Books and Sites

Read This Book:

Carol S. Dweck: Mindset (Random House 2006)

Powerful book on the tremendous force of our belief system on the way our life ends up coming about.

The Stanford professor writes lucidly and astonisingly personally, yet throughout arguing her case against solid research and explicitly identified sources. I know very few research based books where a first-rate scholar would so boldly step beyond the conventions of the academic discouse, use her learning with an air of warm optimism, and exercise fair judgment and high standard of analysis in order to conceptualize accessibly matters that touch us all. A brilliant piece of applied research that aims to make, and manages to make, a significant contribution in the realm of the truly relevant.

Dweck operates with the seemingly simple distinction between what she calls "the fixed mindset" and "the growth mindset".  The former focuses upon individual traits as thing-like entities that are fixed, and the latter upon the incremental change toward improvement. In a fixed mindset, "success is about proving you're smart or talented" and about validating yourself, about labels, blame and judgment - in a growth mindset, it's all about change, improvement, learning, growth and effort.

Reading the book forces me to realize I have been more fixed-minded than I have thought, not only in my self-appraisals but also in the implicit thoughts I have of other people, colleagues, loved ones, famous sports heros, leading artists and generally of life itself.

Dweck empowers her reader to grow, by articulating with clarity and wealth of evidence how easily we slip into non-growth in our thinking habits and therefore, in actual conduct of life.

This is one of those precious books you want your son or daughter to read. With this gem of wisdom Dweck has become one of my intellectual heroes.

For the more academic writings of Professor Dweck, see her homepages. You might particularly want to download her article "Finding 'Meaning' in Psychology" (from American Psychologist 2006) or take a look at the powerful page 247 of "Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement". (23.1.2010)

George A. Akerlof & Robert J. Shiller: Animal Spirits (Princeton University Press 2009)

"This book, which draws on an emerging field called behavioral economics, describes how the economy really works. It accounts for how it works when people really are human, that is, possessed of all-too-human animal spirits." (p. xi)

A work by two distinguished economists, this excellent, well-written and engaging volume analyses "how human psychology drives the economy". The authors stress the role of stories, the significance of what they call "the confidence multiplier", as well as the working of beliefs, emotions, trust and fairness as key parameters that affect economic behaviours and the whole of economy.

The point is to focus upon the way we think as the fundamental constituting force of economic phenomena. "To understand how economics work and how we can manage them and prosper, we must pay attention to the thought patterns that animate people's ideas and feelings, their animal spirits. We will never really understand important economic events unless we confront the fact that their causes are largely mental in nature." (p. 1)

As a philosopher of life, convinced of the relevance of thinking for the conduct of life, I find the book extremely relevant, forceful and exciting. Socratic examined life requires examining one's thinking of economics and the meta thinking of mental models that drive us in economic decisions. It seems hard for me to imagine anyone reading this book without engaging in a fruitful self examination. (This includes people like business managers that consider themselves well informed on economics.)

Economics affects us, and not only in terms of providing us resources: it works from within us as modes of thinking and patterns of thought. Often that implies narrowing us down. Challenging the mainstream, the Akerlof and Shiller join forces with Amartya Sen and Edmund Phelps, the two greatest living economic thinkers, in provinding a humanly-tuned perspective on economics, one that is more realistic and relevant than the one supplied by the dominating models which are overshadowed by abstract assumptions of rationality. 

 

 

Leadership Top 10

Enlightened Leader Top 10

  1. Peter M. Senge: The Fifth Discipline.  The Art and Practive of the Learning Organization, Doubleday 1990.  This is a fundamental book in its clarity and depth of vision.  Easy to read, profound, concepts sufficiently catchy to influence one's actual practice.
  2. Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers: Presence.  Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, SoL 2004.  More philosophical than Senge's Fifth Discipline, this groundbreaking book explores ways of thinking beyond the fragmentary towards more sustainable and wholistic modes of thought.
  3. Martin E. P. Seligman: Authentic Happiness, Free Press, 2002. Basic text in positive psychology. Visionary, argumentative, uplifting.
  4. Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie.  An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson, Warner Books 1997. A book you'll read through in two hours, crying.
  5. Wayne  W. Dyer: Wisdom of the Ages, HarperCollins 1998.  Dyer draws from short key quotes from the greatest spirits of all time.
  6. Thich Nhat Hanh: Living Buddha, Living Christ, Rider 1995. This is so beautiful, so uplifting and mind-enlightening book.  One of my all-time favorites.
  7. Henri J.M. Nouwen: The Return of the Prodigal Son, Doubleday 1992.  Multilayered and personal, this short book is a masterpiece by one of the leading spirituals thinkers of our time.
  8. Howard Gardner: Leading Minds.  Anatomy of Leadership, HarperCollins 1995.  An intriguing study of some of the greatest leaders of all time by a leading scholar of the cognitive dismension.  Gardner is such a brilliant researcher and writer, a true gem of the academic world and in this book he applies his insights to exciting case-studies of such unique individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mathama Gandhi, Margaret Mead,  etc.
  9. Simon Sebag Montefiore: Stalin. The Court of the Red Tsar, 2003.  Thrilling, strangely absorbing tale of the dark aspects of power and leaderhip.
  10. William Shakespeare: King Lear.  Shakespeare should occupy a central place in the library of any true leader.  Good to read in translations too as the original might cause unnecassary problems with language.

Recent Exciting Readings

  • Kim S. Cameron, Jane E. Dutton and Robert E. Quinn, eds.: Positive Organizational Scholarship, Berrett-Koehler, 2003.  This is a fundamental book.  Scientific, disciplinary approach to positive deviance.
  • Tom Peters: Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, DK, 2003. Sets your mind in motion with irresistable force. Particularly relevant for managers.
  • Peter Koestenbaum & Peter Block: Freedom and Accountability at Work, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, San Francisco, 2001. A strong work that brings philosophy to the context of work through existentialism. Brilliantly written synthetic work. I particularly appreciate the emphasis on freedom as the foundation of the human condition as developed against the background of everyday life.
  • Deborah Tannen: I Only Say This Because I Love You, Virago Books, 2001. A highly illuminating analysis of ordinary ways of talking and interconnecting that make us destroy life for our loved ones and ourselves.
  • Martin E. P. Seligman: Authentic Happiness, Free Press, 2002. Basic text in positive psychology. Visionary, argumentative, uplifting.
  • Dan Baker and Cameron Stauth: What Happy People Know, Rodale, 2003. Highly inspiring book on the possibilities of positive psychology.
  • Vera John-Steiner: Notebooks of the Mind, Oxford University Press, 1997 (published originally 1985). A landmark study of experienced thinking - how craftsmen and -women of distinction think.
  • Richard Olivier: Inspirational Leadership. Henry V and the Muse of Fire, Spiro Press, London, 2002. A highly inspiring account of Shakespeare's play as a management text.
  • Pema Chödrön: The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times, Shambala Publications, 2001. Eastern philosophy developed in directly accessible manner.
  • Howard Sounes: Down the Highway. The Life of Bob Dylan, Doubleday, 2001. Great account of Dyland's life and approach.
  • Bernard-Henri Levy: Sartre - The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century, Polity Press, 2003. Tremendously energetic, spirited account of Sartre.
  • David Deida: The Way of the Superior Man, Plexus, 1997. Visionary, courageuous account of the male psyche and possibilities.

Continuously Explosive

  1. Peter Senge: The Fifth Discipline, Doubleday, 1990.
  2. Thomas Cahill: Desire of the Everlasting Hills, Doubleday, 1999.
  3. Allan de Botton: Consolations of Philosophy, Pantheon Books, 2000.
  4. Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie, Warner Books, 1997.
  5. Tara Bennett-Goleman: Emotional Alchemy, Random House, 2001.
  6. Thich Nhat Hanh: Living Buddha, Living Christ, G P Putnam, 1995.
  7. Phil Jackson and Hugh Delahanty: Sacred Hoops, Hyperion, 1995.
  8. Gordon MacKenzie: Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace, Viking, 1996.
  9. Martha C. Nussbaum: Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, Camridge University Press, 2001.
  10. James Hillman: The Soul's Code, Warner Books, 1996.