100 Best Reasoning Books of All Time

Tony Robbins

Life Coach

Another book that I’ve read dozens of times. It taught me that if you change the meaning, you change everything. Meaning equals emotion, and emotion equals life. [source]

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-founder/Facebook and Asana

Dustin Moskovitz recommended this book on Twitter. [source]

Jimmy Fallon

TV Host

I read it while spending ten days in the ICU of Bellevue hospital trying to reattach my finger from a ring avulsion accident in my kitchen. It talks about the meaning of life, and I believe you come out a better person from reading it. [source]

Barack Obama

Former USA President

A few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Captivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? [source]

Dallas Campbell

@TheChilterns Even if you profoundly disagree with Clarke, it’s very detailed. The classic is of course ‘The Demon Haunted World’ by Carl Sagan. When I’m Prime Minister it will be compulsory reading at school! Best book on what science is/isn’t and why we think the way we do. 👍 [source]

Edip Yüksel

For Philosophy of Science class, I am now using Carl Sagan's book as the REQUIRED text book. Instead of bombarding students with terminology and names, we should let them enjoy the dancing of synapses in their own 3-pound grey jelly. In this thread I will share quotes from Sagan. https://t.co/rBEPVvEiuO [source]

James Randi

First of all, Carl was my very good friend, and we had a lot of confidences over the years. He was the epitome of the scientific mind and the scientific thinker. In The Demon-Haunted World, one of his later books, he investigates pseudoscience, frauds and fakes, and the mistakes that scientists made over the years. It’s very comprehensive. He had a whole chapter devoted to “Carlos” – or Jose Alvarez, who travelled all over the world doing this act as a fake psychic, and then revealed the whole thing on Australian television. Carl was quite taken with that story, and he and Jose spent a couple of hours together at a scientific conference that they both attended. [source]

Charles T. Munger

Vice Chairman/Berkshire Hathaway

recommends this book in the second edition of Poor Charlie’s Almanack. [source]

Matt Ridley

Turned evolutionary biology on its head and was written like a great detective story. [source]

Phil Libin

CEO/Evernote

Had a profound influence on me pretty early on. [source]

Antonio Eram

This book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. [source]

Susan Jacoby

Richard Dawkins is very funny. One of the reasons for reading The God Delusion is that it will disabuse you of the idea – which is a common stereotype of atheists – that they are utterly humourless. You hear this over and over again. I’m often invited to college campuses to give lectures, and often they’re religious schools – not fundamentalist schools, but colleges of a historically religious type. And very often I will hear: “Oh I expected you to be small and dark-haired and wear glasses!” The image of the atheist woman is kind of like what the image of the feminist used to be, someone too ugly to get a man. But part of it is also humorlessness. People will often say to me, “Oh you’re so funny.” “Well, yeah!” [source]

Vote Dem For The Planet

@KimBledsoe14 @Goodbye_Jesus @Ian313f There were a lot of rebels and drifters in those days against the repressive regime. They had followers. Have you read “The God Delusion”? Great book. [source]

Arianna Huffington

Founder/The Huffington Post

I find this book so inspirational and instructive, it lives on my nightstand. [source]

Chip Conley

I have given this book away to a number of people. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Pinker is at his best when he analyzes historic trends and uses data to put the past into context. I was already familiar with a lot of the information he shares—especially about health and energy—but he understands each subject so deeply that he’s able to articulate his case in a way that feels fresh and new. I love how he’s willing to dive deep into primary data sources and pull out unexpected signs of progress. I tend to point to things like dramatic reductions in poverty and childhood deaths, because I think they’re such a good measure of how we’re doing as a society. Pinker covers those areas, but he also looks at more obscure topics. Here are five of my favorite facts from the book that show how the world is improving: 1. You’re 37 times less likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than you were at the turn of the century—and that’s not because there are fewer thunderstorms today. It’s because we have better weather prediction capabilities, improved safety education, and more people living in cities. 2. Time spent doing laundry fell from 11.5 hours a week in 1920 to an hour and a half in 2014. This might sound trivial in the grand scheme of progress. But the rise of the washing machine has improved quality of life by freeing up time for people—mostly women—to enjoy other pursuits. That time represents nearly half a day every week that could be used for everything from binge-watching Ozark or reading a book to starting a new business. 3. You’re way less likely to die on the job. Every year, 5,000 people die from occupational accidents in the U.S. But in 1929—when our population was less than two-fifths the size it is today—20,000 people died on the job. People back then viewed deadly workplace accidents as part of the cost of doing business. Today, we know better, and we’ve engineered ways to build things without putting nearly as many lives at risk. 4. The global average IQ score is rising by about 3 IQ points every decade. Kids’ brains are developing more fully thanks to improved nutrition and a cleaner environment. Pinker also credits more analytical thinking in and out of the classroom. Think about how many symbols you interpret every time you check your phone’s home screen or look at a subway map. Our world today encourages abstract thought from a young age, and it’s making us smarter. 5. War is illegal. This idea seems obvious. But before the creation of the United Nations in 1945, no institution had the power to stop countries from going to war with each other. Although there have been some exceptions, the threat of international sanctions and intervention has proven to be an effective deterrent to wars between nations. [source]

Sam Harris

Sam Harris picked this book as the first book in his Book Club. [source]

Yuval Noah Harari

Historian

There is of course much to argue about, but that’s what makes this book so interesting.

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

Andra Zaharia

'While I was thinking of the best books to add to this short list, I realized that not even half of them are directly related to digital marketing. This is because I believe that the best marketers are people who understand human nature deeply and aim to bring out the best in it. Call me naive, but that’s how I see it. If I were to want to pursue a career in marketing, I’d read … Predictably Irrational. [source]

Chris Goward

Here are some of the books that have been very impactful for me, or taught me a new way of thinking: … Predictably Irrational. [source]

A.J. Jacobs

All about trying to figure out the gap between the red and blue states – Republican and Democrat – and it’s really interesting. [source]

Akin Oyebode

@eggheader @OnemuVictor1 @JonHaidt Abeg order two. I read Righteous Mind which he also wrote, and that was a very fascinating book. [source]

Andrew M. Mwenda

The best work on this is a book by Jonathan Haidt “The Righteous Mind: Why good People are Divided by Religion and Politics.” He argues that human beings have deeply entrenched moral intuitions which guide their assessment of reality. Facts matter very little if at all. [source]

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

A bracing disassembly and reconstruction of a theory of individual progress in the modern world. Fascinating compare and contrast with The Courage To Be Disliked. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Just look at the table of contents: Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back Rule 2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping Rule 3: Make friends with people who want the best for you Rule 4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today Rule 5: Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them Rule 6: Set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world Rule 7: Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient) Rule 8: Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie Rule 9: Assume the person you are listening to might know something you don’t Rule 10: Be precise in your speech Rule 11: Do not bother children when they are skateboarding Rule 12: Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street Read this book. [source]

Andrew Price

@stewheckenberg @jordanbpeterson Thanks mate. I almost wish the book was published under a different author so more people would give it a chance. It’s really one of the best “how to fix your life” books around. [source]

Simon Sinek

Author

Leaders needn’t be the loudest. Leadership is not about theater. It’s not about dominance. It is about putting the lives of others before any other priority. In Quiet, Cain affirms to a good many of us who are introverts by nature that we needn’t try to be extroverts if we want to lead. Simply being ourselves is more important — and more effective. [source]

Danielle Morrill

Co-founder/Mattermark

Anyway, maybe you’re like me and figuring this out for yourself. It’s a good book for introverts and for those who love them [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Probably half the world is introverts. Maybe more. It’s not an easy life to live. I sometimes have that feeling in a room full of people, “uh-oh. I just shut down. I can’t talk anymore and there’s a lock on my mouth and this crowd threw away the key.” Do you ever get that feeling? Please? I hope you do. Let’s try to lock eyes at the party. “Quiet” shows the reader how to unlock the secret powers that probably half the world needs to unlock. [source]

Malcolm Gladwell

Writer & Journalist

I don’t need to say much here. This book invented an entire genre. Economics was never supposed to be this entertaining. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

I love newer books like this book. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

James Altucher recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

And throw in “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness”. “Fragile” means if you hit something might break. “Resilient” means if you hit something, it will stay the same. On my podcast Nassim discusses “Antifragility” – building a system, even on that works for you on a personal level, where you if you harm your self in some way it becomes stronger. That podcast changed my life He discusses Antifragility throughout history, up to our current economic situation, and even in our personal situations. [source]

Anant Jain

The five-book series, "Incerto", by Nassim Nicholas Taleb has had a profound impact on how I think about the world. There’s some overlap across the books — but you'll likely find the repetition helpful in retaining the content better. [source]

Art De Vany

I used this book is a class I taught on the economics of uncertainty. [source]

Susan Cain

Author

Such a fantastic book. And it was really, for me, completely lifechanging. [source]

Chris Goward

I also highly recommend Sam Harris' Waking Up, which is a more well-rounded unpacking of non-religious mindfulness practice. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

Very well thought through analysis of spirituality without religion. [source]

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

Great book. I really like how it summarizes some of the larger themes of history. Very incisive and, unlike most history books, is actually kind of small and it covers a lot of ground. [source]

Ray Dalio

Founder/Bridgewater Associates

The book I’d give every graduating senior in college or high school would be 'Lessons From History'. This is the Durants, they were maybe the greatest historians of all time. Anyway, of 5,000 years of history, probably wrote 5,000 pages on it, and they took this book - I think it’s 104 pages - and they took the themes of history, it could be from religion, natural resources, who knows, each one of these things, and they looked at it for themes of history through history. I think that, that would be great. [source]

Kevin Systrom

A great book. [source]

Brad Feld

Co-Founder/Foundry Group

I think every entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur should read the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was written in the 1970s by a guy named Robert Pirsig. It was his first book, it's kind of a hippie philosophy treatised journey. The word that sort of came out of it was Chautauqua, he's like having a conversation with his son as they do a motorcycle trip across the country, and it's just this incredible treatise on philosophy, product, quality, accomplishing what your goal is, against the backdrop of the narrator, the author, going crazy and having a psychotic break. And so it's this very powerful mix of accessible philosophy, combined with this pretty captivating journey in a book that, again, anybody who builds anything, there's so much in it that's so worth reading and just soaking in. But it's not what you'd expect, it's not a "here's how you do it", you have to read it slowly and think about it. So, it's one of my favorites. [source]

Drew Houston

CEO/Dropbox

There are engineers who dismiss all these things that can’t be fit into an algorithm, or that don’t have some kind of mathematical rigor underpinning them, this book is about that question. [source]

Tyler Cowen

Founder/Marginal Revolution University

Honorable mentions: Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and The Joy of Sex, all given to me by my mother. I believe they helped inculcate some of the 1960s-70s ethos of individual freedom into my thinking. [source]

Mike Shinoda

I know most of the guys in the band read this book. [source]

Marillyn Hewson

CEO/Lockheed Martin

CEO Marilyn Hewson recommends this book because it helped her to trust her instincts in business. [source]

Antonio Eram

When asked to name some books that had a big impact on him, Antonio mentioned Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. [source]

Doug McMillon

CEO/Walmart

Here are some of my favorite reads from 2017. Lots of friends and colleagues send me book suggestions and it's impossible to squeeze them all in. I continue to be super curious about how digital and tech are enabling people to transform our lives but I try to read a good mix of books that apply to a variety of areas and stretch my thinking more broadly. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

Michael Lewis is just a great storyteller, and tell a story in this he does. It’s about two Israeli psychologists, their collaboration on the irrationality of the human mind, and the milestones they set with concepts like loss-aversion, endowment effect, and other common quirks that the assumption of rationality doesn’t account for. It’s a bit long-winded, but if you like Lewis’ style, you probably won’t mind it. The scientific recaps could have happened in a book 1/10th the length, but then you’d miss out on the character portrayals of these two fascinating scientists. [source]

Francisco Perez Mackenna

This summer, Mackenna is learning more about the birth of behavioral economics, the psychology of white collar crime, and the restoration of American cities as locations of economic growth. [source]

Brian Leiter

Yes, I think that’s right. It touches on almost all Nietzsche’s central concerns – on truth, on the nature of philosophy, on morality, on what’s wrong with morality, will to power. [source]

Simon Critchley

What did you think of it then? We should talk about your reaction to it! [source]

Andrew Hui

This edition is really good at showing both the constructed-ness of the original Analects and the vast exegetical machine that has driven the Chinese philosophical tradition through the centuries. [source]

Daniel A. Bell

It’s not written by Confucius himself. It is more a collection of anecdotes of how he engaged his students. [source]

Michael Puett

He believed one of our dangers is that we fall into ruts that are defined by the world around us. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Yong succeeds in his intention to give us a 'grander view of life' and does so without falling prey to grand, unifying explanations that are far too simplistic. He presents our inner ecosystems in all their wondrous messiness and complexity. And he offers realistic optimism that our growing knowledge of the human microbiome will lead to great new opportunities for enhancing our health. [source]

Eric Schmidt

CEO/Google

When you finish this book, which takes a long time, you conclude that the world is in a much, much better place than it has been in the past. [source]

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

My second book of the year is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. It's a timely book about how and why violence has steadily decreased throughout our history, and how we can continue this trend. Recent events might make it seem like violence and terrorism are more common than ever, so it's worth understanding that all violence -- even terrorism -- is actually decreasing over time. If we understand how we are achieving this, we can continue our path towards peace. A few people I trust have told me this is the best book they've ever read. It's a long book, so I plan on taking a month to read it rather than two weeks. I'll add a third book in two weeks that will be a shorter read to complement this. If you want to follow along with the books I'm reading and participate in conversations with the authors, you can like the page A Year of Books. [source]

Antonio Eram

This book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. [source]

Dr. Andrew Weil

One of the books that I have commonly given out to people. [source]

Evan Carmichael

His first book, The End of Faith, spent 33 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. He's one of the most sought after speakers in the world. He's Sam Harris and here's my take on his Top 10 Rules for Success! #Believe #EvanCarmichael #SamHarris #entrepreneur #valueyourtime https://t.co/ZL0iUlqCOT [source]

Timothy Ferriss

Author & Entrepreneur

This is a letter from Stoic heavyweight Seneca the Younger — who lived a mere 2,000 years or so ago — to his friend Lucilius. It’s from a collection of letters that comprise, effectively, my favorite book of all time. I’ve read it dozens of times, and I loved it so much that I turned it into The Tao of Seneca, a three-volume set of audiobooks. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

After Marcus Aurelius, this is one of my favorite books. While Marcus wrote mainly for himself, Seneca had no trouble advising and aiding others. In fact, that was his job—he was Nero’s tutor, tasked with reducing the terrible impulses of a terrible man. His advice on grief, on wealth, on power, on religion, and on life are always there when you need them. [source]

Jerzy Gregorek

From this book, I learned self-mastery: to constantly improve myself so I would be ready for any possible disaster. I also learned that when disaster happens, it means that something is being asked of me. I need to improve. [source]

Peter Attia

Founder/Attia Medical

A book about cognitive dissonance that looks at common weaknesses and biases in human thinking. Peter wants to ensure he goes through life without being too sure of himeself, and this book helps him to recalibrate. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

Cognitive Dissonance is one of the most powerful and delusionary forces in the world. [source]

David Kramaley

When asked what books he would recommend to youngsters interested in his professional path, David mentioned Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me). [source]

Eric Ripert

A fascinating study and still wholly relevant. [source]

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? … The Prince (Machiavelli) to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

Of course, this is a must read. Machiavelli is one of those figures and writers who is tragically overrated and underrated at the same time. Unfortunately that means that many people who read him miss the point and other people avoid him and miss out altogether. Take Machiavelli slow, and really read him. Also understand the man behind the book–not just as a masterful writer but a man who withstood heinous torture and exile with barely a whimper. Machiavelli is a glimpse into a time when power was literal and out for public viewing–when he talks about making an example of someone, he doesn’t mean calling them out, he means putting their head on a pike. Don’t let that scare you because we’re not as far from that world as we’d like to think. Deny that at your own peril. [source]

George Saunders

Please read this book. So smart, so timely. [source]

Maya Wiley

Prof. Tim Snyder, author of “In Tyranny” reminded us in that important little book that we must protect our institutions. #DOJ is one of our most important in gov’t for the rule of law. This is our collective house & #Barr should be evicted. https://t.co/PPxM9IMQUm [source]

Tom Holland

"There isn’t a page of this magnificent book that does not contain some fascinating detail and the narrative is held together with a novelist’s eye for character and theme." #Dominion https://t.co/FESSNxVDLC [source]

James Randi

They talk about the blind watchmaker not being able to make a watch, but if you’re given an almost infinite number of combinations and permutations of materials and situations, the world will come about. Or it may not. In our case, it came about. You’re here, I’m here, and I’m very happy about that. [source]

Jerry Coyne

If I had to pick just one self-contained book that lays out Dawkins’s philosophy and methodology, and shows his literary skills, I would have to pick this one. [source]

Kenneth Miller

In the Dawkins book I chose, The Blind Watchmaker, he brilliantly explains how complex mechanisms and structures are put together by the process of evolution. It is true that he makes certain theological points that I don’t agree with. [source]

Peter Attia

Founder/Attia Medical

One of the books that considers to be an important read for people interested in his career path. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

Nigel Warburton

In the Enquiry he puts forward his particular empirical account of the mind. There’s a whole section on morality and so on, but the key bit for me is where he’s talking about how, following on from John Locke and the tradition of seeing the mind as a blank slate, we get ideas from what he calls ‘sense impressions’. If you think of an impression as like a footprint left in the sand, the senses get impressed, somewhat passively, by information that comes in from outside. And the impression that’s left in the mind, when we think about it away from what we’re seeing, is called an idea. [source]

Paul Krugman

This [source]

Simon Blackburn

Hume thought that overconfidence and dogmatism led to intolerance, to faction, to a lot of the crimes of human history. [source]

Sam Harris

Just a great example of how English should be written and just a great voice to have in your head as a result. [source]

Peter Atkins

It reviews how people have really grappled in a seemingly very intelligent way with very deep questions. [source]

Adrian Moore

This is the greatest philosophical book of all time. This is Kant’s masterpiece. [source]

Luciano Floridi

I find reading Kant a bit like understanding cricket as a foreigner: hard to get at first, but once you get it, it’s very enjoyable. [source]

Simon Blackburn

An illuminating way to think of the Critique is as a kind of prolonged wrestling match with Hume. [source]

Eric Weinstein

Managing Director/Thiel Capital

Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter. [source]

George Raveling

This, to me, is one of the true classics of all time. [source]

Jessica Stern

This is a brilliant book. Hoffer points out that zealots can be attracted to zealotry itself. Leaders of revolutionary movements go after people who are so dissatisfied with the status quo, and with themselves, that they are willing to put everything at risk, to create a new, better, purer world. The trick is to provide them with an identity as part of something bigger than themselves. One of the fascinating things Hoffer does is to look at how the Nazi and Communist Parties were recruiting from the same pool. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

I tend to jump from book to book and may switch if I am interested in some new topic. This is a pleasure for me (which I also do benefit work wise from too). It’s quite a random list because I have eclectic interests (or just scatterbrained most likely) on tech business, AI, general global economy, geopolitics, rising Biotech economy & history. I'm basically 15% to 50% into all these books. [source]

Clare Lockhart

Seeing Like A State. He’s quite similar to Dewey in a way. He also sees the state as only a mechanism. But he thinks that the way that the state chooses to count, or the way it chooses to see, will inform how it behaves and what kind of animal it becomes. Scott explains, for example, how in France, in early modern times, the state decided to count two things. It decided to count how much salt there was and how many able-bodied men there were, because it wanted to tax the salt and send the able-bodied men off to war. Now perhaps the state decides to count other things, how many healthy people there are, how many well-educated people they are… So that what the state chooses to count determines the parameters of what the state chooses to do. [source]

Roger Pielke Jr

A good lesson for people thinking about climate change, whether to create a global policy for carbon dioxide emissions. [source]

Walter Isaacson

Author

This is the clearest explanation of Newton and Einstein available, and Greene does it with a great sense of humour and wonderful visual thought experiments. [source]

Sean M Carroll

It covers issues that don’t get attention in other places, such as the nature of time, the nature of space and really gives you a profound understanding of the universe. [source]

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Excellent cover art and lots of good reasons not to lie! [source]

Vinod Khosla

Co-Founder/Sun Microsystem

One of my favorite one hour reads about intellectual honesty. I wish more people were this honest! [source]

A.J. Jacobs

A great book. [source]

Carol Dweck

I was raised in the heyday of the IQ craze. My sixth grade teacher seated us around the room in IQ order and assigned all privileges on the basis of IQ. This book made me realise the effect it had on us and I saw that my work could play a role in bringing that era to a close. [source]

Jerry Coyne

He had this Marxist viewpoint towards biology which in the end made him almost reject natural selection. [source]

Susan Gelman

This is a classic book. It was published in 1981 and got a lot of attention when it came out. Gould just does this beautiful job of laying out the ‘biology as destiny’ idea – and then ripping it to shreds. [source]

Jerry Coyne

He calls it Breaking the Spell for a reason. He thinks there is this sanctity about religion which prevents people from asking, “Where did it come from in the first place?” It’s a human construct, after all, it wasn’t given to humanity by God. It couldn’t have been, because we have thousands of different religions. So even religious people recognize the human contribution to religion. At the beginning of the book he says it could be real. We could be worshipping a real divine being. But we still want to know where this system of beliefs and practices and ceremonies came from — and it’s not off limits. That’s the importance to me of that book. [source]

Julian Baggini

If people want to read a New Atheist book, they should read this one. [source]

Dallas Denery

Descartes wants a God that doesn’t speak, because speaking is tantamount to interfering with the orderly and law-like operations of the world. [source]

Luciano Floridi

Today Descartes speaks more directly to us if you understand him as the equivalent of an engineer testing a product. [source]

Nigel Warburton

René Descartes is a superb writer who, in his first Meditation (which is the one I’m recommending) takes skepticism—which is an unwillingness to assume anything, a philosophical stance where you question everything—about as far as it can go. Meditations is written as if he is going through a process in real time, he’s imagining himself sitting by a fire taking all the thoughts that he’s had in his past, the different ways of acquiring information, cross-questioning himself about whether he could have been deceived about any of those, and employing what’s come to be known as ‘Cartesian Doubt’. It’s not taking as true anything about which there is the slightest possible doubt. In ordinary life, that’s not a way to behave. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

Guy Raz

I don’t think there is a better journalist than Hitchens writing in English. The power of his arguments – they’re so crisply written, they’re so forceful that, if you are on the other side, they almost strangle you. There’s nobody more compelling to read. Every time I read him, I learn something from him. His arguments are so tight, they’re hermetic. It’s very difficult to take them apart. I certainly don’t agree with him a lot of the time, but you can’t but be in awe of the way he can build an argument. [source]

Chip Conley

Says something about the fact that it’s not so much the shortness of life, it’s how we waste it. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

Seneca’s letters are the best place to start, but the essays in On the Shortness of Life are excellent as well. [source]

John Craig

This is the book that I recommend to everybody. It's everything you will need to make it in life & business. It is by far a complete business self-motivational book all-in-one. The best thing is that it’s 2,000-year of time-tested wisdom. [source]

Eric Weinstein

Managing Director/Thiel Capital

Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter. [source]

Antonio Eram

This book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. [source]

Darren Aronofsky

A good one. [source]

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? … The Age of Reason (Paine) to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. [source]

Susan Jacoby

Simply put, this book excoriates the idea that any religious book was written by God. They were all written by man, and while many of them have excellent principles, they are principles that any man can discern through his own reason. You don’t have to have all these supernatural events. He specifically mentions the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible and the Koran – the big three. These sacred books were written by man, and they can only be understood in terms of the period of history in which they were written. That’s all The Age of Reason is about, but it lost Paine all his positive fame. He was one of the most famous people in America because of his writing, which galvanized the colonists during the Revolutionary War. He lost all of that as a result of writing The Age of Reason, and he does die alone. No church cemetery will allow him to be buried there. The only religion he ever really admired were the Quakers and even the Quaker cemetery in New Rochelle New York wouldn’t let him be buried there. The Age of Reason ought to be uncontroversial today, but it’s not in America, simply because there are these 25% of Americans who believe that the Bible is literally true and that it was written by God. That’s the strange thing. The Age of Reason was on the Catholic Church’s index forever when there was an index, but I don’t think anybody would think much of it today in Europe. The idea that the Bible wasn’t something written by God is something that’s accepted by the vast majority of Christians. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford, has a gift for making science enjoyable. This book is as accessible as the TV series Cosmos is for younger audiences—and as relevant for older audiences. It’s an engaging, well-illustrated science textbook offering compelling answers to big questions, like “how did the universe form?” and “what causes earthquakes?” It’s also a plea for readers of all ages to approach mysteries with rigor and curiosity. Dawkins’s antagonistic (and, to me, overzealous) view of religion has earned him a lot of angry critics, but I consider him to be one of the great scientific writer/explainers of all time. [source]

Vote Dem For The Planet

@EJDuboisL7444 @realDonaldTrump It’s a great book, like all Dawkins’ books. [source]

David Edmonds

Reasons and Persons was written in 1984, and Derek Parfit was one of my postgraduate supervisors. One of the blurbs on the back of book says “Reasons and Persons is a work of genius”, and I think it is. It’s an incredibly important book, and one written in a tradition completely different to Bernard Williams, even though the two were friends. Bernard Williams is an essayist and he looks at the big picture, like Nagel. Parfit, more like Singer, is in the tradition of the 19th century philosopher Henry Sidgwick – he is a detailed, rigorous, almost mathematical philosopher, who worked from premises slowly to conclusions. There’s nothing pretentious about it – it’s beautifully written, incredibly thoughtful and well-argued, with fantastically imaginative thought experiments. [source]

Will MacAskill

I would say that Derek Parfit was the most brilliant philosopher of the 20th century. His book Reasons and Persons, especially, has over 10,000 citations. [source]

Sam Harris

You can get the benefit of both his voice and his writing if you listen to this audiobook. [source]

Jesper Bylund

I’m currently reading Hitch 22 by the late, and amazing, Christopher Hitchens. And I’m expecting to be blown away, because he was a spectacular author. But I have no idea how. Not sure what the book is really about. He’s just that good. [source]

David Brooks

Damasio worked with people who have suffered strokes and as a result are incapable of feeling emotion. And far from making good decisions, they make terrible decisions, and their lives fall apart. [source]

Paul Thagard

This book understood emotion in terms of what the brain does – not as a kind of abstract computational process but very much tied in with the particular brain processes. [source]

Jonah Lehrer

A really smart book and the reason I put it on there is that it really invented the genre of science non-fiction. [source]

Nicholas Epley

This is a book about intuitive human judgment and how the way we think about the world can be distorted and misdirected by forces within our own mind, like our tendency to think well of ourselves, by cognitive forces, such as the ease with which information comes to mind, and by environmental forces, like asymmetries in feedback. [source]