Books like The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

01

Enlightenment Now

Steven Pinker · Science

Enlightenment Now is Steven Pinker's argument that the ideals of the Enlightenment — reason, science, humanism, and progress — have been responsible for a dramatic and continuing improvement in human wellbeing across virtually every measurable dimension, and that these ideals are under threat from counter-Enlightenment movements on both the left and the right.

A kindred economics read.

02

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World

Hans Rosling · Economics

Hans Rosling spent decades testing audiences of students, professors, journalists, and politicians on basic facts about global development — child mortality rates, literacy, extreme poverty, life expectancy — and found consistently that even well-educated, well-intentioned people performed worse than chance.

Both dig into human progress.

03

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · History

Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.

A kindred economics read.

04

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Jared Diamond · Science

Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?

A kindred economics read.

05

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson · Economics

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that the fundamental difference between rich and poor countries is not geography, culture, or bad luck.

A kindred economics read.

06

The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World

Johan Norberg · Economics

Johan Norberg has made a career of making the case that open markets have lifted more people out of poverty than any other force in human history, and The Capitalist Manifesto is his most direct statement of that argument.

Both dig into innovation.

07

Americana

Bhu Srinivasan · History

Americana is Bhu Srinivasan's attempt to tell the history of American capitalism through its defining industries and the entrepreneurs who built them.

Both dig into innovation.

08

Blue Ocean Strategy

W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne · Business

Blue Ocean Strategy is Kim and Mauborgne's case that the most successful companies don't compete in existing markets by beating rivals at their own game — they create new market spaces where competition is irrelevant.

Both dig into innovation.

09

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

Robert Coram · Biography

Boyd is Robert Coram's biography of Colonel John Boyd, the Air Force fighter pilot who became one of the most influential military strategists of the twentieth century without ever having commanded a major unit, written a best-selling book, or achieved the rank that would have made him famous while alive.

Both dig into innovation.

10

Competing Against Luck

Clayton M. Christensen · Business

Competing Against Luck is Clayton Christensen's most complete development of the Jobs to Be Done framework, which he introduced briefly in The Innovator's Solution.

Both dig into innovation.

11

Continuous Discovery Habits

Teresa Torres · Business

Continuous Discovery Habits is Teresa Torres's practical guide to making product discovery a sustainable, weekly team practice rather than a periodic research event.

Both dig into innovation.

12

Creative Selection

Ken Kocienda · Business

Creative Selection is Ken Kocienda's first-hand account of how software gets made at Apple during the period when the iPhone and iPad were born.

Both dig into innovation.