Maybe you should be reading

Today, January 9th, I turn 28. Six years ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was brushing up against a kind of depression that was hard for me to understand, and I felt one of those voids that make you feel like you don’t have much of a place in this world.

It sounds harsh to say it, but I know I’m not the only one who has felt this way, or who feels this way today.

I studied a degree because I “had” to, and I nFever once asked myself if it was actually what I wanted.

I thought the path of life was to have a stable job and retire at 60.

What helped me break that inertia was one single thing: reading.

Developing a voracious, almost senseless curiosity to consume the ideas and reflections others had already had. And then passing them through my own filter. It was an almost psychedelic process. I dove into that journey, and when I look at it now through today’s eyes, I’m a different person. With a lot still left to do, almost everything, but with a different mindset.

Being able to consume what others thought long before us doesn’t just help us expand our minds beyond what our environment shows us; it also helps us understand that everyone (even Ulysses on his journey) feels fear and doubts the future. That removes a blindfold and shows us that what separates us from the great ones is not what we think, but what we do with what we think.

That’s why this year I want to return to the reading rhythm I had at the beginning of my journey. And I believe that for anyone standing on that same threshold, it can help to have a few guiding books that I consider essential and that everyone should read.

It doesn’t matter what you do or what you work on. The books I’m going to mention are not tactical, nor are they “how-to” guides. They are texts. Period. Some fiction, some not. But all of them, I believe, allow us to expand the limits of our minds and dive into that journey.

Atlas Shrugged

The first time I ever cried reading a book. It was the novel that made me see that the important people in the world are the ones who do, not the ones who watch others do.

It’s long (very long), and it can be intimidating to start if you’ve never read fiction before. But it pulls you in, and if you give it time, I promise it’s worth every page.

1984

The power of narrative. What is truth? Can someone escape a system where everyone thinks the same? Orwell is already a classic, and I’m not revealing anything new here. But it truly leaves you thinking.

Zero to One

Essential at a mindset level for thinking big and doing different things. I don’t agree with Peter Thiel on many points, and I don’t think this book is a playbook to apply. It’s more of a shake-up of how our perception of economic success is built.

Jobs

The life of the most important creative genius of the 21st century. Anyone who wants to mention some random person who did who-knows-what can save the comment. Pure gold. And it also gave me a taste for Bob Dylan.

Principles

Ray Dalio’s life manual. Integrity in life and at work. Applicable to everything you do.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

The most influential thinker of the digital era, condensed. I’d love a longer book by him, more extensive in its prose, but the 21st century is what it is.

A Valuable Life

Pain is human. Either we embrace it, or we suffer through our existence. I don’t think it’s available in English—I read it in my native language (Spanish)—but Man’s Search for Meaning can be an alternative to learn how to embrace pain and understand that between what we feel and what we do, right there, lies human freedom.

Norwegian Wood

Pure Japanese introspection. Murakami is hard to read, bordering on a low, depressive blow, but in my case it made me feel deeply identified with the character on a journey of self-discovery.

Meditations

They prostituted Stoicism. Today, Marcus Aurelius would kill half of those who claim to follow its principles. This is the only text truly worth reading.