Book Reviews

Imaginable by Jane McGonigal is a book about the future. More precisely, a book about engaging with possible futures. Why should we engage in a simulation of the future? What’s its use? The future is un-seeable, unknowable, and that’s fine, because it means it’s not defined until it actually happens. The gift of the future is not about trying to predict it. Read more...

You don’t need to play tennis to read this book, although you must be aware that some parts contain detailed descriptions of tennis games and techniques. This book promises to teach the mental side of peak performance. The author proposes a simple but powerful message. Our external goals may be many and various and require learning many skills to achieve them. But “the inner obstacles come from only one source and the skills needed to overcome them remain constant. Read more...

Courage is calling is the first in a book series by Ryan Holiday about courage, wisdom, justice, and temperance, the four cardinal virtues. As C.S. Lewis explains, “courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” The book is very well written. The ideas in each chapter are reinforced by well chosen stories of historical characters. It doesn’t pretend to dive into philosophical definitions, but to give practical advice and challenge the reader to face her fears. Read more...

Part of the attractive of this book are its authors. Jake Knapp spent 10 years at Google and Google Ventures, co-founded Google Meet, and among other products worked on the Gmail team. John Zeratsky worked at Google, and led the design for AdWords Editor, and was part of the team that created the YouTube Channels platform. He also was a partner at Google Ventures. I was really curious to learn how they approached their daily work and what productivity hacks they used. Read more...

Lives of the Stoics is a collection of short biographies. Like other books about Stoicism written by the authors, Lives of the Stoics does not pretend to dive deeply into the philosophy of the Stoics nor be an historical treaty, but to provide inspiration for life through its insights and stories. From Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, the authors give a good introduction to the lives and context of each stoic, distilling the essentials of their character, their historical background, their struggles with the powers that be, and other highlights of their lives. Read more...