This exact question is discussed in Matt Ridleys The Red Queen. He puts forward that it’s better for evolution in more unpredictable environments where variation becomes an advantage and vice versa for stable environments. It’s a great book I’d recommend it.
The main thesis of the book is that because every other member of the species is evolving through generations you have to evolve at some rate even to stay still relative to other beings
Some great recommendations, have added a bunch of these thanks! Here are some of my top recommendations
Ublock Origin—No more ads, you can also get it for firefox on android which has been a game-changer for me since ads on phones are a nightmare (I switched from Chrome to Firefox for this reason alone)
Grammarly—Never make grammar, spelling, phrasing, or tone errors again!
The Marvellous suspender—It automatically suspends tabs you’ve not used for a while, you can whitelist domains you don’t want suspender and it doesn’t suspend forms (Saves on RAM, chrome may have built this in by now, not sure)
Metamask/Phantom—If you don’t own some crypto you probably should (Just in case)
A volume booster—I use this one, but it’s prob not the best, super useful when some media is too quiet on my laptop for whatever reason
Honey—It’ll automatically look for deals and save you money
Lastpass/Password manager—Time, Effort and security save
Waking Up—If you’re not into meditation, (you should be) this is a great starting place for guided meditations. BTW you can get it free if you write them an email
Smart Audiobook Player—Best audiobook player I’ve found
CronoMeter—Detailed macro/micro food tracking, I recommend tracking for 1-2 weeks every so often and seeing if you’re deficient anywhere, you can also scan the barcode of foods
Goodreads—Very pro being addicted to positive life-enhancing apps (Why are we not all addicted to Meditation and reading apps as opposed to social media??)
Huel—Nutritionally complete vegan shakes
Caffeine Gum—Tbh the biggest game-changer was chewing one of these right when I wake up in the morning when I struggled to get out of bed
Pillbox—Never forget your supplement/pills again
Melatonin—seems like the most chill sleeping pill, I’ve found it good for getting you in the sleepy mood
Chillys bottle—Best bottle I’ve used, holds temperature very well (metal)
Wireless headphones (No specific rec) - if you’re using wired headphones, this is a strict QOL upgrade!
Audiobookbay—You need to make an account, use a VPN
These are probably more subjective than anything else
Zero to One—An interesting paradigm shift in how to view a startup
Sovereign individual—This book was written in 1999 and has been surprisingly accurate in its predictions, great macro overview
Meditations—A drop of pure stoicism is much needed in these somewhat chaotic times
Death of Ivan Illych—This book touched me, basically, you should live a moral life and focus on what matters
Shoe Dog—Just an excellent startup story really
Free Will—Free Will was instrumental in increasing my empathy
Algorithms to live by—Has excellent practical decision making life advice that matters, the biggest takeaway for me was the Explore/Exploit model
Alchemy—It’s an excellent book that is one of those “Think differently” models,
Taleb’s Incerto—Same as above really, great for training some unintuitive models about stats etc, though it’s certainly written in quite a jarring/aggressive way
I’ll second Lean Startup, Atomic Habits and 4 Hour work week!
Got a bit carried away, but fun way to spend a morning, hope that’s useful to some of you!
I think part of the reason is it’s not really a huge community and there is a lot of discussion and not as much “Doing”