I've read 35 books this year but let's talk about the five that really changed my life and why you
should read them too. Welcome back to 5 Mins 5 Ideas. I'm your host, Samanvay. The first on the
list is Invisible Women. The book aims to surface the gender data gap that has resulted in a biased
world, a world unsafe for women. It permeates government policy, medical research, technology,
workplaces, urban planning and the media. In all facets, data related to women has not been
collected or has been omitted or simply ignored. Through the book I learnt that men are 47% more
likely to survive a car crash than women. The use of crash test dummies was initially introduced
in the 1950s and the average height and the weight of those dummies was 1.77 meters and
76 kilograms - a lot taller and heavier than the average woman. Turns out the US only started using
female test dummies in 2011. You should really read this book if you want to understand how
men have succeeded in systematically ignoring half of the population and their needs. The
book will show you the detrimental impact it has had on our economy and our well-being and why the
world cannot keep following this trajectory. The next book on the list is Poor Economics.
Now this is one of the more enlightening books I've read this year. The book presents an
in-depth analysis on the conditions of the poor. Why they are how they are and why many
initiatives for alleviating poverty fail. It also shines light into the psychology of the poor and
how much it differs from the middle class. From the book I learnt that the relationship between
poverty and hunger is not as clear-cut as we are led to believe. It is commonly believed that the
poor suffer from hunger due to the lack of funds to buy more calories but it turns out
that the assumption that the poor eat as much as they can is false. Amongst the poor, the typical
expenditure on food is about 36% to 79% of their monthly budget and when the poor get more funds
they spend it on buying better tasting calories rather than more calories. You should really
read the book to understand the complexities of alleviating poverty and why it's not as simple as
throwing more money at it. The third book on the list is Winner Takes All. The book is an
investigation into how the elite supposedly change the world in a way that preserves their social and
economical standing whilst obscuring the role that they play in creating the problems that they aim
to solve. From the book I learnt that the solution to a lot of our social and economical problems
is not some billionaire throwing more money at it. It's really to strengthen the existing
democratic and egalitarian processes that are already trying to solve the issues. I've also
learnt the dangers of handing over power or letting the wealthy influence such systems. You
should really read the book to understand why the elite are not really the saviours of all problems,
that in fact they are often the root causes of the problems in the first case even though it might
not seem like that because it's not in their best interest to expose themselves. The fourth
book on the list is Flow. This is a book that's really helped me get through this pandemic and
really shown me what is the essence of the things we really enjoy. So the book will teach you how
to cultivate flow in a way that can increase your enjoyment of your work, hobbies and relationships.
From the book I learnt that to truly enjoy an activity it needs to have a clear goal and a
feedback system. This allows you to constantly improve in your activity thereby improving your
performance and increasing your enjoyment of the activity. I definitely recommend this book
to really figure out how to improve your enjoyment of life through the engagement in autotelic
experiences rather than materialistic pursuits as the latter is the common practice that is
pushed on us by the capitalistic and consumeristic world we live in. And if you want to learn more
about flow I've recently made a video on it which I'll link here. The final book on the list
is The Art of Happiness. The Art of Happiness is a dialogue between a western psychologist and
the Dalai Lama where they compare a lot of the western and the eastern views on things such as
loneliness, compassion, human connections and mental well-being. From the book I learnt
the importance of being less apprehensive and approaching others first without the fear of being
judged. Often we hope that our friends ask us how we are doing but if they don't then
we artificially create a barrier between us and them which will promote a feeling of loneliness.
It's always better to initiate the positive interactions first. You really should read
this book if you want to learn how to be more comfortable with yourself and how to avoid
actively sabotaging your own happiness. These are my five favourite books of this year. If
you enjoyed the video don't forget to like and subscribe and I'll see you next year.