but rather change how your mind works by the time you're done with them. These categories could be thought of as a hierarchy, a way of evaluating what you're reading for its potential value. At the bottom, you have the life hacky books. In the middle, you have the informative, educational books, and at the top, you have the philosophical mind-bending books. But I soon realized this wasn't just about books. It was about thoughts. The way we think can be broken down into similar tiers, and all meaningful self-improvement, attainments of knowledge, advances in maturity, skill development, and independent thought require graduating through these successive levels.