How these books made me rethink everything

If you're about the same age as me and read a book month for the rest of your life, you've got around 550 books left in you! That's not a lot. I spend countless hours enjoying reading and like to share what I call the best 'Rethink Reads'. Some are new books; others are 20 or more years old. Some are bestsellers, and others are unknown gems. Here's what I look for:

• Worth reading twice: it's so good, I want to come back to it again and again (and I get something new each time).
• Shifts perspectives: the ideas fundamentally change how I think, write, or feel about something important in life.
• Language: it gives me a language to talk differently about something abstract, complicated, or under-looked.
• Simplicity: it takes complex ideas and makes them simple.
• Relevant: it ties together seemingly unrelated threads to help me understand undercurrents happening in the world. 

So, here are some timely Rethink Read recommendations for that summer and what I took away from them (you'll notice some common themes – uncertainty, fear, status, ego, possibility!):

Rethink Read #1: Black Swan

The impact of the highly improbable -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Even if you read Black Swan when it came out over 14 years ago, I'd recommend rereading it now. It's a phenomenal book explaining our complicated relationship with uncertainty. Taleb goes deep on why our attempts to remove or control randomness has the opposite effect of increasing fragility. The book is a collection of wisdom and is way funnier than I remembered!

Rethink Read #2: Factfulness

Ten reasons why we're wrong about the world – why things are better than you think -- Hans Rosling

One of the most important books I've ever read. In a world of distorted facts, the frames this book gives you are gamechanging. One of the concepts that stuck with me is what Rosling calls the "gap instinct." Humans have an irresistible urge to divide all things into distinct groups, with an imagined gap. Love & hate. Conflict & Peace. Black & white. Trust & distrust… The book will make you think differently about how you categorise and frame, well, almost everything.

Rethink Read #3: The Art of Possibility

Transforming Professional and Personal Life -- Rosamund and Ben Zander

Most things in life are based on our frame of reference. This book helped me see and understand the difference between a world driven by measurement and a world driven by possibility. How to shift from the "calculating self" to the "contributing self." If you feel stuck in a mode of constantly measuring, judging, and comparing your life to others, I'd highly recommend this book. I love the concept of "Being the Board". It is about exploring the assumptions you make about what's happening in your life and, ultimately, taking responsibility for them.

Rethink Read #4: A Curiosity of Doubts

While society generally espouses the value of logic and certainty, we grow because we doubt -- Tea Uglow

I always thought of doubt as something that wears us down. Something that drives worry and anxiety. Tea's book made me completely rethink the value of doubting what we know and how it can create joy. Knowledge is in the realm of the known, which is old. To have a discovery, a moment of insight, we have to learn how to hold uncertainty of the unknown without jumping back to the safety nest of the safe, known, and familiar. Before I read Tea's book, I'd never thought how to doubt is a privilege – scientists and philosophers fought for the right. 

Rethink #5: Broken Ladder

How inequality affects the way we think, live, and die. -- Keith Payne

Payne brings a graceful and informed lens to an often-overlooked side of inequality – how it affects decision making, moods and health. This book shifted my understanding of how we view ourselves in relation to others and how these social comparisons influence how we see the world. Payne argues that what matters psychologically is not just people's objective economic situation but how they perceive their place on the "status ladder" – and he provides tons of evidence to back it up.

What is your Rethink Read recommendations? I'd love to know!

(Please leave in the comments below!)

Warmly,

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