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 for Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare explains how the US started using its financial and technological power to achieve foreign policy goals. While it doesn’t discuss use of physical chokepoints like the current Strait of Hormuz blockade, Fishman gives us rich insight into how economic warfare decisions (including those that led to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal) were made. As usual, the key takeaways are below, and you can find the full summary by...
Hope 2026 has gotten off a good start for you. I'm still publishing on a slower schedule, with 2 book summaries and 2 blog posts this quarter: Book summaries Seeing Like A State by James C Scott (33 mins). Scott explains how states simplify and standardise complex societies to make them “legible” to distant rulers and, in doing so, reshape those societies. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (27 mins). The book argues that institutions, rather than geography or culture, are...
It's been a while since my last summary and newsletter. Since I'm not publishing as often, I'm only sending out the newsletter quarterly for the time being (instead of monthly) - just an FYI. Anyway, I've published a new summary: Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. They won a Nobel Prize in 2024 for their work arguing that institutions are key to understanding why some nations succeed and others fail. As usual, the key takeaways are below, and you can find the full summary...