Welcome to ReadtoSucceed. Where one idea can change everything.
In this issue:
- Jaws.
- The Most Life-Changing Books.
- I Built Tinder for Books.
- Why Lucky People Get Luckier.
- The chat that clears my head.
Let’s dive in!
1% Notes
Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic
Did you know the way you breathe shapes your face? I had no idea.
A while ago I wrote about Breath by James Nestor. The book Jaws goes one step further. I read it with great interest because at the time I was struggling with hay fever. My nose was always blocked, so I breathed through my mouth. And I snored.
After this book, I started wearing nasal strips at night. For a while I even used mouth tape. I don’t need either anymore. But it made me aware of how often I breathed through my mouth. Now I don’t.
Maybe it runs in the family. As a kid I had an overbite and got every kind of braces there was. Thankfully not the one with the big frame around your head. That one should be banned.
A few ideas that stood out for me:
- Our jaws are getting smaller. Modern soft food means we barely chew anymore.
- Crooked teeth used to be rare. Skulls from before the industrial age mostly show straight teeth and room for wisdom teeth.
- Mouth breathing changes how a child’s face and jaw grow. Let kids chew. Harder, less processed food helps their jaws grow.
- A small jaw leaves less room for your airway. That’s linked to snoring and poor sleep.
I see the same overbite in my youngest son. He breathes through his mouth too. So sometimes, when he’s asleep, I gently close his mouth. He has no idea.
Close your mouth. Your face will thank you.
Idea
The Most Life-Changing Books
Someone did something clever. They looked at thousands of book reviews and counted how often readers called a book “life-changing.”
The chart went viral. Over 1.4 million views.
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Top 10 most life-changing books
- Remembering Wholeness
- Autobiography of a Yogi
- The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity
- Your Erroneous Zones
- A New Earth ✓ read
- The Power of Your Subconscious Mind ✓ read
- Nonviolent Communication
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Man’s Search for Meaning ✓ read
- Rich Dad Poor Dad ✓ read
I’ve read four of them. And I can honestly say each one brought real, positive change into my life.
Number two, Autobiography of a Yogi, I started once but never finished. This chart is my sign to pick it up again.
A book won’t change your life. But one idea from the right book, at the right time, can.
New
I Built Tinder for Books
All this talk about life-changing books got me thinking.
I want more of them. More books that hit you at the right moment and stay with you for years.
So I built a tool to find them. With AI. In one day.
It’s like Tinder, but for books. You pick what you want more of in life. Love, money, calm, a better business. Then you swipe. Swipe right, and the next book is very similar. Swipe left, and it steers back. Save the ones that grab you.
Every swipe brings you closer to your next great book.
I use it myself. And I keep adding more and better books. The best ones out there, plus hidden gems almost nobody knows.
Honestly, I still can’t believe I built this in a day.
Remember my Notion book library? That took me so much longer. Building it, filling it in, improving it. All by hand. I wanted to make something really cool and valuable for you. I put so much work into it.
And that library gave me way more satisfaction than this new tool. Even though this one is on a whole different level.
That’s the power and the weakness of AI. The result is incredible. The satisfaction is smaller.
I had the same thing with music. Years ago I made beats in FruityLoops. Every note typed in by hand. When a beat was done, I could enjoy it for weeks. Now I make something ten times better with Suno in a few minutes.
But that doesn’t make this tool any less cool.
So check it out. Find a great new book to read. And hit reply to let me know what you think.
| Find my next book |
Watch
Why Lucky People Get Luckier
Are you lucky or unlucky?
Richard Wiseman asked hundreds of people that question. He’s a psychology professor in the UK and a former magician. He spent years studying one thing: what makes some people lucky?
His findings became the book The Luck Factor.
One of his tests was simple. He invited people for an interview. To get to the room, they had to walk down a corridor. On the floor lay a five or ten pound note.
People who called themselves lucky usually spotted it. People who called themselves unlucky walked right past it. And the interview? There was none. Once they reached the room, the test was already over.
Now imagine you’re one of the unlucky ones. You hear that others found free money, and you didn’t. What do you think?
“See? I never get lucky.”
In this talk with Ali Abdaal, Wiseman shares what lucky people do differently. They’re open to new chances. They trust their gut. They expect things to work out. And they bounce back fast.
My favorite story from the video. One lucky man broke his leg between two interviews. Wiseman asked if he still felt lucky. “You never know,” he said. “Last time I was in the hospital, I fell in love with a nurse. We’ve been happily married for 25 years.”
The tip I’m taking from it. Keep a luck diary. Every evening, write down one good thing that happened. You’ll start to see more of them.
Luck isn’t something you have. It’s something you notice.
Tiny Upgrade
Text Yourself
One of the most useful chats on my phone? The one with myself.
Everything I need later goes in there. A link to check. A product to look up. An idea that pops up while I’m walking. A screenshot I’ll need tomorrow.
No app to open. No list to manage. Just send it to me.
On Instagram I do the same. See a great video or reel? I send it to myself. Later, when I have time, I watch it with focus. Not in the middle of scrolling.
My wife and I took it one step further. We have a group chat just for things that don’t need an answer. Groceries. Something for the kids. A bill to pay. One of us drops it in, the other sees it when it suits them.
No pressure to reply. No important stuff buried between “what’s for dinner?” messages.
How to start: in WhatsApp, tap new chat and pick your own name at the top. That’s it.
Clear head. Nothing forgotten.
Reading list
What I’m Reading
Here’s what I’ve been reading lately:
- I started Protocols by Andrew Huberman. The book turns the science of sleep, stress, focus, and energy into simple daily tools you can start using right away.
- I’m still reading Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke. The book argues that a good decision can still have a bad result, and that we should stop judging our choices only by how they turn out.
- I finished Humankind by Rutger Bregman. The book argues that most people are deep down decent and that we’ve been told the opposite story for far too long.
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