Books I've read, or still want to read.
  |
New: Workshop "Demystify Design Thinking" at #BetterBeta11
Design Thinking as a product, seen with the eyes of its "buyers".
The workshop takes a holistic view on Design Thinking's target groups and their needs. Should be equally useful for "buyers" and "sellers" of Design Thinking.
Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox
by Gerd Gigerenzer, Reinhard Selten
I have read this book
Recommended
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "Compelling introduction to Design Thinking, marking a sharp contrast to conventional, "industrial" management styles, with some practical examples.
Design Thinking finally brings Csikszentmihalyi's "Flow" to the workplace.
Why can't all companies be run by humans, with a humane attitude? We'd all enjoy so much better products, and so much more joy at work."
Design Thinking finally brings Csikszentmihalyi's "Flow" to the workplace.
Why can't all companies be run by humans, with a humane attitude? We'd all enjoy so much better products, and so much more joy at work."
The Wisdom of Crowds
by James Surowiecki
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "another original source that changed a lot of my thinking, this time on collective decision processes.
Deciding is the essence of management, so I wonder why Decision Design doesn't seem to have hit mainstream for long."
Deciding is the essence of management, so I wonder why Decision Design doesn't seem to have hit mainstream for long."
The Knowledge-Creating Company (Harvard Business Review Classics)
by Ikujiro Nonaka
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "completely changed my view on business, management decisions, and collaboration back in 1997. One of these books for which I'm still grateful to the authors, and to the person who recommended it to me."
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "Who would have thought 20 years ago that Economics was a Design discipline?
This book finally put into written everything I had always felt was right (but could never prove) in designing products, services, policy, and user experience in general:
Gently improve public welfare without force, law, or sermon. Just using Behavioural Economics, small interventions, common sense, and creativity.
Was so reassured seeing this concept spelled out by world class authors, backed by profound cross-discipline research, and a charming writing style.
See also: Design with Intent, e.g. at http://architectures.danlockto
This book finally put into written everything I had always felt was right (but could never prove) in designing products, services, policy, and user experience in general:
Gently improve public welfare without force, law, or sermon. Just using Behavioural Economics, small interventions, common sense, and creativity.
Was so reassured seeing this concept spelled out by world class authors, backed by profound cross-discipline research, and a charming writing style.
See also: Design with Intent, e.g. at http://architectures.danlockto
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "Truly another life-changing book. What this man has overcome; and how; and what this teaches us.
There's always a choice between what I experience, and how I act about it. Full stop. Lesson learned."
There's always a choice between what I experience, and how I act about it. Full stop. Lesson learned."
On Bullshit
by Harry G. Frankfurt
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "another small book that I wished was must-read literature at school.
"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much of it," writes the author, an renowned Princeton professor. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.""
"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much of it," writes the author, an renowned Princeton professor. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.""
Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling
by Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "prefab: another interesting target industry for cognitive sciences, behavioural economics, and choice architecture in particular -- not just from a "green" perspective"
I have read this book
Comment: "useful for anyone involved in designing (online) training material.
Another strong application of cognitive sciences to everyday life. Actually, another case where we rub our eyes that things weren't always designed like this."
Another strong application of cognitive sciences to everyday life. Actually, another case where we rub our eyes that things weren't always designed like this."
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
by Carmen M. Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff
I am reading this book
Comment: "so as usual, it seems, we could have known it this time"
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "from a Physics perspective, this book should never have been necessary.
I guess we were all fooled too long by comfortable notions like "expectation values" etc used beyond linear problems in natural sciences."
I guess we were all fooled too long by comfortable notions like "expectation values" etc used beyond linear problems in natural sciences."
I want to read this book
Comment: "another book that might be preaching to a believer, in my case"
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
by Al Ries, Jack Trout
I have read this book
Comment: "another classic textbook that should have really, really become mainstream by now, and still doesn't quite fully seem to have arrived there yet"
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials)
by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
I want to read this book
Comment: "still can't figure out why I haven't read this yet."
Crossing the Chasm
by Geoffrey A. Moore
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "still a must-read for anyone involved in innovation processes, I guess."
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "another one of these books that should be on the High School curriculum, rather than 20 years later in Management training."
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "What you always wanted Marketing to be like...
I wonder: What had gone wrong in Business schools, so that this (great) book could ever have become so damn necessary?"
I wonder: What had gone wrong in Business schools, so that this (great) book could ever have become so damn necessary?"
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
by W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: ""what market do we want to be in?" The two INSEAD professors give a compelling view on this fundamental business question, with very practical implications.
Absolutely worth reading for anyone in marketing, product strategy or business development, regardless if the quintessential idea could have been laid out on a little less paper."
Absolutely worth reading for anyone in marketing, product strategy or business development, regardless if the quintessential idea could have been laid out on a little less paper."
I want to read this book
Comment: "am completely bought into the idea of Design Thinking already, so why read the book? ;-)
of course I will..."
of course I will..."
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "read all three books with growingly intense adoration for the author.
Gunter Dueck distills a fundamental, pragmatic essence from 3000 years of scholar philosophy and psychological research -- extremely intelligent, profoundly substantiated, and rooted in a very human view of man and society.
Dueck starts with examining what kind of a person each of the great Philosophers like Aristotle, Kant and some psychologists must have been, and how their personality traits may have influenced their "philosophies" -- this proposition alone can be life-changing.
What then follows is an analytic journey to the roots of human needs and behaviors, towards fundamental questions of life, parenting, education, and leadership: nothing short of brillant and valuable. A tremendous source of discovery and inspiration, rooted in up-to-date scientific knowledge, with tons of relevant suggestions for further reading."
Gunter Dueck distills a fundamental, pragmatic essence from 3000 years of scholar philosophy and psychological research -- extremely intelligent, profoundly substantiated, and rooted in a very human view of man and society.
Dueck starts with examining what kind of a person each of the great Philosophers like Aristotle, Kant and some psychologists must have been, and how their personality traits may have influenced their "philosophies" -- this proposition alone can be life-changing.
What then follows is an analytic journey to the roots of human needs and behaviors, towards fundamental questions of life, parenting, education, and leadership: nothing short of brillant and valuable. A tremendous source of discovery and inspiration, rooted in up-to-date scientific knowledge, with tons of relevant suggestions for further reading."
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
by Guy Kawasaki
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "there's no better way to even starting to think of starting anything new."
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "recommended the book to a number of peers already, hoping to contribute to wider adoption of the fundamental ideas..."
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
by Daniel H. Pink
I have read this book
Comment: "found this book quite reassuring, yet slightly superficial. Can't fully get why it's *so* popular"
Rework [Hardcover]
by DAVID HEINEMEIER HANSSON JASON FRIED
I want to read this book
Comment: "having studied and implemented collaboration frameworks since my first trainers' training and projects in setting up Knowledge Management back in 1997, I guess I'm already sold to this book, too. (to its authors, anyway)"
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "one of these books that ought to be taught at school. was life-changing at the time (and fun reading, too). "
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages
by Carlota Perez
I want to read this book
Long Tail, The, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
by Chris Anderson
I have read this book
Recommended
Comment: "always felt this was true. finally, then came the book."
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
I want to read this book
Comment: "another one of these original sources to read, that I keep postponing mainly because I find I'm fully bought in to the author's conclusions anyway"
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (P.S.)
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
I have read this book
Comment: "was pleased to see a direction evolve in Economics that, at the time, I've found astonishingly ignored by mainstream scholars, yet profoundly essential to discuss"
MADE TO STICK: WHY SOME IDEAS TAKE HOLD AND OTHERS COME UNSTUCK
by CHIP HEATH DAN HEATH
I want to read this book
Comment: "saw it cited in many other places => time to read the original source"
Follow me on Google+
When I studied game theory under this book's author, professor Reinhard Selten, I knew he was sort of sceptic of "homo oeconomicus", but "rationality" was the model -- it wasn't really challenged a lot in the 90s, despite the facts that human deviations from Bayesian probability optimization were pretty rampant, and that Selten had been one of the few Economists to look at cognitive bounds to rational choice already in the 60s.
Today we see the "rationality" paradigm crumble in a lot of fields that built on it, from medicine and psychology to software development and MBA classes. Also, exciting interdisciplinary fields emerged, like Behavioural Economics, Choice Architecture, and Design Thinking.
Yet, we still have no "unified theory" of human decision making. In lieu, this book provides an excellent overview of the available scientific evidence, and then develops a broad framework and toolkit for both scientists and practitioners interested in the subject. Useful reading for scepics and heretics alike!"