Hidden Potential by Adam Grant looks at the many ways in which we can perform at a level higher than we thought possible. The book is broken into three main sections, skills of character, structures for motivation, and systems of opportunity. It looks at various scenarios and ties many of them to scientific studies to expand on how we can achieve greater things.

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The War of Art by Steven Pressfield has the subtitle, "break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles." It's about the war against what Pressfield calls resistance, a term that Pressfield pears at from many different angles, and exposes as the ultimate enemy. Beat resistance, and you win the war.

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Same as Ever was written by Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. The book is a series of 23 short and timeless lessons on, as the subtitle says, "Risk, Opportunity and Living a Good Life". It looks at the natural cycles of history, and the lessons we can learn, while also focusing on the psychology of how humans act in the world.

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"How Emotions Are Made" is a book by Lisa Feldman Barrett, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and a neuroscience researcher. This book delves into Barrett's Theory of Constructed Emotions, offering a fresh perspective on how emotions are formed. Initially, the book presents the classical view of emotions, which suggests that emotions are simply reactions to external events. Something happens, and as a result, we feel a certain way. In the classical view, these emotions are thought to have distinct markers in the brain, akin to a "fingerprint". For example, it is often said that the amygdala is the center of fear.

The book then goes on to discuss recent research that challenges this classical view, advocating for the Theory of Constructed Emotions. This theory proposes that emotions aren't mere reactions. Instead, they are complex predictions shaped by our past experiences and current context. According to this theory, we perceive and experience these predictions as reality, rather than experiencing the raw sensory input as reality. This theory suggests that our emotions, and even our perception of reality, are essentially a continuous flow of these constructed predictions.

In the concluding chapters, Barrett explores the broad implications of this theory on various aspects of life, including health, law, and our general understanding of the world around us.

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A discussion of the book Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink.

Jocko is a US Navy officer who served in the Navy SEALs. Through the SEALs training he learnt various fundamental principles of leadership, writing them down, codifying them, and putting them to the test in SEALs training and mission scenarios. Leadership Strategy and Tactics draws on this experience, teaching one how to deal with a wide variety of situations as a leader and as a subordinate, using examples from his SEALs experience.

As the title suggests, it covers both strategies and tactics in leadership. Strategy is about the long term objectives, and tactics are for dealing with the immediate situation at hand.  

Once having read through the book, one should have an idea of Jocko's core principles and tenets of leadership, as well as advice when dealing with specific situations as a leader - from a broad and a focused perspective. Finally, as the words "field manual" suggest, the book is intended to be used as reference material when dealing with various situations as a leader, and so while the chapters tie together nicely, it is also structured in short chapters dealing with specific advice, meaning, the chapters can be read individually when needing advice on a specific situation.

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A discussion of the book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett was published in 1908. The book looks at the work day, and the time outside of that - what Bennett calls the day within a day. It claims that most view the day - especially during the work week - as simply the time from when you start work to when you end work. The time outside of that is often viewed as pointless time where one waits for the next day to begin. What makes this worse, Bennett says, is that the average person doesn't give their full effort to their work, so to miss out on the day within a day is even more tragic.

Further than that, generally people don't know how to spend their spare time - and time, Bennett considers to be the most valuable of resources. There are lot's of books and articles on how to live on x dollars a day, but not how to live on 24 hours a day. This book aims to help people truly live on 24 hours a day - to spend your time wisely.

The book goes on to discuss how people often have an underlying desire to do more with their life, but don't. People feel like they have things left undone that they will do when they have more time. It then goes on to give tips with how to approach ones day within a day, so as to fully live. 

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A discussion of the book Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters

Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters is a book that looks at exactly that, going from zero to one. Specifically, going from something not existing to one existing.
"Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1." pg. 1
While most get lost in incremental improvement, Thiel focuses on creating the completely new. "Zero to One is about how to build companies that create new things." pg. 2
The book looks at how monopolies and competition compare, and aims to show that monopolies are where the real value lies, both for companies and for end consumers. This is because while competition results in incremental improvement, creating something completely new is far more valuable. Competition leads to a war mentality, where monopolies lead to an abundance mentality. Monopolies - in the good sense - exist because they create something so good that others can't compete, and in doing so, monopolies are "powerful engines for making the world better." pg. 32

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A discussion of the book The Last Arrow by Erwin Raphael McManus

The Last Arrow by Erwin McManus book begins with the biblical story in 2 Kings 13, where Elisha tells King Jehoash to strike the ground with his arrows, so he strikes 3 times, and then, stops. As the story goes on we find out that he stopped striking the ground too early, had he continued to strike the ground till his arrows were done, he would've had victory over the Arameans, but instead they will now only wound them.
This story is the reference for the book, as McManus looks at the different areas of life, motivating us to keep going until we have nothing left, until we've given it everything we have, until we've used up our last arrow.
"My intention for this book is that you would never surrender, that you would never settle, that you would save nothing for the next life." pg. xi
"This book has one intention: that whether you win or lose, succeed or fail, live a life of celebrity or anonymity, that when you take your last breath, you will know without reservation that you have given everything you have, everything you are, to the life you have been entrusted with." pg. 28

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