed target) is not. Anyway, as usual, the key...