Wiser Than Yesterday: Educational Book Reviews and Summaries

The relationship between language, thought and culture is of concern to anyone with an interest in what it means to be human. The Language Puzzle  by Steven Mithen explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the evolution of human language from the ape-like calls of our earliest ancestors to our capabilities of today, with over 6000 languages in the world and each of us...

Bruce Lee was an intense man with such sheer concentration of energy that no one who encountered him, on screen or in person, could help but be drawn to him and his enthusiasm for life and knowledge. Bruce Lee: Artist of Life  explores the development and fruition of Bruce Lee's thoughts about gung fu (kung fu), philosophy, psychology, poetry, jeet kune do, acting, and self-knowledge. Imagine...

In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to  Homo erectus . At the heart of  Catching Fire  lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human societ...

Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. This book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are be...

Is Brexit more important than Bitcoin? How do we rank Buddhism vs TikTok? The world changes, technology advances, but what really matters and how much? Sam explains the Innovation Richter Scale, a framework for understanding impact at every level of technology and what it means to society. In Nate Silver's book "On The Edge", he introduces a Technology Richter scale to determine the impact of AI....

The favourite mental models and timeless lessons from Charlie Munger on how to build worldly wisdom. Charlie Munger was the business partner of Warren Buffet and the cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway. The most successful investing company in history. He was obsessed with how ot make better decisions. His book is full of ways to help you be less wrong and how to find an edge where you can perform at...

Heard enough lame insights about caveman psychology? Jared Diamond goes hard into what life was really like, how we thought and how it compares to today. A masterclass of a book when it comes to truly understanding our history and humanity and packed full of insights. Sam digests the book from a lens of innovation and what the reality of our life meant for taking risks and trying new ideas and mak...

We share the 10 best mental models about innovation from tech titan Jeff Bezos. This episode covers the story of Amazon and some of the incredible shifts it has created on the planet. From the obvious online shopping wave to things like the e-reading industry and audiobooks, web-servers giving us Uber and Netflix, devices like Alexa. We also learn about their failures like the Fire Phone and other...

Every investment plan under the sun is, at best, an informed speculation of what may happen in the future, based on a systematic extrapolation from the known past. Same as Ever  reverses the process, inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change. Morgan Housel wrote this to be a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life. But does he...

A philosophical discussion on part 2 of the Three-Body Problem series, The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. We ponder different answers to Fermi's paradox and how we'd deal with different levels of intelligence in the Universe. This of course requires pondering how different levels of intelligent beings might deal with us. We also ponder at large adaptions of books into screenplays, why writers change th...

How to have difficult conversations, for meaningful change. We break down Gina Martin's book addressing how to navigate some of the worst conversation-stoppers and poor thinking in our culture today. It also features chapters from other widely recognized speakers on the topics of equality and diversity. Labeled as "An empowering guide to navigating difficult conversations from climate naysayers to...

Making good predictions is tough. We think we know more than we do and let emotions and biases creep in. How do some forecasters beat the odds? Our hosts, Nico and Sam, chat about the book "The Signal and the Noise" by Nate Silver exploring why predictions fail and uncovering practical insights. A little statistical training can go a long way! We geek out on Bayes' Theorem, discuss why poker devel...

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene are described as amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive. This multi-million-copy  New York Times  bestselling book  brand s itself as the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control. 50 Cent loved the book so much that he reached out to the author to work with him. But what can we lear...

From legendary investor Ray Dalio, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Principles, who has spent half a century studying global economies and markets, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order examines history’s most turbulent economic and political periods to reveal why the times ahead will likely be radically different from those we’ve experienced in our lifetimes—and to offer...

Review of the Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, one of the most impactful hard-science fiction books this century. Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start form...

In False Alarm, Bjorn Lomborg examines how climate change panic costs us trillions, hurts the poor, and fails to fix the planet. This is a divisive book and even had us as hosts disagreeing on subjects. Bjorn Lomborg proposes to debunk the myths and hype surrounding climate change, revealing the true costs and benefits of our response to this global challenge. Lomborg argues that our current appro...

Teamwork is renowned for being the key to success. The practicalities of making it happen to rely on building a brilliant culture. But what does that mean? This book breaks down some memorable and thought-provoking examples leading to some actionable lessons. In our view, it is a perfect book for anyone in management or trying to bring out the most in their teams. - - - Wiser Than Yesterday Nico a...

4000 weeks is a productivity book that is anti-productivity. We are all going to die and optimising our day for every last morsel of work is not the way to be happy or effective. We break down the biggest lessons from the book which are practical to adopt in your life. We also discuss what the opportunities are economically and philosophically. - - - Wiser Than Yesterday Nico and Sam set out to re...

What we do if most of civilization collapsed to survive as a species? What human knowledge is most important to preserve and use to rebuild society as quickly as possible?   Lewis Dartnell assesses the most important actions to take during an apocalypse to survive. He then cherry-picks the most important inventions to teach us how to rebuild everything we need from modern society to survive a...

What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. We break down our main lessons from the book and open our own minds to a new way of thinking. About Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? One of America's most admired writers takes us on a mind-altering journey to the frontiers of human consciousness When LSD was first dis...

Body Keeps the score is a book that you keep hearing about especially as mental health and trauma become more and more relevant. Bessel Van Der Kock explains what we experience in the brain, mind and body whilst healing from trauma. Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alco...

We had a long hiatus since the summer of 2022. The mind series rather dragged and we realised we needed to sort out a better system for things. We also had a few big life updates as Sam went on a long cycling trip and Nico's job became a little overwhelming along with launching his own podcast on the Future of Gaming. Back on track with a schedule and if you're intrigued you can hear about some of...

In this book, neurologist Oliver Sacks, describes the case histories of some of his patients. Sacks chose the title of the book from the case study of one of his patients who has visual agnosia, a neurological condition that leaves him unable to recognize faces and objects. Sacks wrote the stories of 24 patients and their neurological conditions which was split into four sections – ‘Losses’, ‘Exce...

The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success  In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a scale of "madness" along which we all sit. Incorporating the latest advances in brain scanning and neuroscience, Dutton demonstrates that the...

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity By Steve Silberman What is autism? A lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more—and the future of our society depends on our understanding it. Wired reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppr...