Thinking, Fast and Slow

For me, a real gem though I don't usually recommend it since it's only in Italian is Decalogo della complessità by Alberto Felice De Toni. And the other one was Thinking, Fast and Slow by psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

“Thinking, Fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman Surprised no one has recommended it. It’s like an explanation of how we think, and how we should think. My only caution with this book is it represents “thinking” from a Westernised concept of rationality and it also represents western cognitive biases. A lot of the research done by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky was only studied among westernised, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic populations which only actually makes up about 12% of the world population. It’s certainly not going to apply to every culture across humanity, but - it’s super helpful. Having awareness of cognitive biases helps you recognise them in yourself, but also leverage them in other people and that’s power.

- Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Hardcover by Ryan Holiday

Aargh, Formatting! Try 2 : For the value of ‘best’ that includes (a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and (b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right, here are some in no particular order: The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein (These you might want to approach via a gentle introduction if you did not study Philosophy to degree level) The Rediscovery of the Mind, John R Searle Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh Diaries, Samuel Pepys Falling Off the Map, Pico Iyer A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope Bevis, Richard Jeffries The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon GrossSmith The Inimitable Jeeves, PG Wodehouse Hitch-22, essays, Christopher Hitchens Collected Essays, William Hazlitt Venice, Martin Gayford The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsch Too obvious a list, perhaps, but some gems for all that! Happy reading.

For the value of ‘best’ that includes (a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and (b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right, here are some in no particular order: The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein (These you might want to approach via a gentle introduction if you did not study Philosophy to degree level) The Rediscovery of the Mind, John R Searle Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh Diaries, Samuel Pepys Falling Off the Map, Pico Iyer A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope Bevis, Richard Jeffries The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon GrossSmith The Inimitable Jeeves, PG Wodehouse Hitch-22, essaysChristopher Hitchens Collected Essays, William Hazlitt Venice, Martin Gayford The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsch Too obvious a list, perhaps, but some gems for all that! Happy reading.

The Coming of Neo-Feudalism - Joel Kotkin (its a brainful) Algorithns to live by - Brian Christian Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel khaneman The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom - James Burnham

I read that it’s the most started and not finished kindle book ever. It’s great though and definitely worth reading.

Become a better story teller and persuader, and learn how to make better decisions and manage risk. A few books that helped me in no particular order … The Science of Storytelling - Will Storr Influence - Robert Cialdini Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman Antifragile - Nassim Taleb How Innovation Works - Natt Ridley The One Thing You Need to Know - Marcus Buckingham Team of Teams - General Stanley McChrystal

RE: Thinking Fast and Slow - I seem to remember a few times where that's been posted here that some say some of the concepts have been disproven/aren't rooted in science. I'm not sure if I'm thinking about the same thing. I've always been intrigued by that book. Also, do you mind explaining a bit about what you mean by "information/awareness hygiene"? I'm intrigued by that as well.

Thinking Fast and Slow to me was a manual to a human mind.

Came here to say Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman and The Black Swan by Taleb. I don't know if it's strictly applicable to OP's question - but these books shaped how I see the world more than anything in life - and I think my view is way more accurate and I'm infinitely happier as a result. In these conditions, I think problem solving becomes a lot easier...

Not parent, but I liked it a lot. But I wonder if by now the ideas have permeated thinking-person culture enough that it’s not worth it.

"Thinking fast and slow" is like this, it's a bit dry and it makes for hard reading (I tried by the poolside) but it's sort of more rewarding to fight through it. 5 minute summaries are also forgotten in the same amount of time.

The Overstory by Richard Powers: this book changed the way I look at trees. I'll be driving some days and out of nowhere notice a tree and appreciate it. This book inspired me to consider that there is an objective meaning to life. The Incerto Series by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: where to start...I started reading this series over a decade ago and I still think about it weekly. It can be very dense to get through as I took a lot of notes. But I think it's worth the trouble. One of my favorite chapters is via negativa. This is the concept that it is easier to know what NOT to do than what should be done. Many interested ideas flow out from that when it comes to personal health, public policy, and morality. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: this book opened up my eyes to a host of mental biases. It's similar to some of Taleb's work but IMO easier to read. My favorite chapter surrounded the idea of the self as your memory vs your experience. Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it?

I like to read a wide variety of genre from fiction to human psychology. For the mind: Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg - A great book on how to communcate more effectively with others. Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman -He is the only psychologist ever to recieve the Nobel Prize if I remember correctly. This book scientifically digests human biases and errors and how they influence our every day lives and decision making. Sometimes it a bit too technical for my taste and I like mostly the first part. (its not an easy read) I rarely had so many Aha-moments. A random walk down on wall street - For investing your income in stocks. What to do and what no to do. Simple, with facts. Sapiens by Harari -Interesting, I remember it was a great read and fun read. Connecting a lot of dots :) On programming: Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann - I am failry a junior web dev, so any material that is clear and explains well is a great source of information and inspiration. This is such a book.…

The following have all had a significant effect on my worldview. You can find more information at [1]. - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany - Thinking, Fast and Slow - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Crime and Punishment - The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity - Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - Franny and Zooey - Master of the Senate - Atlas Shrugged - Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed - Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics - The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't - Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones - Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow…

> What are you reading and why? Audiobooks are a special case for me. They help fill the time when I'm driving to work, mowing the lawn or doing dishes. If I consume my entertainment during these productive times, I find I'm less drawn to television and other mindless distractions. They also help me to be motivated to do tasks that I otherwise find dull. The better alternative is to find a friend to share these tasks with, but that is not always a practical option. While I do read for entertainment, I really enjoy non-fiction as long as it's light. If I want to explore a topic and truly learn something, I often need to find a text version. That said, I have found some great audiobooks that I have learnt from: -The Goal -Pragmatic Programmer -Designing Data-Intensive Applications -Thinking Fast and Slow -Ultralearning The best entertainment so far have been -Dune -The Expanse series -The Bobiverse series -The Expeditionary force series.…

* Thinking Fast and Slow * The Selfish Gene * Probability: For the Enthusiastic Beginner * How to Measure Anything * Rationality: From AI to Zombies * Cynefin: Weaving Sense-making into the fabric of our world * Major works of Friedrich Nietzsche

* Thinking fast and slow - how to think and make decision and how to consider bias. * Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth - specialisation is for insects. * Propaganda - 1928 book by the inventor of public relations and modern media. Know how they influence you. * The war of art - being a professional. Honesty I don't think this book was written by a human this book completely changed my life and any other person I for to read this book had a similar experience. I have more but I don't want to information overload anyone.

Thanks for writing this out, feels like I could’ve written it in many ways. I would especially recommend it for young people. It helped me see the components of my conversations and relationships that I was taking for granted.

"Thinking fast and Slow". It took around four and a half months to read it. I got the answers to some of the great mysteries related to human behavior. For example, - Why don't good people keep their promises? - Why do people don't change their miserable life when their actions could change many things? - Why does charisma trump intelligence in most of the debates? - Why is it hard to change a habit? - Why do people judge so quickly. It had a profound impact on me. After reading that book, I stopped trying to be silent when I was feeling angry. I invested in my relationships with family and friends a lot. I realized the biggest problem in the Tech industry is not the technology but the people. I became empathetic to introverted people.

Thinking Fast and Slow - it helped me to understand cognitive biases. I think understanding these really helped to see what our lens does to how we see the world.

Thinking, Fast and Slow is good if you like pop-sci, but has aged like milk if you are into the science. I respect Kahneman for walking back some of his claims since but he needs to publish a revision.

In addition to the classics of cognitive psychology (Kahneman, Taleb, et al.), I would also recommend books on psychological manipulation, religious cults, and con men. The following books offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on psychological techniques to improve awareness and exploit other people, both of which are essential to enhance your perception and protect yourself against fraud and manipulation. Cialdini, Robert (2006) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Guinn, Jeff (2017) Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple Ekman, Paul (2007) Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life Kahneman, Daniel (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow Mitnick, Kevin and William Simon (2002) Art of Deception Navarro and Karlins (2008) What Every Body is Saying: Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People Nietzsche, Friedrich (1887) On the Genealogy of Morals Rhodes, Richard (1986) Making of the Atomic Bomb Sun Tzu (c. 400 BCE) Art of War Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2005) Fooled by Randomness Wright, Lawrence (2013) Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief

* Information: A history, a theory, a flood - James Gleick * Sapiens - Yuval Harari * Thinking, fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman * Power of Habit - Charles Duhig

A strong upvote for Thinking Fast and Slow. I think it should be required reading in school, or at least parts of it.

The Black Swan by Taleb and Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman are two books that pretty much completely changed how I view the world, and have made me much happier as a direct result.

I read about 25 books this year, here are the top 10 I look forward to reading in 2020, many of them informed by my favorites of 2019: Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari - I read Sapiens this year and really enjoyed it. I just started this today one so I may finish that before the end of the year. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - I like books that make me think and from what I've heard, this will definitely do the trick. I read Factfulness this year and this was a suggested follow-up. The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker - I've gotten really into natural languages since I've lived outside my country of origin for the last 2 and a half years and I've heard good things about this book being an entry point into linguistics. Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski - With the new Witcher show coming out on Netflix I finally went back and beat The Witcher 3 then read the first book, The Last Wish. It was enjoyable enough that I want to keep going with the series. Educated by Tara Westover - Was convinced by Bill Gate's blog this is worthwhile. I'm a teacher so it wasn't hard to convince me.…

Non-Fiction: - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman | book on human rationality and irrationality - An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield Fiction: - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | Petunia married a professor, and Harry grew up reading science and science fiction. http://www.hpmor.com/ - Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0 Book 1) by Scott Meyer | Reality is defined in a text file, making the protagonist a wizard when he discovers it while hacking a company. - The Magicians (series) by Lev Grossman

I have found Poor Charlies Almanack by Charlie Muenger to have quite a few. Thinking Fast and Slow is another great book that explains some of the mental models well. The Art of Thinking Clearly is yet another that is actually more like a dictionary of mental models.

1. All of Nassim Taleb's Books - They changed the way I thought about tail probabilities and risk taking + bar bell strategies in general 2. Thinking Fast and Slow - made me think about all of the biases that my mind has that I dont even realize 3. The organized mind - This book gave me a lot of ideas about how I can change my life to live with less distractions and maybe do thinks more efficently 4. The Vital Question - Made me realize how lucky we as humans and complex cellular beings are to even exist. 5. Misquoting Jesus (and all of Ehrman's other books) - Gave me talking points I use against any/all overzealous Christians in my life. The stories of the bible are not remotely close to the stories that where handed down by the people that were with Jesus when he died. Over 100s of years and many errors (and a lot of luck), people decided Jesus was the son of God. Unfortunately for them, the chances of that being true are very very close to zero.

* Factfulness and Thinking Fast And Slow. The latter helped me internalise that my thinking, like most humans, is biased. Even being aware of those biases doesn’t always help. We need to go above and beyond to overcome our biases. Factfulness goes into detail about what those biases are and how they lead to a distorted world view. Rather than taking the easy way out by blaming journalists/politicians/rich people, he turns the focus onto us and our biases and speaks about how to look at the world in an objective fact based manner. * The Dictator’s Handbook. One simple axiom - leaders do what is necessary to stay in power. Using that idea they explain the basis of all political systems, whether autocracy or democracy or somewhere in between. I didn’t really understand politics before I read this. CGPGrey has a video where he summarises the book. [1]…

All the books below have shaped my thought process to a significant degree. I started reading late but I'm fortunate enough to have stumbled upon these gems. "Debt: The First 5000 Years": This is truly a magnum opus. Until I read this I had taken money, economy, market etc., for granted. And I had held onto the widely accepted, but naive, view that economic systems somehow grew out of barter systems. The range of topics discussed, and the way author shows how seemingly independent concepts are intertwined, is truly astonishing. I'm on my 2nd read. "Thinking, Fast and Slow": This book made me truly appreciate the value of psychology. I didn't even know the existence of a vast domain called behavioral science until I read this book. Now I'm deliberately conscious about the decisions I take and retrace my thought process multiple times just to make sure that I haven't fallen pray to some of the cognitive biases.…

My highlights from this year: 1. "How to Measure Anything" (Douglas Hubbard) Presents a few simple techniques (confidence intervals, Monte Carlo simulations, regression analysis, Bayes, etc) to help with decision-making. E.g., should we build this feature or spend the same money on marketing? I put it alongside "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (Daniel Kahneman), "Superforecasting" (Philip Tetlock), "The Art of Thinking Clearly" (Rolf Dobelli), etc. These books explain how our thinking is often flawed; "How to Measure Anything" gives you some tools to avoid flawed thinking. Note: if you already know the math (a lot of people on HN would), you might not get that much out of it. 2. "Why We Sleep" (Matthew Walker) As I read this book I kept thinking about all the people I knew who would benefit from it: family and friends whom I want to have healthy happy lives, managers who believe that they'll get more out of people by pushing them to work crazy hours… and lots of people who think they’ll get more out of themselves if they sleep less.…

haven't read a ton of nonfiction, but these were good - Thinking fast, and slow - 7 habits of highly effective people - Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software - Getting Things Done - Choose Yourself

In no particular order: • Sapiens • Thinking Fast and Slow • The Mind Illuminated • A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

Gun germs and steel The Innovator's Dilemma Thinking Fast and Slow Godel Eschel Bach Hard Things about Hard Things

I finished Never Split the Difference a month back. Fantastic read. I am almost finished with Thinking Fast and Slow. I kinda wish I had read it years back given all the useful insights. I just bought a copy of the 1961 version of Stranger in a Strange land.

I can't give just one, but here are a few that had a strong influence on me: "12 Rules for Life" by Jordan Peterson, "Why Switzerland?" Jonathan Steinberg, "Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John C. Bogle, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Butron Malkiel, "Liberalismus" by Ludwig von Mises, "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, "A Treatise of Human Nature" by David Hume, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, "The Law" by Frédéric Bastiat, "Autobiography" by Benjamin Franklin, "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, "Gespräche mit Goethe" by Johann Peter Eckermann, "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, "The Old Regime and the Revolution" Alexis de Tocqueville, "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "A Treatise on Political Economy" by Jean-Baptiste Say, "The Man Versus the State" by Herbert Spencer, "The Revolt of the Masses" by José Ortega y Gasset, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" by Joseph Alois Schumpeter, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" by Karl Popper, "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman, "On Power" Bertrand de Jouvenel, "1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the Quill" by Andrzej Bobkowski, "My Correct Views on Everything" by…

1. Mythical Man Month - obvious reasons 2. Deathmarch: The Complete Software Developer's Guide to Surviving 'Mission Impossible' Projects- also a classic. 3. Thinking fast and slow - a great introduction to biases that will affect your thinking in any project. 4. The Art of War - strategy and tactics for attacking any problem. My personal favorite translation is by Thomas Cleary.

This is a fantastic book. It's essentially a summary of the author (Daniel Kahneman's) academic career, worth reading because he's one of the founders of "behavioral economics" - the idea that economic-decision making should be studied using real people and experiments--how they do it in psychology--rather than a bunch of mathematical models on a blackboard which may or may not accurately capture human behavior (despite being mathematically usable/tractable). If you read this book, you'll learn how absurdly influential Kahneman has been: he did the original research on the endowment effect, anchoring, loss aversion, and tons of other stuff you'll see quoted around here all the time. He's also heavily cited by Taleb. I wish more academics would write like this. It's a hard book to summarize because it's long and completely free of bullshit. It's more or less 400 pages of "here's the question, here's what we did, here were the results, we were surprised because" 20-30 pages at a time. It's an outstanding book by an outstanding professor.

This book has helped me recognize various cognitive biases and heuristics that I or the people around me are demonstrating. Sometimes people say things that just "feel" wrong and this book has helped me identify and name why it feels wrong. It can get a little dry at times, but for the most part the research and examples are memorable. I also find the framework of the "two systems" to be a simple reminder to slow down and think about things that surprise/frustrate me before arriving at conclusions (or responding to that frustrating coworker :P).

I'm no professional but I was very impressed by the immediate utility and domain independence of what I gained from reading "Thinking, Fast and Slow". I've always felt that intelligence is largely cultivated (or at least a significant portion of what we commonly refer to as 'intelligence'), and much of this book seemed to agree and offered constructive advice on improving ones cognition, along with making use of many quirks, oddities and primitive habits our brains have been endowed with.

Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman The Richest Man in Babylon - George Samuel Clason Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie This is such a beautiful thread!

- The Innovator's Dilemma by Clay Christensen - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking - The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross - Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss - Start with No by Jim Camp - How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg - The Everything Store by Brad Stone - The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

"Thinking, Fast and Slow", in particular the explanation of prospect theory.

1. Thinking fast and slow - Kahneman 2. Godel, Escher and Bach - Hofstadter 3. On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins

Bargaining for Advantage : Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Lies my teacher told me : everything your American history textbook got wrong Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life Thinking, Fast and Slow

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman

* Douglas Hofstadter - Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid * Fred Brooks - Design Of Design * Fred Brooks - The Mythical Man month * Eric J. Evans - Domain Driven Design * Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software * Kent Beck - Extreme Programming Explained * Kent Beck - Planning Extreme Programming * Michael C. Feathers - Working Effectively with Legacy Code * Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow [EDIT] Correct the author for legacy code

Flow https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-... (https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202) Antifragile https://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Ince... (https://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Incerto/dp/0812979680) High Output Management https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/d... (https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884) The Master Switch https://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Rise-Information-Empire... (https://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Rise-Information-Empires/dp/0307390993) Thinking Fast and Slow https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp... (https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555)

A challenge with _Thinking Fast And Slow_ is that some of its fundamental premises have been called into question during the "replication crisis" in psychology.

+1 for Thiking, Fast, and Slow. Definitely a life changing book.

++ Thinking, Fast and Slow Great book, textbook-ish, but reshaped how I look at people and problems

On the quick I could think of two: "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman - essentially a book about "bugs" in our minds that lead us to bad decisions, "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman - changes the way you look at human-made things, makes you better appreciate examples of design that take functionality into account.

Read the black swan and thinking fast and slow after, I think the combination is life changing. It was for me anyways. They really complement each other.

I would look at a few design and user experience books... "Don't make me think", "Thinking fast and slow" and "Designed for use" come to mind. As developers, and even PMs we will tend to overload our users with too much... simplification, structure, clarity come to mind. Another deep issue, and I don't have any books to recommend center around nomenclature... Too many projects don't take the time to concentrate on naming things from a high level... From project features to user roles and the language/platform that integrate them, there's often confusion and blurred lines with the same names used in different contexts.

I guess someone has to be the first to say "Thinking Fast and Slow"[1] by Daniel Kahneman. It's certainly a very useful book (even for it's flaws) for it's detail on cognitive phycology and human biases. It certainly improved my personal and professional life. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman. Learn why we're fools by nature. Incerto - Nassim Nicholas Taleb (4 volumes, with The Black Swan as my favourite). Learn how not to be a fool, or at least, minimize its impacts. The Startup Owner's Manual - Steve Blank. Learn how to find your way through the market.

Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman How I raised myself from failure to success in selling, Frank Bettger Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Daniela Meadows Most important thing is to get up and start doing stuff, understand how you personally f$$k things up and reap benifits of compound interest in personal development. I think these three bookshave a lot of information that is usable in any career or path one might choose.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Also, strangely enough (not being a Harry Potter fan), I immensely enjoyed Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/... (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555) Great book about the way humans think.

Leave it to Psmith - 10/10 Anna Karenina - 8/10 The Code of the Woosters 8/10 Fooled by Randomness 7/10 Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life 8/10 How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia 9/10 Reluctant Fundamentalist 9/10 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10 The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10 The catcher in the Rye 8/10 Models 7/10 High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10 The Surrender Experiment - 10/10 Untethered Soul - 9/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10 Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 7/10 Something Fresh, something new - 7/10 Karma Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 8/10 Thinking, Fast and Slow - 9/10 Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates 10/10 The Pearl by John Steinbeck 7/10

I finished "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahneman - A slow read, but a good one. He talks about the intricacies and surprising observations about how me take decisions. "Logicomix" - A brief "history" of logic, its not always historically accurate. Did I tell you its a graphic novel? "Show Your work" - Aston Kleon - A short motivating read about sharing ones work, he makes some good arguments for sharing the process as well, not just the product. Picked up "Coders at work" - read two chapters, a great read so far (I know its pretty popular one amoung HN)

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)

Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything Excellent popular science intro to, well, nearly everything. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, fast and slow Absolute recommendation. Is changing my perspective on myself and the world with every chapter.

Seconded. This book has a very high signal-to-noise ratio.

Sapins[1] by Yuval Noah Harari. Currently 220 pages into it, I wholeheartedly recommend -- it's remarkably well written and is full of very interesting perspectives. Credit where it's due: learnt about this book in an edge.org conversation[2] between Dr. Harari and the eminent psycologist Daniel Kahneman. Speaking of professor Kahneman, I recently finished his "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (I did notice it's mentioned in the comments, but still), over a period of deliberate slow reading of 5 months. Much has been said and written (more than well deservedly!) about this book. Don't let the title invite you to dismiss it off as yet another over-simplifying popular psyocology book; it's anything but that. It is an account of about 30 years of collaboration with his late colleague Amos Tversky. Certainly not a breezy page-turner. It's well worth it to take your own time to assimilate the content. [1] http://www.ynharari.com/sapiens-the-book/short-overview/ [2] http://edge.org/conversation/yuval_noah_harari-daniel_kahneman-death-is-optional

I'm just going to answer with the books that rearranged my understanding of the world the most. In no particular order. "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. "Quantum Computing since Democritus" by Scott Aaronson. "The Strategy of Conflict" by Thomas Schelling. "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "The World until Yesterday" by Jared Diamond. "The Retreat To Commitment" by W. W. Bartley. "The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan. Despite the name it made me appreciate democracy a lot more. "Wars, Guns, and Votes" by Paul Collier.

> Thinking, fast and slow Definitely one of the most mind blowing book I ever read. Loved it.This could be summarised in : "I know that I know nothing". It's incredible how our mind is biased in so many way to the point of being untrustworthy.

You'll probably like Thinking Fast... and Slow. By Daniel Kahneman. It's all about how the mind works and why errors in judgement/logic happen.

This is embarrassing. I grew up with sorta fundie parents (they got better) and dropped out of school early (religious schools...), so it might be different for HNers that had a solid mental upbringing. A Brief History of Time because it pretty much slapped any thoughts I had of a supernatural universe/god right out of my mind. I know it's not highly regarded, but for a rather ignorant guy, it woke me up. The Selfish Gene (inc The Extended Phenotype). This is one I think is the most powerful, even for people that had OK education. Showing how life could possibly evolve, just with random mutations and non-random survival made it real to me that we live in a natural world. And not just that, but that since it's so obviously a natural world, it's up to us to decide what is right, what our purpose is. The earth and nature aren't going to help us there - it's our call, full stop. That is huge, and many otherwise seemingly well educated people don't seem to get it.…

I would buy and look into the following books: # HTTP: The Definitive Guide - O'Reilly Media # Algorithms by Sedgewick # Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen. Check out some Machine Learning books: # Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning # Computer Networks (5th Edition) I would look at the following book if you wanted more Q&A and interview questions: # Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions ... Tutorial memberships: # I would buy a Tuts+ account, they have been very slow in releasing new content (too bad), however they have lots of great Web Development stuff. I would read some other non-technical books: # Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age by Paul Graham # The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz # The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change The Way You Do Business by Clayton M. Christenen, # Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman # How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie If you wanted to understand some Cloud stuff, look into the Whitepapers from Amazon Web Services: # https://aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/

"Thinking Fast and Slow", was definitely the most impacting book for me last year. Highly recommended.

Having a 30 minute subway commute I'm looking forward to seeing what suggestions come out of this thread. My two suggestions: 1. Thinking fast and slow - Understanding how we actually think as opposed to how we think we think is a critical skill, especially in a startup. Having a Nobel prize winner explain how the two systems of your brain work together (and can sabotage you) was enlightening and enjoyable. This book helped me understand many aspects of design and sales that had been black boxes for me http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/... (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555/tag=youtubeplayli-20) 2. Art and Fear - This is a book nominally about the relationship between artists and how they go about making art but it is useful for anyone creative. It's about how to go about making when you have errands to run, a deadline, or just don't feel like it. As a dev I found it inspiring http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fear-Observations-Rewards-Artmakin... (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fear-Observations-Rewards-Artmaking-ebook/dp/B0042JSQLU/tag=youtubeplayli-20)

Some titles I've recently read or at least have placed on my reading list. -------------------- Philosohpy Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium - Seneca Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (must read) The Republic - Plato -------------------- History Five Chimneys - Olga Lengyel The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (must read) The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank -------------------- Fiction (particularly dystopian) 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451 (crime/action) Child 44, The Secret Speech, Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith -------------------- Economics Capital in the Twenty-First Century - Thomas Piketty Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty - Banerjee, Duflo Why Nations Fail - Robinson -------------------- Economics/Decision making/Psychology Undercover Economist, Freakonomics, Nudge, Thinking Fast and Slow -------------------- Random titles The Selfish Gene, Self-Reliance, The Elements of Style (about writing), Slaughterhouse-Five -------------------- Some links to inspire your reading (though you may want to checkout the websites first to get an idea of the topics they cover) http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books…

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)

Thinking, fast and slow by Kahnemann.

Thinking is not a self help book. It's a memoir of sorts about a nobel prize winning economist and the way he and his mentor changed the field of decision theory through the combination of economics, psychology and statistical mathematics. It truly is eye opening and life changing.

I was thinking about reading 'Thinking, Fast and Slow', but I couldn't tell if it would really be useful or if it would just be another glorified self-help book. But if people here like it, I will probably give it a shot. Also, Drunkard's Walk was excellent.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Abundance by Peter H. Diamandis

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. Should be read by all who wonder how our minds work - and how much happens "behind the scenes", "under the covers". Darwin's Dangerous Idea, by Daniel Dennett. Should be read by all curious to know the full implications of mechanistic evolution (hint: think about what came before life). The Mating Mind, by Geoffrey Miller. Must-read for anyone in marketing, or anyone wondering why the other guy got laid and you didn't. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond. Why are we rich and they poor? Why so few domesticated African animals? Why one big China and a many-state Europe? The Laughter of Triumph: William Hone and the Fight for the Free Press, by Ben Wilson. Great read about an early 19th C. struggle against unjust laws used to gag journalism. Relevant in today's age of bloggers, etc.

The Way of The Superior Man The Art of Learning As a Man Thinketh Thinking, Fast and Slow Think and Grow Rich! Psycho-Cybernet​ics Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Here's a list of books that I read this year and liked. My favorite was Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. The rest are all worth reading. I hesitated to put "The Joy of Clojure" on that list because it's too narrow, but it's one of the best programming books I've seen. http://diegobasch.com/books

I quite liked the following 1) Angelmaker 2) Gone away world 3) The Hobbit 4) Fables the comic seriers Non fiction 1) Steve Jobs 2) Thinking fast and slow Have a look http://blog.kaipakartik.com for the books I enjoyed reading

Some favorites from my bookshelf: Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, Thinking Fast and Slow, Fooled by Randomness / Black Swan, SICP, Zen Mind Beginner's Mind

Thinking Fast and Slow

Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow". It's a great account of things we know about how the mind works, with amazing insights.