Beautiful Books
General thinking Books
- Great mental models Shane Parrish
- Wait but Why – The Story of Us
- Technically a series of blog posts, but at 10+ and 45 min-1 hour each, it’s roughly the length of a book.
- Focuses on how we can think optimally and approach new information.
- In later chapters it delves into the issues of information sharing/learning hindered by the current US political system
- It’s not about you – ~30 min, but packs in so much how to live a fulfilling life by spending time on others.
- Search inside Yourself – Written by Google’s Happiness Guru, this is a wonderful introduction to meditation and mindfulness.
- Algorithms to live by – How to improve your life using concepts from computer science.
- Most Human Human – Uses artificial intelligence to explain how humans communicate and what it means to be human.
- Psychology of Money – Everything you need to know about investing told through easy to relate to stories.
- Never Split the Difference – Focuses on optimizing negotiation, but segues into a how empathy is the most important part of communication.
- Peak Performance – Simple yet powerful idea on how to grow in any domain. “Stress and rest”
- Let my people go surfing
- From the founder of Patagonia and written as a handbook for Patagonia employees.
- Regardless of if you agree with his environmental strategy, he does a wonderful job of describing the core values of his company and how they live up to them.
- How to win friends and influence people – A timeless classic despite arguably the worst book title ever. Focuses on how to be truly interested in others, empathetic, and an all around great person
History and how we got where we are
- Factfulness – Why the world is better than you think and the amazing progress of modern times.
- Men who united the states – Overview of US history from its founding to now and the critical people/events that have shaped the country
- Evicted – walks through the stories of evictions in Milwaukee and uses data to show how evictions/housing uncertainty are an inescapable facet of American life shaping our society.
Behavioral Finance
- Thinking Fast and Slow – A bit dense, but this sums up the cumulative research that kicked off the behavioral finance revolution and won Danny Kahnemann a Nobel prize in economics
- Nudge Similar to Danny K., author Richard Thaler also recently won the Nobel Prize in economics and this focuses on why defaults are critical and powerful.
- Predictably Irrational – the most playful and easy to read of the behavioral science books
Fiction and Science Fiction
- Three body problem – tour de force of science fiction and one of the best sci fi trilogies ever.
- Frankenstein – More fascinating than the story we’ve all heard. Beautifully written and a timeless classic
Food
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Walks through the entire American food ecosystem through four different meals.
- In defense of food also by Michael Pollan and gives a quick description of how you can learn to eat healthier by following seven words “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”