My Bookshelf

The literature that has made me capable of all that I have and will do

Blue Ocean Strategy

An extremely well-thought out primer on how to create uncontested market space and make your competition irrelevant to your efforts. A seriously important read for anyone trying to innovate.

W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne

Fooled by Randomness

This book helps you see directly into the heart of human bias, helping us understand the shortcuts -- and shortcomings -- of the human brain that lead us to allow randomness to fool us into taking unreasonable courses of action. A must read.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

As a person that grew up in a lower middle-class family, this is one of the most seminal books in my personal development. If you take one thing from this book, it's Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad's" advice, "everything has a price, and that price is almost never paid for in money." This lead me to see the entire world as a game of cause and effect, a game of balance, where I needed to know the price of things and understand if I'm willing to pay it. Many people never succeed because they chase things they're unwilling to pay the price for, and live unhappy with the result.

Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon Lechter

The Black Swan

In a modern world with access to the answer to billions of questions and thousands of years of history are at our fingertips, the black swan reminds us how our forefathers dealt with risk, keeps us humble, and prevents us from being fooled by randomness.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Organized Mind

The organized mind is THE primer on how human beings think for the layperson. This book will help you to better understand those around you, enact positive change, and to stop playing the blame game when it comes to the realities of the biology of the human mind. An absolute must read for all managers.

Daniel J. Levitin

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Ever wondered why there are some instances where you feel like, after the fact, you weren't in control of your decisions? Or why you have sudden breakthroughs after thinking hard about a problem for hours, days, or weeks? Daniel Kahneman paints a vivid picture of the human brain, and how we have a few different "modes" of thought, and how our "rational", methodical thinking isn't really in the drivers seat, and why that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Daniel Kahneman

Thinking in Systems

The greatest shortcut you can take to becoming a senior manager, architect, designer, or developer. Seeing the world systematically is a priceless super power.

Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright

CDM