What do you think?
Rate this book
Hit Reverse: New Ideas From Old Books
Inside HIT REVERSE, you
● Learn from the personal tutor of Alexander The Aristotle
● Absorb ideas from Elon Musk's favorite Twelve Against The Gods (1929)
● Discover what Ancient Rome knew about architecture that the modern world has forgotten...
And that's before we get to the fun stuff.
Hit New Ideas From Old Books curates the best insights from some of the best books ever written. You will understand the symbolism of mandalas with Carl Jung, peep into Napoleon Bonaparte's mind, and explore Aldous Huxley's argument for deleting Netflix. Open this book and you'll converse with mavericks, architects, and philosopher-kings.
Officially, Hit Reverse is a book. Unofficially, it's a portal.
I invite you to step in...
● Learn from the personal tutor of Alexander The Aristotle
● Absorb ideas from Elon Musk's favorite Twelve Against The Gods (1929)
● Discover what Ancient Rome knew about architecture that the modern world has forgotten...
And that's before we get to the fun stuff.
Hit New Ideas From Old Books curates the best insights from some of the best books ever written. You will understand the symbolism of mandalas with Carl Jung, peep into Napoleon Bonaparte's mind, and explore Aldous Huxley's argument for deleting Netflix. Open this book and you'll converse with mavericks, architects, and philosopher-kings.
Officially, Hit Reverse is a book. Unofficially, it's a portal.
I invite you to step in...
285 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 7, 2024
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 21, 2025
This book was entertaining to say the least, but I am giving it four stars due to the lack of mention and support for classical female authors. A lot of female authors in the classical, antiquity, and even early modern era are actually worth mentioning and receiving guidance from. Also, some entries almost dabble in hypermasculinity; just gives off "incel" vibes, I suppose. Lastly, I appreciate the expensive references to Nietzsche and his works.
April 6, 2025
I just read it bcz Luigi supposedly loves it… expected it to be smarter. It’s just backwater drivel written from a religiousy 3rd world perspective. Surprisingly bad 😅 loved kazinskis book tho… disagreed with it thankfully, but still enjoyed reading… thought expansion happened, but not with this one.
November 6, 2025
Extremely timely for the historical moment we’re living in, this book gave me the same surge of enthusiasm I get from a David Goggins read: energetic, optimistic, and as bold as the philosophies and ideas it puts forward. I found it remarkably honest; my impression is that the author genuinely wanted to offer reflections that could truly help readers who feel stuck in the inertia of modern society.
I really enjoyed the fast-paced style—almost like TikTok or Instagram Reels—with very short, direct, and striking chapters, enriched with beautiful quotes from some of history’s greatest thinkers. It almost feels engineered for an audience overloaded with dopamine, suffering from a minimal attention span, and in desperate need of a strong jolt to wake up from contemporary alienation.
Some themes are undoubtedly controversial. The intention seems to be to promote values reminiscent of futurist thought—dynamism, courage, collective effort, and a certain reverence for the greatness of the past. These elements have historically been associated with ideologies like Italian fascism and, in part, with the cultural climate of early 20th-century movements. But the book needs to be contextualized: we’re in a moment where society feels largely numbed and demotivated.
Other topics, such as the praise for aristocracy or critique of democracy, require careful reading, as they can easily be misunderstood. And even if one disagrees with some of the ideas, the book remains highly appreciable precisely because of its intention—and because of the wide variety of themes it tackles, many of which are applicable to countless aspects of life.
In any case, I appreciated the author’s courage in addressing sensitive themes with sincerity. I got the impression that he hopes to reawaken in Western society a sense of responsibility, self-esteem, creative ability, and that bit of positive madness that once led individuals to leave a mark on history.
I really enjoyed the fast-paced style—almost like TikTok or Instagram Reels—with very short, direct, and striking chapters, enriched with beautiful quotes from some of history’s greatest thinkers. It almost feels engineered for an audience overloaded with dopamine, suffering from a minimal attention span, and in desperate need of a strong jolt to wake up from contemporary alienation.
Some themes are undoubtedly controversial. The intention seems to be to promote values reminiscent of futurist thought—dynamism, courage, collective effort, and a certain reverence for the greatness of the past. These elements have historically been associated with ideologies like Italian fascism and, in part, with the cultural climate of early 20th-century movements. But the book needs to be contextualized: we’re in a moment where society feels largely numbed and demotivated.
Other topics, such as the praise for aristocracy or critique of democracy, require careful reading, as they can easily be misunderstood. And even if one disagrees with some of the ideas, the book remains highly appreciable precisely because of its intention—and because of the wide variety of themes it tackles, many of which are applicable to countless aspects of life.
In any case, I appreciated the author’s courage in addressing sensitive themes with sincerity. I got the impression that he hopes to reawaken in Western society a sense of responsibility, self-esteem, creative ability, and that bit of positive madness that once led individuals to leave a mark on history.
April 21, 2026
The book positions itself as a collection of timeless insights, but in my opinion it lacks the critical distance necessary to distinguish between ideas that are merely historically interesting and those that are still valuable today. Many of the ideas presented were abandoned for a reason, whether due to scientific progress or the development of human rights and equality. Because of that, the promise of finding over 60 “profound ideas” already felt somewhat too ambitious to me. It definitely sparked my curiosity, but at the same time it was foreseeable that the bar was set very high.
That being said, I am generally a fan of revisiting our origins and core values, especially because we live in a very fast paced world where traditions are often neglected, sometimes to our own disadvantage.
It becomes fairly clear throughout the book that the selection of ideas is not neutral. The book presents itself as a collection, but it often feels more like a reflection of the author’s personal worldview. For example, the author seems quite sympathetic to aristocratic ideas, as he repeatedly assembles and highlights arguments in that direction. One could argue that he is not explicitly taking a position and is simply presenting existing ideas. Still, the repeated selection of certain perspectives is revealing in itself, after all, there are no quotations from Karl Marx in this book either.
Personally, this is not really to my taste, and I would assume that many readers might feel the same. Because of that, I would expect either a stronger justification for these perspectives or a more critical engagement with them. But the author does not really go that far, which makes parts of the book feel somewhat one sided.
A similar issue appears in the way the book deals with gender. The author brings up questionable ideas, such as the subordination of women, multiple times, even within the first 30 pages. While this can partly be explained by the historical context of the original sources, the author does not seem to distance himself from these views. Instead, the language and interpretations from the author continue to primarily address men throughout the entire book, which makes it feel like women are almost excluded from the conversation.
Overall, I think the book could have been much stronger if the author had contributed more of his own thoughts. His writing style is actually one of the biggest strengths. He writes in a very engaging, sometimes humorous, and easy to read way. That is why it is a bit disappointing that his own analysis remains relatively limited. If he had expanded more on his interpretations and connected them to modern knowledge or data, the book would have felt much more balanced, complex, and convincing.
I believe that in the future we could see stronger works from this author, as he is clearly a good writer and likely has valuable ideas of his own, but he needs to support them more convincingly and develop his arguments with greater depth.
That being said, I am generally a fan of revisiting our origins and core values, especially because we live in a very fast paced world where traditions are often neglected, sometimes to our own disadvantage.
It becomes fairly clear throughout the book that the selection of ideas is not neutral. The book presents itself as a collection, but it often feels more like a reflection of the author’s personal worldview. For example, the author seems quite sympathetic to aristocratic ideas, as he repeatedly assembles and highlights arguments in that direction. One could argue that he is not explicitly taking a position and is simply presenting existing ideas. Still, the repeated selection of certain perspectives is revealing in itself, after all, there are no quotations from Karl Marx in this book either.
Personally, this is not really to my taste, and I would assume that many readers might feel the same. Because of that, I would expect either a stronger justification for these perspectives or a more critical engagement with them. But the author does not really go that far, which makes parts of the book feel somewhat one sided.
A similar issue appears in the way the book deals with gender. The author brings up questionable ideas, such as the subordination of women, multiple times, even within the first 30 pages. While this can partly be explained by the historical context of the original sources, the author does not seem to distance himself from these views. Instead, the language and interpretations from the author continue to primarily address men throughout the entire book, which makes it feel like women are almost excluded from the conversation.
Overall, I think the book could have been much stronger if the author had contributed more of his own thoughts. His writing style is actually one of the biggest strengths. He writes in a very engaging, sometimes humorous, and easy to read way. That is why it is a bit disappointing that his own analysis remains relatively limited. If he had expanded more on his interpretations and connected them to modern knowledge or data, the book would have felt much more balanced, complex, and convincing.
I believe that in the future we could see stronger works from this author, as he is clearly a good writer and likely has valuable ideas of his own, but he needs to support them more convincingly and develop his arguments with greater depth.
April 24, 2025
So much potential, but there were some biased views projected onto the ideologies presented. Good read but as always, reader must be cautious to use critical thought.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews