Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of... (more)

Made to Stick

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

by Chip Heath

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others–struggle to make their ideas “stick.” Why do some ideas thrive while others die?... (more)

The game : penetrating the secret society of pickup artists

The game : penetrating the secret society of pickup artists

by Neil Strauss

"This is one hugely entertaining book. I loved every page. And I will never let Neil Strauss within fifty feet of my wife." --A. J. Jacobs, Esquire Hidden somewhere, in nearly every major city in the world, is an underground seduction lair. And in these lairs, men trade the most devastatingly effective techniques ever invented to charm women. This is not fiction. These men really exist. They live... (more)

Guns, Germs, and Steel

The Fates of Human Societies

by Jared Diamond

With a new chapter. The phenomenal bestseller—over 1.5 million copies sold—is now a major PBS special. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the... (more)

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

by Douglas R. Hofstadter

This groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning book sets the standard for interdisciplinary writing, exploring the patterns and symbols in the thinking of mathematician Kurt Godel, artist M.C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

Combined Standards Glossary

by Project Management Institute

The PMBOK- Guide - Fourth Edition continues the tradition of excellence in project management with a standard that is even easier to understand and implement, with improved consistency and greater clarification. Standard language has been incorporated throughout the document to aid reader understanding. New data flow diagrams clarify inputs and outputs for each process. Greater attention has been placed... (more)

Influence

The Psychology of Persuasion

by Robert B. Cialdini

Some people just won't take no for an answer. In Influence, Dr. Robert Cialdini explains the six psychological principles that drive our powerful impulse to comply to the pressures of others and shows how we can defend ourselves against manipulation (or put the principles to work in our own interest). Influence guarantees two things: Readers will never say yes again when they really mean no, and they'll be... (more)

Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius

Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius

by Michael Michalko

What exactly is creativity? Why do some people seem to have so much of it? Can their secrets be learned? In this trail-blazing book, internationally renowned business creativity expert Michael Michalko answers these questions and more, bringing life-changing techniques into everyone's reach. Michalko has researched and analyzed over 100 of history's greatest thinkers-from Leonardo da Vinci to Charles Darwin,... (more)

A Brief History of Everything

by Ken Wilber

In a breathtaking trip from the Big Bang to the Postmodern world we inhabit, Ken Wilber examines the universe and our place in it, and comes up with an accessible and entertaining account of how it all fits together. Along the way he sheds light not only on the great cosmic questions but on various contentious issues of our day, such as changing gender roles, environmentalism, diversity and multiculturalism, even... (more)

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything

by Ken Wilber

Suppose we took everything that all the various world cultures have to tell us about human potential—about psychological, spiritual, and social growth—and identified the basic patterns that connect these pieces of knowledge. What if we attempted to create an all-inclusive map that touches the most important factors from all of the world's great traditions? Ken Wilber's Integral Vision provides such a map. Using... (more)

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

by Roger Fisher

Since its original publication in 1981, Getting to Yes has been translated into 18 languages and has sold over 1 million copies in its various editions. This completely revised edition is a universal guide to the art of negotiating personal and professional disputes. It offers a concise strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict.

Blink

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell

How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? Thats the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, The Tipping Point. Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Gladwell reveals that what we think of as decisions made in the blink of an eye are much more complicated... (more)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

by Stephen R. Covey

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to... (more)

How to Win Friends & Influence People

by Dale Carnegie

YOU CAN GO AFTER THE JOB YOU WANT...AND GET IT! YOU CAN TAKE THE JOB YOU HAVE...AND IMPROVE IT! YOU CAN TAKE ANY SITUATION YOU'RE IN...AND MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU! For more than sixty years the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this book has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. Now this previously revised and updated bestseller is available... (more)

The World Is Flat

A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

by Thomas L. Friedman

When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004," what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating... (more)

Freakonomics

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt

Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and... (more)

The Tipping Point

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

This celebrated New York Times bestsellernow poised to reach an even wider audience in paperbackis a book that is changing the way North Americans think about selling products and disseminating ideas. Gladwells new afterword to this edition describes how readers can constructively apply the tipping point principle in their own lives and work. Widely hailed as an important work that offers not only a road map to... (more)

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

by John C. Maxwell

What would happen if a top expert with more than thirty years of leadership experience were willing to distill everything he had learned about leadership into a handful of life-changing principles just for you? It would change your life. John C. Maxwell has done exactly that in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. He has combined insights learned from his thirty-plus years of leadership successes and... (more)

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

by Jeffrey Sachs

A landmark exploration of the way out of extreme poverty for the world’s poorest citizens Among the most eagerly anticipated books of any year, this landmark exploration of prosperity and poverty distills the life work of an economist Time calls one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Sachs’s aim is nothing less than to deliver a big picture of how societies emerge from poverty. To do so he ... (more)

The Art of War

by Thomas Cleary, John Minford, Ralph D. Sawyer, Khoo Keng-hor, James Gimian, Samuel B. Griffith, Sun Tzu, Mei-chun Sawyer, Stefan Rudnicki

The Art of War is one of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It is also one of the most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on Eastern and Western military planning, business tactics, and beyond. First translated into a European language in 1782 by French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, and had possibly influenced Napoleon, and even the planning of Operation Desert Storm.... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: critical thought

The Impact of the Highly Improbable

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

by Chip Heath

by Neil Strauss

The Fates of Human Societies

by Jared Diamond

by Douglas R. Hofstadter

by Project Management Institute

The Psychology of Persuasion

by Robert B. Cialdini

by Michael Michalko

by Ken Wilber

by Ken Wilber

by Roger Fisher

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

by Stephen R. Covey

by Dale Carnegie

A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

by Thomas L. Friedman

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

by John C. Maxwell

by Jeffrey Sachs

by Thomas Cleary, John Minford, Ralph D. Sawyer, Khoo Keng-hor, James Gimian, Samuel B. Griffith, Sun Tzu, Mei-chun Sawyer, Stefan Rudnicki