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The Hard Thing About Hard Things Is You Must Give Ground Grudgingly

A quarterback stands poised behind his offensive linemen, who are slowly giving ground to protect him. This image visually represents Ben Horowitz's concept of "Give Ground Grudgingly" from "The Hard Thing About Hard Things." Drawing by Brian Nwokedi.

📚 Core Insight

  • In leadership and business, setbacks are inevitable — you will have to give ground sometimes.
  • But how you give ground determines whether you preserve future leverage or accelerate defeat.
  • Strategic leaders retreat grudgingly: minimizing losses, signaling strength, and always setting up the next move.
  • Survival and eventual success depend less on never falling — and more on falling without surrendering your ability to fight smart tomorrow.

Introduction

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz provides a raw and insightful account of the challenges faced by a CEO in the tech industry. Unlike many business books that offer formulas for success, Horowitz provides a realistic portrayal of the difficulties and complexities involved in building and leading a company. Drawing from his personal experiences, he shares practical advice and hard-earned wisdom that can benefit anyone involved in the entrepreneurial journey.

Give Ground Grudgingly

In “The Hard Thing About Hard Things,” Ben Horowitz introduces the concept of “Give Ground Grudgingly,” emphasizing maintaining growth while minimizing degradation. This principle advises leaders to make necessary sacrifices but resist unnecessary losses. It’s about finding the balance between expanding the business and preserving its core values and capabilities. Essentially, Horowitz is advocating for cautious and strategic growth, ensuring that as the company evolves, it retains its essential strengths and integrity, thus degrading as slowly as possible.

American Football Analogy

There is a great analog to this concept in American football. An offensive lineman’s job is to protect the quarterback from onrushing defensive linemen. If the offensive linemen attempt to do this by holding their ground, the defensive lineman will easily run around them and crush the quarterback. As a result, offensive linemen are taught to lose the battle slowly or to give ground grudgingly. They are taught to back up and allow the defensive lineman to advance, but just a little at a time.

When you scale an organization, you will also need to give ground grudgingly. Specialization, organizational structure, and process all complicate things, and implementing them will feel like you are moving away from common knowledge and quality communication. It is very much like the offensive lineman taking steps backward. You will lose ground, but you will prevent your company from descending into chaos.

Final Thoughts

In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz does not sugarcoat the entrepreneurial experience. Instead, he provides a genuine look into the grit required to lead a company through its toughest times. His insights are invaluable for current and aspiring leaders who seek to understand the true nature of building and sustaining a successful business. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of entrepreneurship.

Download My Notes

Interested in diving deeper into Ben Horowitz’s work on The Hard Thing About Hard Things? Download my unfiltered notes below ?

Notes on Ben Horowitz The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Brian NwokediDownload
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The “Rational Fool” Inspired by Richard Thaler’s Misbehaving

"People who always give nothing are rational fools who blindly follow material self-interest." --- Richard Thaler (2016)
The "Rational Fool" by Brian Nwokedi serves as a whimsical yet thought-provoking representation of the human tendency to act against our own best interests despite possessing rational capabilities. This concept, rooted in behavioral economics, challenges the traditional economic assumption of humans as perfectly rational decision-makers. This drawing aims to spark curiosity and discussion around the fascinating intersection of psychology and economics, highlighting the importance of understanding behavioral biases in our everyday lives. Through this playful visual metaphor, the Rational Fool invites visitors to explore the intriguing complexities of human behavior and decision-making, ultimately encouraging a deeper appreciation for the nuances of our choices.

📚 Core Insight

  • Driven by heuristics, emotional biases, and short-sighted impulses, people consistently deviate from “rational” behavior in predictable patterns.
  • Success in leadership, business, and investing doesn’t come from maximizing cold logic alone — it requires understanding and anticipating these very human misbehaviors.
  • Those who blindly optimize for material self-interest — the true “rational fools” — often miss the deeper structures of trust, cooperation, and adaptive success.

Inspired by Richard Thaler’s Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics, the “Rational Fool” serves as a whimsical yet thought-provoking representation of the human tendency to act against our own best interests despite possessing rational capabilities. This concept, rooted in behavioral economics, challenges the traditional economic assumption of humans as perfectly rational decision-makers.

This drawing aims to spark curiosity and discussion around the fascinating intersection of psychology and economics, highlighting the importance of understanding behavioral biases in our everyday lives.

Through this playful visual metaphor, I invite visitors to explore the intriguing complexities of human behavior and decision-making, ultimately encouraging a deeper appreciation for the nuances of our choices.

Downloadable Content – Raw Notes

Interested in diving deeper into Richard Thaler’s work on Misbehaving? Download my unfiltered notes below ?

Notes on Richard Thaler Misbehaving The Making of Behavioral Economics by Brian NwokediDownload
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Lessons from Thinking Fast, and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

“There are two systems of thought: The Intuitive System 1, which does the fast thinking, and the effortful and slower System 2 which does the slow thinking, monitors System 1, and maintains control as best it can within its limited resources.”
--- Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow (2011)
Thinking Fast and Slow Picture Summary by Brian Nwokedi

Introduction

The fact remains whether we like to admit it or not, our minds are susceptible to systematic errors in thinking and judgment. And when we are under pressure or lacking total information, our minds are strongly biased toward causal explanations. To wrap our minds around all the ways we make mistakes in our thinking and judgment, Daniel Kahneman simplified the mind into two systems:

  • The Intuitive System 1 thinks VERY FAST
  • The effortful and controlled System 2 thinks VERY SLOWLY

The point Kahneman drives home in his book is by learning to recognize these patterns of thinking in yourself, you can minimize the mistakes when the stakes are highest.

System One … The Hare … All Gas No Brakes!

To put it quite simply: System 1 thinking is impulsive and intuitive and is designed to jump to conclusions from very little evidence. What’s worse, System 1 isn’t designed to know the size of the jumps it is making in its thinking. With System 1, WHAT YOU SEE IS ALL THERE IS (WYSIATI), and because of this, only the evidence at hand counts. In the absence of an explicit context, System 1 will generate its own context, and it really excels at constructing the best possible story … Are you scared yet? If not you should be!

System 1 is highly adept in one form of thinking … Automatic and Effortless. It identifies causal connections between events, sometimes even when the connection itself is spurious.

System Two … The Tortoise … All Brakes No Gas!

Like most things in life, there is a yin-and-yang or balance to things. Your brain’s method of thinking is no different. If System 1 is your default, fast, and reflexive method of thinking, System 2 is the opposite of this. To be specific, System 2 controls thoughts and behaviors, and it is the only system that can follow rules, compare objects on several attributes, and make deliberate choices between options.

Okay… Now What?

Here is the thing… Regardless of Systems 1 and 2, our brains are pattern-matching machines subject to a plethora of cognitive biases. Here are a couple of my favorites: 

  • Anchoring Effect
  • Availability Heuristic
  • Halo Effect
  • Hindsight Bias
  • Representativeness Heuristic

We often ignore relevant statistical facts and we rely almost exclusively on rules of thumb. When you factor in that System 1 is our default fast way of thinking, and the deep, deliberate, and controlled System 2 way of thinking is lazy and hard to consistently deploy, it’s not surprising that we humans make a ton of decision-making errors. Often, we are inconsistent in our evaluations, and we often make errors in summary judgments. Kahneman found in his research that humans when asked to evaluate the same information twice frequently give different answers.

Reading through Daniel Kahneman’s work convinces me of a couple of solutions to human decision-making shortcomings that a lot of us humans are not going to like to hear… Humans need help to make good decisions, and there are informed and unobtrusive ways to provide this help:

  • Whenever we can replace human judgment with a formula, we should at least consider it.
  • Since machines are more likely than human judges to detect weakly valid cues, we should consider complementing or augmenting human-only judgments with human + machine judgments
  • Maximize predictive accuracy by using machine logic, especially in low-validity environments

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman set out to improve the ability in all of us to identify and understand errors of judgment, and choice in others, and ultimately in ourselves! He wanted to provide his readers with a richer and more precise language to discuss decision-making and thinking within the brain. Because our System 1 method of thinking is our default and intuitive way of thinking, it’s easy for us to ignore relevant statistical facts that don’t fit the patterns we want. By nature, our slower and more methodical way of thinking (System 2) takes more time than we want and is lazy by nature. Humans need help to make good decisions because there is overwhelming evidence that we Humans can’t think rationally 100% of the time.

What Will I Do Differently As a Result of This Book?

  • Learn to recognize situations in which mistakes are likely and try harder to avoid making significant decision-making mistakes when the stakes are high
  • Understand that even when I think that I am being rational there is a good chance my default System 1 way of thinking has quickly pattern-matched and downplayed disconfirming information.
  • Understand how deep the halo effect goes in clouding/painting my judgment of a person with a favorable first impression versus not.
  • The major source of error in forecasting is our prevalent tendency to underweight or ignore distributional information. We forecast based on information in front of us (WYSIATI).
    • Consequently, I will therefore make every effort to frame the forecasting problem so as to facilitate utilizing all the distributional information that is available
  • Here is the thing … We are pattern seekers, believers in a coherent world in which regularities appear not by accident but as a result of mechanical causality or of someone’s intention.
    • This fact means that we humans often misclassify random events as systematic and we are far too willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.
    • This means for me, as I continue to plan I MUST EMBRACE THE RANDOMNESS OF LIFE!
  • Lastly, beware when I am in a good mood and I have had limited sleep … My System 2 will be weaker than usual and I should pay extra attention to my default System 1.

Downloadable Content

Thinking Fast, and Slow is a must-read for anyone interested in gaining insights into the Human mind and the manner in which decisions are made. The following book notes have been created to help you with your understanding of Daniel Kahneman’s concepts within Thinking Fast, and Slow.

Thinking Fast and Slow – Raw Notes by Brian NwokediDownload
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The Money Game

Booknotes: The Money Game by Brian Nwokedi

Introduction

What if I told you that the whole point of the stock market is not to make money? What if I told you that the stock market itself is just a Game, and the real object of this Game is not money; it’s the playing of the Game itself?


In The Money Game Adam Smith (also known as George J. W. Goodman) sets out to explain how the stock market is a Game to be played with objectives that oftentimes do not make sense. While money preoccupies so much of our consciousness, The Money Game is adamant that making money is not the real objective of playing the stock market Game. The sooner we realize that the stock market Game is an irrational one, the better we will play it.


Through a series of chapters asking questions and describing real events and real characters (real but masked), George J. W. Goodman sets out to explore the unexplored area of the markets … the emotional area. As he states very eloquently in Chapter 2, “There are fundamentals in the marketplace, but the unexplored area is the emotional area. All charts and breadth indicators and technical palaver are the statistician’s attempts to describe an emotional state.


In the end, the one requirement to win The Money Game is to remember the Irregular Rule: If you don’t know who you are, this is an expensive place to find out. Emotional maturity must be displayed over the long run if you are going to survive the game called the stock market.

My Summary Conclusions from Each Chapter


Part I. YOU: Identity, Anxiety, Money: Chapter 1-9

Preface: The game we create with it is an irrational one, and we play it better when we realize that, even as we try to bring rationality to it.


• Chapter 1: The word game was deliberately chosen to describe the stock market and the sooner that all of us small investors understand that this is a game, the better off we may be.


• Chapter 2: Do not forget the Irregular Rule: If you don’t know who you are, this is an expensive place to find out!


• Chapter 3: It all comes back to the Irregular Rule that you must know yourself for the stock market is an expensive place to find that out. The requirement to win this game is emotional maturity.


• Chapter 4: Since 80% of the market is psychology or deeper still human emotionality, the market can really be seen as a crowd. Because of this tendency, there is no substitute for good information, good research, and good ideas.


• Chapter 5: On one hand you have Adam Smith the father of modern economics stating definitely that money is about the maximization of profit and in some sense the accumulation of wealth (i,e. The Wealth of Nations). On the other hand, you have Norman Brown who sees money as a noose around our necks that ultimately makes our human nature impoverished. You must decide for yourself!


• Chapter 6: There are countless reasons people get into the Game. Some people love to gamble and lose. Others just want to make money over the long term by owning stocks forever. Regardless of your reason, you need to know yourself and stick to your plans.


• Chapter 7: The only real protection against all the ups and downs of the market (the anxiety) is to have an identity so firm it is not influenced by all the brouhaha in the marketplace. And remember, the stock doesn’t know you own it!


• Chapter 8: So if we are talking about real big money, forget the stock market. Build a company and have the market capitalize on your earnings.


• Chapter 9: The “simple equation of wealth”: To get rich, you find a stock whose _ has been compounding at a very fat, and then the stock zooms, and there you are.


Part II. IT: Systems: Chapter 10-14

Chapter 10: Charting assumes that what was true yesterday will also be true tomorrow. But you and I know that past patterns/performance are not predictive of future patterns/performance.


• Chapter 11: To quote Professor Fama, “the history of the series of stock price changes cannot be used to predict the future in any meaningful way. The future path of the price level of security is no more predictable than the path of a series of cumulated random numbers. If the random walk is indeed Truth, then all charts and most investment advice have the value of zero, and that is going to affect the rules of the Game.


• Chapter 12: The Game is such that computers take away any long-term advantages individuals find. Our only chance is to rely on luck (random walk thesis).


• Chapter 13: The numbers created by “independent auditors” should be looked at with a grain of salt given that the accountants are paid and hired by the companies themselves.


• Chapter 14: Someone has to be on the losing end of the transaction and that is usually the little investor.


Part III. THEY: The Pros: Chapter 15-18

Chapter 15: Professional investors are “performance” managers who are focused on driving results in the short term. Very few “performance” managers think in the long term. It’s all about driving big capital gains!


• Chapter 16: Like everything in life, those that are really in the know!


• Chapter 17: The market does not follow logic, it follows some mysterious tide of mass psychology.


• Chapter 18: If you are in the right thing at the wrong time, you may be right but have a long wait; at least you are better off than coming late to the party.


Part IV. VISIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE: Can it All Come Tumbling Down? Chapter 19-20

Chapter 19: Sooner or later you have to come to reality, and stop being a father to the world. Lead it, yes. Buy it. No.


• Chapter 20: Sure, it can all come tumbling down. All it takes is for belief to go away!


Part V. VISIONS OF THE MILLENNIUM: Do You Really Want to Be Rich?

Chapter 21: You need to create your own money philosophy to answer the question do you really want to be rich?

Visual Summary of Key Findings from Book

The Money Game by Brian Nwokedi
“Unfortunately, as we have seen, the playing of the Game is not entirely a rational affair. There is nothing so disastrous, said Lord Keynes as a rational investment policy in an irrational world”

Downloadable Content – Raw Notes

The-Money-Game-Raw-Notes-by-Brian-NwokediDownload

Extras

Brian Nwokedi’s Book Review on Goodreads

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Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Introduction

Having finished the 750+ page tome to Capital by Thomas Piketty well over a year ago, I have just gotten around to writing up what I learned. In attempting to summarize this book, I realize that there is no way I can cover everything I learned. Quite simply, Piketty has blown my mind with the depths of his research. This book is the deepest source I have ever read on how capital behaves and why wealth and income inequality are two sides of different coins.

I figure that the best approach with this write-up is to break it down into manageable chunks. What follows below is a summary of the theoretical characteristics of Capital and how it behaves in the world today as well as in the past. I’ll unpack the features of income, capital, and output and how each of these dynamics interplay with one another.

The next write-up at a later date yet to be determined, will delve into the impacts that Capital has had on inequality. I’ll unpack the structure of inequality and some potential solutions that Piketty mentions. This review is by no means a political or opinion piece. I am simply sharing some of the learnings I received from diving into this book.

With that, let’s dive in…

Is r > g the Central Contradiction of Capitalism?

The first concept that Piketty spends time unpacking is the relationship between returns on capital and the overall growth rate of the economy. Piketty boldly states that growth in the future will slow and capital will be that much more important. As economic growth slows and falls below the average rate of return on capital, past wealth naturally takes on a larger importance. This is simply because it takes only a small flow of new savings to increase the stock of wealth steadily.

Summary of the Central Contradiction of Capitalism by Brian Nwokedi

Thomas Piketty’s First Fundamental Law of Capitalism

The second concept that Piketty spends time unpacking is what he calls his First Fundamental Law of Capitalism. This law shows how important capital is in relation to the national income of a country. As the nature of wealth over the long run continues to transform (i.e., capital used to be agricultural and has since been replaced by industrial, financial capital, and urban real estate), its importance as measured by the capital/income ratio has remained steady and unchanged.

Summary of the First Fundamental Law of Capitalism by Brian Nwokedi

Thomas Piketty’s Second Fundamental Law of Capitalism

The third concept that Piketty spends time unpacking is what he calls his Second Fundamental Law of Capitalism. This law shows that countries with high savings rates and low growth rates accumulate enormous stocks of capital relative to their incomes over the long run. This can have significant effects on the social structure and distribution of wealth in a country. Piketty emphasizes that the impacts of this law are gradual and take decades to manifest. Boldly, Piketty predicts that by 2100 the entire planet could look like Europe at the turn of the 20th century with a capital/income ratio of 6-7 years.

Summary of the Second Fundamental Law of Capitalism by Brian Nwokedi

The Dynamics of the Capital/Income Ratio in Europe and the U.S.

By investigating the dynamics of the capital/income ratio of Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, Piketty uncovers that the nature of capital in these rich countries has changed: capital was once mainly land but has now primarily become housing, industrial, and financial assets. But capital’s importance remains the same.

Summary of the Dynamics of the Capital-Income Ratio by Brian Nwokedi

The Dynamics of the Capital/Income Ratio in Britain

In Britain, private wealth in 2010 accounted for 99% of national wealth and the bulk of the pubic debt in practice was owned by a minority of the population. Britain in summary is a country with accumulated capital based on public debt and the reinforcement of private capital.

Summary of the Dynamics of the Capital-Income Ratio in Britan by Brian Nwokedi

The Dynamics of the Capital/Income Ratio in France

In France, private wealth in 2010 accounted for 95% of national wealth and the bulk of wealth in France was driven by accumulations of significant public assets in the industrial and financial sectors followed by major waves of privatization of these same assets. In a sense, France is a country with a model of Capitalism without Capitalists.

Summary of the Dynamics of the Capital-Income Ratio in France by Brian Nwokedi

The Dynamics of the Capital/Income Ratio in Germany

In Germany, capitalism takes on a more social ownership point of view. Prevalent in the German marketplace is the stakeholder model of business where firms are owned not only by shareholders but also by certain other interested parties like the firms’ workers themselves. This Rhenish Capitalism has resulted in lower stock market valuations for German firms when compared to British & French firms.

Summary of the Dynamics of the Capital-Income Ratio in Germany by Brian Nwokedi

The Dynamics of the Capital/Income Ratio in the United States

In the United States, more than 95% of the assets are American-owned but the influence of landlords and historically accumulated wealth was less important in the U.S. than in Europe. However, the structure of capital in the United States took on a different form. Specifically in the South, slave capital largely supplanted and surpassed landed capital. So much so, that the total market value of slaves represented nearly a year and a half of U.S. national income in the late 18th and first half of the 19th century.

Summary of the Dynamics of the Capital-Income Ratio in US by Brian Nwokedi
Summary of the Dynamics of the Capital-Income Ratio in the South by Brian Nwokedi

Conclusion

A market economy based on private property, if left to itself, contains power forces of divergence, which are potentially threatening to democratic societies and to the values of social justice on which they are based. My next write-up on Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty will dive into the immense inequalities of wealth that have occurred as a result of the natural dynamics of capital.

Downloadable Content

Raw Notes on Thomas Piketty Capital by Brian NwokediDownload

Combined PowerPoint Presentation on Capital by Brian NwokediDownload

Extras

Brian Nwokedi’s Book Review on Goodreads

Brian Nwokedi’s Twitter Thread on Capital and Thread on the Structure of Inequality

Brian Nwokedi’s Booknotes on Youtube and The Structure of Inequality

Author’s Twitter: @PikettyLeMonde

Author’s Website: Thomas Piketty

Video: New thoughts on capital in the twenty-first century

Netflix Documentary Here

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Recorded Audio Session

Below are some select recordings and snippets from this website in one place. I also have listed some of my favorite podcasts. Brew a cup of coffee, sit back, and ENJOY! If you like the posts on this page, consider supporting my efforts with a cup of coffee or a donut ☕?.

Donate here!

Donation QR Code Below:

My Fab Favorite Podcasts

Hidden Brain

The Art of Happiness With Arthur Brooks

Invest Like the Best

Revisionist History

Philosophize This!

Animal Spirits

Appearances

Do You Know Your Data?

Economics

Doughnut Economics
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Shoe Dog

Investing

Active Investing to Beat The Market is Inconsistent
The Golden Butterfly Portfolio
The Money Game

Personal Finances

Get Debt Free Fast with the 2% Rule
Build an Emergency Fund to Protect Yourself During Unexpected Life Events
Your Credit Score… Three Digits Can Mean A Whole Lot
Start Repairing Your Credit Today
Term Life Insurance is a Must Have

Psychology, The Brain, & Self

In Pursuit of the Growth-Mindset
The Female Brain
Is it Actually All Written in the Stars?
The Inner Game of Tennis
The Plant Paradox
The Power of Habit
The Tipping Point
Humility is the New Smart

Parenting

The Whole-Brain Child

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The Survivors Club… The Science of Luck

Introduction

We all know someone in our lives that seems to catch all of the ‘lucky” breaks. No matter what happens in their lives, the sun seems to always shine on them. But the truth is, luck isn’t as unpredictable as we often make it out to be. Luck is a combination of your preparation, your attitude, an opportunity, and your action. The following from Ben Sherwood’s The Survivors Club and I hope it will help you bring more luck into your life.

Develop a Lucky State of Mind

In Closing

Lucky people are far less random than one would think. In reality how you approach this world and your state of mind determines how much luck you achieve/receive. Unlucky events happen to people and purely random things do sometimes occur. But, the luckiest of us all find a way to see ourselves through these events. Remember, 90% of your life is determined by the way you think.
 

Extras

Brian Nwokedi’s Book Review on Goodreads
Direct Link to Book: The Survivors Club
Author’s Twitter: @bensherwood 
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The Survivors Club… The Rule of 3

Introduction

Between the uncertainty caused by the current social and political climates, and the global pandemic, 2020 has gotten off to a challenging start to say the least. And while I am not a bonafide doomsday prepper, I do like to take proactive steps towards ensuring my personal safety. In this vein, Ben Sherwood’s The Survivors Club was either a recommendation from a friend or one that I came across as a “must read”. Having recently finished it I have learned some new frameworks and tools for survival. When it comes to surviving there is a whole lot that you can’t control, but there too is a surprising amount that you can control. The Rule of 3 is an easy but great mental reminder of the limits the human body can be pushed to.

The Rule of 3

In Closing

Emblazon the number 3 in your mind. The order of the rules will help you remember your survival priorities as you strive to manage your needs during your most stressful time. Never forget the Rule of 3. This magic number will keep your priorities clear and help you stay alive!

Extras

Brian Nwokedi’s Book Review on Goodreads
Direct Link to Book: The Survivors Club
Author’s Twitter: @bensherwood
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The Survivors Club… How To Survive a Plane Crash

Introduction

Between the uncertainty caused by the current social and political climates, and the global pandemic, 2020 has gotten off to a challenging start to say the least. And while I am not a bonafide doomsday prepper, I do like to take proactive steps towards ensuring my personal safety. In this vein, Ben Sherwood’s The Survivors Club was either a recommendation from a friend or one that I came across as a “must read”. Having recently finished it I have learned some new frameworks and tools for survival. When it comes to surviving there is a whole lot that you can’t control, but there too is a surprising amount that you can control. In the following write up, I will unpack some of the cool things I learned about surviving a plane crash.

In A Plane Crash You Have 90 Seconds to Save Your Life

In Closing

The statistics of surviving a plane crash are in your favor with close to 96% of passengers in airplane accidents surviving. While there is no one seat that is the best, on average, sitting within five rows of an exit increases your chances of survival exponentially. Listen and pay attention to your flight attendants when they go over the safety protocols, and remember that waiting for instructions during and emergency can lead to negative outcomes. In the end, crash survival comes down to a simple question: How committed are you? Don’t panic but be proactive in your survival.

Extras

Brian Nwokedi’s Book Review on Goodreads
Direct Link to Book: The Survivors Club 
Author’s Twitter: @bensherwood
Seven Ways To Increase Your Odds of Surviving a Plane Crash by Business Insider
10 Tips That Could Save Your Life by The Art of Manliness

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Anna Karenina

19th-Century Imperial Russia is a Hard Place to be a Woman

Hailed as a literary masterpiece, Anna Karenina for me was a surprisingly simple piece of writing that captures the depths of human emotion and nature. From the thrills of infidelity and falling in love with a new partner, to the deep jealousy and dissatisfaction that often times creeps into one’s relationship, Tolstoy manages to write openly about the base human emotions we often try to shut away. Through Anna Karenina Tolstoy focuses on the point that we are inherently self-interested by nature, and when in a relationship with another, we are in a constant struggle to put others first. As Stephan Arkadyevitch’s behavior shows, typically our baser level instincts and nature’s win out. But Tolstoy reminds us in the characters of Levin and Kitty, that there is hope for those who rise above this inherent self-first nature.
Throughout this novel the underlying theme of dissatisfaction with one’s circumstances, and Tolstoy captures this perfectly with the character of Anna herself. In her ultimate demise, Tolstoy seems to say that chasing perfection or bettering one’s circumstances can often lead to your demise.
Looking for perfection in your circumstances (i.e. spouse, job, etc.) can oftentimes lead to further dissatisfaction, and rather “one must forget oneself and love others, and one will be happy, and noble.” Put another way, selflessness (putting others first) over selfishness is the only way towards long-term satisfaction in one’s relationship.
In closing, the mistake we often make as humans is to think that our happiness will come through the realization of our baser human desires. But in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, we see that the true path to happiness, especially when in a relationship is pure unadulterated selflessness. We must love our spouses and partners as the whole person just as they are, and not as we would like them to be. 

Big Themes in this Book

Love
The pursuit of love can be both a positive and destructive force in ones life. For Anna, she pursues love outside her marriage which leads to the abandonment of her son and her ultimate suicide. Through the ultimate demise of Anna, Tolstoy reminds us that the cult of love can cut deeply and when pursued in the wrong fashion, can kill. Anna Karenina isn’t a traditional love story with that mushy gushy ending.
Marriage is a Burden Necessary to Hold Society Together
To a majority of the characters in this book, marriage is a burden and hindrance to achieving the life especially the men. Throughout the book, the male characters primary interests lie outside the home whereas the female characters primary interests lie within the home. But Tolstoy stresses that regardless of its potential faults, marriage is the glue that holds society together. What’s very interesting about this theme is the fact that in the late 2000s, the diary of Leo Tolstoy’s wife was transcribed. It paints a marriage that seems to be based in the themes he writes within Anna Karenina.
Double Standard of Fidelity
It’s a man’s right to be unfaithful to his wife in the face of her unyielding fidelity, and throughout this book you get the sense that it’s less serious for a husband to stray than a wife since family unity depends on the woman.