My favorite books (non-fiction)

Nudge, by Thaler and Sunstein, is one of my favorite books about behavioral psychology. It exposes the secrets of why people act the way they do and how we as designers can control those actions. That’s pretty damn significant.

We’ve always known that good visual design can manipulate people’s emotions — the color and type choices portray a certain look & feel that evokes an immediate emotional reaction from the viewer. But we now have the ability to manipulate people’s behaviors by tapping into the inner workings of the mind and gently encouraging the user to take certain actions.

It’s about emotional design and how we can use tricks like visual illusions and wording to persuade our users to do what we want them to. I won’t ruin the greatness of the book by providing examples; you’ll have to give it a go yourself if you’re curious.

Malcom Gladwell’s Blink is up there on my list as well. It strives to show how people use mental shortcuts and heuristics to make decisions without consciously processing it. The famous 10,000 hours of work for expertise originates here and once someone puts in that amount of time, they can supposedly make split-second decisions which would result in the intended outcome.

Outliers and The Tipping Point are also great works from Gladwell. They discuss often-ignored topics in the realms of social psychology and human behavior in open light. They are insightful reads that everyone can definitely learn something from.

Hooked by Nir Eyal is one of my latest obsessions. It covers in great depth how to build habit-forming digital products for today’s users. One of its most fascinating chapters is on variable rewards and how they increase re-engagement with a product. There’s tons of applicable stuff in here for product designers and marketing strategists.

Quiet by Susan Cain is potentially the most life-changing one on this list. Not only did she make a strong case for why introversion and solitude are more effective for business and the world in general, but she also brought the Western world’s obsession with loud-spoken and brash behavior into the limelight.

Before reading Quiet, I wasn’t completely sure how my personality applies to a career. Reading it gave me confidence in that traits such as listening more than talking and asking people about themselves were the building blocks of a successful career in the fields of design and engineering. Definitely worth a read, even if you’re not an introvert.

Finally, an ex-FBI agent wrote What Every Body Is Saying, an actionable read on how body language plays a huge role in not just others’ perceptions of us, but also our own brain’s impressions of our emotions and feelings. You can detect when people are lying by simply observing their body language. It’s also got tips on how to game our minds into getting into a certain state of mind by faking body language.

There’s tons more that I’ve read, but the ones listed above have had the biggest impact on my daily life and how I perceive the world around me. These are really smart people trying to inform us about the things they care about. Great non-fiction deserves to be read and shared with everyone.