This is such a fantastic book about social and class signaling. I read this book a while back and think about it regularly, so I wanted to give it another read. The author breaks down the history of social theories around conspicuous consumption, but she’s more interested in “inconspicuous consumption”, which is far more discreet. She highlights how people do arbitrary things that say to the world, “Look how educated and well-informed I am. That is why I do this thing.” This was something that lower classes started doing because if you’re broke, you can’t go out and buy expensive things to showcase how amazing you are. Inconspicuous consumption is more about the activities you do, where you buy your groceries, what you read, etc.

The book is extremely interesting because we’re always trying to showcase our status, but the author discusses how this does a lot of harm. A great example she gives is with breastfeeding and parenthood in general. There are things people do to show status and look down upon others although there are no real benefits, which further divides the classes and isn’t really helpful to anyone.

I can’t recommend this book enough, and I’m going to go buy this author’s other books because I’m sure their just as amazing.

This is one of my new favorite books. I remember hearing about it years ago when I first got interested in human irrationality, but I totally forgot about it. When I was asking my followers for recommendations for books about cognitive dissonance, someone brought up this book. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. Kurzban has a unique perspective and theories about how our minds work, and how it leads us to irrational and hypocritical behavior. Not only did this book introduce me to a new way of looking at how our brains function and why we evolved that way, but he made so many solid arguments that I haven’t heard in any of the dozens of books I’ve read on this topic.

This book is amazing, and it’s not too complex for laypeople like myself. Kurzban also brings up some philosophical topics in the book like our sense of “self” as well as some moral philosophy. I’m definitely going to read this book again at some point, but for now, I’m going to go grab his other book and hope he’s in the process of writing another.

I loved Mark’s original hit book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. I read again it recently and it still held up, even though I originally read it when I was in a bad place in life and needed some inspiration. I read this newer book the second it came out, but I just didn’t enjoy it, so I wanted to read it again. At that time, I had been reading a ton of self-help books and just figured I didn’t like it because I was bored with the genre. But after reading it again, I just don’t think it’s a good book.

I think the main reason that this book isn’t that great is that its purpose isn’t clear. In the previous book, Mark lays out this counterintuitive idea and then makes excellent arguments for this way of living while blending it with philosophy and psychology. This book really felt like he just wanted to catch the momentum of the success from the previous book and just threw something together.

Aside from the lack of coherence with the book’s intention, it feels like he just threw a bunch of the same overused self-help stuff you can find anywhere else. It lacked a lot of originality that the previous book definitely had. In addition to the overused stories, studies, and tropes, he seems to have strange interpretations from the studies and philosophers that he references.

Anyway, I read this book twice and still didn’t like it. I’m sure it connects with some people, but he set a high bar for himself with the previous book, and this one didn’t come nearly as close.

I’ve thought about this book a ton since reading it when it launched, and I had John on my podcast. So, I read it again, and it’s so damn good. I really wish it got more of the attention that it deserves because it’s so much more unique than many of the other books in this realm. We live in a time where people don’t care about the truth as long as they hear something that aligns with their beliefs. It seems like it’s only getting worse, and that’s why this book is so important.

Bullshit is a lack of concern with the truth. John’s been researching this topic for years, and he explains why bullshit is such a problem. There are anecdotes of non-consequential situations where bullshit doesn’t really matter, but he shows how it can lead us to believe even more bullshit. Through his own research as well as the research from others, Petrocelli explains why we fall for bullshit, why people bullshit, what we can do to prevent it, and much more.

Not only do I think everyone should read this book, it’s one I’m going to have my son read as well to help him become a better thinker.

I’ve been thinking a lot about trust lately and why we trust people, so I wanted to give this book another read. I remember really liking this book but couldn’t remember why. While this book wasn’t the one I was thinking of, it’s a fantastic book about trust and technology. Rachel Botsman is regularly studying the intersection of trust and technology, and it’s a pretty interesting book. She writes about why we’re so willing to trust complete strangers in this world of Uber, Airbnb and similar tech services. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it, so it’s cool that Rachel explains what the research says about why we trust and why we lose trust.

There are also some crazy stories in here like the Uber driver who went on a shooting spree and how it didn’t stop people from getting an Uber in the area. That’s just one story that really stands out, but there are a ton. This is a super interesting book that brings up a lot of great questions and will definitely get you thinking.