My Top 10 (of 122) Books I’ve Read Recently
Over the last eighteen months, I’ve been reading a lot to prepare for my next book. My notes list 122 books, most of which I read cover-to-cover. Below I’d like to share a few of the ones that influenced my thinking the most.
1. Fear and Courage by S. J. Rachman
People are more resilient than they are often given credit for by most popular media accounts (or psychologists). Exposure to situations that make us anxious tends to diminish fears rather than sensitize us to them.
As a moderately anxious person, I found this book a valuable antidote to the widespread belief that the best way to manage one’s fears is to seek refuge from them.
2. The Atomic Components of Thought by John Anderson and Christian Lebiere
It was hard to pick just one of Anderson’s books, as I read several last year. The theory behind ACT-R has significantly influenced on my thinking about learning, as I wrote about here.
Amassing a wealth of psychological findings, Anderson has spent his career trying to model the basic cognitive processes that underlie our thinking skills. Given the magnitude of the task, it’s likely that ACT-R is wrong about some important details. Nonetheless it offers a powerful lens for understanding thinking.
