BOOKMARK: 'Flow' to 'Digital Minimalism', 5 books that influenced Amit Kumar Gupta

Reading widely is an important common denominator amongst successful investors. It's a fast way to acquire new information, think creatively, and diversify perspective. However, I always find books that I can read again more fascinating since, in all probability, I have found the practical implementation of learning through these books across the domains.

Here are the five books that have influenced me:

Using the past to explain the present, Mukherjee delved into the history of the disease to understand the ‘shape-shifting’ illness. Mukherjee wanted to know why a disease caused by the uncontrolled growth of a single cell was so difficult to battle. There is a sincere attempt to answer questions about the larger story and the questions – How old is cancer? What are its roots? Where are we in the ‘war’ on cancer? How did we get here? Is there an end? Can this war be won?

I must confess I watched the Netflix documentary on Minimalism by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus first. But partly stuck at home due to Covid and partly my increasing frustration of spending way too much time on social media – I eventually took to Digital minimalism at the start of January 2021. This book by Cal Newport was instrumental in making a concrete plan.

The key ideas of this book – how to use smartphones in a better way, scheduling more content online by spending less time, planning daily digital detox, social networking better in less time, etc., have helped me in optimising technology to maximise value while reducing the cost to your time and energy.

I don’t think I have taken it as well as I would have liked. But it has been a great start in 2021, which I hope to continue with better results in the next year.

We often mistake luck and randomness for skill and determinism. This is even more evident in the financial markets and in this thought-provoking book.  Always consider the possibility that your theories and assumptions may be proved wrong and examine how such a development would affect your portfolio. At the same time, the book delves deeper into how emotions can help us make decisions but also overwhelm our capacity for rational reasoning. I keep going back to it to reinforce the fact that whatever happened in the past is mostly useless for predicting the future.

The last of this book was published in 1994, but it contains Schiller's explanation and examples of Special Situations – an exciting field for value investors. For anyone who is looking to start investing in this field, I would say this is an essential starting point. The references may be old and some of them are not valid in today's Central bank-liquidity fuelled world, but it provides an easy reference to learn this facet of investing.

Providing a great antidote to our increasingly more frenetic and cluttered lives, 'Flow' teaches us to focus on our internal rewards to gain a sense of freedom, enjoyment, and satisfaction. It draws on ideas from ancient wisdom, philosophy, and modern psychology to explain what the state of flow is, and how we can attain it. I learnt how to fully immerse myself in my interests, appreciate surroundings, and focus on every moment in life.

'The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon' by Brad Stone

'That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea' by Marc Randolph

'Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build The Future' by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters

'The Smartest Guys In The Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron' by Bethany Mclean and Peter Elkind