Best Of

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari – The history of humankind in one book. What we’ve been like in each age.
The Martian – Andy Weir – An astronaut is stranded on alone on Mars. Things break. He tries to fix them.
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline – Virtual Reality becomes more compelling than the real world.
Enlightenment Now – Steven Pinker – An argument for the ideals of the enlightenment.
The Better Angels of Our Nature – Steven Pinker – Now is the safest, most prosperous time in human history (with data).
Deep Work – Cal Newport – Valuable, information age jobs require the ability to work deeply. An argument for why and how to prioritize deep work.
Influence – Robert B. Cialdini – We influence and are influenced every day. This book discusses 6 main ways people are influenced, especially by marketing. Could probably be a series of blog posts but the ideas are still interesting.
The Sports Gene – David Epstein – Evidence that excellent genetics are a prerequisite for being an elite athlete.
Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely – Examples of how people fail to behave rationally.
Power to the People – Pavel Tsatsouline – Principles of fitness, interspersed with dry Russian humor.
Radical Markets – Eric A. Posner – Eccentric ideas for changing the economy and politics.
Essentialism – Greg McKeown – Don’t be busy, be productive.
Ghost Boy – Martin Pistorius – Non-fiction. A young man wakes in a body he can’t control. A story of fighting for his agency.
Bossypants – Tina Fey – A funny autobiographical account of personal success.
Bad Blood – John Carreyrou – An account of the rise and fall of a Silicon Valley medical startup once valued at over $9 billion. Told by the investigative journalist who uncovered the sham.