The year 2010 is going by quickly. Continuing the nascent series of quarterly book recommendations (see the Q1 list), here’s a list of my recommendations from the year’s 2nd quarter (April-June). All of these can help, in one way or another, in your marketing and business. Enjoy!
Business
- Peter Senge, et al., “The Necessary Revolution: Working Together to Create a Sustainable World”, 2008 — Wordy but useful and example-ridden guide to creating creative collaborations and collaborative organizations.
Psychology, sociology, culture
- Dan Ariely, “Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions”
, 2008 — Notorious by now, and a must-read. Things are not as they seem.
- Jonathan Haidt, “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom”
, 2006 — A useful how-to. Requires a deep read, but you’ll be happy doing so.
- Daniel Pink, “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”
, 2009 — Not that surprising, if you’ve read any psychology content in the past few years. A great summary of motivation research: intrinsic rules the day. Full review.
- Alex Pentland and Tracy Heibeck, “Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World”
, 2008 — On the role of unconscious signaling in human communication and network intelligence.
- Daniel Pink, “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future”
, 2005 Â – You’ll already know all about it. Out of the information age of linear analysis and into the conceptual age of holistic synthesis!
Crowdsourcing
- Barry Libert, Jon Spector, and Thousands of Contributors, “We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business”
, 2008 — Oh, to be a crowdsourcing grasshopper again. Basic, useful, short.
- Cass Sunstein, “Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge”
, 2006 — A slightly misleading title, as the book is mostly about deliberative group decision-making. Market-based mechanisms are better at producing good decisions. Somewhat dense and repetitive, but ultimately useful.
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Update 10/18/10: Book titles are now Amazon affiliate links.
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We must be on some similar reading lists. I read both Drive and Predictably Irrational this year. Both excellent reads. I’ll have to get to some of these others. Thanks for sharing!