Definitive List of 50 Books to Understand Everything in the Universe
The “Vitruvian Man” approach to building knowledge, wisdom, and foresight.
The “Vitruvian Man” approach to building knowledge, wisdom, and foresight.
Hemant Mohapatra on LinkedIn: "I'm taking book recommendations to...
I'm taking book recommendations to get a firmer understanding of the world at large -- a sort of 101 on the fundamental…www.linkedin.com
A few weeks ago I put up a note on my LinkedIn (see above) about books that can form the building blocks to our understanding of just about everything there is to know in this universe. Essentially, I wanted to understand why are we the way we are and why have our social, political and biological systems evolved into what they are today.
The response was so good that it took me over a month to get this post together with the top 50 of the over 100+ recommendations.
Full list is at the google doc here.
I call it my “planet-scale meta-intelligence” book-list. Why planet-? To imply that all knowledge that has ever existed in the history of mankind is compressed into these 50 books. Why meta-? It certainly won’t teach you quantum mechanics or calculus — that’s too specific — but it’ll tell you why those tools were needed, when, and the part they played to get us to where we are today.
The next challenge was how to organize the list. Sure, I could fit them into history, science, psychology & influence, economics, and so on but that felt too formulaic. In thinking about how to build my intellect, I was inspired by the idea of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci, who believed “the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe.”[ref]. Okay, Cool, Leo, but get some underwear on.
So I divided the selection into five categories:
Core: similar to working out in the gym, this part is the most important one and also the ideal starting point. Everything builds out of here. These books cover the principles of how this world works at an elemental level. A weak core makes rest of the knowledge unapproachable.
Mind: this covers how to become a better strategist, develop foresight, patience, and smarter intellectual habits. Together with the core, these two form the basics of further development IMHO.
Torso: a better upper body is often the end goal — it’s the most visible, the most outwardly attractive, and appeals to the ego. The books in this category therefore cater to matters of charisma, influence, and power.
Legs: often the most ignored part of the gym routine: leg days! Without this, your reach in the world is always going to be limited. This section covers operational experience, stories of building empires, of failures, and discipline.
Soul: finally, it’s tough to stay the course without an inspiring story or a personal passion that drives you out of bed to hit the gym. Similarly, this section focuses on feeding the soul with stories of struggles and wins against exceptional odds, stories of growth through deeply meaningful failures, and stories of redemption.
The right distribution of the topics is personal. I prefer to focus a lot more on the fundamentals: core & mind, and then divide the rest. Take it as-is but YMMV. So, without further ado, here is the list, starting with the Core. All link out to Amazon US. Again, the full list is here.
Core
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
New York Times Bestseller. A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg From a…
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
From the bestselling author of Civilization and The Square and the Tower, a richly original look at the origins of…www.amazon.com
Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
One of the world's most famous and influential books, Meditations, by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180)…www.amazon.com
A Short History of Nearly Everything
One of the world's most beloved writers and bestselling author of One Summer takes his ultimate journey-into the most…www.amazon.com
Toxic Inequality: How America's Wealth Gap Destroys Mobility, Deepens the Racial Divide, and…
From a leading authority on race and public policy, a deeply researched account of how families rise and fall…www.amazon.com
The Commanding Heights : The Battle for the World Economy
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize joins a leading expert on the global economy to present an incisive…www.amazon.com
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why…www.amazon.com
The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene caused a wave of excitement among biologists and the general public when it was first published in…www.amazon.com
The Wealth of Nations Book 5: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single…www.amazon.com
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World - Illustrated Edition
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World - Illustrated Edition [Peter Frankopan, Neil Packer] on Amazon.com. *FREE*…www.amazon.com
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and…www.amazon.com
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."-Bill GatesIn this "artful, informative, and…www.amazon.com
The Arabs: A History
In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on Arab…www.amazon.com
Principles: Life and Work
1 New York Times Bestseller "Significant...The book is both instructive and surprisingly moving." -The New York Times…www.amazon.com
Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition
Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition [Peter D. Kaufman, Ed Wexler…www.amazon.com
This Brave New World: India, China, and the United States
"By turns alarming and encouraging...Manuel delineates with clarity [why] the US must attend closely to...harmonious…www.amazon.com
Energy and Civilization: A History (MIT Press)
A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies…www.amazon.com
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 TitleA Kirkus Reviews Best…www.amazon.com
Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of…
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, David Gress called Francis Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order "magisterial in…www.amazon.com
Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the…
Robert Lanza is one of the most respected scientists in the world-a US News & World Report cover story called him a…www.amazon.com
Legs
Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is…
Wall Street Journal BestsellerMuch of the advice we've been told about achievement is logical, earnest...and downright…www.amazon.com
What To Do When Machines Do Everything: How to Get Ahead in a World of AI, Algorithms, Bots, and…
"Refreshingly thought-provoking..." - The Financial Times The essential playbook for the future of your business What…www.amazon.com
Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations
1 New York Times Bestseller * Los Angeles Times BestsellerOne of The Wall Street Journal's 10 Books to Read Now * One…www.amazon.com
Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
Here is the bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm…www.amazon.com
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation…
Named one of 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon EditorsA Wall Street Journal and…www.amazon.com
Mind
Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior
A leading evolutionary psychologist probes the unconscious instincts behind American consumer culture Illuminating the…www.amazon.com
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto)
Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck…www.amazon.com
The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Incerto)
The Black Swan is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity…www.amazon.com
Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company
Andy Grove, founder and former CEO of Intel shares his strategy for success as he takes the reader deep inside the…www.amazon.com
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads…www.amazon.com
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Major New York Times bestsellerWinner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012Selected by the New…www.amazon.com
Letters from a Stoic (The Epistles of Seneca) (Digireads.Com Classic)
In ancient Rome, Seneca the Younger rose to power as a politician and statesman during the middle of his life. After…www.amazon.com
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think - Kindle edition by Hans…www.amazon.com
The Arthashastra
Arthashastra is an excellent treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy. it is said to have been…www.amazon.com
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much
A surprising and intriguing examination of how scarcity-and our flawed responses to it-shapes our lives, our society…www.amazon.com
Soul
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story - 1965-2000
Few gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when it was granted independence in 1965. How is it, then, that today…www.amazon.com
Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison
New York Times bestseller from a member of Oprah's SuperSoul 100. An unforgettable memoir of redemption and second…www.amazon.com
My Years With General Motors
This edition has no photos nor charts. A free GM_Charts_Supplement.pdf can be download from enetpress.com "Deliberately…www.amazon.com
Supernormal: The Untold Story of Adversity and Resilience
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #232323} Clinical psychologist and author of The…www.amazon.com
When Breath Becomes Air
1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott…www.amazon.com
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and now a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, The Emperor of All Maladies is a…www.amazon.com
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year The author of The New York Times bestseller…www.amazon.com
Man's Search for Meaning
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death…www.amazon.com
Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became…
"By telling the little-known stories of six pioneering African American entrepreneurs, Black Fortunes makes a worthy…www.amazon.com
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress [Steven Pinker] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping…www.amazon.com
Torso
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)
Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"-and how to apply these…www.amazon.com
Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships
Emotional Intelligence was an international phenomenon, appearing on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year…www.amazon.com
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media - Kindle edition by Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky…www.amazon.com
Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A bold new work from the author of The Black Swan that challenges many of our long-held…www.amazon.com
The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that…www.amazon.com
The total cost of this full collection in paperback, hardcover, and kindle format is just north of 600$. So there you go: all the knowledge in the universe for the price of an iPhone. Enjoy!