Hey, what is up guys?
So, I have got some book recommendations for you today
and I am doing these in the middle of the summer
so for those of you who want to get ahead
before the school semester starts.
You'll have at least a month and a half.
Right, Martin? About two months, maybe?
So, I've got 10 books.
Why am I holding up two fingers?
That's not 10.
10 books that I think every student should read,
starting with my favorite book from last year
which is Deep Work by Cal Newport.
This book is at the top of my list
because it tackles the number one problem
that I get emails, tweets and comments about.
Which is, I can't focus.
I can't stop procrastinating.
I can't get into the flow of my work.
And this is something I struggle with
just as much as most students
and I think this book really helped to point out the fact
that when we get these cravings for novelty,
cravings to check our Snapchat or our Instagram,
or just distract ourselves from our work and we act on them.
We're actually ingraining a habit and we're weakening
that focus muscle in our heads.
And by contrast, by avoiding those distractions
and by sticking with our work
we actually become more able to focus.
And when that was explicitly stated to me,
I took it more seriously
and I found it really, really helpful in my work.
Book number two on my list
is a Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley.
Now this is the learning how to learn book.
In fact, there's a course over on Coursera.org
that you can take for free called Learning How to Learn
and it's created by the same person
and this book is basically the companion to it.
And even though the subtitle here is,
How to Excel at Math and Science this really is a book
about general learning skills.
Now, this book has a lot to offer
so I can't really summarize the whole thing here
but a couple of the key lessons I took away from the book.
Were number one, the process of memory formation
how bits become chunks.
Which, are essentially loosely grouped bundles
of information that are connected through meaning.
And it talks about how to efficiently form those chunks.
And it also talks about the focused mode of thinking
and the diffused mode of thinking.
Now, these are two complimentary forms of thinking.
Focused mode is what happens when you sit down
and you focus on a problem with intensity
and you're mainly using your prefrontal cortex
when you do this.
But the diffused mode of thinking is just as important
and it uses a lot more of your brain
and it's kind of what happens when you background process
a problem by taking a break or sleeping on it.
And a good example is, if you ever try to think of a word
and it's on the tip of your tongue
but you just can't get it and then you take a break,
or you go for a walk,
or you wake up from a nap later and it comes to you.
So, these two modes of thinking help you to solve problems
in a complimentary way and this books highlights
the importance of taking breaks so you can use
that diffused mode just as much as the focused mode.
Third book on my list is Getting from College to Career
by Lindsey Pollak and I think this is a great introduction
to a lot of the career skills that you're gonna need
to be able to get a job or the job that you want
after you graduate from college.
Now, I was gonna put So Good They Can't Ignore You
by Cal Newport at this spot in the list,
but I've already talked about that book in the past.
And while that talks about
that big overarching passion, hypothesis question.
You know, what do I do with my life?
This book really gets into the details
and into the trenches of how to get a job
and how to stand out amongst the competition.
Talks about interviewing, how to build a resume,
how to build your online web presence,
all the skills you need to learn
to be able to get that job that you want.
Fourth book on the list.
Some of you definitely guessed it would be on here.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
Yes, I've talked about this book before
but I really think you should give it a read
if you haven't done so already.
And the reason for that is that habits form
so much of our behavior
and when you know how to intelligently build strong ones
and break the ones that you don't wanna have,
that are hurting you then you're gonna be so much more
successful and you're not gonna be wasting
as much of your limited willpower
on the things you wanna get done.
Book number five on my list is Spark,
the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
by Dr. John Ratey.
And I'm recommending this book for two different reasons.
Number one, it is a surprisingly detailed introduction
to how your brain works on a biological level
and I found that very interesting.
But also, for a certain subset of you out there
the scientific explanation of how exercise
affects the way that you learn
and can improve your overall brain health
can be a powerful motivator to get
into the habit of exercising more often.
And, I know from experience that as a student
or when you're just busy in general
it can be really tempting to put off exercising
in lieu of giving yourself more time
to get your work done.
But just like Cal Newport talks about in Deep Work,
the intensity of your focus times
the time you put in, equals your productivity.
And when you don't exercise,
you're robbing your brain's ability
to focus intensely and work efficiently at all.
Book five point five, Anime Club.
'Cause there could be no higher aspiration
for a student than to run their own anime club.
Very serious recommendation right there (laughs).
Alright, so the sixth book on my list
is The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey.
And this book is my favorite general introduction
to the concept of productivity.
Now, when most people think of productivity
they think of time management,
but in this book Chris is very careful to stress
that not all hours are created equal
and productivity is the product
of your time, attention, and energy.
So to that end, the book goes through a ton
of different productivity topics including procrastination,
how to focus on your tasks without getting distracted,
how to avoid multitasking, how to batch tasks,
plan your day intelligently,
and gets into things like meditation.
I also like how every chapter ends with a challenge.
So, if you wanna start putting things into action
he gives you a lot of direction to do so.
The 7th book on my list
is The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha.
I put this book on my list
because a lot of us aren't actually very good
at knowing what's going to make us truly happy
when we're planning out our career goals
or other life goals.
We might look at what society seems to value
or we might trick ourselves in different ways.
But as Neil's research points out in this book
a lot of people who are rich, or in positions of power,
executives of big companies, they're not actually happy.
Now this book goes through a lot of different things
and there's a lot to think about
but one of the biggest lessons
that I took away personally from this book is
that milestones don't actually make us happy.
And this is something that I've had to deal with
quite a bit in my life.
I mean, if you look right down there
at that subscriber count that's something that I use
as sort of a marker for my success in my YouTube career.
But, I remember the day when I hit 100,000 subscribers
it didn't feel any different.
The bar just kind of moved to a million
and it didn't make me any happier.
So, I realized that happiness actually comes
from the fulfillment in the work itself,
not in the external rewards.
And when you can internalize that and accept it,
you're gonna be a lot happier on a day to day basis.
Alright, so we are now to book number eight in the list
and that book is Steal the Show by Michael Port.
Which is a book all about communication.
Now, a lot of this book deals
with how to give a great speech.
How to prepare for it.
How to master your body language.
How to get an ovation from the audience at the end.
But it also deals with a lot of interpersonal communication.
Networking, job interviews, negotiation tactics,
and for that reason I think it's a great
all around communication skills book that you should read.
Book number nine is Your Money,
The Missing Manual by J.D. Roth.
Which is a great introduction to personal finance.
Now, there are a ton of personal finance books out there
and I actually run a personal finance podcast myself
so I can't tell you this is the best introduction
to personal finance in the world
but it's the one that I read and I found it very helpful
for learning how to manage my money,
how to pay off my debt faster,
and how to start investing smartly.
And that brings us to my final pick on this list,
my ultimate book recommendation for you, which is,
not actually any specific book at all.
At this point in the video, I want to encourage you
to go out and indulge your interests.
Productivity for productivity's sake is useless
so you need to be able to do something
with all these personal development tips
that you're learning from all these books
I'm recommending you.
The problem is, a lot of people who get interested
in self-development, in productivity, they go too narrow.
They stick to the recommended lists by online gurus
and they never actually branch out
and become experts in something unique.
So, if you have an interest, indulge it.
Go read a book about the history of the telegraph
and at the next party you're at, you'll be able
to tell a cool story that nobody else will know.
So, hopefully you're not too disappointed
that I only really had nine books on the list
but I did think it was important
to mention that at the end.
And, I'm gonna have links to all those books down
in the description below so definitely check them out.
And on that note, of indulging your interests
and going and learning new and unique things,
I wanna recommend a channel that I really like to you guys.
And that channel is Wisecrack.
Now, there are a lot of education channels on YouTube
but Wisecrack is one of my favorites for the way
that they seamlessly blend nerd culture and education.
They do it in a lot of different ways
with a lot of different series,
including the Philosophy of series
which takes anime and movies and video games,
TV Shows and it looks at the philosophy
that underpins their stories.
So, I'm gonna put one of my favorite recent videos
from that series right there.
The Philosophy of One Punch Man, along with the Thug Notes
analysis of my absolute favorite book of all time
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, right there.
Definitely check those out and go give them a subscription
if you like their channel
and thank you guys so much for watching.
Hopefully you found this video helpful.
Give it a like if you did and I will ya' next week.