"Mastery" by Robert Greene

This book is like a curated version of 1000 biographies all under the guise, "how to
become a master at what you love".
"Bold" by Peter Diamondis and Steven Kotler
Basically if you want to know the future, read this. Supplement it with
"Abundance" by the same two and "Tomorrowland" by Steven Kotler" and even
"The Rational Optimist" by Matt Ridley. I feel "Abundance" is like a sequel to "The
Rational Optimist". So I'm giving you four books with one recommendation.
"Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell is not the first person to come up with the 10,000 hour rule. Nor is he the
first person to document what it takes to become the best in the world at
something.
But his stories are so great as he explains these deep concepts.
How did the Beatles become the best? Why are professional hockey players born
in January, February and March?
And so on.
"Where Good Ideas Come From" by Steven Johnson
Also add to this: "How We Got to Now" by Steven Johnson.
Basically: don't believe the myth of the lonely genius.
Ideas come from a confluence of history, "the adjacent possible" specific

geographic locations, etc.

The connections Johnson makes are brilliant. For instance, The Gutenberg Press
(which, in itself, was invented because of improvements in sewing looms), made
everyone realize they had bad vision.
So the science of lenses was created. So microscopes were eventually created. So
germs were eventually discovered. So modern medical science was discovered.
And so on. Johnson is a thinker and a linker and tells a good story.
"Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl
I'm at a loss for words here. Just read it. Don't read it for the holocaust. Or
psychological theory. Read it because when you're about halfway through you will
realize your life is no longer the same.
"Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin
And while you are at it, throw in "Bounce" by Mathew Syed, who was the UK Ping
Pong champion when he was younger.
I love any book where someone took their passion, documented it, and shared it
with us. That's when you can see the subleties, the hard work, the luck, the talent,
the skill, all come together to form a champion.
Heck, throw in, "An Astronaut's Guide to Earth" by Commander Chris Hadfield.
"Zero to One" by Peter Thiel
There's a lot of business books out there. 99% of them are BS. Read this one.

So many concepts really changed my attitude about not only business but
capitalism. Thiel, the founder of PayPal, and first investor in Facebook, is brilliant
in how he simply shares his theories on building a billion dollar business.
"Quiet" by Susan Cain
Probably half the world is introverts. Maybe more. It's not an easy life to live. You
feel as if you can't move, you can't talk, you can't go into a room and spread a
vision you might have.
Quiet shows the reader how to unlock the secret powers that probably half the
world needs to unlock.
"Antifragile" by Nassim Taleb
And throw in "The Black Swan" and "Fooled by Randomness".
"Fragile" means if you hit something might break.
"Resilient" means if you hit something, it will stay the same.
But Nassim discusses "Antifragility" - building a system, even one that works for
you on a personal level, where you if you harm it in some way it becomes
stronger.
He discusses Antifragility throughout history, up to our current economic situation,
and even in our personal situations.
"Mindset" by Carol Dweck
Again, I am fascinated by the field of mastery. Not self-improvement (eat well,
sleep well, etc) but on how can you continue a path of improvement so that you

can really enjoy the subtleties at a very deep level of whatever it is you love.
Carol Dweck, through massive research and storytelling, shows the reader how to
continue on the path of improvement and why so many people fall off that path.

The Age of Sustainable Development

Jeffrey Sachs

Cronon, William, Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, W. W.

Norton & Company, 1996
Freinkel, Susan, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011
MacKay, David J. C., Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air, UIT Cambridge Ltd,
2009 FREE ON INERNET
Manning, Richard, Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization,
North Point Press, 2005
McDonough, William, Michael Braungart, President Bill Clinton, The Upcycle:
Beyond Sustainability--Designing for Abundance , North Point Press, 2013
McNeill, J.R., Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the
Twentieth-Century World, W. W. Norton & Company, 2001
Montgomery, David R., Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, University of California
Press; With a New Preface edition, 2012
Orlov, Dmitry, The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors' Toolkit, New Society
Publishers, 2013
Stolzenburg, William, Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological
Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators, Bloomsbury USA, 2009

Weisman, Alan, Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, Back Bay
Books, 2014
Worster, Donald, Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies in
Environment and History), Cambridge University Press; 2 edition, 1994