Interesting Places

For your viewing pleasure, please find enclosed some of my favourite articles, books, websites and people. Enjoy!

Living & Thinking Well

Brain Pickings—“A one-woman labor of love — a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why.”
School of Life—“The School of Life is a global organisation dedicated to developing emotional intelligence. We apply psychology, philosophy, and culture to everyday life.” See also, the Book of Life and their wonderful YouTube videos.
Wait but why?—hilarious, illustrated blog posts that tackle some of life’s bigger questions in down-to-Earth yet meaningful ways. Start with the Mammoth.
Farnham Street—“Devoted to helping you develop an understanding of how the world really works, make better decisions, and live a better life.”
Edge—“To arrive at the edge of the world’s knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.”
On Being—“We pursue deep thinking and social courage, moral imagination and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, and life together.”

Exercise is the magic pill—a great summary from the Harvard Magazine on the pervasive power of exercise, and our cultural reluctance to move on it.
Precision Nutrition—highly reputable, evidence-based nutrition and fitness information. Whether you’re unsure about cod liver oil supplmentation, the Paleo diet or periodised training just try Google’ing precision nutrition <topic> and they’ll likely have written about it. They also create a lot of great infographics, such as in their template to building the perfect meal.
For mobility, flexibility and strength work that’s fun and doesn’t require a gym, check out GMB.io. Their Elements program is a brilliant online course that I really enjoyed. They also have a lot of well-written articles.
Examine.com provides great research summaries on any supplement you can think of. They are starting to cover more general nutritional concepts as well. 18 Nutrition Myths That Won’t Die is a solid place to start.

The book that got me hooked on running was Born to Run. Even if you aren’t particularly interested in long-distance running, it’s an incredible story that’s hard to put down.
Before you really hurt yourself trying to run barefoot, read Can Barefoot Training Make You A Better Runner? Takeaway: it’s one tool, not a full-time thing.
My favourite book on running nutrition is Fast Fuel by Renee McGregor. The initial overview is simple and evidence-based, and the recipes are quick and delicious. The Runner’s Cookbook by Anita Bean is also worth checking out. The chickpea and nut burgers were delicious!

Show your Work! by Austin Kleon. A short book of excellent advice on getting your creative work out there, and particularly on sharing your creative process rather than just presenting your final product.
The Startup Playbook. A great high-level overview of what it takes to run a startup: idea, team, product, and execution. Make something users love.
RECONSIDER by David Heinemeier Hansson. Scathing critique of much of the accepted startup culture.
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Short and sweet book that dispenses with most of the conventional business and startup “wisdom.” Billed as a playbook for anyone wanting to build their own business, whether you’re an artist or an entrepreneur.
Getting Real by the same authors. A condensed, free PDF tailored specifically to building a web application. Hard-hitting and a great guide to refresh your thinking on what’s involved in launching a new product.
Sex and Startups. Fresh thinking from Jennifer Brandel and Mara Zepeda on the male-dominated startup and investment culture. See also the follow up: Zebras Fix What Unicorns Break.

What’s Your Favourite Way to Earn Money? A inspiring exploration by Steve Pavlina on opportunity blindness, and the vast number of options we have for making money and earning a living.
How to do what you love and make good money by Derek Sivers. A fresh look at how to balance work and art: “Don’t try to make your job your whole life. Don’t try to make your art your sole income.”

Derek Sivers—Minimalist, entrepreneur, tech-head, philosopher and writer. His website houses a huge collection of detailed notes for books he’s read. Goldmine! If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, or creativity in general, his book—Anything You Want—is fun, inspiring, and can be read in an afternoon.
Jordan Peterson. Controversial and animated author/orator with lots of interesting political and psychological perspectives. Instead of reading articles from people who think he’s either the saviour or the Antichrist, just go read his book: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. His YouTube lectures are also highly recommended.
Mr Money Moustache—excellent, entertaining advice on attaining financial independence, getting rid of shit you don’t need and retiring early.

Mindfulness in Plain English—this is usually what I recommend to people who are interested in Vipasanna, or insight meditation. A wonderfully written “nuts and bolts, step-by-step” meditation manual. You can read the original version online for free.
Seeing That Frees by Rob Burbea. The best guide on the realisation of emptiness. Comprehensive, progressive and easy to follow.
Magia—a rekindling of the Western wisdom tradition, set up by my friend Alan Chapman.

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Gray. A witty, honest, non-preachy reflection on drinking and the joy of dropping it. The reason I decided to take a Sober Spring.
Sober Punks—A sweary alcohol recovery blog written by a Yorkshireman.
Want to go down the rabbit hole? This article explores some of the lesser-known health risks of alcohol consumption, and reveals the layers of confusion that have been thrown over it by the alcohol industry: Did Drinking Give me Breast Cancer?

Mental Health Foundation: Stress. A great overview of what stress really means and solid set of lifestyle principles for reducing it.
Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks—having lived with high anxiety for several years, I can say that book is has been one of the most important resources in my recovery. I still regularly return to it when my anxiety flares up.

—Dan Bartlett
9 Sep 2019