Substack von Present

February 2026

What Makes Sammy Run? aka A Novel of Ambition and It's Origins

Budd Schulberg’s What Makes Sammy Run? is one of those brutally honest Hollywood novels that isn’t really about Hollywood — it’s about raw ambition and…

Feb 26 • Present Perfect Book Club

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

Everybody Lies starts from an uncomfortable but very useful insight: people tell surveys, social media, even their friends one version of the truth …

Feb 19 • Present Perfect Book Club

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I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist

Betty Halbreich’s I’ll Drink to That looks like a fashion memoir, but it’s really a book about taste, resilience, and service. She tells the story of a…

Feb 12 • Present Perfect Book Club

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Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us

Your Brain on Art makes a very grounded claim: art is not a luxury for people with time — it’s a biological technology for regulating stress, sharpening…

Feb 5 • Present Perfect Book Club

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January 2026

In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work

Kyla Scanlon’s In This Economy? tries to answer the question everyone has been quietly asking since 2022: how can the data say things are “fine” while…

Jan 29 • Present Perfect Book Club

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Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness

Steve Magness’ Do Hard Things takes aim at the old model of toughness — the “shut up, push through, ignore your feelings” one — and shows that it…

Jan 22 • Present Perfect Book Club

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Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness is a slap in the face for successful, educated people who secretly believe they are successful because they are smart.

Jan 15 • Present Perfect Book Club

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Feel-Good Productivity vs. Grinding Culture

Ali Abdaal’s Feel-Good Productivity makes an almost suspicious claim: you get more done when you feel better. Not because you lower the bar, but because…

Jan 8 • Present Perfect Book Club

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Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

Anne-Laure’s idea is refreshingly anti-hustle: most of us were trained to live by big, linear goals (“get the promotion,” “hit 10k subs,” “launch the…

Jan 1 • Present Perfect Book Club

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December 2025

The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life

Sahil Bloom’s The 5 Types of Wealth pushes back on the narrow idea that “wealth” = money.

Dec 25, 2025 • Present Perfect Book Club

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Deep Work aka What You Need For Any Impactful Job To Be Done

Cal Newport’s Deep Work is built on a blunt observation: most knowledge workers spend their days in shallow work — emails, meetings, pings, admin…

Dec 18, 2025 • Present Perfect Book Club

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