Kate Raworth's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Kate Raworth recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Kate Raworth's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Metaphors We Live By

George Lakoff, Mark Johnson

4.2

The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, the

Recommended by Kate Raworth and Tristan Harris.

Kate Raworth

I became aware of all the metaphors embedded in the way I speak and, therefore, the way I think about what is and what isn’t possible. [source]

Thinking in Systems: A Primer

Donella H. Meadows

4.4

Preview Summary

Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leader

Recommended by Tobi Lütke, Kate Raworth, and Mira Kirshenbaum.

Kate Raworth

It was a real revelation for me to discover such a different approach to thinking and analysing challenges. [source]

Tobi Lütke

Founder & CEO/Shopify

Tobi Lütke recommended this book on the podcast "The Knowledge Project". [source]

Mira Kirshenbaum

A nice overview of how initial conditions lead to patterns that determine what the relationship feels like to the people in it [source]

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

William McDonough

4.3

"Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. But as architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart point out in this provocative, visionary book, such an approach only perpetuates the one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model, dating to the Industrial Revolution, that creates such fantastic amounts of waste and pol

Recommended by Joe Gebbia, Jerry McNerney, and Kate Raworth.

Kate Raworth

Helped me to reimagine how industry could be designed to work with, rather than against, the cycles of the living world. [source]

Joe Gebbia

Co-founder/Airbnb

Was hugely influential. [source]

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Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons

David Bollier

4.1

The biggest "tragedy of the commons" is the misconception that commons are failures—relics from another era rendered unnecessary by the market and state. Think Like a Commoner dispels such prejudices by explaining the rich history and promising future of the commons—an ageless paradigm of cooperation and fairness that is re-making our world.

With graceful prose and dozens of fascinating stories, Da

Recommended by Kate Raworth.

Kate Raworth

Bollier gives us the chance to reimagine the commons and recognise their potential. [source]

Cover unavailable

Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution

Marjorie Kelly

4.4

Building an Economy That Works for All

As long as businesses are set up to focus exclusively on maximizing financial income for the few, our economy will be locked into endless growth and widening inequality. But now people are experimenting with new forms of ownership, which Marjorie Kelly calls generative: aimed at creating the conditions for life for many generations to come. These designs may

Recommended by Kate Raworth.

Kate Raworth

Goes straight to the question of how a company is set up, structured, owned, financed, and networked. [source]