Books like The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control

01

Atomic Habits

James Clear · Self-help

Atomic Habits is James Clear's framework for how very small changes — habits so minor they seem to make no difference on any given day — compound into remarkable results over months and years.

A kindred psychology read.

02

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 psychology read.

03

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Angela Duckworth · Psychology

Duckworth's central claim is that talent is overrated.

A kindred psychology read.

04

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Roy Baumeister and John Tierney · Psychology

Willpower is social psychologist Roy Baumeister's synthesis of decades of laboratory research on self-control, translated into practical guidance by science journalist John Tierney.

Shares self-control and willpower with The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control.

05

Predictably Irrational

Dan Ariely · Psychology

Predictably Irrational is Dan Ariely's examination of how humans make decisions that are consistently, systematically irrational — not random or arbitrary, but irrational in ways that follow patterns.

A kindred psychology read.

06

The Willpower Instinct

Kelly McGonigal · Self-help

The Willpower Instinct is based on Kelly McGonigal's popular ten-week science of willpower course at Stanford University's Continuing Studies program.

Shares self-control and willpower with The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control.

07

Good Habits, Bad Habits

Wendy Wood · Psychology

Good Habits, Bad Habits is social psychologist Wendy Wood's account of what decades of research actually shows about how habits form and change.

Both dig into self-control.

08

The Power of Habit

Charles Duhigg · Psychology

The Power of Habit is Charles Duhigg's investigation into why habits exist and how they can be changed.

Both dig into willpower.

09

Mini Habits

Stephen Guise · Self-help

Mini Habits is Stephen Guise's case for starting habits so small they are almost impossible to fail.

Both dig into willpower.

10

Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human

Matt Ridley · Science

Matt Ridley's central argument is that the nature versus nurture debate has been framed wrong for over a century.

Both dig into development.

11

The Divide

Jason Hickel · Economics

The Divide is Jason Hickel's argument that global poverty is not a natural condition that development has failed to fully remedy, but a product of policies — colonial extraction, debt regimes, trade rules, and structural adjustment — that wealthy countries have imposed on poor ones.

Both dig into development.

12

Washington: A Life

Ron Chernow · Biography

Ron Chernow's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George Washington is the most comprehensive single-volume life of the first president, tracing his formation as a Virginia planter, his military career in the French and Indian War and the Revolution, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his eight years as the first executive of an untested republic.

Both dig into self-control.