Our whole civilization seems to be stuck in a distractive information overload. Yet, amidst this noise, there is a beacon of hope—high-quality, well-curated content. For me, books have been that source of clarity and depth, offering valuable insights and meaningful learning experiences.
I trust the power of book reviews. If a large number of readers rate a book highly, chances are it’s worth the read. While there are occasional exceptions, I generally rely on star ratings as a guide. My personal rule? I stick to books rated 4.5 and above, or at least above 4.2. These were the books I’ve chosen recently, I would like to share my view about them:
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Taleb is an eccentric weirdo. He challenges mainstream economic and statistical principles. Despite his controversial stance, he writes in an engaging and thought-provoking manner, offering many unique insights.
Some of the key takeaways from this book that stuck with me include:
“Social networks are antisocial.”
“If something is labeled as ‘healthy,’ it is most likely isn’t” (companies use this as a marketing tactic—think orange juice and milk). –
“For muscle growth, the maximum weight you lift matters” (I tested this myself and found it effective. My routine now includes intensive warm-ups followed by heavy bench presses at 100 kg and leg presses at 150 kg). –
“Large centralized systems tend to become overly complex and fragile.”
In my experience, many systems become unnecessarily complex over time. The more components—programs, databases, servers, nodes, services—you introduce, the higher the risk of failure. Hopefully, AI-driven testing and documentation tools will enhance the resilience of these systems; otherwise, they may suffer massive breakdowns like the Crowdstrike outage did recently.
In my experience, many systems become unnecessarily complex over time. The more components—programs, databases, servers, nodes, services—you introduce, the higher the risk of failure. Hopefully, AI-driven testing and documentation tools will enhance the resilience of these systems; otherwise, they may suffer massive breakdowns like the Crowdstrike outage did recently.
While the latter part of the book felt a bit repetitive, it still provided valuable insights towards the end.
While listening to this book during a walk in Barcelona, a thought struck me: What if we applied antifragility to software development? An antifragile software developer would build systems designed to “improve” under stress. From now on, I aspire to integrate antifragile principles into software development. This book truly left a lasting impression on me—thanks, Nassim!
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg
I appreciate Charles Duhigg as an author. He takes his time—typically 3-4 years between books—to carefully structure and refine his ideas, ensuring high-quality content. I thoroughly enjoyed The Power of Habit, so I had high expectations for Supercommunicators—and it did not disappoint. Engaging storytelling is what makes a book great, and Supercommunicators delivers plenty of compelling narratives.
One particularly useful takeaway was the 36 questions exercise, which helps deepen relationships. Even if you know someone you can have amazing conversations starting with these questions. ( Of course you can change the subject and use these questions as a starter. )
| One of my biggest takeaways? Have the courage to discuss meaningful topics and express your emotions. |
Stop Reading the News by Rolf Dobelli & Caroline Waight
This book provides countless reasons why cutting down on news consumption is beneficial. It inspired me to reduce my news intake, though I still catch myself spending about 30 minutes a day on it.
It is still too much, I would like to take it down to ten minutes. And of course, you too, DON’T WATCH OR READ NEWS! 😉
Of course the statement “DON’T READ THE NEWS” needs refinement. Basically I consider it a waste of time to go to news portals and read the titles of what is happening and also reading 5-15 lines of text about something that happened today or in the last 2-4 days. Why? Rolf Dobelli argues that consuming daily news is detrimental to our mental well-being, productivity, and decision-making.
Of course you can research and read posts relevant to your search (but do not click on the clickbait news visible on the top, bottom and middle of the article). It is also good to read a long in depth article about a subject you have interest in, so this is fine. Just the landing pages of news sites are vortexes of clickbait posts I think.
A surprising issue with ChatGPT just happened, it cut – edited – out from my original text. Today, 6.3.2025 I was trying to improve my paragraphs by asking ChatGPT to show my original paragraphs in the left column of a table and the right side an improved version. Mostly it tried to reformulate my text and many changes I simply accepted. It did however cut out my sentence “And of course, you too, DON’T WATCH OR READ NEWS! 😉” from the left original side! I had to go back and copy the text from the original again. So if ChatGPT is quoting you do not only need to check for the correctness of the quotes, you also have to check for the completeness of the quotes too.
Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition and Accelerate Your Career by Scott H. Young
This book presents an alternative, highly efficient approach to learning—one that surpasses traditional education.
I personally think it is possible to finish a 3-5 year university education in 1-2 years. This method needs however immense amount of commitment, focus and energy only a few of us have. I have immense amount of ability to focus, still to be able to keep this focus for weeks and months would be a huge challenge for me.
This paragraph is more about me than the book, you can read the book review here. Anyway I personally struggle to keep my focus amid the daily interruptions and the constant media bombardment of social networks and messages. I am also sure that millions of us do struggle with this, how to keep our minds focused.
A few points that I found insightful:
- Train your focus like a muscle: Start with shorter, intense learning sessions and gradually increase duration.
- Minimize Distractions: eliminate digital distractions – no notification sounds, turn off phone, … – set your environment to minimize interruptions
- It is useful to block out uninterrupted time for learning sessions (1–3 hours)
Conclusion
We have amazing wealth of useful and well readable information in books. Search out and find the books you have interest in instead of reading news titles.
The author of this article, Zsolt Balai is a software developer creating SAP and web/mobile solutions. He believes that it is possible to make people smile while learning using advanced applications.
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