I believe we’re all shaped by the sum of our many experiences. At the most influential level the biggest factors that shape us includes our families, where we were raised, and who we call our friends.
Among our environment and surroundings, I also believe a big aspect of what goes into developing our world-view is the content we consume.
The books we read.
The movies we watch.
The Facebook Videos and YouTube Videos.
The 60 second Instagram vids and IGTV. The snapchats, tweets and TikToks.
On this page I’ve arranged my favorite content. Some of these are from my favorite authors and thought leaders. Others are personal mentors and teachers of mine.
The medium of content ranges from books to digital courses, tweets to YouTube Videos.
At the core, I follow these individuals deeply because they all represent values and virtues I strive to work towards.I want to share what I’ve learned from these giants that I’ve had the privilege to stand upon.
This page is titled “Lindy Library” because of the Lindy Effect. It’s a term popularized by philosopher Nassim Taleb stating that how long something’s been around is a great indicator of how much longer it’ll last.
In other words timeless material tend to stay timeless. When reading material it pays dividends to revisit the classics. In this case, these are my classics. (Published: Oct 12, 2019, Updated: Mar 3, 2025)
1. (Health, Wealth, Love). One Simple Talk That Will Change Your Life by Tai Lopez. Core premise is best thing to optimize for in life is a Good Life which is made up of 3 major pillars: Health, Wealth, Love. Be mindful of those 3 and Happiness is a byproduct (Contentment, Fulfillment, Meaning, or Eudaemonia the Greeks called it) The inverse is we should be fearful of living a poorly lived life.
2. (Happiness, Fulfillment, Meaning) Your Life Journey by Ray Dalio (Added June 19, 2022)
3. (Perspective, Time) Life is Too Short for Bullshit by Paul Graham (Added July 16, 2022). This is an article that's made an imprint on me after revisiting it over the past several years. Lately I've been embracing it full-on. If there's any bullshit, I'll face it, I'll remove it, I'll challenge it. This forces me to live to a higher standard but life's short, 1 second of more bullshit in my life is 1 second too many.
4. (Love > Mental Models) The H Factor of Personality (Added March 3, 2025): What scientists call a Psychometric Assessment aka a Personality test going into depth about the HEXACO model. This assessment is rooted in science based off large test cohorts. I read this book around 2018 and there's not a week that I refer back to this model in day-to-day. From vetting talent for my agency where those with high trait Conscientiousness (C) are strong candidates for roles that require detail to attention/following systems versus Openness to Experience (O) that has sub-trait Creativity for roles like coming up with advertising concepts or video editors. To being more patient with friends and family knowing they have different temperaments and traits from me and understanding they love to get of the house being high in Extroversion (X) while I can be home for weeks no problem.
5. (Perspective) Ed Mylett Speech (Added June 28, 2022). I got the chance to see Ed Mylett talk back in 2018 and again in 2022. He always talks about how he believes the end of our lives we all meet our maker and we'll get to see who we could have been. That he's chasing that person everyday.
6. (Love, Happiness, Fulfillment, Meaning) Harvard study, almost 80 years old, has proved that embracing community helps us live longer, and be happier, Harvard Gazette
7. (Perspective / Philosophy / Time) "Timelapse of the Future: A Journey to the End of Time (4K)"
8. (Perspective) “One Life, No Regrets”, “6 Minutes for the Next 60 Years of Your Life”, by Gary Vee
9. (Perspective, Love) "I Will Be There" by Josephine Lee (Added March 3, 2025). It was only the past weekend I came across it again and maybe one of few times I got emotional from watching a speech on YouTube. Josephine talks about the bond of a friendship. How easy it is to lose that bond but also if we try, how that bond can be strengthened if nurtured. I talked to a friend and he said this was very intuitive for him, for me it needed much reminder. I've watched this maybe some half dozen times the past 5-6 years and reckon anything top 20 is worth a visit at least once a year.
10. (Perspective / Time / Life) “On The Shortness of Life” by Seneca
11. (Perspective / Life) The Fourth Turning: What past generations can teach us about our future by Tony Robbins & Neil Howe. "Hard times create strong people. Strong people create good times. Good times create weak people. Weak people create hard times". The first time I came across this saying it left a lasting impression. Archetypes and seasons of history, the volatility of life, the ups-and downs, it brings me peace how that's the natural order and equilibrium of life. What goes up must come down. But what goes down tends to have buoyancy to go up. (Added: July 8, 2022)
12. (Health > Longevity) Outlive by Peter Attia (Added: March 3, 2025). This is the 80/20 for me when it comes to Health if I had to pick a single source. Attia goes in depth over Exercise, Mental Wellness, Nutrition, Pharmacology (aka drugs) and Sleep. All in all, invaluable and very practical though admittedly at times dense yet convenient since Attia puts all his best stuff in a single place. I practice Zone 2 (steady state cardio for healthy mitochondria) and Zone 5 (higher intensity cardio) as a result and prioritize muscle building (for metabolic health) aiming for top 90th percentile since these have highest correlation with living healthy, longer.
13. (Longevity) What Causes Chronic Disease by Jeff Nobbs
14. (Longevity) How to Train for the “Centenarian Olympics”, "Exercising for Longevity" Peter Attia (Added June 19, 2022)
15. (Longevity) Peter Attia on Zone 2 and Zone 5 Training, Peter Attia (Added June 19, 2022). This resource is a good 80/20 of the subtopic of Cardiovascular health within Attia's broader topic of Exercise (1/5 pillars in his book: Outlive)
16. (Wealth > Productivity, Efficiency) “Productivity Advice For The Weird”, Ramit Sethi
17. (Wealth > Productivity) “These two men paid over $650,000 for lunch with Warren Buffett—here are 3 things they learned” by Warren Buffett
18. (Wealth) Finally Wealthy, Naval Ravikant Two profound lines.
19. (Wealth) “How To Get Rich Without Getting Lucky”, Periscope, by Naval
20. (Health > Mindset) “A Day With Firas Zahabi”, “Mental Toughness” with Firas Zahabi
21. (Artificial Intelligence, Shortness of Time) Wait But Why [Blog]
22. (Health > Happiness > Jiu-Jitsu, Self-Defense) “Intro to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Part 1 — The History” with Rener Gracie [YouTube]
23. (Health, Wealth) Sam Ovens [YouTube]
24. (Health > Mindset) “Don’t Live In Extremes” by a Monk
25. (Wealth) The Evolution of Trust. This is a game that teaches the concept of Game Theory. It's served me well when it comes to navigating social relationships from business to personal relationships. The key concept that's interesting here is that through iterated interactions, reciprocity with room for forgiveness leads to maximized outcome versus any other method of play (Choosing to always trust, always betray, copy cat). Added November 5, 2022. I first heard played this game in 2018 and was reminded on what an important framework this is when navigating the world)
26. (Wealth > Business): Profit First: Heuristic for value-capture of one's business by saving Profit immediately as revenue comes in before paying expenses. If there's not enough operating cash to support the business, it's a sign that something in the business needs to be changed. Very practical business finance advise that's been a helpful system that can be implemented over a weekend.
27. One Thing (Added: March 3, 2025) by Gary Keller. What do Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Confucious have in common? Focus. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet once were asked separately something along the lines of what's the #1 advice for a successful businsss. They both independently arrived at the word "Focus". Much like Confucious when he says "The man with two rabbits captures none".
28. 80/20 by Perry Marshal (Added: March 3, 2025). The fractal levels of the Pareto Principle was mind blowing to me the first time I read it in 2016. I'm due for a re-read, as humans it's counterintuitve to think in exponentials and we can easily underestimate the impact of our inputs. The opposite side of the same coin as The One Thing.
I'm always trying to learn unknown unknowns.
Have something that's not common knowledge or something that's so common people take it for granted?
Tweet me @kennykhoang.
