I’m happy to share with you a book that really caught my attention based on another book that I had read, which is The Notebook by Roland Allen. This book, A Time of Gifts, is a travel diary that follows Patrick Leigh Fermor as he journeys from the Hook of Holland, landing in Rotterdam from the UK, all the way to Constantinople, or Istanbul as it’s now known.

There are lots of historical tidbits and really interesting pieces throughout the book, making it a must-read for anyone interested in travel diaries and logs, especially since Fermor undertook this trip on foot. He aimed to immerse himself with the local people, but as he traveled, he met various individuals through recommendations and ended up staying in castles, upper class apartments, going to parties, as well as crashing in the occasional barn (or outside). It’s really an amazing story, though I have a few small bones to pick with it as a reader.

Also, if you’d rather watch the book review, you can check it out here:

Overall, it’s a fantastic story worth diving into. This review covers more than just A Time of Gifts, as I’ve also read the second part, Between the Woods and the Water, and there’s an unfinished third part that was published years later. I may not finish that trilogy, which I’ll explain shortly, but it is available for anyone interested.

Fermor is well-known for his writing and his experiences during World War II, which he also discusses in the book. He set out on this journey around 1933, a pivotal time in Europe, especially in light of the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. He captures how various people perceive these changes as he travels east.

To give an overview of the books, the first part covers his journey from the Hook of Holland to the middle of the Danube, titled A Time of Gifts. The second part continues to the Iron Gates, Between the Woods and the Water, which borders modern-day Serbia and Romania. The third part, which is based on an unfinished manuscript, takes him to Istanbul.

In 2011, his publisher announced the release of the final volume, which was drawn from his diary and an early draft he had written in the 1960s. While I haven’t read much of the third part yet, I want to share my thoughts on the earlier works.

One of the best aspects of the book is Fermor’s interactions with others and his descriptions of these moments. He captures the essence of the people he meets, from commoners to the high-status individuals he encounters. However, I found the language to be quite challenging at times, likely due to the nearly ninety years since the events took place.

Fermor also mentions carrying a dictionary with him, which he frequently consulted while writing down his experiences. Personally, I find this detracts from the narrative flow. I’d prefer a more straightforward approach to his storytelling. While some descriptions are incredibly vivid, they can also feel overly verbose or flowery. For instance, taking four or five pages to describe a small area can slow down the narrative significantly.

It’s a highly subjective experience, and while I appreciate the intricacies of his prose, I often wanted to move through those sections more quickly to engage with the more dynamic interactions he had with people.

Despite these critiques, reading Fermor’s travel diaries has been a fun learning experience for me. It encourages me to keep better notes during my own travels, whether in digital format or in journals. Looking back at those notes, even years later, provides a fascinating window into the past.

Overall, I found Fermor’s work to be overly verbose at times, but still worth reading for the depth of his descriptions and experiences. It offers a fascinating glimpse into different cultures and countries during a time long before my own. If you’re interested in travel and history, I highly recommend checking these books out.

Introduction

The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian dives into one of the most critical questions surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) today: How do we ensure that AI systems align with human values? This book explores the history, challenges, and future implications of AI development, specifically focusing on machine learning and the ethical considerations that come with it. If you’re curious about AI and its potential risks but don’t have a technical background, this book is a great place to start.

Overview and Key Themes

Brian Christian is known for writing about the intersection of computer science and human values, and The Alignment Problem is his latest work. The book tackles three main ideas:

• Machine learning and human values: How AI systems are being taught and how we can ensure they reflect our values.
• Historical context: A detailed history of AI development, including early challenges like bias and misaligned objectives.
• Current and future research: The risks and research around training AI, particularly with respect to imitation and reward systems.

Christian uses his technical expertise to explain these complex topics in an accessible way, making it ideal for non-experts interested in the subject.

Book Breakdown

While I won’t go into each chapter, here’s a basic overview of the key sections:

1. Historical Background and Early Bias

The book starts by exploring the early days of machine learning and some of the bias issues that arose. Christian does an excellent job explaining how systems can go wrong when developers don’t fully understand the data being used or the underlying algorithms. This theme of bias is a central concern throughout the book, as the author demonstrates how unintentional biases in AI can have far-reaching consequences.

2. Psychology and AI Interaction

Next, Christian explores the interaction between psychology and AI. He discusses how early psychological research helped shape machine learning, especially in understanding how rewards and incentives work in both humans and machines. This section highlights unexpected problems that came from these interactions, offering insights into both human and machine behavior.

3. Training Through Imitation

In the latter part of the book, Christian focuses on how AI systems are being trained through imitation, which brings both opportunities and risks. He looks into current research, explaining how AI systems attempt to mimic human behavior, and examines where this could lead us in the future, particularly in high-stakes environments like healthcare or criminal justice.

Key Takeaways

1. Bias is Inevitable but Controllable

Christian makes it clear that bias is a significant issue in machine learning. What data you use to train a model can skew its output in unintended ways. For instance, biases based on race, language, or religion can be baked into algorithms, leading to flawed outcomes. Understanding and addressing these biases is a key part of aligning AI with human values.

2. The Importance of Context

The book stresses that the context in which AI operates matters greatly. Christian illustrates this with an example: Generating a text using ChatGPT might seem low-risk, but using similar algorithms to make life-altering decisions, such as determining prison sentences, is a completely different scenario. When stakes are high, the need to deeply understand how AI systems function becomes much more important.

3. Understanding Humans to Train AI

A recurring theme in The Alignment Problem is the need to better understand human psychology to effectively train AI. Christian suggests that our inability to fully comprehend our own cognitive processes may be one of the biggest challenges in creating truly aligned AI systems. If we don’t understand how we think and make decisions, how can we expect to train machines to do so?

Who Should Read This Book?

• AI Enthusiasts and Users: If you’re using AI tools like ChatGPT or are curious about how they work, this book offers an excellent non-technical explanation of the science behind AI.
• Professionals in AI Safety: Those interested in the ethical and safety concerns of AI will find Christian’s exploration of bias, training, and risk mitigation particularly useful.
• History and Tech Lovers: The historical overview of AI development is fascinating for those who want to understand where this technology started and where it’s headed.

Final Thoughts

The Alignment Problem is an engaging, well-researched, and thoughtful exploration of the challenges we face as AI becomes more integrated into our lives. Whether you’re deeply involved in AI or just a curious observer, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible look into how we can ensure that the machines we build reflect the values we hold dear.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding the impact of AI on society and where it might lead us next.

Looking For More Book Summaries?

Besides checking out all of my book summaries, I highly recommend ShortForm. It’s a service that I’ve used for years and helps me quickly get an overview of a book, helps me decide whether to read it in full, and gives me thoughtful insights as well. Check it out!

Title: Doing Content Right

Author: Steph Smith

Doing Content Right is a guide for writers wanting to be successful writing to an online readership. Both new and experienced writers can take something away from the book as it covers all areas needed to be successful, and as the author notes, this isn’t always just about writing.

Here’s a breakdown from the author: The Internet has created an age of infinite leverage. But with easy access comes competition. So how do you build a successful blog in a world where millions of other people are trying to do the same thing? This resource has the answers.

• 270 page book that comes in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI (Kindle) formats
• Recorded lessons to digest your knowledge
• 22 printable exercises to cement your knowledge
• A community of 500 creators to help you execute
• 25-question quiz to test your knowledge
• A bonus audio section

I really liked how Steph talked about the importance of balancing creation with promotion. As she says, “People think that if it’s good, “they” will come. Quite the opposite—without intentional distribution, the content ends up sitting there, just taking up memory online.”

Another area that is important, especially to newer content creators is to differentiate yourself. It’s easy to create online these days which is great, but that’s means there’s more people than ever doing it…you have to stand out and not only rise above the noise, but aim for the very top:

…you need to be in the top 5%. – If you’re below this threshold, you no longer get the benefit of the Internet’s infinite leverage, because even 0 x14B eyeballs is still 0. Once you have earned the right for people to care about you, you have outsized gains because that right extends to people all over the globe. It’s like having the superpower.

Steph also emphasized quality over quantity while aiming for consistency and gives some direction on how to do this – I think it’s important to be consistent while realizing every piece you publish isn’t going to be a smash hit, especially if you’re newer to it or new to the area you’re writing about…but you need to publish in order to find your voice and audience!

As I just mentioned above, there’s directions on how to take action in each area. Steph includes exercises at the end of each section to help work through the book and come up with implementable take aways. I skipped around and did the ones that I thought would be useful and found them to be very helpful.

One note about these – I was reading on my Kindle and had to switch to my computer to grab some exercises, it might be better to read through the book on an iPad or laptop if you’re going to be doing a lot of these exercises.

Steph goes into detail on SEO basics for a writer, and as anyone familiar with SEO knows it’s tough for recommendations and content to stay up to date after more than a couple of years. I would urge anyone new to publishing online to certainly read through the SEO sections but to then seek out a recent guide from content-centric SEO for more up to date tool recommendations and best practices. I don’t have any big issues with this section, it’s just tough to be totally current when the book was published about 4 years ago.

I’m glad I took the time to read through Steph’s book and had many takeaways that I think will help me improve not only my writing, but my processes and outlook.

I would recommend Doing Content Right to anyone who is regularly writing online and wants to see an improvement in results in terms of readership, engagement, and conversions. Also, anyone new to publishing online will find this to be a goldmine of information, especially with the exercises included.

I just wrapped up reading Exactly What To Say by Phil M Jones – this was a great short read that gave me some wonderful ideas on how to better use concise language to get better results more quickly.

Which means what exactly?

Well, the book is laid out into short chapters focusing on the “magic words” that you can use to get the outcome you’re looking for more quickly.

For example, future pacing is addressed where you ask the question, “how would you feel if…” and fill in the blanks with whatever fits for your discussion. For this example, maybe it would be “how would you feel if you had a short, to the point, phrase for every conversation in your life that helped you reach decisions with others more quickly?”

Well, now you’re thinking about it and creating a better mental image or feeling that is more “customized” to you than anything I could every guess at!

Each chapter has the reasoning behind using the phrase and then goes into actual examples so that you can see how (and sometimes when) to use it in case you aren’t familiar or certain.

This was a great short read that should provide both short term and long term ROI. Helping people make decisions and move conversations forward is a powerful tool.

If you’re interested in reading the book, check it out here.

You can find the audiobook here.

Win Bigly, by Scott Adams, was an interesting read from my POV – it sets a lot of powerful persuasion techniques forward in the context of the 2016 US Presidential campaigns.

Regardless of whether you want to know more about the campaigns or are tired of thinking about it (or living the results) there’s something for both sides. The campaign and election is used as the background of Win Bigly to weave the story and deliver some great details and higher level concepts dealing with persuasion, how to use it, how to “detect” it, and specific ways you can use these same ideas.

I’ll admit it – this is a book that I will need to reread a time or two so that I can really soak in all of the lessons. Luckily, Scott Adams made it fairly easy to grab the details by very logically organizing the book while still using powerful storytelling. He lays out the terms and ideas needed at the beginning in an easy to read manner and gets going quickly from there.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for insights into the election or how to use high grade persuasion techniques in their personal or professional life – check out the video for more details and use that to decide if this book is the right one for you.

Grab Win Bigly on Amazon Here

Get Win Bigly on Audible (audiobook) Here

On the recommendation of a copywriter friend (Adam Bensman at Brain Hickey – check him out!) I read Building A Story Brand while on the road a few weeks ago.

The book is an easy to read framework for realizing how to position your business or brand as a story that your customers want to be a part of. This is different than telling your customers a story about yourself or just making something up – you’re given the framework to tell the story (on your website, in your copy) about why your customers need your business.

The step by step layout is great and goes through the arc of a story that you need to then insert yourself and your customers into in order to create this story that builds brands and loyal customers that are drawn to you.

It reminded me of Russell Brunson and all of the stories he tells. Do you know why he tells so many stories to get his points across? It’s because we as humans are wired to be more receptive to stories and find them much more interesting than logic, even when the same ideas are being communicated…and they can be highly persuasive.

But, back to the book.

It’s a great read that is very actionable and gives you the framework to start defining your brand in a manner that will ultimately help draw the customers you want closer. Definitely worth the few hours to read it.

And there’s an added bonus – the last section deals with putting the story into practice on your website and in your company culture. Good stuff!

You can grab your copy of the book here: https://adammoody.org/storybrand

Or get the Audible version here: https://adammoody.org/storybrand-audible

The good news – this is a really easy recommendation. If you know you need or want to create more content, with higher quality, and better processes, stop what you’re doing and grab this book. It will help you – that’s the bottom line!

Of course, if you’re like me you might want to find out more – in that case, just watch the video above for the full Story Engine book review.

It’s a great short and to the point read that you can easily get through in less than a week (and I’m sure many people could tackle it in 1 or 2 readings). That isn’t a bad thing, it’s got a lot of value and not a ton of fluff.

If you’re ready to grab your copy, you can get it at Amazon via this link: https://adammoody.org/thestoryengine

As mentioned, there’s a lot of resources available for free with this book – you can get your hands on the PDF’s, spreadsheets, and more to take your content marketing game up a few notches.

The only people that I would not recommend this book to are the ones who are VERY new to content marketing or just getting started with writing online.

This book assumes some knowledge of the area and is really meant for the business or blog owner that wants to create and utilize better processes for some real world content marketing results.

If you liked The Story Engine book review leave me a comment or click on the YouTube embed and leave a comment there.

James Shramko starts off his book with a great metric that we should all consider: Effective Hourly Rate, or “EHR”. If nothing else, you should take away from this Work Less, Make More review that regularly reviewing and estimating your EHR and then taking steps to increase it can be hugely beneficial.If you’ve watched the summary video above and want to grab your own copy, you can get it here: https://adammoody.org/worklessmakemore

Now, for those of you that have been running your own businesses for several years, this may seem on the simple side. However, I’ve personally found time and time again that simple is good – right?

This EHR metric is something that I’m going to put into my toolbox and evaluate quarterly. It’s a great way to see how effective you are, and it can apply at all scales (business, project, tasks, etc).

What I liked about the layout of this book was the remaining chapters of the book that James uses to give actionable advice on how to increase your EHR.

For example, one of the first areas you can (and should) work on is your effectiveness or productivity. Start monitoring your time, what areas are producing a return, and how you can minimize the bad, and expand the good. Just taking time each week or even month to look at this and make positive moves can have an enormous effect.

In the book, he then goes beyond this and into many different areas such as building a team, creating systems and processes to grow, and something that I personally found to be a great idea – “the infinity project”.

What’s that?

It’s a project, or projects that you can have  your team work on when there is down time. Once you have a team there’s certainly going to be hours or parts of days where they might be between projects or waiting – don’t let that go to waste, have them engaged in a long term project that highlights their strengths.

I highly recommend Work Less, Make More for a quick but engaging read that will give just about anyone some good ideas and strategies that they can put to use immediately.

This review and breakdown of the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz was born out of necessity. While my businesses are profitable, we haven’t had a system that guides us to more complex financial decisions. Sound familiar?

Check out the video review for more details, but the idea behind this book is that profit CAN be planned for. More than that, it should be planned for and we should stop thinking in the Revenue – Expenses = Profit mindset.

However, it goes further and defines the framework by which you can accomplish this – which I certainly appreciate as there is no shortage of books that have goals and ambitions but not as much actionable content.

However, Profit First has a lot for you to do! I suggest giving the 200 or so pages a quick read through for the main ideas, which are:

• Focus on profit
• Set up a system that uses multiple accounts, removes temptation, and enforces rhythm
• Complete an instant assessment (free)
• Set targets based on assessment and move towards them

On top of these main ideas, the book delivers the steps needed to move towards your Targets from your Current state.

Who would this book be good for? If you own your own business, freelance, or are otherwise in charge of the financial well being of yourself, then it’s worth checking out.

You’ll have work to do – there’s no free lunch, but this gives you the frame work to increase profitability according to a set system.

As an added bonus the  book offers many insights into cost cutting and how to approach financial problem solving; reducing debt, increase utility of existing assets and more.

Grab your copy of Here or Get The Audiobook Here