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Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
read on 2026/05/14
Quite interesting, actually.
I think about money a fair bit, how we use it and where, what it means blablabla
(For example now, I think it's our duty in some way to show what it means to work for money, especially in your field, and if you've been at a career for a few years, you can spare some money and tasks for people just entering the field and give them a few hours of tasks a month, maybe even more not that AI is being used for many of these entry level tasks, we pay for people cooking our food, or cleaners or stuff, why not people with skills in different fields)
Anyways, this talks about dying with money, and how that's not ideal, because you've spent life not living and working instead, and also if you want to give the money away, to your children for example, they would find it way more useful a few years before they are 60 and already kinda sorted, and same with charities.
Plus the dividend of experiences, and that different phases of life have different activites associated.
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The 12 Week Year
read on 2026/05/03
One thing i do sometimes is listen to productivity books, like i can listen to it even if they are pretty trash but its nice to have someone remind me of stuff like you can do plans and you can achieve anything you set your mind do and time management and hustle whatever.
This one talks about how you should live 12 week years, that your year is now 12 weeks.
And how every day is actually a week. And then they whipped out a secret 13th week.
That the fake deadline at the end of the year gets you going.
They never mentioned quaters which is interesting, because that's kind of the point of Qs.
I mean it did its productivity audio book duty, but it was also funny to be like we have a point to make and we are going to stretch the world around it.
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Walk Through Walls: A Memoir
★★★★★
read on 2026/05/02
She reads it herself.
There is something in her rhythm that speaks of the places i am from.
And something in her goals, hopefully, about the places i am going to.
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Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give
★★★★★
read on 2026/02/13
I went to a wedding recently
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The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography
read on 2025/11/02
I like the trip. It's dreamy and flowy.
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Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
read on 2025/04/16
Lots of little practical tips on what to do with your habits.
I could have enjoyed reading the book a bit more, but it did provide a canvas to re-think my habits, so that was good.
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The School of Life: An Emotional Education
read on 2025/04/07
Some really good quotes
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Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction
★
I didn't finish this book, because I didn't enjoy it.
2 main things:
1. As other reviews put it very well, there are many iterations on the title of this book such as:
‘A Very Short Introduction to Witch Trials’, "The History Of The Persecution of Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction." or maybe most apt "quite boring introduction to witchcraft persecution statistics".
It reminded me a bit about my history classes, all these years, names, numbers and places, and a mess of words, with no story to settle on and understand.
I remember when my brother, who is into history, decided to do explore the story of the "soldier" in some war. It was captivating, and then one needs the context to understand what happens and why, so the numbers, years, names start making some sense.
Anyways, although a story of the people, AVSI witchcraft was also extracted to a bunch of guys who wrote some texts and then influenced laws.
Reminds, me of the movie air that was about a shoe deal.
2. After reading "Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women" which was eye-opening with all its social and gender readings into witch-hunting, this doesn't even come close, or maybe even perpetuates some of these biases. (Other reviews put it well).
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Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction
read on 2024/06/20
The weirdest nature book I have ever read. But it was captivating, and with its points so I kept going.
[might add more later]
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Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence and How You Can Too – A State-of-the-Art Guide to Personal Branding and Social Media
read on 2024/06/13
huslbro
The stories of all the people CRUSHING IT were cool tho!
off to crush it myself, bye 😂
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
read on 2024/08/10
I was wondering if this is a book on climate for technologists to read. Maybe it's a good way to start someone who's into tech and has a "tech will solve everything" mentality, into the climate issue and potentially inspire action and nudge them towards "I will make tech for climate".
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I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times
read on 2024/07/18
A bunch of interesting points and ideas on how to talk across divides (in the book it's mainly through the political example).
The takeaway for me is that people on the other side "also" can't understand "my" position on things, and think that if what "I" believe in comes to the general public it will ruin society and we are doomed, the same way "I" think this way of some other policies, outlooks etc.
Not sure what to do with this, but it makes sense that in the "logical" constructs of people's worlds, there is no way to combine other "logical" constructs of different worlds that are not based on the same rules.
I went to ArsTechnica in Linz and it was fun, there was an interactive Exhibit, and there were words one could pick out of a list, to be displayed "on the parliament"-or some other important building, i don't remember- well there were about 8 or so different words. I picked "Respect" so swiftly, as a clear winner of important words, and the person that was with me also picked that. So we did a shadow act of the word respect. Anyways, I asked the artists what the most common words people were picking, and they mentioned: "Help", "Participation" all the other ones.
And I commented with my buddy that it's interesting that Respect was not featured as much, and we concluded that maybe it has something to do with our line of work, or what brought us there. We were both in Tech for Nature, and maybe it's the respect one feels for everyone and everything that makes you want to be active in there. And if help is your core word, maybe step by step it leads you to different jobs and different life outlooks.
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The Art of Starting: How to Build Your Creative Business from the Ground Up
read on 2024/08/11
The two writers start a flower shop and one that is very embedded in the local community, so it's a bit different to the things I am trying to practice the art of starting with. With it was a pleasant listen during a midnight cupboard building and cleaning session. It's nice to read stories of people who try, and manage, and learn (and then share the learning).
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Girls That Invest: Your Guide to Financial Independence through Shares and Stocks
★★★★★
read on 2024/09/07
Loved the bits about the relationship to money and stereotypes.
Will try to get some (girl)friends to read it. Also so enriching and rewarding to read perspectives from non northamericans, the little insights, the view of the world.
Money has been on my mind, so was good to have a bit of a financial reflection.
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The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home
read on 2024/09/07
Fun in the way it explained a thesis and then set out an experiment for it. In some way extrapolating the essence of an act/emotion.
(Still sometimes it’s easy to wonder if there is something else at play).
Pleasant listen intertwined with personal stories, wouldn’t exactly make the book my friend but i wouldn’t mind hanging out next to them at a party, and listening to their stories, while still thinking it was a great night.
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold
★★★★★
read on 2023/09/13
I enjoyed this book a lot. Like a flower with many petals of different sizes or the trips of a bee.
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Three Women
★★
read on 2024/02/07
I needed a distraction and a friend had recommended some chick flicks a few days prior so i thought why not, but the ones she mentioned were not available in the library so i looked for other things that could fit the bill.
I was hooked on the prologue (which seems to be one of my fav genre, (strong) women writing essays about their “normal” lives). It was a really good reflection and story and processing of facts and love and all and i hoped the book would be like that too.
(It was not), but it was a page turner and it gave me the needed distraction and took my brain away until i was done. (When books are longish i start to feel some resentment about this, if i am also not completely sold on the content). But i got a strange version of a chick flick maybe darker and with lots of sex (sometimes a bit porny, but didn’t feel out of place, porny in the sense that everyone was moaning and coming and all that - except when they weren’t, a truth i was grateful form, when one of the women is describing this incredible encounter and she then mentions that he must have stayed for almost half an hour, which brought down to earth the incredible loneliness and low expectations). Anyways i guess i still need “to do” read a chick flick, because there wasn’t enough happy ending nor enough humor, but that was not a book for that.
I think this describes the disappointment of what this book is and what it sells in its first pages to be.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Also there was no condoms anywhere, or any mention of any birth control. One pregnancy scare…
The writer also says at the beginning how she set out to explore male desire, and then figured that female desire is way more interesting or something so she’ll write about that, but then ended up writing about how the desire from a bunch of men shaped these women.
Maybe sticking with the male desire premise (and their effect on women), as in the prologue, might have been more fruitful.
——
The prologue tho👌
Also I cried so much at the suicide bit, i think it was shared and crafted with a lot of gentleness and care, and that lingering of the hug that if would be forever is haunting, and so very relatable in many of it’s forms.
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How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times
★★★★
read on 2024/09/01
Actually really enjoyed this. (Still in the “whisper good habits into my ear” phase). Written by a “productivity guru” it takes this approach to calm - like burnout will make you less productive.
Given that i’ve recently scraped off the most obvious layer of shit distraction (deleted instagram off my phone, installed a feed hiding chrome extension) I was ripe for the new level of changes. The writer talks about a stressors inventory - which i am now way more able to see because of the lack of the most obvious stressors-distractions. And the idea of a stimulus fast, which i am kind of eyeing again - i used to do no tech days or evenings.
Also being more intentional with what i want and how i achieve it, and maybe confining some stressors into blocks of time. The biggest difference with not having instagram et all is that now most of my inputs are my own or at least of my surroundings/community so it’s easier to build on top of and connect to things already in my mind. I still notice moments of distraction even though healthier so next step is actually thinking about how to internalize those even more, and shift from a consumption to creation mindset.
Also went to an underwater rugby tournament and scored an incredible goal 😎😎🌊💪💃🧜♀️
The interesting thing is that i couldnt sleep in the morning but i decided to just lie there, not go on my phone or do some other thing, lie and think. And well, it went ok.
Listening to these books is like having friends talk about stuff that is something relevant. It’s just a way to further conversation.
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The End of Your Life Book Club
★★★★
read on 2024/08/04
I also had a parent die slowly, in a way where you can talk to them about it, talk to yourself about it, imagine a life without them before it happens, see their body come and go, each time with a little less buffer than the previous.
I really enjoyed this book, not sure if it would mean that much to someone who hasn't gone through similar, the gentleness in those moments waiting in the various hospitals or long rides, or the constant reminder of how many things work in a body, noticed when it doesn't work anymore.
We all die, but it's funny when we die more obviously, what this gives to us.
A chance to thank then once more, something we don't necessarily do when we live day to day.
I am grateful to those who let me know that they might be "on the way out". I think there is immense gratefulness to some poeple's influence in our lives, and I feel, why not share it with them.
I remember, how hard it is to share, for the sick person, too or maybe especially. But what is life but to be loved, and why not let love come in, in times like this.
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Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women
★★★★★
read on 2024/08/03
We have a few witch stories where I come from, and I wanted to explore the topic.
But it's hard(er) to find local stories and an insight into my history.
Really interesting points about how the witch hunts go hand in hand with capitalism, and the shift from communal living, to money making, and women (especially older ones) were standing in the way being like "it takes a village" and they were like nah "it takes land ownership and productivity".
And a bunch of other things that women supposedly do to men especially, and which makes them scary. Also interesting how they are usually portrayed as old women.
The interesting thing is also how much of it is still going on in the world.
At 3h length is a good and interesting review of the topic.
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Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success
read on 2024/09/04
Productivity-selfhelp binge continues.
As mentioned it's good to have these hype-y voices in my head say that things are possible and share little tricks on how to do it. And this book does that, easy llisten with stories supporting their 6 spot thesis (which i still didn't manage to write down) but split into the personal, social, structural aspects.
The idea is that it's less on willpower, and more about building the world around you, with people, space, skills that will enable you to shift into the changes one is looking for.
One nice image is that this couple got a porch bench, and that shifted the way their evenings played out and then also their relationship.
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Get Your Shit Together
read on 2024/08/25
I am back in my listen to productivity/selfhelp books phase, when I enjoy people just talking to me about doing things and throwing around some various tips to achieve that.
And because all the prominent productivity books have a waiting list, I just took a bunch of random titles that were available, this being one of them. This book is not great, but the writer (who reads the book herself) is enthusiastic, so I listened through it.
Off to some other people talking to me about how I can do things, and split things into manageable chunks, and one step by step, and just starting.
yay
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In Defence of Witches: Why Women Are Still on Trial
read on 2024/08/18
The book title misrepresents what's inside. I don't feel good about books that pose as empowering, then only talking about mistreatment.
It was a long list of ways in which women have it shitty, and not that much about witches.
I had recently listened to "Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women" from Silvia Federici, and wanted more of that.
Still I listened through it all, as there were some interesting bits, but I don't thrive off of that, I am no better a woman, having read all this, I think.
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Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
read on 2024/07/14
My sleep schedule is pretty creative, and I am also know for being pretty functional after nights of low sleep.
But all my cells went into revolt while reading this book and if they weren't getting the talked about sleep. They made me feel all the symptoms, especially the unflushed brain feeling.
Maybe the heatiest of the heat days also didn't help.
Anyways I can only improve.
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Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
read on 2024/01/13
I am on a boat, crossing the atlantic, so time is time, time is days and wind, so it was a good time to read a book about time.
Some bits were really relevant, those about finitude and what it beings, of choosing what to do, and knowing that space is limited. It’s funny how this is a post-productivity book. I mean it still is but i guess at least it looks at the bigger picture, in the sense of why even try to be “productive” and why even “live”. And i think it’s stuff, as the writer mentions, one is faced with when brushed with cancer or with death. That there is no point in rushing towards the future because we only have now.
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