Predictably Irrational

I read many books in field of psychology focusing on rationality / irrationality. I think some of the best are: Mindware by Richard Nisbett - a researcher focusing on this for decades distills his best insight in a recent book. https://www.amazon.com/Mindware-Tools-Thinking-Richard-Nisbe... (https://www.amazon.com/Mindware-Tools-Thinking-Richard-Nisbett-ebook/dp/B00SSAXRCW) Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely - a classic book in the field. https://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expand... (https://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Decisions/dp/0061353248)

Forward looking: Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order Historical: The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty General: Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook

At random Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand. Love her or hate her, she makes you think. The Hard Thing About Hard Things - This is a great book about building businesses, and business in general. Capital in the 21st Century - One of the greatest books about economics and capital written ever - let alone in the last decade. The Intelligent Investor - This is Buffet's favourite book, and regardless of how many times I read it, I still learn more. One can never digest it in full. Predictably Irrational - This excellent tome makes behavioural economics digestible outside of economics. It's enlightening, though provoking, and turns several accepted truths on its head, purely by being written at all. Nexus (Ramez Naam) - This science fiction book explores transhumanism and would it could mean in the near future. It's both light and pulpy, but at the same time makes you think about the outcomes of technological progression.

I'm on a streak of reading Neuromarketing/behavioral economic type books. 1. Predictably irrational is particularly good. Especially the first half. 2. The Confidence Game explains the steps of how con trick people to fool themselves. 3. Buyology is very focused on purchases/retail. 4. Brainfluence. I'm halfway through it. Mostly bite-sized chapters and it's similar to Buyology, but I prefer this book.

http://jakeseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-is Some good stuff there indeed. The Game, Predictably Irrational, The Mating Mind, and Lord of the Rings stand out to me as excellent suggestions. I'm just now starting book 12 of Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and while I've enjoyed it so far, I'm not sure I'd cite it as "thought provoking". Entertaining, yes, and certainly worth reading, but the series doesn't stand out to me in that way.

I would recommend the following Thinking Fast and Slow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow Predictably Irrational: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational Influence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini#Theory_of_infl... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini#Theory_of_influence)

I love "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely and "Influence" by Robert Cialdini, both fascinating reads about how the mind works that yield useful insights for UI design and marketing.

[1] Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely (almost through with this one - highly recommend it) [2] Quantum Enigma by Bruce Rosenblum, et.al

Just finished: Ready Player One and The Riftwar Saga (both very enjoyable) Reading: Predictably Irrational (more substance than most business books I've read)

Poor Economics - Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman The Signal and The Noise - Nate Silver Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely This Time is Different - Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff Subliminal - Leonard Mlodinow Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb For something more lighthearted, I also enjoyed: An Economist Gets Lunch - Tyler Cowen Inside Jokes - Matthew Hurley & others (mostly skipped the dense parts)

The one I've enjoyed the most, was probably "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" but additionally read a couple that kept being mentioned on here: * A Random Walk Down Wall Street * Predictably Irrational * Black Swan * Blink and enjoyed those too. I've also read "How To Make Friends and Influence People" and started "Lords of Finance" but never finished.

Of the twenty-three books I read in 2010, these seven really stand out: - Predictably Irrational. Everyone here knows this book, right? It had been on my reading list for too long, and I'm glad I eventually managed to read it. Much more enjoyable that I expected it to be, even given the fact that much of the material is well-known already. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational - Longitude follows John Harrison's fascinating, painful and lengthy quest to win the Longitude Prize by creating a clock that was accurate enough to determine longitude at sea. Dava Sobel is a great writer and makes this topic totally engaging (aside: Sobel started her writing career as a technical writer at IBM). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_%28book%29 - Bad Science is Ben Goldacre's essential and extensive criticism of the media's health care reportage and of various health-related issues (vaccinations, placebos, etc.). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Science_%28book%29…

I might recommend some behavioral finance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics. Predictably Irrational is good.

For an overview of mainstream modern econ, if you read nothing else, read Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan. For a good introduction to the major economic schools of thought check out Economics as Religion by Robert Nelson (he has written a new one on the same subject that I haven't yet read). To get into behavioral economics, I'd recommend Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely and The Winner's Curse by Richard Thaler. Tread carefully, there is a lot of polemic posing as economics on bookstore shelves.

A few that I've read recently and liked: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely Mostly about cognitive biases. Helps you think better by knowing your shortcomings. Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand About protecting the environment, but with interesting takes on nuclear power, GMOs, cities and slums, etc. Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes Made me re-think a lot of things about food. Despite the "pop-science" title, this is a well researched book that looks at countless studies from the past 150 years. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheier by Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird A biography of Robert Oppenheimer. Fascinating man. The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker A must read. Evolutionary psychology.

Predictably Irrational is just a "popular" summarized version of work in this area of psychology. If you like it, consider looking at some of the work by Daniel Kahneman: http://www.amazon.com/Heuristics-Biases-Psychology-Intuitive... (http://www.amazon.com/Heuristics-Biases-Psychology-Intuitive-Judgment/dp/0521796792/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269885519&sr=8-1)

Here are some books that are a mix of psychology and economics that I think are especially suited for HN: Behavioral Economics: Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely Nudge - Richard Thaler Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard - Chip and Dan Heath Economics: The Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Taleb Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb Drunkard's Walk - Leonard Mlodinow Psychology: Opening Skinner's Box - Lauren Slater Management: The Education of a Coach - David Halberstam

Some recent engaging reads: * Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational * Christopher McDougall, Born to Run * Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers * Jeb Brugman, Welcome to the Urban Revolution * Richard Florida, Who's Your City?

Gangleader for a Day - Sudhir Venkatesh's illuminating story about the housing projects, crack gangs and community dynamics of south side chicago in the '90s. Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely explains a lot of the idiosyncracies in everyday human behavior Thoughts Without a Thinker - Mark Epstein's enjoyable tale about buddhism and psychotherapy Worst: SuperFreakonomics - Superficial, poorly written, overly patriotic cocktail party factoids

Influence, Predictably Irrational, Fooled by Randomness, The Blank Slate, House of Cards, and Planar Microwave Engineering come to mind.

1. "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki 2. "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely 3. "The Search" by John Battelle 4. "Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath 5. "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell That should cover your trip. I've listened to all of them and really liked all of them. "Blink" by Gladwell is also good, but not as business related. I would love to hear any other suggestions people have in this category.