Reading paths

In what order

A shelf tells you what is available. A path tells you what to read first, and why the second book is second. There are 12 of them, because these are the subjects where the order genuinely changes what you get — not every subject has one.

Five steps Thinking about thinking Your own judgement is the instrument you can least easily calibrate. This is the order that makes that useful rather than merely alarming. Predictably IrrationalDan ArielyThinking, Fast and SlowDaniel KahnemanSuperforecastingPhilip E. TetlockThinking in BetsAnnie DukeNoiseDaniel Kahneman Five steps Starting something From an idea to a company that works, in the order the problems actually arrive. ReworkJason FriedThe Lean StartupEric RiesZero to OnePeter ThielThe Hard Thing About Hard ThingsBen HorowitzHigh Growth HandbookElad Gil Five steps Writing so people understand you Clarity is a craft with a literature. This is the shortest route through it that does not skip the part where it is difficult. The Elements of StyleWilliam Strunk Jr.On Writing WellWilliam ZinsserBird by BirdAnne LamottMade to StickChip HeathWriting Without BullshitJosh Bernoff Five steps Getting your attention back Four of these books disagree with each other about the cause. Read in this order, the disagreement is the point. Digital MinimalismCal NewportDeep WorkCal NewportIndistractableNir EyalEssentialismGreg McKeownSlow ProductivityCal Newport Five steps Money without gambling Behaviour first, instruments second, history last. In the other order, most people never get past the instruments. The Psychology of MoneyMorgan HouselThe Little Book of Common Sense InvestingJohn C. BogleA Random Walk Down Wall StreetBurton G. MalkielThe Intelligent InvestorBenjamin GrahamAgainst the GodsPeter L. Bernstein Five steps How we know things Five steps that do not agree with each other. The disagreement is the point. The Demon-Haunted WorldCarl SaganCosmosCarl SaganThe Structure of Scientific RevolutionsThomas S. KuhnAn Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingDavid HumeThe Beginning of InfinityDavid Deutsch Five steps Managing people for the first time The job is not a promotion from the last one; it is a different job. These are in the order the mistakes happen. The Five Dysfunctions of a TeamPatrick LencioniRadical CandorKim Malone ScottTurn the Ship Around!L. David MarquetMultipliersLiz WisemanThe Culture CodeDaniel Coyle Five steps Design that disappears Work backwards from the things that are obvious to use, towards why they are obvious. Don't Make Me ThinkSteve KrugThe Design of Everyday ThingsDonald A. NormanEmotional DesignDonald A. NormanUniversal Principles of DesignWilliam LidwellThe Visual Display of Quantitative InformationEdward R. Tufte Five steps Where the gothic came from The house that will not let you leave, the narrator you cannot trust, and two centuries of writers rebuilding the same machine for different fears. FrankensteinMary ShelleyThe Turn of the ScrewHenry JamesRebeccaDaphne du MaurierThe Haunting of Hill HouseShirley JacksonMexican GothicSilvia Moreno-Garcia Five steps Learning to be with people The research on attachment, repair and friendship, in the order that makes each book useful rather than alarming. AttachedAmir LevineHold Me TightSue JohnsonThe Seven Principles for Making Marriage WorkJohn M. GottmanAll About Lovebell hooksPlatonicMarisa G. Franco Five steps How the spy novel grew up From two men in a boat to a service auditing itself. The espionage novel learned, over sixty years, that the interesting enemy is usually domestic. The Riddle of the SandsErskine ChildersThe Thirty-Nine StepsJohn BuchanRogue MaleGeoffrey HouseholdThe Spy Who Came in from the ColdJohn le CarréTinker Tailor Soldier SpyJohn le Carré Five steps Manga from the beginning Seventy years in five books, chosen so that each one is answering something the last one established. A route in for a reader who has never opened a Japanese comic. Astro BoyOsamu TezukaBarefoot GenKeiji NakazawaAkiraKatsuhiro OtomoMonsterNaoki UrasawaA Silent VoiceYoshitoki Oima