Development Short

Death might seem to render pointless all our attempts to create a meaningful life. Doesn't meaning require transcending death through an afterlife or in some other way? On the contrary, Dean Rickles argues, life without death would be like playing tennis without a net. Only constraints—and death is the ultimate constraint—make our actions meaningful. In Life Is Short, Rickles explains why the finiteness and shortness of life is the essence of its meaning-and how this insight is the key to making the most of the time we do have.

Mornings are a madcap time for many of us. We wake up in a haze - often after hitting snooze a few times. Then we rush around to get ready and out the door so we can officially start the day. Before we know it, hours have slipped by without us accomplishing anything beyond downing a cup of coffee, dashing off a few emails, and dishing with our coworkers around the water cooler. By the time the workday wraps up, we're so exhausted and defeated that any motivation to accomplish something in the evening has vanished.

It's no secret that we're pushed to the limit. Today's professionals feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. How can we break out of the cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives that we all seek? Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives.

The process by which nations escape poverty and achieve economic and social progress has been the subject of extensive examination for hundreds of years. The notion of development itself has evolved from an original preoccupation with incomes and economic growth to a much broader understanding of development. In this Very Short Introduction, Ian Goldin considers the contributions that education, health, gender, equity, and other dimensions of human well-being make to development.

Tim Ferriss, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, shares the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure book - a compilation of tools, tactics, and habits from 130+ of the world's top performers. From iconic entrepreneurs to elite athletes, from artists to billionaire investors, their short profiles can help you answer life's most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform your life.

Do you want to master the art of communication, navigate social dynamics with ease, and express yourself with confidence? Reborn is your ultimate guide to improving your conversational skills, understanding human behavior, and sharpening your emotional intelligence through a collection of 101 thought-provoking short stories, essays, and insights. From decoding social cues to handling difficult conversations, this book covers it all.

Mary Moon explores the landscape of long-married life - the hidden hurts and disappointments that lead women to consider leaving, and the tender weight of shared history that prompts them to stay. In "Into the Light," a wife and mother finds the idea that she might legally choose the moment of her death comforting, but how will she balance the finality of that choice against the little joys and inevitable tragedies of living?

Do you keep procrastinating? Do you feel restless and unable to focus on your work? Do you have trouble getting excited about major goals? If so, you might need a dopamine detox. In today’s world where distractions are everywhere, the ability to focus has become more and more difficult to achieve. We are constantly being stimulated, feeling restless, often without knowing why.

Bolu Babalola takes the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology and rewrites them with incredible new detail and vivacity in her debut collection. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines iconic Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from countries that no longer exist in our world.

No one knows more about how to be creative than former Python and Fawlty Towers creator John Cleese. In this handy and often amusing guide he offers insights into his creative process and how you can come up with ideas, refine them and finally put them into action. Throughout, not only does he give immensely helpful practical advice, but he explains what is going on in our minds as look for inspiration or grapple to improve an idea. Learn at the feet of the master.

You are a multitude of stories. Every joy and heartbreak, every disappointment and dizzying high, has the makings of an unforgettable story. Whether your goal is to deliver the perfect wedding toast, give a moving eulogy, ace a job interview or simply connect more deeply to those around you, The Moth is here to help. In this book, the Moth team reveal the secrets of their time-honed process and use examples from beloved storytellers like Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Gilbert, Nikesh Shukla, Sarfraz Manzoor and more.

In The Good Ancestor, leading popular philosopher and best-selling author Roman Krznaric shows just how crucial long-term thinking is, not just for ordinary people but across political, economic, environmental and business worlds. From the personal to the political, Krznaric identifies the flaws of today’s short-term mindset. Drawing on ideas from a wide range of perspectives including neuroscience, cultural history, politics, economics, art and religion, he offers eight key approaches as a road map for the future of long-term thinking and planning.

In Chasing Failure, Ryan Leak shares the science behind why people are afraid to fail, mixing in real-life stories and adding practical steps to help us intentionally chase failure in order to embrace the opportunities that come with it. Everyone fails in life — but if you’re willing to learn, improve, and grow because of your failures, you are already on the road to success.

Can a short 18-minute conversation I overheard from a millionaire make you a fortune? It did for me. And it can do the same for you. Go back to 1996 and eavesdrop on the tense 18-minute argument I unwittingly heard. An altercation between two friends. One living a dream. The other faking it. Listen in on the powerful conversation that changed the trajectory of my life and ultimately made me a millionaire - many times over.

In 1999, Texas passed a landmark clean energy law, beginning a groundswell of new policies that promised to make the US a world leader in renewable energy. As Leah Stokes shows in Short Circuiting Policy, however, that policy did not lead to momentum in Texas, which failed to implement its solar laws or clean up its electricity system. Examining clean energy laws in Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and Ohio over 30 years Stokes argues that organized combat between advocate and opponent interest groups is central to explaining why states are not on track to address the climate crisis.

This book is a compilation of short stories and metaphors: mind-changing short stories and metaphors and about moving forward. They are available as separate publications, but have now been brought together in one book to offer greater value. The stories are set out alphabetically by their titles. Metaphors have long given insights into the difficulties of people and have shown the ways in which we can escape or improve.

You don’t need 100 rental properties for short-term rental success. Profitable Properties is about doing more with less. It’s about maximizing the ROI from each real estate investment. Written by a prior Airbnb employee, Superhost, guest of 2,000+ nights on Airbnb, and author of best-seller Optimize YOUR Bnb, Profitable Properties is an all-in-one guide for new and existing short-term rental owners and real estate investors. Other books talk about basics, but not Profitable Properties. Daniel Rusteen is intimately familiar with Airbnb and teaches you the details you need to optimize.

This cheering book of best loved short tales, extracts and poems will calm and restore an anxious mind before sleep. A good night's sleep is essential for our well-being and our health, but in our busy lives sleep is often poor and overlooked. Now is the time to stop a while and find consolation and wonder in other worlds where all is well and sleep just a minute or two away.

From the battlefield to everyday life, Corri covers it all in his book filled with poems. The poet, Corri Jermain Irving, allows us to see the world from a perspective that's his. Through powerful words and vivid imagination, Corri delves deep into the daily bits of life in the form of poetry. A unique perspective into different themes of life.

Diagnosed as severely autistic at the age of three, Tito, nearly nonverbal, was brought up by his loving mother Soma, who taught him to read English and challenged him to write his own stories. The initial result was The Mind Tree, published in 2003, which Tito wrote between the ages of eight and 11. The Gold of the Sunbeams is an equally impressive, beautiful collection of stories, each prefaced by a charming note from Tito explaining how the story came into being.