Books like Thinking in Systems

01

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 science read.

02

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Nassim Nicholas Taleb · Philosophy

Antifragile is Nassim Nicholas Taleb's argument that the opposite of fragile is not robust or resilient — it is antifragile.

Both dig into complexity.

03

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths · Psychology

Brian Christian is a writer and Tom Griffiths is a cognitive scientist, and together they argue that computer science has worked out rigorous solutions to many of the problems humans face every day — when to stop searching for a better option, how to manage your schedule, how to sort your memory — and that these solutions are both interesting and useful.

A kindred science read.

04

The Art of Thinking Clearly

Rolf Dobelli · Psychology

Rolf Dobelli is a Swiss entrepreneur and novelist who wrote a series of short newspaper columns on cognitive biases, later collected and expanded into this book.

A kindred science read.

05

Black Box Thinking

Matthew Syed · Psychology

Black Box Thinking is Matthew Syed's argument that the difference between industries and organizations that improve over time and those that stagnate comes down to how they handle failure.

Shares systems thinking and feedback loops with Thinking in Systems.

06

The Great Mental Models

Shane Parrish · Self-help

The Great Mental Models is the first volume in Shane Parrish's series drawn from his Farnam Street blog, which he built into one of the most widely read sites on thinking and decision-making.

Shares systems thinking and mental models with Thinking in Systems.

07

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design

Alan Cooper · Science

Alan Cooper's About Face, first published in 1995 and revised through multiple editions, is the foundational text of interaction design as a professional discipline.

Both dig into mental models.

08

Chaos: Making a New Science

James Gleick · Science

Chaos: Making a New Science, published in 1987, tells the story of how a loose network of scientists working across meteorology, mathematics, biology, and physics in the 1960s and 1970s developed chaos theory — the study of systems that are deterministic but unpredictable because tiny differences in initial conditions produce wildly different outcomes.

Both dig into complexity.

09

Climbing Mount Improbable

Richard Dawkins · Science

Climbing Mount Improbable is Richard Dawkins's response to the persistent intuition that complex biological structures — the vertebrate eye, insect wings, spider webs — are too improbable to have evolved by chance.

Both dig into complexity.

10

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

William McDonough & Michael Braungart · Science

Cradle to Cradle is William McDonough and Michael Braungart's argument that the conventional approach to environmentalism — reducing, reusing, recycling, being "less bad" — is insufficient and in some ways misleading.

Both dig into sustainability.

11

Happy City

Charles Montgomery · Science

Happy City is Charles Montgomery's investigation into the relationship between the design of cities and the psychological well-being of their inhabitants.

Both dig into sustainability.

12

How Buildings Learn

Stewart Brand · Science

How Buildings Learn is Stewart Brand's argument that buildings are not finished products but ongoing processes — and that the buildings most valued over time are those designed to change gracefully rather than resist change defensively.

Both dig into systems thinking.