Books like Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

01

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis · Economics

The Big Short is Michael Lewis's account of the 2008 financial crisis as seen through the eyes of a handful of contrarians who saw the collapse coming, bet against the American housing market, and were right.

A kindred business read.

02

Freakonomics

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner · Economics

Freakonomics is economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner's argument that economics — properly understood as the study of incentives — can explain things that look, on the surface, like they have nothing to do with money.

A kindred business read.

03

Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell · Psychology

Outliers is Malcolm Gladwell's argument that exceptional success is less a product of individual genius or drive than it is of hidden advantages, timing, and accumulated opportunity.

A kindred business read.

04

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred business read.

05

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

Phil Knight · Memoir

Shoe Dog is Phil Knight's account of the first two decades of Nike, from the $50 loan he borrowed from his father in 1964 to fund his first shipment of Japanese running shoes to the company's IPO in 1980.

A kindred business read.

06

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

Hamilton Helmer · Business

7 Powers is Hamilton Helmer's attempt to distill the full landscape of business strategy into a single rigorous framework.

Both dig into competitive advantage.

07

Capital Returns

Edward Chancellor · Business

Capital Returns is Edward Chancellor's edited collection of investment letters from Marathon Asset Management, a London-based fund manager, covering roughly the period from 2002 to 2015.

Both dig into competitive advantage.

08

Competition Demystified

Bruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn · Business

Competition Demystified is Bruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn's deliberate simplification of competitive strategy — a counterweight to the complexity of the Porter Five Forces framework, which they argue gives strategists too many variables and not enough analytical clarity.

Both dig into competitive advantage.

09

Competitive Strategy

Michael E. Porter · Business

Competitive Strategy is Michael Porter's foundational framework for analyzing industries and developing competitive strategy.

Both dig into competitive advantage.

10

Dealing with Darwin

Geoffrey Moore · Business

Dealing with Darwin is Geoffrey Moore's 2005 argument that established companies face a form of Darwinian selection pressure that startup logic cannot address, and that surviving it requires a clear understanding of where a company sits in its technology lifecycle and what kind of innovation is appropriate at each stage.

Both dig into competitive advantage.

11

Lean Analytics

Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz · Business

Lean Analytics is Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz's attempt to give early-stage companies a practical framework for using data to move faster.

Both dig into data-driven decisions.

12

The Innovator's Solution

Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor · Business

The Innovator's Solution is Christensen and Raynor's follow-up to The Innovator's Dilemma, which explained why great companies fail in the face of disruptive innovation.

Both dig into competitive advantage.