What to Read Next: May 2, 2025
Issue #376, featuring a great new psychology book
Happy Friday readers!
Here is what’s on tap this week:
A review of Shigehiro Oishi’s Life in Three Dimensions
A book rec to learn a bit more about the papacy
5 Things: Links and Opinions
Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know that pyschology and self-improvement books rarely stick with me. To be quite honest, I almost always find the “insights” to simply be re-hashed ideas that have been shared countless times before. Shigehiro Oishi’s new book, Life in Three Dimensions, hit a bit different and I know I’m going to be thinking about its ideas for a long time to come.
Oishi argues that people have long followed two well-trod paths to living: they search for happiness or meaning (or both), and ultimately filter their life decisions through those two frameworks.
Oishi introduces a third concept called “psychological richness.” This basically means something that is simply really interesting. A new experience that challenged you, a vacation to a place that might not have been amazing but makes for a great story, a job or career that doesn’t necessarily make you happy but keeps you engaged and interested.
With the explainer in place, Oishi ultimately goes on to explain that a well-lived life can hinge on any of those three pillars: happiness, meaning, and psychological richness. All three is rare, two is better than one, and one is much better than none. Basically all of your decisions can be run through that filter once you’ve figured out what’s important to you.
Beyond that, there are also some great tips for adding that kind of richness to your life: be more spontaneous, travel off the beaten path, read a wide variety of books, choose what makes the better story over what feels easy or convenient, and much more.
Again, it’s rare for a self-help book to stay with me, for this one definitely will. Life in Three Dimensions is a quick but eye-opening read that can change the way you approach life on a big picture scale, but also when it comes to day-to-day decision making. I highly recommend it.
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In the News: RIP Pope Francis
This section offers a book recommendation based on recent headlines, to help you make sense of the world with a bit more depth and context rather than just clickbait.
The Pope at War by David Kertzer
Kertzer, one of the foremost Vatican scholars and historians of our era, has written a few books that challenge the conventional wisdom about the role of the Catholic Church in the first half of the 20th century, particularly in regards to Fascist regimes in Italy and Germany. The point here is not to denigrate the Catholic Church, but rather to show that human nature has always played a big, often behind-the-scenes role in religious institutions.
Bonus #1: Conclave, the book and film, also highlighted the human story of the church in the midst of conclave — which we’ll all soon get to witness and follow.
Bonus #2: I’d like to read Pope Francis’s own books at some point. Have any of you read them?
5 Things: Links and Opinions
My backpack from Peak Design has been used hard for about a decade and shows almost zero sign of wear and tear. Traveling with kids, hauling a remote work setup all over town, and even hiking when necessary, this thing easily takes whatever I throw it. I can’t recommend it highly enough and it’s worth every penny of the price tag.
Substack has changed in recent months. In my observation, it’s become a little less about reading/writing and a little more about becoming an algorithmic social media platform. I know I’m not alone in that observation; I enjoyed reading
’s thoughts on it.I linked to a
piece last week and I’m doing so again this week. “What’s Happening to Students” is sobering, to say the least. As a society, we’re losing our ability to focus and read and think — in real time.“The 30 Best Fiction Books of the Last 30 Years” — I don’t usually like or agree with lists like this, but this one from the LA Times is pretty darn good. It has a nice mix of literary and commercial and I’ve mostly enjoyed the titles on it that I’ve read.
“Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI” — AI is coming for jobs in a number of sectors and it’s starting to happen now. While humans appreciate a human touch, the majority of executives don’t — and they’re going to harness AI in any way they can.
Thanks so much for reading. Be good to each other.
-Jeremy
@ #2… hate this! Is nothing sacred?
Loved the "5 Things: Links and Opinions" keep it up!!!