Episode · How I Write · 2025-04-30
Books mentioned on This Research System Will Change How You Write — Johann Hari
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Writing Life
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard is a lyrical collection of essays offering reflections, advice, and philosophical insights on the creative struggles and discipline of writing.
Recommended“There's an analogy in an amazing book about writing that I really recommend called the writing life by Annie Dillard um where she uses analogy from from thorough.”
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Working
Working by Robert A.
Recommended“I mean, I literally use that question because I've read Robert Car's brilliant book, Working, where he talks about his methods, but that I recommend to people.”
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Stolen Focus
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari explores the modern crisis of diminishing attention spans and the various societal forces that degrade human focus.
Discussed“So, walk me through, let's talk about uh stolen focus. So, walk me through the different questions there and give me the question and the answer.”
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Strangers to Ourselves
Strangers to Ourselves by Timothy D.
Recommended“There's a fantastic book I recommend everyone read called Strangers to Ourselves by Timothy Wilson, a guy I interviewed and you should definitely talk to him.”
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The Map and the Territory
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq is a novel by the French author exploring themes of art, commerce, and human relations.
Recommended“By the way, people who want to think about that analogy more, there's an amazing novel by Michelle Wbeck, the French novelist called the map and the territory.”
Other mentions in this episode (8) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Own book Chasing the Scream
“So my first book, Chasing the Scream, yeah, we had a lot of addiction in my family.”
Own book Stolen Focus
“um with stolen focus my book about attention I wanted to understand why our attention was getting so much worse.”
Own book Lost Connections
“um with my book loss connections you know I was about to turn 40 every year that I've been alive depression and anxiety had increased in the US and Britain”
Own book Magic Pill
“and and with the magic pill book about the new weight loss drugs, I like I was like, well, wait a minute.”
Own book Chasing the Scream
“So let's think about um my my book about um addiction and the war on drugs, chasing the scream.”
Own book Lost Connections
“I remember someone who's a key part of my book lost connections an amazing woman called Nuria Changis um who began a protest movement that transformed Berlin”
Passing War and Peace
“So you can just get overwhelmed by, you know, I generally have like a a wardrobe full of transcripts like longer than War and Peace, right?”
Own book Lost Connections
“So, for example, I open my book Lost Connections with this moment.”