These 8 Books Shaped My Worldview This Year

My Favorite Books Of 2024

This year has been a weird one. I experienced many new issues that I had never experienced before. Maybe that’s what growing is, and I will probably still have many of them in the future.

For someone like me who doesn’t understand anything about the world, books were the only thing that gave me some direction on what to do and how to do it.

I had read many books on different topics, some of them were useful, some of them not as much. But these 8 books were without a doubt my favorite books of this year. All of them taught me something really important and got me obsessed with them.

So today I want to share these amazing books, and hopefully you can enjoy them as well, or if you already read them, maybe we can discuss them, or whatever.

Well, let’s begin.

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck - Mark Manson

Mark Manson became quickly one of my role models after this book, and for me what he says here is so real and, like he says, counterintuitive.

Mark explains how we can’t avoid problems in our life (and that trying to will be problematic), so we should accept that fact, be okay with it, and most importantly, choose wisely what problems we want to wrestle with.

We have both limited attention and limited time in life, so we can’t care about everything. We can neither care about anything, that’s being a sociopath, and that’s not cool. Instead, we need to be selective with the things that we want to give a fuck about.

Also Mark talks about values, and I think that’s really important. What values will shape our actions? What will we put first? Is having a fancy car? Being always happy? Making everybody feel good? Or we will choose things like honesty, bravery or never changing our core to be liked?

This book was so good that I read it again just after finished it.

The Art Of Learning - Josh Waitzkin

I got to know this book because it was mentioned multiple times on BJJ Mental Models (great podcast about BJJ by the way, you should go and listen to it). Listening to guys like Jozef Chen talking about how good this book is made me curious so I had to read it, and it was worth it.

Josh isn’t a master of Chess or a master of Tai Chi, he is a master of learning, which, curiously, makes him a master in whatever he wants to be. In this case, Chess and Tai Chi.

He tells his story which in my opinion was way more valuable than just telling what he learned over the years. And the lessons that he shares are great.

He teaches a lot of stuff about focus, awareness, accepting failure, creativity and more. I’ll have to read it again soon because there is so much to learn from Josh.

By the way, for the Jiu-Jitsu guys, Josh is a black belt under Marcelo Garcia, so he’s legit.

Discipline is Destiny - Ryan Holiday

I like stoicism, but I’m still a beginner at it, so this type of book helps a lot.

Ryan in this book teaches the importance of discipline as one of the main four stoic values (the other three are bravery, justice and wisdom) and how it looks, what problems can one face and how to overcome them with the stories of some historical figures that used discipline in the past to do good.

My favorite part without a doubt was the one about Antonino Pio and Marcus Aurelius. It may sound silly, but I remember crying in that part. I don’t know, that story just seemed beautiful to me.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I have good memories of being in my room alone reading it on my phone (I would loved reading it physically). I absolutely recommend it.

Nexus - Yuval Noah Harari

I think is time to address the big elephant in the room…

This is the only book on this list that was actually realized this year. I had read two of Yuval’s books in the past (Sapiens and Homo Deus, which are my favorite books, especially Homo Deus, I actually have a curious story about it that I maybe tell in the future). So when I realized that Yuval had a new book I really wanted it.

My mother bought it as a surprise and I can remember how happy I was. And I don’t know why because reading these books makes me feel everything but joy.

In this book, Yuval explains all the information networks that have existed in the history of humanity. From tales and stories to sacred books and ending in IA and social media.

He also dedicates a good time to explaining how the problems that we have experienced in the past can help us predict some of the problems that are waiting for us in the future like the end of democracy, general loss of fulfillment, wars and more.

I believe that these books are really important because we, as the generation that will have to deal with the problems of IA, need to understand what can go wrong and do our best to avoid it. We should pressure the government and companies to apply better security measures to the new technology before it becomes a disaster, and unfortunately, it has already been in some parts of the world like Iran or Myanmar.

Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker

How ironic it is the fact that a book about the importance of sleep got me late at night reading it? It is even more ironic when you know that Matthew says in his book that he doesn’t mind if someone falls asleep reading his book. Sorry Matthew, I did the opposite.

This book was incredible, I can’t describe the joy that I had reading it. I already knew how important sleep was, but this book changed completely my perception of it. It passed from being something good for recovery and mental health that I should take care of to being an elemental element of my life, just as important as eating.

The part about the REM sleep and dreams was my favorite, I remember that at times I had a lot of really vivid dreams. So reading about it felt crazy.

But sleep isn’t just a personal habit, it affects all the world and is a problem in modern Western society. A big one actually, a lot of the car accidents could have been avoided if people slept more and better.

Matthew tries to give a solution to this at the end of the book, and it will be amazing if in the future the governments take that framework and try to implement it into their countries.

Also as a big fan of Homo Deus and Yuval in general, this book connects in some weird way with it. Yuval tells that the Homo Sapiens became what it is because of his social skills, and Matthew argues that we developed those because at some point in history we changed how we slept. And, honestly, it makes sense to me.

Great book, sleep is king, read it.

How We Learn To Move - Rob Gray

Here comes my nerd side, and what’s a better way to bring it than Ecological Dynamics?

This book is probably the most concise one about the framework, and it has to be because it intends to be an introduction to all the information that is out there. I have a lot to learn about Ecological Dynamics still, but this book has helped me a ton to understand some key factors.

The Degrees Of Freedom Problem by Nikolai Berstein gave me the main takeaway from this book: we can’t replicate the same move twice. This means that we shouldn’t try to do repetition of the same movement to get the same outcome. Instead, we do “repetition without repetition” which means that we do different movements that get us to the same outcome.

But there’s more in this book. Gray takes a good amount of time explaining the importance of variability and how to play with it depending on your objectives. He also talks about the Constraints-Led Approach and Differential Learning as methods of training that apply this framework.

If you are tired of the old way to learn skills, this book is for you.

The Freedom Model - Steven Slate, Mark Scheeren, Michelle Dunbar

Alright, this may be a hard one.

What if someone tells you that everything that our society tells us about substance use, “abusive behavior” and “addiction” is not only wrong, but that is causing more damage than the substances themselves?

What if someone tells you that addiction is a myth created by the “recovery society” and that having an “addict self-image” is what is keeping you hopeless regarding your substance use?

What if someone tells you that moderation is possible? That any type of substance use level is okay as long as you are happy with it?

That you don’t need recovery, meetings, a partner that keeps you accountable or a plan for abstinence? The only thing you need is to change your view regarding substance use, and if you want to quit, you’ll quit without effort.

It may sound hard to believe, and that’s why I won’t try to convince you. Read this book and make your own conclusions.

Everything is F*cked - Mark Manson

I started this with a Mark Manson book, and I’ll finish it with a Mark Manson Book.

Something that I didn’t mention in his other book is that Mark’s style of writing is really cool to me and it inspires me to a certain degree (but then I realized that I was just swearing a lot).

But about the book itself, what can I say? A book about hope that explains how humans act. We don’t act because of facts, but rather because of feelings. Facts can only try to convince our feelings, but more often than not they fail miserably.

Also, it explains how we can confront the “uncomfortable truth” which is that all of us will die and little or nothing that we do will even matter at all. This truth makes people fall into nihilism and makes them feel hopeless. Basically, we confront the uncomfortable truth when we lose hope.

Mark gives a solution to this in his book, but I believe that you should read it yourself.

Special Mention: The Daily Stoic Journal - Ryan Holiday

This is not a normal book that you read and then you finish it. It can be done that way, but is not supposed to be.

This book is really important to me. I carry it any way I go, including BJJ competitions, trips and everywhere basically. I used to carry it to school as well.

I found it in a library with a friend (actually he found it knowing how of a bitch I am with stoicism) and after realizing the type of book that it was I wanted to have it. Again, my mother gave it to me as a gift (thanks Mom) and since then it’s always been with me.

Every day it gives me a reflection from one of the main stoic figures like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca and more.

It has helped me a lot with all the problems that I have to wrestle with every day.

And it will help me for the rest of my life because that’s what’s great about the format of this book, that every day of every year you’ll have some stoic wisdom to stop and reflect about.

The End

I love reading, and next year I’ll read way more books than this year, and at the end I’ll make another list.

For me reading is more than wisdom, is almost a spiritual practice, and I’m not religious.

I can find peace in books, and hopefully you can as well (except in Yuval’s books, there’s everything but peace there).

Anyway, have a great day!