Below are some of my favorite resources about how we think, how to think more clearly, and what thought in fact is.
How the mind works (conceptual summaries)
Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett
The Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology, Dan Siegel
When the Self Slips, Anna Ciaunica and Jane Charlton
Consciousness Isn’t Self-Centered, Annaka Harris
How the Mind Works, Stephen Pinker
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
How the mind works (practical advice)
Your Brain at Work, David Rock
Buddha’s Brain, Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius
Loving What Is, Byron Katie
Advice Not Given, Mark Epstein
Perception and expectation
Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind, Matthew M. Hurley
Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel
Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation, David Huron
Close Readings Without Readings, Stephen Booth
Music, Language, and the Brain, Anniruddh Patel
Unconscious thought
Strangers to Ourselves, Timothy D. Wilson
The Miracle of Mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh
Cognitive biases and blind spots
Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely
Cognitive bias cheat sheet, Buster Benson
The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver
Where Mathematics Comes From, George Lakoff and Rafael E. Nuñez
Logical Fallacies, logicalfallacies.org
Individual learning and decision-making
Mastery, George Leonard
Making Better Decisions Over Time, Phil Rosenzweig
Learning Chess at 40, Tom Vanderbilt
My 11-year-old son auditioned at Julliard…, Penelope Trunk
The Throughput of Learning, Tiago Forte
Why Fractals Are So Soothing, Florence Williams
The Role of Metacognition in Learning in Achievement, MindShift
How to Make a Big Decision, Stephen Johnson
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, Daniel Epstein
Communal thought (families)
The Drama of the Gifted Child, Alice Miller
Attachment in Psychotherapy, David J. Wallin
Three Identical Strangers
From Survival to Recovery: Growing Up in an Alcoholic Home, Al-Anon Family Groups
Communal thought (society and groups)
When Society Becomes an Addict, Anne Wilson Schaef
The Ecology of Attention, Yves Citton
Crowds and Party, Jodi Dean
Let’s Not Get Sentimental, Benjamin Fife and Taylor Hines
The Dictator’s Handbook, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith
Brandolini’s Law
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