Book Review: Think Straight

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Think straight is all about training your mind to move from chaos to clarity and that is what the cover of the book represents! It is a very small but powerful book. I like to read books related to self-help and I have already read some books from the authors such as Robin Sharma, Paulo Coelho, and Mark Manson. I found that Darius has somewhat similar writing style to Mark. He does not try to be philosophical instead he tried to convey the message as much straight (short) as possible. No related stories just a description about how can we train our brain to think straight with his own or other philosopher's examples. One more interesting thing I found in the book is that there are lot of quotes from other people and brief explanation in the context of thinking straight. It won't take more than two hours to read it and I would highly recommend it to our readers who wants to improve their thinking.

Here are some of the highlights of the book:

• "The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it." - William James
• Just sit down, be one with your thoughts, observe them, and then, ignore them. That’s all there is to meditation.
• "Conquer yourself rather than the world." - René Descartes
• "There are no facts, only interpretations." - Friedrich Nietzsche
• Only think about things you can control. That automatically eliminates about 99% of your thoughts because there’s very little you control in life.
• It’s better to be aware of your thoughts and decide what you will ignore, and what you will give importance to.
• I like to avoid assumptions as much as I can. I prefer to look at facts and then draw conclusions. What if you can’t rely on facts? Well, sometimes you just can’t find facts, or you have to make a quick decision. In those (very rare) cases I prefer gut feeling. Whatever you do, never waste your thoughts on other people’s ill-informed opinions and guesses.
• "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." - Steve Jobs
• Achieving a goal never happens linearly. Most of us believe there’s a straight line from where you are to where you want to be.
• If everyone is doing one thing, that often means you shouldn’t.
• Thoughts should serve a useful purpose. If they don’t, they’re useless. That’s straight thinking.
• “We usually think of ourselves as sitting in the driver's seat, with ultimate control over the decisions we made and the direction our life takes; but, alas, this perception has more to do with our desires—with how we want to view ourselves-than with reality.” - Dan Ariely
• “The life of wisdom is a life of reason. It is important to learn how to think clearly. Clear thinking is not a haphazard enterprise. It requires proper training.” - Epictetus
• “If there is any instrument you must fall in love with and fetishize, it is the human brain—the most miraculous, awe-inspiring, information-processing tool devised in the known universe, with a complexity we can’t even begin to fathom, and with dimensional powers that far outstrip any piece of technology in sophistication and usefulness.” - Robert Greene
• “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” - Marcus Aurelius
• With practice, you can get better at controlling your thoughts, so you can decide what you think.
• “If you can change your mind, you can change your life.” - William James

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