Decisions and uncertainty
- 01
Boyd
Robert Coram
John Boyd’s biography made decision speed and orientation concrete: advantage often comes from updating a mental model faster.
- 02
The Intelligence Trap
David Robson
A reminder that intelligence does not remove cognitive failure; review processes still matter.
- 03
The Black Swan
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
A lens for rare events, fragility and the danger of treating a forecast as certainty.
- 04
Superforecasting
Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner
A case for calibration, updating and keeping score rather than defending a fixed view.
- 05
Antifragile
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
A provocation to design systems that learn from variation instead of merely resisting it.
Systems and strategy
- 01
Thinking in Systems
Donella H. Meadows
The clearest influence on feedback loops, leverage points and unintended consequences.
- 02
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
Diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action are a useful test for whether a plan is actually a strategy.
- 03
The Art of War
Sun Tzu
Read as a compact study of information, position and incentives rather than a collection of slogans.
- 04
The Effective Executive
Peter F. Drucker
Effectiveness as a practice: direct limited attention toward the work that matters.
- 05
Zero to One
Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
A founder-oriented argument about differentiated insight and building something meaningfully distinct.