0. Introduction

My machine learning career began from a book, “Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras & TensorFlow”.

1. Rich dad and Poor dad

I was looking for a book to study finance and money. I’ve searched ‘introduction to finance book’ and some asian dude stared at me from list of recommended books on Google. I thought it was funny so I’ve read it.

Asset vs liability : Key concept of the book. Make asset your priority, pay liability last.
Book will constantly humiliate those who pay mortgages. Author strongly believes buying a house is a liability and not an asset and this had me confused because real estate is a great investment in 2020s. This may be due to cultural and generation difference.
Rich people love to talk about money because it often leads to opportunity.

I am an experienced gamer so I already understood the value of taking risks (ex.TFT). What the book has taught me is to look for business ideas from watching random stuff. For example, I was observing a real estate agent present an apartment unit that hasn’t been built yet. But they were able to show 360 degree view from a floor of their choosing as if a photo taken from the future. A drone business!

2. Atomic Habits

“What could this book be possibly talking about for 20 chapters? ‘Just do it’ 20times?” was my initial thought. Probably the best practical book I’ve read. Here are examples of how I’ve applied to my life, without the whys.

I am a reader, so I read at least 30 minute before going to sleep.
I hid distracting apps such as Youtube, Instagram, TradingView, etc from bookmarks (desktop) and main screen (phone). Now they require at least one or more clicks to access, creating friction.
When I want to have a cold drink, my brain think I must exercise so I can reward myself a drink. Gaslighting my brain.
I spend my time regularly on Kaggle, an online data science community. And I just do things on Kaggle, writing code and reading notebooks.
I play calm noise on my earbud to cue a focus period. Similarly, I wear ear plugs as a cue just before sleep.
I am a climber, so I go bouldering everyday.
I prepare something before sleep for the time I wake up. For example, I go for a run every other day, so for even days, I prepare exercise clothes, earbuds, keys and phone in one place making it easy to access after waking up like a combo.
I measure and track every minute I spend reading, studying, working and journaling on app called forest. It creates satisfaction and after all, I am a data scientist.

Great easy book, definetly recommend to everyone!.

3. 5AM club

I don’t recommend this book. Try a summarisation tool instead. Personally, I felt that I was searching a trash bin for promised treasures. Anyhoo, here are the ‘treasures’

Transient hypofrontality: prefrontal cortex, that part of your brain responsible for rational thinking—as well as constant worrying—actually shuts off for a short time at 5am.
Each day we get limited brain bandwidth - so distractions eats away our bandwidth in focusing. For this reason, some wear same thing everyday.
Brain triggers warning when embracing changes (even positive changes). Be aware of this self-sabotaging brain. For example, spending time scrolling on Reels is your brain letting you be comfortable. When you try to change this, your brain may refuse, making it hard to put down your phone.
20/20/20 rule - Once you wake up, 20 minutes of exercise, 20 journaling and 20 reading. I do this everyday because it really clears my mind before starting your day. Personally, I believe 20min exercise is most important. (Lot of Brain details I liked that I won’t cover here)
Do not technology before and after sleep. I discovered ‘do not distrub’ schedule option on my phone that helps me with this. (Lot of Brain and sleep details I liked that I won’t cover here)

From this book, I’ve realized the importance of habit stacking sleep. Effectively starting a day sounds attractive and also scientifically healthier so I am practicing early sleep, early morning and early 20/20/20 exercises. Do I wake up at 5am? No, I wake up at 7 or 8.

4. How to talk to anyone

Communication is important. My mbti is INTJ so I am always trying to optimize my messages. Often I would use pictures, numbers or memes to express my idea. So not everything from this book I found applicable.

Don’t smile when you greet. Instead, Pause. Soak in their persona. Then smile
Limit the fidget, twitch, wiggle, scratch and squirm.
Analyse your partner in detail when they speak. Notice things and spend time thinking on it.
Think about how you can make yourself more approchable. Noticeable shades and not crossing your arm.
Parroting. Parroting?
Substitue a commonly used word and practice using it.
Tell a friend instead of your target when complimenting. Otherwise make compliment appear accidental.
Record all your business conversations and listen to them again
Empty their thoughs before pitching your important ideas

5. Quite

This book caught my attention because I am an introvert. Maybe I can leverage something out of being introvert.

In western culture, extrovert is more valued. For example in Harvard business school, if you don’t speak up, you are out.
In Eastern culture, introvert is more valued. For example if you speak like an extrovert, you are viewed as thoughtless person.
Introvert and extrovert is real, but it is not well defined. For example, what’s the threshold?
We are born introvert or extrovert. When your senses are more sensitive, you are introvert. Vice versa.
Amygdala, part of the brain that controls how to process data, sensitivity determines whether to react to a popping balloon or not. If you don’t react, you are extrovert.
Cortical thickness is different between introverts and extroverts
The reason why less sensitive equals extrovert is because they require more stimulation to feel satisfied. For example, louder music is required to achieve same level of ‘just right’ amount of volume for the extroverts, compared to introverts who require less loudness.
Later in the book it talks about how to raise a child and how to choose the right environment for them. Simlarly, you could also choose right environment for your work team such as open office versus closed office.

Overall, the book was informative and interesting. It made me think that being an introvert is better than extrovert, although that is not the point of the book.

6. Make your bed

This book was fun to read because of author’s army stories. Do you know what a sugar cookie is? It is when you dive into sea water, roll around in the sand.

The book however was too shallow. Don’t give up, work with team, life isn’t fair, don’t fear risks, etc. No neuroscience behind each points.

7. Why we want you to be rich

I didn’t know Donald Trump was an author.

India is the largest English-speaking nation in the world, in the last 10000 years, India has never invaded any country.
This book is for people who wants to take risks and win. Those who refuse to live below their means. (There is a book called ‘millionaire next door’ that teach the opposite, living below the means to get rich. Personally that book was too boring)
Government want a balance of those who create jobs and not everyone looking for a job. Hence those who creates jobs are rewarded with tax cuts.
Government want those who bring resources to the country such as gold, oil and silver. Tax cut.
Learn how to leverage, search real life examples of how others do this.
Control your assets. Noting that buying stocks has no control (it is gambling after all)
Invest time in to investing, build a habit.

This book is definetly not for everyone. For example, it strongly recommend adding golf to your hobby but I disagree. I don’t like golfing.

8. 12 Rules to live by

This book is so long.

Stand tall and confident, be the winning lobster. More because if you stay depressed and not confident, you will fall deeper into this positive feedback loop trap.
Why do more people take care of their pets more than themselves? Author’s argument comes from the bible that we are still paying the price of eating the apple at Eden. Just like how Adam and Eve immediately was ashamed to show themselves to god with new consciousness, we lower ourselves to the point where we even suicide. But we have to remember we are not something we own but there is small divine with each one of us and we belong to god. Anyways the point is treat yourself well just as you treat others(even dogs) well.
Make friends with people who want the best for you. More importantly, let bad influences drift away.
Compare yourself to you over time because it is foolish to compare yourself to everyone in the world in specific domains.
We blind ourselves from things we unconsciously define unimportant. For example, our vision takes a lot of energy so we only get ‘high resolution’ on objects we think are important. Rest will appear blurry and even invisible. This applies to what we think of important to our lives not only in vision. For example, instead of thinking I want to make more money, it would be important to think maybe you can’t stop wanting more money and it’s a problem.
When we are raising children, discipline is important. The author is very annoyed at those parents who passes this duty to the real world which often result in a mess. I wonder what stuff I can start now to ensure my children are raised above average. Maybe I’ll ask school teacher at my church.
So it wasn’t only me that think that we are nothing and nothing matters in the very long term therefore chasing pleasure everyday is a valid solution. Of course I do this with respect to others, but some ignore that rule and kill people by ‘freeing’ them.
Bible talks a lot about sacrifice. Sacrifice something today for better tomorrow. Jesus sacrificed everything for human, notice that he sacrificed for others and not himself.
Listen to others and assume you have something to learn from them.
Don’t lie
So what should you do? Don’t lie to yourself and look for truths as they may be in front of you, but your brain instinctively justifies it with abstract reasons.
How to listen to someone - summarize their speech before speaking yours. Noting that summarizing is hard so practice this starting now.
Author views technology as a note on a unmeasurable sheet. Our computers are being played now but it will be discarded in many years.
World is too complex. Therefore we ignore everything. Except what we think are important.
Learn to admit that there is a problem.
A playground made too safe will be unpopular. If made too dangerous, kids will die.

9. How to talk to strangers

Sometimes knowing less about someone is actually knowing more. In America, judge releases false positive criminals all the time because they unknowingly take other factors in to consideration besides what is on the paper. For this reason, a simple machine learning model can outperform judge by 20 something percent regarding releasing criminals that commits some sort of crime again.
People who have met with Hitler were all convinced that this man didn’t want war, he wasn’t crazy and rather practical. Contrast to Churchill whom never met Hitler yet he would never trust Hitler and he was correct.
Another example is a cuban spy who was up high in DIA ranks. In all three examples, it is natural for human to default to classifying others as good unless there is a significant red flag. And such habit makes it harder to identify red flags.

10. The power of habits

Brain & Stored Habits

Even with memory loss, basal ganglia allows habit retention
Example: Patient with brain surgery could solve puzzles instinctively despite no memory

Breaking Bad Habits

Keep the cue and reward, change the routine
Example: Replace drug use with snacking when bored

Recovery & Group Belief

Alcoholics often credit recovery to religious belief
Key factor: Group support creates belief in possibility of change

Workplace Safety as Core Habit

Aluminum factory safer than McDonald’s
CEO’s 24-hour accident reporting policy created efficient communication system
Result: Company value increased 5x through safety-first culture

Educational Impact on Health

Solution to high infant mortality: Better teacher biology education
Improved nutrition knowledge led to 60% drop in baby deaths

Willpower Mechanics

Acts like a muscle - can be depleted
Study: Cookie resisters showed less persistence in puzzle solving

Group Dynamics & Habits

Poor communication habits between doctors and nurses increase hospital errors
Example: Nurses being silenced leads to mistakes

Retail & Consumer Habits

Target tracks pregnancy data for marketing
Stores place healthy items at entrance to encourage balanced shopping

Marketing to New Parents

Pregnancy triggers new shopping habits
Solution: Hide targeted ads among regular products to avoid customer discomfort
Similar to radio stations mixing new songs between familiar ones

Social Pressure & Habits

Community pressure enforces collective action
Example: Bus boycott success through social accountability

Habit Power Over Consciousness

Two cases showing habit dominance:
- Responsible gambler losing control
- Sleepwalking man committed crime unconsciously

11. Guns germs and steel

I wanted to be a archaeologist at one point

Humanities have expanded all across globe. Question is did we start from one point on Earth (Adam and Eve) or from multiple points?
A lot of suggestion say that big mammals in America and Australia became extinct just about the similar time humans have reached those continents. Some say no, it was the weather but these mammals experienced many ice ages and survived. So there is no evidence of large mammals domesticated
America has no evidence of humanity before cloverites, whom crossed from russia to alaska around 11000bc
200 Spanish captured the Inca emperor. First, Spanish people went to heart of Inca (I’m assuming they were invited). To Incas they seem harmless and I don’t know why they didn’t just kill them off here. Later, emperor was invited to Spanish camp where Spanish were planning an ambush. I don’t know if it was their main plan, but when emperor was introduced to bible, he threw away, initializing the ambush. What if Inca showed more respect to bible?
Anyways, the guns were definitely effective but it was not what slaughtered Inca army of thousands. One hundred calvaries wearing steel armor was juggernaut compared to clubs used by Inca. This is hard to imagine but makes sense.
Inca emperor had no information so he figured he could capture 200 spanish (not even thiinking they are army) spanish men. He didn’t know they were here to conquer his empire.
From hunter gatherer to farmers, some aquired this skill from neighbor tribes, either by invading them or being invaded by them. Different parts of the world developed farming at staggeringly differnt times.
Note that farming wasn’t that attractive in the early stages. Some areas simply benefited more in hunting gathering. Some neighbors saw farming and didn’t absorb any of its tech for thousands of years.
did a rise in human population density force people to turn to food production, or did food production permit a rise in human popula tion density? Probably both in a positive feedback loop that accelerate fast
When building farms, berries like strawberries were likely defeated by birds.
A lot of crops were genetically chosen by humans so wild plants may be very different from tamed plants
Hunter gatherers are basically walking natural resource encyclopedia. Which suggests that Fertile Crescent people were very well aware of their natural habitat and potential crops. I would have thought they would trial and error in their lifetime, but this knowledge is collected and passed on for ten thousand years.
Factors that determine domesticable animals : the animal’s diet, growth rate, mating habits, disposition, tendency to panic, and several distinct features of social organization.
I couldn’t stand the mundane plant spread chapter so i skipped it.
Fever is our body trying to kill microbes
Note that epidemic can only survive with large enough population. Otherwise, they just die out with the hosts.
Isn’t it strange that natives got almost wiped out by European disease but not the other way around? Europeans developed immunity to similar diseases because they have spent centuries with domestic animals, and most diseases transfer from domestic animals. American had fewer domestic animals too. Also, European are highly density society such that they already went through a lot of epidemics, and those who survived passed their stronger genetics against diseases.
QWERTY keyboard was designed to make typing slower because typing adjacent key in quick succession would jam in the earliest models.
No protection for inventors make slower tech advances
So some tribes find answers from past and doesn’t like tech, some tribes do. Author is not sure what determines this behavior. Personally, I think it’s probably religion issue.
Some technologies such as guns were introduced in Japan, but lost because of samurai government structure.
When we see things like steam engine invention, we see technology go from 0 to 100, but people at those time will only see 0 to 1 and even less because they wouldn’t directly see the uses and its spread vertically nor horizontally. That is why technology advances are rare (my thoughts reading the book, not a point from the book)
How did states arise? How did sacrificing yourself to the king or country become a norm?
Reading this book makes me wonder : we have to guess a lot of hows and whys in such questions because at those times, who would of thought it was important that they keep record of how everything came to be for people thousands of years later. Which leads to how do we answer questions two thousands years from now asking about us? Is internet and digital records going to automatically answer every questions without needing special efforts from us? I do write journal everyday maybe that could help.

12. Good to Great

The book is a good book, not a great book.

Every good to great company had level 5 leadership meaning they had humble, from inside CEOs
This book seem to be a statistic report book, trying to tell a story through data
When things go bad, blame themselves
I wonder what leaders who didn’t make the top eleven CEO in this book are like. Reader in the dark for 12th, 13th, …, 100th, 1000th, etc. So feel a bit skeptical reading the book as a data scientist.
They said to hire the right people and get wrong people off the bus. How to determine right people? They value their work, ethics, behaviour over experience or skills. How to determine wrong people? Would you hire them again, if they were to resign how would you feel
Stockdale paradox: Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail, at the same time face current reality
Being too charismatic kills ideas from employees
Face data driven reality.
Good to great companies have a hedgehog skill. That is they have a skill that is intersection of their ‘can we be best in the world at is’, ‘does it have economic value’, ‘are we passionate about this’. And they one trick pony
Book mentions that few great company CEO says luck was their most powerful asset. I believe them.

13. Zero to One

A startup guidebook. I think the author is co founder of Paypal and was there when it merged with X.com Elon Musk
Look for monopoly. Competition will kill your business, because it benefits consumers not your business.
We are not a lottery ticket. We need to have a concrete plan with optimistic minds to change the world.
For example, US is gradually turning total indefinite optimist which means they think future is going to be great but doesn’t take action towards big goals. For example, look at how we went to the moon 1970s and we had projects like Manhattan projects, golden gate bridge, empire state building built in few years. Now government focuses more on insurances.
Startup is a great place to have a big goal, for example, Apple was not lucky.
Biotech and education has been stalled for many years now, a big contrast to vertical upgrades of computer tech
Startup tips, start with small or even no customers. Start with small monopoly, for example Paypal monopolizing ebay.com trades
There’s an idea that every secret in the worlds is already discovered and only really easy or impossible are left to learn. This is highly unlikely. For example, trigonometry we learn in school is easy, problems even Einstein couldn’t solve is impossible, etc. Secret would be something like proving a math theorem where you have to believe that it is possible.
80-20 rule says 20 percent of force will dominate the 80, for example in startup worlds, only a few percentage makes big gains to Venture capitalists. So it is generally a best strategy to reduce diversity as much as possible. For example, someone invested 250k to Instagram when they had few billion diversified in many startups. They still made 15million dollar but they clearly took it too safe, losing more on other startup investments.

I feel that the author has a strong belief in the direction he is concluding, which makes me careful in believing everything he says. Especially when he said physicians are full of themselves and when he interviewed a physician and when they made a confident mistake, author said it was an easy rejection. Which just seem unfair to not give someone a chance for one mistake.