There’s something romantic about the idea of intellectual debate between two well-meaning people. Get two smart people in a room together, agree to a conversation in which both participants only appeal to rationality, and surely the truth will prevail.

Of course, it never works out like that in reality. Most conversations between two well-meaning people go nowhere. Most of the time, feelings get hurt and people do dissolve into personal attacks or emotional appeals. …

I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Ohio called Dublin. It was the kind of suburb where people had formal dining rooms and parents bought their children cars when they turned 16. Our town’s official motto was, I shit you not, “It’s greener in Dublin.” (They changed that a few years ago.) Residents of Dublin had another name for it: the Dublin Bubble.

Inside the Dublin Bubble, life was upper class. Nobody dropped out of high school or got pregnant— and when students inevitably did, their name was spoken in hushed undertones and quickly forgotten. Everyone went to college…

In my early twenties, I was simultaneously going to college and running a business I’d started called Pufferfish Software that made apps for autistic children. As part of the local startup community, I found myself at a lot of local pitch contests and networking events, listening to people struggle to find funding for their startup.

While it can be hard to predict which entrepreneurs will succeed over the long run and which will fail, it was always easy to tell which ones weren’t going to succeed anytime soon. …

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about religion lately. I suddenly and unexpectedly became an atheist a few weeks ago, and everything I thought I knew about the world, I didn’t anymore. That’s fine, of course — the process of reinvention has been fascinating — but it has evoked some interesting reactions in the people around me.

For instance, Christians around me have started acting as if I think they’re stupid.

Whenever it comes up that my beliefs have changed, they’re eager to present sophisticated arguments in defense of their belief system. I’m usually familiar with these arguments, because…

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Most people read less than ten books a year. With books being one of the most important and powerful ways we can learn, it’s important to make sure you’re reading the handful of books most likely to make a positive impact in your life.

Like anything else, picking the right book to read is a skill. You can learn how to do it and get better at it every time you pick a book. Here’s how.

Step 1: Identify a Topic

What have you been thinking about lately? When you’re on a Zoom meeting and google things in the other…

When I tell people I read roughly 100 nonfiction books a year, I get three kinds of responses:

1. “Holy shit! Wow, gee, that’s a lot of books. I read, like, five books a year.” (Most common)
2. “I love reading too. Have you read [insert book title here]? I’m reading that now.” (Least common)
3. “I don’t read, but I do watch YouTube videos and listen to podcasts and stuff!”

I’ve noticed a trend with the people who listen to podcasts and watch YouTube videos but don’t read books, and it’s that they’re always pretty superficially educated on whatever they’re educated about…

Self-help is an incredible resource. Self-help books can help you get fit, learn how to use money effectively, eat well, and a million other things besides. If you’re facing a personal problem, chances are there exists a self-help book and a therapist who can help you get that problem knocked out quicker than you can believe.

But sometimes, self-help isn’t the answer.

A few years ago, my life was one gigantic self-help project. If ever I found myself with an ounce of free time on my hands, I asked myself “How could I productively use this time?” At the time…

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For a few years now, I’ve been plowing through reading 80–100 books a year. The number of books I’ve read will be over 500 by the end of April. That’s a lot of time spent sitting in my reading chair.

As I prepare to cross over the 500-book-mark (heh heh), I’ve been thinking a lot about how one picks the books they read.

Most Books Are Shitty Versions of Other Books

Something I’ve noticed as I’ve plowed through 500+ books is that most books are just shittier versions of longer, better books.

The most obvious example of this is all the knockoffs of…