One of the important things in life – if you ask me – is to have a good working understanding of psychology. Both in terms of understanding others, but, even more importantly, to understand yourself.

  • Read what you can to get a good understanding of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). It’s great for improving your leadership, communications, and sales skills – anything that benefits from a better understanding of other people.
  • Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow. While this one can be a bit long, improved awareness of the different heuristics influencing our behaviour on a daily basis is an incredible tool. It helps you disect your own decision-making and negotiations better, but it can also be used in how you design your marketing and product campaigns.
  • Alain de Botton: An Emotional Education. This book gives good guidelines and food for thought across five different aspects of an emotional education: 1) the self, 2) interacting with others, 3) Relationships, 4) Work, 5) Culture. I’d highly recommend this one for anyone interested in understanding better their own psyche or that of others. If you are mostly interested in your own, then the book Self-knowledge is very similar to the section on The Self.
  • Ichiro Kishimi: The Courage to be Disliked. A very intuitive introduction to Adlerian psychology. The book is written lik
  • Plato: The Cave Allegory (YouTube video)
  • Jordan Peterson: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
  • Carse: Finite and Infinite Games
  • Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson: Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me).