Learn about progress at my library of online book summaries
Save time by "reading" five books in one hour!
Learn the teachings of previous generations
I believe that the single best way for people to understand human material progress is to learn the teachings of previous generations. To do that, there is no substitute for reading books.
Sure, blogs, Substack, YouTube, and journal articles are all great supplemental resources, but nothing compares to reading books. It is only in books where authors have the time to fully make their case.
When I tell people this, they invariably say that they do not have the time to read many books. I get it. Between work, family, daily chores, and other tasks, we all have very little free time. And reading books is very time-intensive.
Save time by reading book summaries
Conveniently, I stumbled upon a solution to this problem. A few years ago I created a website called the Ratchet of Technology. It is a library of 280+ online summaries of great books on the topics of history, technology, economic growth, progress, and many more.
It started off as a little side project, but it keeps growing. While I was doing research for my first book, From Poverty to Progress, I read hundreds of books and articles. Since this research project took many years, I quickly realized that I needed to take serious notes about each book so that I would not forget their main points. As I got deeper into the project, I found it very useful to read through my notes every 6 months or so to refresh my memory.
When I stopped doing research and was ready to start writing, I realized that I had about 1000 pages of notes. It occurred to me that these summaries might be useful for other people. I started posting a few on my website, just to see if anyone was interested. To my surprise, people were interested, and traffic really started to take off.
Each book summary contains:
my review ratings
the book cover
a link to Amazon
a brief list of the main takeaways from the book
The bulk of the summary consists of direct quotes from the book that capture what the author is trying to say.
So in 5-10 minutes time, you can acquire the knowledge that would otherwise take days of reading. I cannot think of another more time-efficient method of learning the topic of progress.
Where should I start?
If you are just starting out, I would recommend going to the Learning Paths page. It arranges all the book summaries by topic. It also includes a recommended order for reading the summaries.
You can choose any topic you like, but I would recommend reading them in the order displayed on the main page. It generally goes from more general and “deep” history to more current and specific.
Here is a list of available Learning Paths on my website:
Once you have completed all the Foundational Learning Paths listed above, you can go through the following additional Learning Paths in any order.
So please check it out.
And remember that the authors worked hard writing their books and deserve to be compensated financially. If you enjoy a summary, please buy the book. And in case you are wondering, authors seem to love the free advertising.
Happy reading!
It was your book summaries which initially drew me to your writing. My reading list overlaps heavily with yours (and I write summaries of them too), but I even find I benefit from reading your summaries on the ones I have read multiple times (such as the amazing Origin of Wealth pictured above).
I bookmarked your site a few weeks ago. I haven't read through it yet, but I intend to. I have a massive backlog of books and articles I want to read. It's crazy.