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Everything is Obvious by Duncan J. Watts Once You Know the Answer

What's it about? Everything Is Obvious offers insights into the failures of the most commonly used method of explaining human behavior: common sense. By offering sound solutions to common sense reasoning, it gives the reader the tools to better attempt to understand human behavior. Every morning, people wake up and make thousands of decisions without thinking twice. Which shoe goes on first. Whether to grab an umbrella. Which side of the escalator to stand on. These micro-choices flow effortlessly, guided by something we rarely question: common sense. It's the accumulated wisdom of ordinary life – a mental library built from years of navigating social situations, avoiding embarrassment, and learning what works. Common sense tells you not to show up to work without pants. It tells you not to touch the stove when it's glowing red. It's the reason you know to look both ways before crossing the street, even when the light is green. But here's where things get interest...

The Way of Excellence by Brad Stulberg A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World

What's it about? The Way of Excellence (2026) explores what it takes to achieve greatness and satisfaction in today’s world. It lays out the foundations, mindsets, habits, and practices that enable peak performers to pursue excellence sustainably, without compromising their well-being or ambition. For all the hacks, highlight reels, and self-help manuals, we’ve lost an understanding of what excellence actually asks of us, and what it bestows in return. Excellence has become synonymous with the finish line, with the mountaintop, with the dramatic display of intensity that burns brightly before it burns itself out. But excellence is, in fact, our birthright. We’re predisposed to turn toward excellence just as a sunflower is predisposed to turn toward the sun. It’s a deeply human desire, and one that’s surprisingly accessible when stripped of the myths we’ve come to accept as truth. For most of us, the real challenge isn’t knowing what we want to be good at – it’s figuring out h...

King of Kings by Scott Anderson How hubris and delusion caused the Iranian Revolution

What's it about? King of Kings (2025) pulls you into the opulent, delusional world of the Shah of Iran, showing how oil wealth, hubris, and Western blindness produced one of the twentieth century’s most shocking revolutions. You’ll discover the fatal miscalculations that turned a self-proclaimed “island of stability” into a theocratic state that reshaped the Middle East permanently. Take a moment to imagine yourself in 1970s Tehran. You are surrounded by a city feverishly rebuilding itself in a Western image. Ancient Persia is being force-fed modernity through a firehose of unlimited petrodollars. This is a nation that believes it has conquered destiny, led by a man who styles himself the King of Kings, convinced his Great Civilization will last a thousand years. The glitter of emeralds and roar of American fighter jets make it nearly impossible to hear the tectonic plates of history grinding beneath the surface. What follows walks through the corridors of a palace built on quic...

The Triangle of Power by Alexander Stubb Rebalancing the New World Order

What's it about? The Triangle of Power (2026) asks an important question: who actually decides how the world is run now that the old rules no longer hold. Drawing on wars, trade shocks, and shifting alliances, Alexander Stubb maps a world pulled between the Global West, the Global East, and a rising Global South with more leverage than ever before. It explains what’s breaking, what still works, and what kind of order might realistically come next. The world that took shape after World War II was built on rules, trust, and a belief that cooperation could tame raw power. That framework is now badly frayed. Authoritarian governments are pushing outward, populist movements are pulling inward, and digital platforms have turned facts into weapons. Trade is retreating, tariffs are back in fashion, and global leadership—once assumed to flow naturally from the West—is openly contested. If you’re wondering what the heck is going on – well, you’ve come to the right lesson. In the six sectio...

Prompt Engineering for Generative AI by James Phoenix Future-Proof Inputs for Reliable AI Outputs

What's it about? Prompt Engineering for Generative AI (2024) is a comprehensive guide to working effectively with text and image generating AI. It highlights five key principles that form the backbone of effective prompts for large language models like ChatGPT and diffusion models like Stable Diffusion. It explores the computational mechanisms behind these models, and gives a host of practical tips and ideas for improving your AI workflow. Generative AI models are making leaps and bounds on an almost daily basis. The pace is so relentless it’s hard to keep up. But keep up we must, for one thing is certain: AI is here to stay. As it evolves, industries evolve with it, and it’s certain to infiltrate more and more lines of work in years to come. That being said, AI isn’t a mind reader – or perhaps, not yet. It won’t always give you what you were expecting. In fact, it will often make things up with the utmost confidence – a phenomenon referred to as hallucination. The quality ...

Comandante by Rory Carroll Inside Hugo Chávez's Venezuela

What's it about? Comandante (2013) follows Hugo Chávez from his rise as a charismatic outsider to the creation of a highly personalized political system that transformed Venezuela. It blends intimate scenes from inside his inner circle with reporting on how power, ideology, and oil wealth reshaped the country. It also explores the widening gap between the revolution’s promises and everyday reality for Venezuelans. Venezuela in the early 21st century became one of the world’s most dramatic political experiments: a country with vast oil wealth, deep inequality, and a leader who promised to rebuild the nation in the name of the poor. That leader was Hugo Chávez, a former army officer with a gift for turning politics into something emotional, personal, and impossible to ignore. To his supporters, he was proof the forgotten majority could finally run the country. To his critics, he was concentrating power at speed. Either way, daily life began to revolve around the state, from what y...