Category: Book Summary

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Thomas Piketty

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Wealth inequality is one of the biggest challenges confronting the world today

Many challenges face the modern world, some we know about, such as pandemics and climate change, and others that are less talked about, such as the subject of this summary. Throughout history, there have been subjects that have forced world leaders to collaborate, develop innovative ideas, and perhaps even take action that wasn’t all that popular. However, wealth inequality could be one of the biggest challenges the world faces.

There are countless people worldwide living in some degree of poverty, ranging from just making ends meet at the end of the month to not having enough food to eat or a roof over their heads. The truth is even more worrying when you consider the extreme weather that some have.

⚡️The idea that the rich can sit back and watch while the poor become poorer is a massive bone of contention across the world.

In an ideal world, wealth would be evenly distributed so that nobody would go without. But we don’t live in a perfect world. The way wealth, i.e., money, is distributed has long been a hot and highly controversial topic. However, Thomas Piketty decided to lift the lid on this challenging subject and unpick its origins to learn more about why wealth is so unevenly distributed and what we can do to fix it.

Many scholars and economists have pondered the subject. Karl Marx debated whether the way private capital works leads to it being

held by fewer people, i.e., the rich simply becoming richer. Many also consider business competition and technological progress a driving force that could perhaps reduce wealth inequality and bring the classes closer together.

Throughout this summary, you will learn the main findings of Thomas Piketty’s extensive studies and have a glimpse into what the future may hold. From inherited wealth taking over to the possibility of taxation of the wealthy, what do the years ahead hold?

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Viktor Frankl

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The search for meaning in suffering can result in a stronger mind

The first stage of imprisonment manifests itself as “shock.” Upon incarceration, many inmates faced the frightening feeling of a new, cruel reality. As was common with inmates at concentration camps, the newbies were forced to cope with being snatched from normalcy and cast into a hell-like existence.

⚡️The first few weeks of being an inmate are confusing because you’re still struggling to reconcile your past and present realities.

Shock gave way to apathy — a total disregard for emotion. Since the paramount desire of the prisoner was to protect their inner self, apathy was essential to prevent them from bothering about anyone but themselves. The author suggests that as the exterior hardens and dulls, we can feel stronger on the inside.

⚡️While the inmates’ bodies deteriorated at the Nazi concentration camps, their minds and souls became stronger, and a connection to the powers beyond the physical world heightened in this condition.

The prisoners coped with their misfortunes by developing vivid dreams of the future, visualizing a cessation of their suffering.

There was no need for trivial desires for anything that didn’t ensure the prisoners’ survival. As such, there was a drastic dip in libido among the inmates. They didn’t care for much, except politics and religion, with religion as first and foremost. As it would seem, our spirit grows stronger as we search for meaning during hard times. So, those with a strong spirit could withstand even the worst physical torture.

Viktor Frankl also claimed that love was a key component in the will to survive. Simply knowing that you have someone to live for makes it easier to survive in a tough situation. Suffering may be deathly, but love is as strong as death.

In the face of trials and death, love keeps the mind alive. The memory about a loved one is enough to keep it together.

It was also helping to have memories of the easier times. An incarcerated person’s mind replays fond memories and keeps him in a state of blissful reminisce as a form of relief. It can also become more attuned to art, beauty, and nature or even heighten the prisoner’s sense of humor.

Man’s search for meaning chronicles author Viktor Frankl’s experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during the second world war. Frankl learned a lot about survival through his experiences and those of the inmates he keenly observed.

You may not ever be in a concentration camp, but suffering is an unavoidable part of life. Frankl took notes of the traits and beliefs that made some inmates survive the harsh conditions others couldn’t withstand, and after leaving the camp, he taught others these principles. Now it’s your turn to learn them. This summary will show you what to do in an emotional crisis and how to find meaning even in pain.

“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how!'”

Viktor E. Frankl

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Gretchen Bakke

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Energy is an important aspect of this age as electricity is a big aid to technology

Developed countries are largely dependent on electricity. From hospitals to police stations to the information sector, power is an essential commodity in America. However, with increasing frequency on the grid, there is threat of electricity crashing down.

⚡️ The grid is a massive infrastructure that powers the United States, a tiny part of Mexico and much of Western Canada.

The grid is an interconnected network that includes wires, batteries, ports, syncrophases, switches, utility poles, power plants, transformers, and generators, which all play their part in keeping the country’s energy world running.

The grid is, however, worn out, which is causing America to have more frequent and longer power outages than other industrialized countries. This isn’t very good. Aside from the huge amount of money lost to these power outages, national security is at risk.

There are a number of threats to the grid, from squirrels to storm damage, overgrown trees, and people who target it with guns. But besides the growing threats, the grid itself has its shortcomings — though it is big, it is local due to the fact that it goes way back. It was built with a great deal of complexity that can’t stand the test of resilience. The grid calls for a much needed seething change in the power machine that keeps America “alive.” This summary is just the right read to find solutions to the challenges of the American grid system.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Chip Gaines

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The way you view things determines the way things happen to you

Life is an endless spiral, and if you are not careful enough, you’ll find yourself running the same circles over and over again. The worst situation is also a learning experience. A lot of people live their lives focusing on the bad things that could happen to them — this is a wrong mindset that breeds fear.

Fear is a barrier that stands between you and your potential. Once you eliminate fear, you’ll realize that you can actually take a lot of positives from a negative situation. Some of the world’s greatest people like Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey all learned from negative situations. You cannot afford to let negativity overcome you. Some of the stupid things you do can also be used as a learning experience to make you a better person, and that’s why this book is important.

⚡️There’s no single formula for lasting happiness; you must always make the best of your current situation and look forward to better days.

Chip Gaines, an experienced writer, has used his life as an example of how you can learn from doing stupid things. If you want to know how to make the best of a bad situation, then this is the right book for you.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Tim McGraw

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Train your mind and body through fitness to enjoy a healthy life

Moving daily and exercising regularly were pebbles that set off a ripple effect, improving the way Tim ate, slept, related to others, and showed up both personally and professionally. These activities made him a better person to be around. Tim met people before his shows who told him that seeing him take control of his fitness journey inspired them to do the same with theirs. According to them, there was something about Tim’s journey that tilted their axis a little and helped them change their life’s course.

Tim suggests that there is no magic formula to getting stronger and healthier; it is about making a commitment to do and be better and holding yourself accountable each day.

“Consistent physical exercise helps me bring focus to my life and to the people who mean the most to me.”

Tim McGraw

This summary will open your eyes to the mental and physical tools you can use to maintain your health. It is beneficial to those who have already established a fitness practice and those waiting for inspiration to start something new.

Your version of the best shape of your life will be unique to you and the demands of your life.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Mary Roach

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The scientific hurdles of getting intimate

Science has been fascinated by sex for centuries, but studying it has not been easy. In exploring the penis, vagina, orgasm, and erection, researchers have always encountered prejudice. In 1851, American gynecologist James Piatt White got expelled from the medical society for inviting his students to watch a woman give birth. Twenty-four years later, the Gynecological Society condemned his colleague Emo Nograth for speaking about venereal disease. Fear of public opinion, religious beliefs, and political intolerance have long hindered sex research. Although it seems like things should have improved drastically today, they have not. Modern scientists often hide the true meaning of their research by using words like physiological instead of sexual. Such a change guarantees them more chances for funding and reduces the risk of public backlash.

Roach lifts the veil of sex science to reveal the inner workings of innovative researchers who dared to conduct intimate experiments against all odds.

She illuminates various aspects of sex research, including:

• Masters and Johnson’s groundbreaking work on human sexual responses.
• The development of methods to treat sexual dysfunction.
• The role of the clitoris in female pleasure.
• How the intersection of technology, medicine, and culture shapes our understanding of sex.

Roach emphasizes that sex is not taboo and that studying it can significantly improve our personal lives.

So, let’s begin our journey into the science of sex and use its insights to improve our intimate relationships!

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by John O’Leary

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Your life can be radically inspiring if you learn from your past and become proactive in the present

John O’Leary was 9 when he inadvertently started a fire in his garage while he was playing. The fire burned his entire body, with two-thirds suffering 3rd degree burns. Everyone thought he was going to die that night. Yet, he spent the next 5 months choosing to live. These months of excruciating pain taught him invaluable lessons. His journey to rehabilitation and triumph involved several years with different curves on the way.

“99 Look for good and find good. Look for bad and it will show up.”

John O’Leary

Motivating others to be optimistic by sharing your pain, loss, triumphs and lessons is more meaningful than talking from abstract thought. In a practical and humorous manner, John O’Leary vulnerably shares the choices he had to make to become resilient and gain perspective.

No matter how hard things might be, good things can come out of the darkest moments.

Is there something you want to change in your personal and/or professional life? Do you crave an inspired life? You can make choices that will produce the results you seek.

“99 Everything we do matters. Our lives are sacred. There are no small players. There are no small tasks.”

John O’Leary

The path to a positive outcome for your life is not a lonesome road. You need a tribe, a community, a family that will provide the support system you need to bring transformation to your life.

This summary emphasizes the 7 choices that can ignite you to move in the direction of a radically inspired life. These choices are:

• A choice to live rather than avoiding death
• A choice to come out of hiding to experience life’s miracle
• A choice to explore the potential in you and jettison indifference
• A choice to ask the right questions the right way
• A choice to be courageous and step out of your comfort zoneA choice to live a love-motivated life and shun fear

Let’s explore each of these choices to see what they can bring into your life. For O’Leary, these choices led to a radically inspired life that includes a wife, 4 children, and a multi-platform company, “Live Inspired.”