⏪ January 2026

This week was brought to you by UNHINGED HABITS: A Counterintuitive Guide for Humans to Have More by Doing Less.

If you liked Atomic Habits or Essentialism, you’ll love this book. Same lane, but a contrarian spin with more focus on the deeper values of relationships, health, and purpose.

Keep reading for a few of our takeaways from Jon’s book… in addition to the other books and ideas we featured this year.

Here’s your January 2026 recap:

The 2025 movie One Battle After Another grossed $205.2 million and is nominated for several awards.

Did you know the film was inspired by a book published 35 years ago?

Thomas Pynchon's novel, Vineland, is a political satire set in California in 1984 that explores the legacy of the 1960s counterculture movement and its clash with the Reagan-era government.

Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) loved Pynchon’s novel for…

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”

This quote is often credited to Stephen Hawking, but best documented earlier by historian Daniel J. Boorstin, with both wording and attribution drifting over time.

The irony is hard to miss: it’s a warning against false certainty, repeated with false certainty—and that same reflex is how people end up buying the snake oil of their time.

What leads to an illusion of knowledge?

A 2024 study revealed that formal education didn’t meaningfully improve people’s ability to tell true from false—analytical thinking did.

Translation: Misinformation doesn't fool “dumb people”. It fools busy people. Confident people. People who don’t pause.

In Foolproof, Cambridge psychologist Sander van der Linden explains why—and what actually helps separate signal from noise.

Why do you click with some people instantly, and feel out of tune with others?

In Why We Click, journalist Kate Murphy unpacks that question, using stories and emerging science to explain how human connection actually works.

Here’s a short excerpt from the book — read more below 👇

“‘Eye fucking is real,’ said Dick DeGuerin, a trial lawyer who is known for successfully arguing what would seem unwinnable cases, including the acquittal of . . . an infamous beheading case. Ever the gentleman, DeGuerin begged pardon for the earthy language but said ‘eye fucking’ was when two people lock eyes in a way that . . .”
_{—Kate Murphy, Why We Click}

Is your calendar packed, but feel like you're missing what matters?

In Unhinged Habits, Jonathan Goodman pushes back against slow and incremental progress in the pursuit of some faceless, better future.

The central concept of the book is what Goodman calls the 8:4 approach.

Another big idea is the Work-Worth-Doing Test: Four questions to ask before you delegate something (because some work is worth doing because it’s hard).

• Will this help build meaningful relationships?

• Will this teach me something valuable?

• Will being able to say “I did it” bring genuine satisfaction?

• Will this create memories to pass down?