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This Rare Mental Illness Can Make You Wildly Successful
The link between (a little) craziness and (a lot of) success
You can usually tell how much I loved a book by how many pages of notes I have, and in this case, I have eleven pages of notes!
So yes, this one’s a banger.
Tonight’s main book recommendation is called The Hypomanic Edge, by John D. Gartner, and it’s about the link between (a little) craziness and (a lot of) success in America.
The people profiled in the book — founders of a nation, revolutionary heroes, Hollywood moguls, titans of industry, and human-genome-sequencing geniuses transformed America, and the author’s thesis is that hypomania — their mental “illness,” their gift, their curse — is what helped them do it.
The book is definitely fascinating, but it’s also hilarious in many places, and I’ve written a full summary for you below, where I also share a few of my favorite notes and takeaways.
So, before our coffees get cold, let’s hit the books!
“I have nothing against Starbucks. At different times, I’ve owned the company’s stock. If I’m at the mall, I might stop in…
