Nigel Warburton's Top Book Recommendations

Nigel Warburton

Kahneman developed research with Amos Tversky, who unfortunately died young—I think it would have been a co-written book otherwise. It’s a brilliant book that summarizes their psychological research on cognitive biases, or is patterns of thinking, which all of us are prone to, which aren’t reliable. [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]

Nigel Warburton

As Syed argues, we progress in all kinds of areas is by making mistakes. He was a superb table-tennis player, and he knows that every mistake that he made was a learning experience, at least potentially, a chance to improve. I think you’d find the same attitude among musicians, or in areas where practitioners are very attentive to the mistake that they make, and how those failures can teach them something that can allow them to make a leap forward. [source]

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

… highlights the need for a growth mindset in life. It advocates for changing attitudes towards failure, and understanding that the only way we learn is by trying things and altering our behaviour based on the results. It’s an attitude we found incredibly valuable during my highlight of the year, completing the Virgin Strive Challenge. [source]

Daniel Ek

Since reading this book, I’ve literally incorporated this approach to problem-solving into every day. [source]

Nigel Warburton

It’s an interesting book, it’s very challenging. It may be over-optimistic. But it does have this startling effect on the readers of challenging widely held assumptions. It’s a plea to look at the empirical data, and not just assume that you know how things are now. [source]

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

This was a breakthrough to me. The framework Hans enunciates is one that took me decades of working in global development to create for myself, and I could have never expressed it in such a clear way. I’m going to try to use this model moving forward. [source]

Nigel Warburton

Like Sarah Bakewell’s more recent book, At the Existentialist Café, this is beautifully written. [source]

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—All versions of a bigger question: How do you live? [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

Montaigne is one of humanities greatest treasures. If you've not read any of his essays or Sarah Bakewell's magnificent book How To Live … you are missing out. [source]

Nigel Warburton

This is an unpretentious book. Dobelli doesn’t claim to be an original thinker himself. He’s a summariser of other people’s thoughts. What he’s done is brought lots of different things together in one place. Each of the 99 entries is pretty short, and it’s the kind of book to dip into. [source]

Robert Cialdini

Author

Dobelli examines our most common decision-making failings with engaging eloquence and describes how to counter them with instructive good sense. [source]

Nigel Warburton

If you want to get a perspective on how the politics of power and ruthlessness work, or simply see some of the thinking behind Game of Thrones, this short, slightly fragmentary book, written in the 16th century, is still the best around. [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]

Nigel Warburton

I think the central question in philosophy is, How should we live? And that’s a question about which Peter Singer has a lot to say. [source]

Cassie Knight

Because it’s a really inspiring read. And it’s very nicely set out in terms of having clear arguments and picking up on things that are often said but not thought about. Peter Singer starts with a simple story – if you are walking past a pond and you see a child floundering and it looks likely that the child will drown, despite the fact that your new shoes may be ruined, you will automatically go into the mud to save the child. So he argues that if we all agree on this, why do we do then buy new shoes and luxury goods that we don’t really need, when putting that money into an aid programme can save a life. [source]

Nigel Warburton

Suits thinks games are the highest intrinsic good and he’s found a light-hearted way of getting to that conclusion – by using arguments and considering counter-examples. [source]

David Papineau

The overall argument of the book is that in utopia, where humans have all their material needs satisfied at the push of a button, what we would do would be play games. [source]

Nigel Warburton

Written in short, humorous, easy-to-read chapters, with illustrations by Daniel Postgate, Law addresses most of the big philosophical questions, approaching them through imaginative sci-fi scenarios and thought experiments that are sure to get you discussing them. [source]

Peter Worley

After reading this book, I’ve actually had children explain to me the difference between qualitative and numerical identity. [source]