books to change your life - 2021 edition
Despite a busy fellowship, I still make time to read old fashioned books. Also kindle books and audiobooks. Over the past year I’ve read 27 books split over hard copies, ebooks, and audiobooks. Despite what people say, I still think audiobooks should count. I don’t remember everything, but I also don’t remember everything that I read, otherwise I would have crushed medical school. Aaaand I didn’t.
This year instead of focusing on reading a lot of books, I avoided a book count goal. Instead I just wanted to read, read some books twice, give up on some books, and spend more time with the books that have the power to really affect my life.
Below is the list of 5 books that really kept me thinking this past year:
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
Annie Duke quit grad school and literally started gambling. She started playing poker since she had nothing else to do and casually turned into a World Series of Poker champion like it’s no big deal. As someone that got into critical thinking in the nerd way (as a philosophy major), Annie Duke did it the cool way with millions of dollars on the line. While most decisions don’t have millions of dollars on the line, our every day decisions often have a lot more on the line than we realize.
Duke astutely writes that in life, just like in poker, sometimes you make the right decision and still end up not winning. This kind of uncertainty frustrates most people and allows people to continue making poor decisions (like continuing to drink drunk even when nothing bad has happened).
Thinking in Bets challenges reader to bring to the forefront of their mind the fact that every decision we make is a bet - we make a decision based on limited information. Acknowledging this allows us to make better decisions.
Bullets:
Every decision you make is a bet about a future outcome
Thinking about decisions as bets forces you to face the possibility that you may be wrong, and therefore pushes you to hedge your bets.
Bets force you to think in probabilities. Processing your decision-making with probabilities helps choose courses of action that have high probabilities of better/advantageous outcomes.
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
This book had me crying within the first chapter. David Goggins went through some real issues. Stuff that most of us can’t even imagine. While the language he uses in the book may be off putting to some people, I think it’s more authentic to his inner dialogue. A true inspiration, his book is one I’ll need to review time and time again.
Quotes:
The engine in a rocket ship does not fire without a small spark first. We all need small sparks, small accomplishments in our lives to fuel the big ones. Think of your small accomplishments as kindling.
From this point forward, accept the following as Goggins’s laws of nature: You will be made fun of. You will feel insecure. You may not be the best all the time. You may be the only black, white, Asian, Latino, female, male, gay, lesbian or [fill in your identity here] in a given situation. There will be times when you feel alone. Get over it!
The bottom line is that life is one big mind game. The only person you are playing against is yourself. Stick with this process and soon what you thought was impossible will be something you do every fucking day of your life.
Bullets:
Build up a cookie jar - a list of your accomplishments, big or small to use as motivation when you start to doubt yourself.
Our minds are our most powerful weapon, and yet most of us don’t use them - either becuase we don’t know how or we just refuse to.
Everyone fails sometimes and life isn’t supposed to be fair, much less bend to your every whim.
Why Doctors Don’t Get Rich by Tom Burns, MD
While I think back at what my takeaways were for this book, I can’t think of anything particularly life changing. Then I look at my notes on the book and see that I’ve written and dissected the book probably more than any other book in my small library. I digest a lot of content on passive income but Tom Burns is a doctor and that title comes with a certain oomph. Reassurance that the life I want to design is out there somehow. He lays out killer lines like “physicians are trapped in profession they love but a business they hate”. That line is so incredibly more true during COVID times than it was before. If we were overworked before the pandemic, we are even more overworked now. As a trainee, we don’t even get any kind of overtime pay or compensation for risking our lives everyday.
He spent a lot of time designing his practice and his life and is now reaping the rewards more from his side businesses than he is from being a doctor. He’s still a practicing physician because he likes what he does, not because he needs to.
He writes that he never missed a function for his kids. To me, that’s one of the key things. I’ve seen plenty of physicians not have time for their kids. I work with some of them today. The thought of missing important moments in my future kids lives is gut wrenching.
There is a lot of important financial concepts in this book that revolved around Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Which was another important book for anyone read.
Quotes:
If you always trade your time for money, you will always be required to work
True wealth isn’t created by living within your means; it’s produced by expanding your means
Your life is a mirror of your thoughts, so if you want to change your situation, you can’t do it with the same thoughts that got you to where you are today.
Bullets:
No one will sit down and teach people about money and yet it’s one resource that affects everyone’s life.
Create passive income and you create a life of choices and control
Inflation eats away at the value of your money. Your dollar today is worth less tomorrow.
Launch by Jeff Walker
Launch is a great book on marketing on the internet. Jeff Walker primarily focuses on building an email list and using that list to sell products and deliver value to your audience. He provides plenty of examples on how to do this and multiple people that he’s taught how to replicate his process. It’s full of stories and stories are the main way that people communicate - this is something we have really yet to internalize in the medical field full of scientific facts.
He provides a good overall strategy for trying to monetize anything on the internet, but I will say that he doesn’t give much about the nitty-gritty - which i’m sure he reserves for his paid courses. Despite this I think this is definitely a good book to buy as its a very good overview of what to do when starting an internet business.
Quotes:
Life gives to the givers and takes from the takers.
The more successful you become, the more opportunities you will have.
The world has changed, and the only true security is your ability to create value and get paid for that value.
Bullets
Jeff Walker went from stay-at-home dad to successful online businessman behind billions of dollars of sales.
Your most valuable and scarce resource is time and focus. Use them wisely.
His formula has been proven thousands of times over, not in theory, but by real people.
Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman, PhD
This is a book about insulin resistance. The book opens with a lengthy discussion on how it’s not a very widely known disease, but it’s essentially diabetes. Benajin Bikman lays out links between insulin resistance and heart health, dementia, reproductive health, cancer, kidney health, and, of course, obesity.
Research on lifestyle changes like diet and exercise is very, very difficult. Therefore a lot of the research that he describes is more based on correlation than causation. Unfortunately, I think the odds of a rigorous study to determine causation are nonexistant. There are no drug companies that would be interested in looking into this. The sugar industry would not want this kind of study performed and they’ve already meddled with science and public opinion to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
If I ever get cancer or coronary artery disease I would be willing to experiment significantly with my carbohydrate and sugar intake. I already limit my sugar intake more than any other ingredient with the slow carb diet.
We already know that patients with diabetes have worse cardiovascular outcomes: more heart attacks, worse outcomes, more likely to need surgery, etc. We also know from recent research that patients with diabetes are more likely to get cancer (look up the Warburg effect). In medicine, we use a specialized form of sugar to diagnose and monitor treatment for cancer - so there seems to be some link between sugar uptake and cancer.
I doubt there will be conclusive evidence or unanimous opinion on this issue. For now, I believe it and am willing to change my diet in accordance to this concept. There is very little downside for me.
Bullets:
Insulin resistance is essentially type II diabetes
Physical activity and a healthy (low glycemic index) diet should stave off insulin resistance
Controlling carbohydrates will give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to any diet (this is not to say that you can’t lose weight with other diets)
You only get one heart (maybe two), might as well take care of it.
To assess your risk for pre-diabetes go to this link
I’m a firm believer that a good book can change lives. My dad quoted Warren Buffet to me years ago and I’m still chasing this dream - “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
If you liked this list then drop a comment. I’d be happy to take any book recommendations you have. I’ve already got 12 books in my reading list - I may have a problem.