10 Genius Ideas Distilled From 10 Non-Fiction Books For Your Convenience

Meta of books can be a blog. 

What I like about books: My favorite thing about reading books is that you can soak up in two hours what took the authors at least two years to digest and distill.

What I like about blogs: My favorite thing about good blogs is that you can soak up in 5 minutes what took some readers like me multiple days to read books.

I want to go one step further. Bring out a tidbit for each book that is either relatable or memorable.

1. Going from zero to one is way different than going from one to two.

Myth Busting Book: Zero to One by Peter Theil, founder Paypal & contrarian billionaire.

Tidbit I can relate: Before reading this book, I never gave a second thought about climbing the stairs. I always assumed the steps [with numbers ingrained] are equally difficult or equally easy. 

Zero to one is indeed difficult compared to say, from one to two. Take the example of having kids. I have two kids. When we had our first daughter, it was a great lifestyle change for my wife and me. When we had our second kid, not so much. When I shared it with a friend, he said, “the third one is a game changer too.” I prodded him and he said, you only have two hands to hold. 

Tidbit from the book that I found most practical:

Whenever Peter interviews someone for a job, his question is “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

What I liked about this question was the reasoning Peter gave. 

“Most answers to the contrarian questions are different ways of seeing the present; good answers are as close as we can come to looking into the future.”

This question helps me evaluate my future bets — whether they are poor, half baked or daring. 

Talk about making money by spotting trends. It’s a great question to ask ourselves. 

2. The most easiest way to make money is the most boring.

Myth Busting Book: Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley

If there is one book, I am glad I read early in my reading life, it’s this one. 

Tidbit I learned from this book that I found most practical:

Wealth and status are two different things! Rich lifestyle has no correlation to wealth. And wealth has no correlation to flamboyant lifestyle. We assume a lot of things by watching TV! 

My favorite line — “They [ Millionaire Next door] value financial freedom and independence over social status.”

Tidbit I can relate now, after more than decade reading the book.

Wealth has little to do with luck, intelligence, or inheritance. It has everything to do with savings and boring investing strategies that leverage one thing well — time. 

3. Perfection is great. Imperfectionist make it bigger. 

This was not a myth busting book, but rather a timely one that found me - The Gifts of Imperfection by a local Houston hero —Brené Brown.

In her words,  “Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect; we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight.”

Personally, I like the twenty-ton shield analogy. Has lingered with me when I procrastinate implicitly worried about perfectionism. 

4. Humans are flawed — we know that. What we don’t know is where they are flawed on a subconscious level and how to bring the best out of others.

Mind bending book: Influence by Dr. Robert Cialdini.

This book has dimensions. The following tidbit has stayed with me forever for good reasons.

Most of us act like cattles in a herd. However, there is a sheepdog inside each of us who thinks about how we will react in case of an emergency. Something we go over in our mind. Robert taught me something I never considered before — you can play to the strength of humanity when you are the victim!

As humans we move/act fastest when someone believes in us! Our bigger flaw is starting trouble. Our biggest strength is working as a group.

So, when Robert with an accident, he randomly pointed to someone in the crowd and asked him to call for help. He pointed to another driver and said, “pull over here, need your help!”

More than call for ambulance and cops, one of the drivers used his/her handkerchief to blot Robert’s blood flow. Another tendered to his friend. One of them even offered to ride along to the hospital.

Other drivers rubber necked from three other directions — they saw a wave of humanity giving help. The domino kicked in. They took the initiative to help the injured in the other car.

Now, my eyes are always open — I understand the power of the first responder. I take initiative to break ices whenever I see a need. 

5. Bill Gates gave this book a stellar review. I really like the positive energy of the author in general. See video. 

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think — By Hans Rosling & family. 

Tidbit I learned from this book

In the world, there are news headlines on one end and there are unknown, positive messages at the other end. It resonates with the theme — “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” — possibly, Mark Twain

For example, you may have heard about the poor people of the world. What you may not have heard is that there’s a huge difference between someone earning $1 and $4 a day. The number of people earning $1 a day has halved in the last 20 years! That’s a big deal. As the difference between the two numbers is extreme — starvation and small savings. 

Honestly, what attracted me to the book was the author, the late Hans Rosling. He juiced up my enthusiasm at the intersection of data and entertainment. Forever grateful. Watch this.

6. When to quit and when to soar.

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (And When To Stick), by Seth Godin, marketing guru. 

What I like most about this book is a simple and elegant answer to a question that bogs most of us — when to quit and when to double up.

“Quit when you’ll be mediocre, when the returns aren’t worth the investment, when you no longer think you’ll enjoy the ends. Stick when the dip is the obstacle that creates scarcity, when you’re simply bridging the gap between beginner’s luck and mastery.”

7. On writing well, you need a confidence booster — I discovered mine.

Some books give you the boost you just need: On writing well by William Zinsser. 

I love puzzles. I never considered myself a grammar guru. I do enjoy words. I found my mojo to write, right here in this line — “Salvation often lies not in the writer’s style but in some odd fact he or she was able to discover.”

8. Habits vs. Goals — A world of difference

Eye opening book that’s actionable: Atomic Habits — by James Clear

Tidbit I could relate: I like to tinker and marginally improve things. System thinking, building things up, the grease in the wheel are the ideas that speak to me. The real world, on the other hand, is full of goal setting and reaching them. 

This book opened my eyes on the difference between goals and systems. 

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.”

That line calmed my mind and excited it at the same time. Beautiful. 

Tidbit I learned from the book. I like math. These words made me chuckle for the deep wisdom within. 

“Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.

 Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits.

 Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits.”

9. Comfort food is as important as comfortable mind

This book is personal, please feel to substitute it with your comfort food book. It still has a universal message. 

I often wondered how someone can make a list of top books without their cookbook. Just like many of you, I grew up on my mom’s and grandmom’s cooking. That’s my comfort food. I left Indian shores for graduate school in US. I had never cooked before. I was given a copy of this book Cook and See, by Meenakshi Ammal. For all practical purposes she could have been my grandma’s clone from the villages in south India.

After years, my aha about the book: It is divided into sub sections that make sense — you make one simple dish in each sub section and you have a wholesome meal. Nowadays, I don’t look for a recipe. I look for structure! It helps that the mix of subsections is heavy on water based foods, rich in fiber, very light on deserts, tasty on the tongue and comforting to my palette. 

10. I learned most about a memorable story about Abraham Lincoln from this book — How to Win Friends and Influence People

I read this classic book periodically — How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. 

There are many snippets of stories that resonate. My favorite is this one. 

Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to a General, George Meade, after the Battle of Gettysburg. He did not sign it. He poured his words on paper reflecting and respecting the natural emotions he was endowed with. The letter was part of his unsent collection. 

I learned something about words and emotions. Suppressing emotions is a fool’s bravery. Expressing what words to share with others is a great man’s legacy. 

Wow. It’s like the hidden gems that drive people to greatness that we rarely hear about. 

It’s never about how many books you read. It’s rarely about what books you read. Instead, It’s this. 

It’s more about the one thing you can remember, after you turn the last flap of the book and close your eyes. Something enriching that deftly changed your perspective or at the minimum, was a timely reminder. 

In every author’s labor — there is something long term for each one of us that sits still and fresh in our mind — even after dust of time has settled on the covers. 

In those nuggets, my today is marginally better than yesterday. Hope yours was too. 

Karthik Rajan is the author of the “connect the dots” short story-letter, available at this link.