List of authors

Anielski, Mark
​Bahcall, Safi
Barker, Eric
Beinhocker, Eric
Berns, Gregory
Bregman, Rutger
Brooks, Arthur C.
Christensen, Clayton
​Coughlin, Joseph
Dalio, Ray 
​DuChemin, David
Epstein, David
Feiler, Bruce
Fotuhi, Majid
Friedman, Howard
​Garcia and Miralles
Gigerenzer, Gerd
Grant, Adam
Gundry, Steven
Harari, Yuval
Hughes, James

Klein, Gary
Levin, Daniel
Lieberman and Long
​Livio, Mario
​McLuhan, Marshall
​Nestor, James
Niven, David
​Schrager, Alison
Sukel, Kayt
​Varol, Ozan
​Walker, Matthew
​Wheatley, Margaret
​Wright, Craig

Most recent update: November, 2025

McLuhan for Managers-Mark Federman ​
One of Canada's deepest thinkers in his day, and a darling of Corporate America
His famous quote: "I don't pretend to understand it; after all, my stuff is very difficult".
Summary topics:
Figure and ground
Medium is the Message
The Tetrad Probe of a Medium
Hot and Cool Mediums
This doesn't begin to pierce into his wisdom...I have written a 4 page summary.
​Email me via the Contact Page and I will forward it to you.

​The Iconoclast-Gregory Berns
The iconoclast’s brain differs in three ways: perception, response to fear, social intelligence
Iconoclasts don’t see things differently, they perceive differently
Iconoclasts trick their brains by bombarding it with new things
But new things can trigger the subjective fear response,which iconoclasts shift
to objective risk assessment
This reframing to a non-emotional context can break a pattern of fear
Social intelligence calls upon the iconoclast’s ability to convince the outside world of her innovations
​
Boost Your Brain-Majid Fotuhi
I’ve seen firsthand the incredible impact moderate lifestyle changes can make, even when they are started later in life
By the time you reach age 50, life style factors account for a whopping 70% of your health and longevity, with genetics accounting for only 30%
Not only can the brain grow, at any age, it can do so within mere weeks or months
The largest impact on intelligence, researchers found, seemed to come  from environmental rather than genetic factors-what we do rather than what we are given!

This is Your Brain on Sex-Kayt Sukel
Dopamine matters. Not just in the positive enforcement from sex to form the original bond but also in the continued matings that allow the animals to maintain that bond over time
The genome is the hardware and the epigenome is the software
The take home message is that life experience has the power to change your genetic material at the molecular level
We tend to over emphasize the intellectual and emotional sides of relationships and underestimate the physical
​

The Economics of Happiness-Mark Anielski
Well-being derives from five capital accounts: human, social, natural, constructed and financial
The most important form of life wealth is time-how we use it
What we measure reflects what we value
Well-being derives: 50%from genetics, 40% from social/recreational activities and meaningful pursuits, 10% from life's circumstances - income, marital, health and possessions
​

The Origins of Wealth-Eric Beinhocker
Evolution is an algorithm - an all-purpose formula for innovation
Evolution is about: differentiation, selection, amplification, repeat!
Money is a universal utility converter
Advance in economics comes less from individual firms' achievements and more from entry and exit
Story-telling, analogies and pattern recognition invoke the emotional side of embracing change 
​  

Humankind-Rutger Bregman
A few years ago, I resolved to make a change. No more watching the news...from now on I would reach for a good book. 
About history, psychology, philosophy.
Never let yourself be diverted by what you wish to believe.
​Prison inmates spend more time outdoors than most kids today.
​

Risk Savvy-Gerd Gigerenzer
Nonage is the inabilty to use one's own understanding without another's guidance
This includes indecisiveness and lack of courage
We need to understand the difference between absolute and relative risks
Learn by failing!
​Expertise is a form of unconscious intelligence
​

Originals-Adam Grant
In ancient Egypt, there were two different verbs for procrastination: one denoted laziness; the other meant waiting for the right time
There are two radically different styles of innovation: conceptual and experimental
Conceptual innovators formulate a big idea and set out to execute it
Experimental innovators solve problems through trial and error, learning and evolving as they go along
Putting old things in new combinations, and new things in old combinations
Shifting the focus from why to how can help people become less radical
Argue like you are right; and listen like you are wrong

​Range-David Epstein
The ultimate lesson of a question is that detailed prior knowledge is less important than a way of thinking
The concept of desirable difficulties, obstacles that make learning more challenging, slower and more frustrating in the short term, but better in the long term
A problem well put is half solved
We fail when we stick with tasks we don't have the guts to quit
​

Homo Sapiens-Yuval Harari
Today the main source of wealth is knowledge
The current trend of serial marriages is likely to intensify
The second big project on the human agenda will probably be to find the key to happiness
Perhaps the key to happiness is combining the right doses of excitement and tranquility
Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless
Algorithm is probably the single most important concept in our world
An algorithm isn't a particular calculation, but the​ method followed when making a calculaltion

21 Lessons for the 21st Century-Yuval Harari
The next decades might therefore be characterized by intense soul searching and by the formulation of new social and political models
Some believe that within a mere decade or two, billions of people will become economically redundant
Human happiness depends less on objective conditions and more on our own expectations
Maybe we need to flip a switch in our minds and realize that taking care of a child is arguably the most important and challenging job in the world
Human intuition is in reality about pattern recognition
​

Seeing What Others Don't-Gary Klein
Our natural tendency is to explain away the deviant data points
The playful reasoning style likes to juggle ideas and imagine hypothetical situations
The method of science is doubt: the engine of science is curiosity

Why-Mario Livio
Nothing can be loved or hated until it is first understood
The most basic characteristic of curiosity is the desire to pose a question
Energizing parts of the brain you don't routinely use is part of what curiosity is all about
Curiosity puts our brain in a state in which it absorbs everything in the vicinity of the object of curiosity
​

Think Like a Rocket Scientist-Ozan Varol
When we utter those three dreaded words - I don't know - our ego deflates
Many a false step was made by standing still
If a brain had a tail, thought experiments would make it wag!
My first thought is always someone else's
The creative process is... the ability to move between different mental states
​  

Barking Up the Wrong Tree-Eric Barker
Too often we label things as "good" or "bad" when the right designation might merely be "different"
The people who surround us often determine who we become
Research has found that ethical people are happier
Sometimes quitting is the smartest choice, and giving up, when done right, can make you a huge success
Whether a kid knew their family history was the best predictor of a child's emotional well-being
  

Loonshots-Safi Bahcall
The whole becomes - not only more - but very different from the sum of the parts
Onions, for example, have five times the DNA that humans have!
In physics language, you might have the right observation but the wrong theory
​

Satisfaction-Gregory Berns
How you bring order - or disorder - to the complexity of the world defines the rhythm of your life
Curiosity often increases with one's expertise in a particular domain
Novel information has the potential to trigger one of two responses - retreat or exploration
The trick is to keep habituation in check so that you can continue to savour the pleasure of the activities you really enjoy
Satisfaction is an emotion that captures the uniquely human need to impart meaning to one's activities
​

It's about the Shark-David Niven
We define everything on the problem's terms
And we limit what we think is possible based upon the boundaries the problem set for us
The problem with hating your job isn't the 8 hours you are there; its about the other 16
The body is a tangible metaphor for our thought process
A fluid, free-moving body produces new thoughts, while a rigid body is stuck with old answers
We are twice as creative when the first impulse doesn't work  
​

How Will You Measure Your Life-Clayton Christensen
People who truly love what they do and who think their work is meaningful have a distinct advantage
We can tell our values by looking at our cheque book stubs
Over-investing in our careers and under-investing in our families
The only way to have relationships bear fruit in your life is to invest long before you need them
We actually hire products to do jobs for us
​

Life is in the Transitions-Bruce Feiler
When in turmoil, turn to narrative. The proper response to a set-back is a story
All family narratives take one of three routes: ascending, descending or oscillating
A host of unprecedented forces are shaping contemporary life - yet, the techniques we use to make meaning of our lives have not kept up
The total life disruptors was 52, divided into five story lines
​

The Longevity Economy-Joseph Coughlin
Societies won't just be older; they will function differently
I like to think of life in 8,000 day chunks
We've been hard-wired to believe that older people have no real aspirations
No one has been able to erect landmarks that signify success in old age because no one knows what late-life achievement might look like
​

The Longevity Paradox-Howard Friedman 
The best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousness
The young adults who were thrifty, persistent, detail-oriented and responsible lived the longest
Long-lived people are optimistic
Agreeable, altruistic people are happier and tend to remain that way
Parental divorce during childhood was the single, strongest social predictor of early death
​

The Longevity Paradox-Steven Gundry
Your fate does not lie in your genes at all- it lies in your microbiome
You are not what you eat; you are what your gut buddies digest
The day/night cycle is also a key factor in longevity
We can expand our health span by prolonging the period between waking and eating
​

Successful Ageing-Daniel Levitin
Don't stop being engaged with meaningful work
Spend time with people younger than you
Keep your social circle exciting and new
Sleep deprivation in the aged is directly responsible for cognitive decline
The age that comes up most often as the happiest time of one's life is 82
​

Principles: Ray Dalio
The key to success lies in knowing how to both strive for a lot and fail well
You will be faced with millions of choices in life, and the way you make them will reflect the principles you have-
So, it won't be long before the people around you will be able to tell the principles you are really operating by
Sometimes we come by our principles through our own experiences and reflections; sometimes we accept mthem from others; or we adopt holistic packages of principles, such as those of religions
We learn our principles from our encounters with reality
The satisfaction of success doesn't come from achieving your goals, but from struggling well
​

Why We Sleep-Matthew Walker
That older adults need more sleep is a myth
Muscle memory is, in fact, brain memory
Sleep is the third pillar of good health, alongside diet and exercise
Unhealthy sleep...unhealthy heart...simple and true
​

Ikigai-Garcia & Miralles
Whatever you do- don't retire
This is why it is so important to expose yourself to change
Our generation is suffering from an epidemic of multi-tasking
The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
​

Photographically Speaking-David DuChemin
I look at these factors as Message, Elements and Decisions. The Message is what I want to say or point at. It is what I want to show. The Elements are those things I include/exclude from the frame. The Decisions are the choices I make in arranging those elements in a way that best communicates my message clearly. 
Depth of field allows us to specifically focus the attention of our readers, to tell them that some things are more important than others.
As you select the depth of field, ask yourself what will be in focus and what will be out of focus, and how out of focus those Elements should be.
The moment the author forgets her audience and gets too clever is the moment she starts alienating the very people she's trying to speak to.

Breath-James Nestor
You will take 670 million breaths in your life
We assume at our peril that breathing is a passive action 
The missing pillar in health is breath.
Moderate exercise like walking and cycling has been shown to boost lung size by up to 15%
Each breath we draw in should take about 3 seconds and each breath out should take 4
Most of us breath too much
If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip - it would simply be to learn how to breath better
​

An Economist Walks into a Brothel-Alison Schrager
The best way to define a risky reward is to start by defining the opposite of risk, whatever is risk-free
Focus on things that are small enough to change but big enough to matter
You are exposed to more risk than you realize in retirement because the financial industry has defined risk-free wrongly
Most people need to take more risk and invest in stocks
​

The Cycle of the Gift-James Hughes
A key image is the gift landing on the recipient like a meteor
Gifts disappear without an echo, missing the "spirit of the gift"
The gift ought not to be a bribe or a penalty payment
It is important to expose the young to the value of giving, but equally to the value of receiving well
No gift is ever truly free: it always carries some sense of expectation
Giver's remorse often results from a poorly thought-out gift
 

Leadership and the New Science-Margaret Wheatley
Confusion and chaos may not be the precursor to destruction but to regrowth and creativity
The shape of chaos materializes from information feeding back on itself, and changing in the process
Chaos itself has bounds, which prevent it from spinning out into infinity; the boundary lives within the system
Everybody needs an inner belief that you are meant to be here and meant to make a difference-the call of meaning is unlike any other 
Great ideas do not seem so from the start, rather they are muddled and nonsensical, for both the discoverer and everybody else - no great idea starts out great!

The Hidden Habits of Genius-Craig Wright
Not to be forgotten by parents is the importance of socialization as a way of building sympathy and the capacity for leadership
Permit your children to explore alone, take risks, and experience failure
Neoteny is the term coined by evolutionary biologists to explain the human capacity to perpetuate juvenile characteristics, such as joy, play and imagination, into adult life
Perhaps the way to learn is not to be taught, but to be curious
Geniuses almost never emerge from conditions of extreme wealth
​

The Molecule of More-Lieberman and Long
Winnie the Pooh has crafted a poem about the boisterous Tigger:
"But whatever his weight in pounds,
shillings and ounces,
He always seems bigger
Because of his bounces"
Piglet objects to the non-sequitor of shillings, to wit, Piglet replies:
"They wanted to come in after the pounds...so I let them.
It is the best way to write poetry, letting things come"
(object lesson for life...?)

From Strength to Strength-Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life-
Arthur C Brooks
Cicero believed three things about older age. First, it should be dedicated to service, not goofing off. Second, our greatest gift later in life is wisdom, in which learning and thought create a worldview than can enrich others. Third, our natural ability at this point is counsel: mentoring, advising, and teaching others...
Devote the back half of your life to serving others with your wisdom. Get old sharing the things you believe are most important.
​Most people spend their time on the what of their lives-and that raises the question: "What is my why?"
According to George Vaillant, the single most important trait of Happy-Well elders is healthy relationships..."Happiness is love. Full stop".