Addiction by Design

The author goes deep on how slot machines hold gamblers, spellbound, in an endless loop of play. First published in 2012, but more relevant today than ever as we're starting to see these same stimulus-response methods spring up in the apps and websites we use every day.

Don't Make Me Think

A handbook on web and mobile usability that anyone with a stake in digital products will benefit from reading. The most useful part for me was the concept of usability testing presented as a lightweight, low-cost and repeatable process.

Evil by Design

A collection of design patterns that aim to exploit human frailties and "make users emotionally involved in doing something that benefits the designer more than them." Each chapter deals with one of the Seven Deadly Sins (Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, and so on).

The Best Interface is No Interface

This book is about our compulsion, as designers, to attempt to solve every problem with a smartphone or laptop. Krishna lays out three principles to help us move beyond today's screen-obsessed world.

The Design of Everyday Things

A must-read for anyone who's involved in the process of making things. It will have you questioning the design of just about every man-made object you come across.

Universal Principles of Design

A great resource for designers of every kind. It's filled with concepts of psychology, architecture, human factors and interaction design.

Change by Design

A strong introduction to design thinking. Brown argues that everyone can and should be a design thinker in whatever they do.

Creative Confidence

A great book for anyone looking to develop their creative thinking.

Designing for Emotion

A quick read on how to design websites that users will enjoy and want to return to. The examples are pretty dated, but it's still worth a read given how short it is.

Facilitating Collaboration

A quick and straightforward introduction to group facilitation. It includes some interesting thoughts on the role artificial intelligence could have in collaborative workshops of the future.

Hooked

A great overview of the methods used by product designers to engage and "addict" users. Learning about these techniques also proved incredibly useful in cutting back on mindless tech usage.

Lean UX

A short read on the use of lean methodologies to design digital products. Design only what you need, deliver it quickly and maintain enough customer contact to get meaningful feedback fast.

Show Your Work

A short book full of inspiring advice on how to share your work online.

Sprint

An all-in-one guide to test a big idea in just one week. Map out the problem, sketch out solutions, pick an idea, build a prototype and finally, test it with real live humans.

Anything You Want

A useful book filled with philosophies on life and business.

Blitzscaling

Hoffman goes into incredible detail on how to achieve scale in the tech business, presenting a set of techniques for driving and managing extremely rapid growth.

Extreme Ownership

As the leader, you're always responsible. If your team is not committed or if you don't accomplish the mission, you have to own those failures. An interesting book that's well worth the read.

Linchpin

This book is about your potential to make a difference at work. A linchpin combines deep knowledge and good judgement, makes work more personal, and collects, connects and nurtures relationships.

Scrum

A simple summary of the scrum method for managing projects and increasing productivity.

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Following your passion is bad career advice, the better approach is to master skills that people value.

The Dip

If you don't have a desire to be the best at what you do, it may be time to quit.

The Lean Startup

After reading Reid Hoffman and Jeff Gothelf I was expecting a lot more from this one. The concepts lack detail and it's pretty dry at times. It still contains some useful ideas though.

Sapiens

A mix of psychology, philosophy and economics rolled into a compelling history of humankind.

Homo Deus

A thought-provoking look at how the current trends in science and technology may progress. It traces the origins of our present-day conditioning to loosen its grip and enable us to think in far more imaginative ways about our future.

Stand Out of Our Light

"There's a deep misalignment between the goals we have for ourselves, and the goals our technologies have for us". Williams argues that the liberation of human attention may be the defining moral and political struggle of our time.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Whether it's the news, TV or social media, we all suffer from some form of information addiction. Postman argues that entertainment's place in society has reached a point where our addiction to it is undermining our independence. It's spooky how relevant his observations are today, given that they were made in a pre-internet era.

Stillness is the Key

Another great bite-sized philosophy book from Ryan Holiday. Stillness is choosing to pick up a book instead of your phone. It's learning to enjoy life, even when it isn't going your way. See my notes on Ego is the Enemy and The Obstacle is the Way if you like this kind of thing.

Mindfulness

Meditation trains the mind to consciously ‘see’ your own thoughts as they occur so that you can live your life as it unfolds in the present moment.

Antifragile

This book is about the "opposite of fragile", things that benefit from stress, disorder and volatility. Important concepts, unusual ideas and wise advice presented in an entertaining way.

Discourses and Selected Writings

Epictetus' stoicism in a nutshell: when you try to control the incontrollable, you will only face disappointment, anger, sadness, anxiety, fear and suffering. Super easy to digest and packed with useful aphorisms and quotes.

Finite and Infinite Games

Once you've grasped the core concept of this book—the distinction between finite and infinite games—it's almost impossible to put it out of your mind.

Letters From a Stoic

The book is profoundly insightful, it calls you to action, and it has that 'quit your whining—this is life' attitude that so defines the Roman Stoics.

Meditations

A look into the mind of one of history's most powerful people. Filled with knowledge on how to interact with others, being a good person and dealing with life in general.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Feynman tells a series of autobiographical stories which give an honest view into his philosophy and take on life. Be curious about everything. Experiment often. Focus on the real world, not on theory.

Black Swan

A book that will change the way you think about sudden, unexpected events. Taleb explains that we're bad at predicting the future and that we overestimate what we know. He provides a useful model for maximising potential upside while reducing downside.

The Denial of Death

The premise of this book is that the most fundamental problem of humanity is our fear of death. It will give you a new perspective on what motivates people in life and why they behave in certain ways.

Lying

A compelling case to never lie again. An interesting thought from the book: to tell a white lie is to infringe upon the freedom of those we care about.

Man's Search For Meaning

A moving account of Frankl's time in Nazi concentration camps. He explains how these experiences led him to develop the theory of logotherapy, the belief that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find meaning in life.

Principles

An incredibly useful book on how to make better decisions, set more precise goals, and solve problems more effectively. These are my notes just from part 2, "Life Principles".

Ego is the Enemy

A practical guide to confronting and overcoming your ego.

Stumbling on Happiness

Gilbert's message is that we're bad at remembering how we felt in the past, and also terrible at predicting how we will feel in the future. His advice — find someone who is having the experience we are contemplating and ask them how they feel.

The Obstacle is The Way

Every obstacle can be overcome through persistence in your efforts and resistance to distractions. Life is full of obstacles, there is no such thing as overcoming an obstacle and entering the land of no obstacles.

12 Rules for Life

Peterson draws on psychology, history, philosophy and religion to craft an exploration into the essence of what it means to be human.

How the Mind Works

Pinker weaves together a picture of the human psyche drawing from two big ideas in psychology: the computational theory of mind and the theory of natural selection. This topic is undoubtedly very complex, and if anything, this book shows just how much we don't know yet.

Influence

The author went undercover to learn about 'compliance practitioners’ (salesmen, con artists, advertisers and fund-raisers). He distilled the tactics into a handful of “weapons of influence”.

The Coddling of the American Mind

The authors posit that Gen Z have been raised to believe their feelings are always right, they should avoid pain and discomfort and they should look for faults in others and not themselves. Haidt argues that these "untruths" are resulting in a slew of harmful effects on society.

Thinking Fast & Slow

A book that will change the way you think... about how you think. Key takeaway: humans are deeply irrational and often make judgements based on poor intuition.

What Every Body is Saying

Former FBI-agent shares a collection of incredibly useful tips on reading non-verbal behaviour—a means of communicating through facial expressions, gestures, touching, physical movements, posture and tone of voice. It's almost impossible to miss these non-verbal signals once you learn to recognise them.

Irresistible

This book is an overview of addictive behaviours, examining where they begin, who designs them, and the psychological tricks that make them so compelling. Alter offers some useful suggestions for changing your own bad habits.

Nudge

A good introduction to the core concepts of Behavioural Science. The book is based on the idea that it's ok to influence decision making if it makes peoples lives longer, healthier and better.

Social Physics

Great book on how big data could help build a better world. Although, I feel the author brushed over the ethical implications of snooping on peoples smartphones and internet usage.

The Power of Habit

An interesting and practical guide to understanding how habits work and experimenting with how they might change.

The Willpower Instinct

The author walks you through what goes on in your brain during a decision-making process and how to use that process to your advantage. A good book for improving willpower, goal setting and motivation.

Mindset

A powerful approach to reframe the way you think about life—everything is a learning opportunity. I don't recommend reading the whole book as it felt pretty fluffy at times.

On Writing Well

This book is filled with informative and insightful guidance on how to make your writing sing. An essential read for anyone who does any amount of writing.

The Elements of Style

The gold standard for proper grammar and punctuation. Favourite rule: "Omit needless words."