The Checklist Manifesto

The Unicorn Project, The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey, Permanent Record, Turn the ship around, The Checklist Manifesto, These are good ones!

* A mind for numbers - Barbara Oakley - great framework for learning how to learn * Checklist manifesto - good for investing better * 12 Rule for life by JP - Great read, very in depth but only two rules (guidelines) are that needed.

* Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell * Freakenomics * Slideology * The Checklist Manifesto

The best book I've read in the last 5 years is David Simon's, "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets"...if you've watched The Wire, half of its material is derived from this real life account of being embedded in Baltimore's homicide unit: https://books.google.com/books/about/Homicide.html?id=N8LS0b... (https://books.google.com/books/about/Homicide.html?id=N8LS0b0_bvUC&hl=en) All of Atul Gawande's books, notably: The Checklist Manifesto [1]: http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/ Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance: http://atulgawande.com/book/better/ [1] You can read the essay that this book is based on in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/10/the-checklist

The Checklist Manifesto, recommended by multiple HN participants. I read it and learned a lot, and it's an enjoyable read besides giving you new perspectives on old problems. http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/d... (http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0312430000)

I read that book, and I think everyone should, but I don't think it falls in the category of developing mental models. As for cognition, the book is a reminder, or a message, that humans have imperfect memories and we must use outside factors rather than obsessing an idealized form of godlike memory.

I will definitely second Atul Gawande's Checklist Manifesto. Eliyahu Goldratt's books (I have read Critical Chain and It's Not Luck as well as The Goal) are not as original as often claimed. They are very readable introductions, but a good project management text will cover most of what they do and more. The project management book that I have found most helpful is Project Management With Cpm, Pert and Precedence Diagramming; despite its age (1983) it covers a wider variety of techniques with more detail and less extraneous crud than any of the others I have seen (note I am still researching this area, anyone who has a favorite book can leave it in a comment). http://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Pert-Precedence-Dia... (http://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Pert-Precedence-Diagramming/dp/0442254156/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322244392&sr=8-1) Jonathan Baron's Thinking and Deciding is one of the best books on improving your thinking in general that I have ever read. http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Deciding-Jonathan-Baron/dp/05... (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Deciding-Jonathan-Baron/dp/0521680433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322244137&sr=8-1)

Good list. I'd add 'The Checklist Manifesto' by Atul Gawande ( http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/d... (http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0312430000/) ), about how experts with decades of experience in highly complex tasks can still benefit from simple, short and obvious checklists.