Experts > Esther Dyson

Esther Dyson's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Esther Dyson recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Esther Dyson's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1
Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the "disease model" of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to recovery.The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing.Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the... more
Recommended by Esther Dyson, and 1 others.

Esther DysonAddiction is short-term desire. Purpose is long-term desire. (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

2
How did we come to have minds?

For centuries, this question has intrigued psychologists, physicists, poets, and philosophers, who have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled ability to create, imagine, and explain. Disciples of Darwin have long aspired to explain how consciousness, language, and culture could have appeared through natural selection, blazing promising trails that tend, however, to end in confusion and controversy. Even though our understanding of the inner workings of proteins, neurons, and DNA is deeper than ever before, the matter of how our minds...
more
Recommended by Vinod Khosla, Esther Dyson, and 2 others.

Vinod KhoslaAnother of my favorites this year. Long but worth every page. (Source)

Esther DysonHow consciousness arises, and how much it depends on a sense of past, present, and future (plus a lot of other interesting insights). (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

3
Audiobook: 8 hrs and 47 mins

A surprising and intriguing examination of how scarcity—and our flawed responses to it—shapes our lives, our society, and our culture

Why do successful people get things done at the last minute? Why does poverty persist? Why do organizations get stuck firefighting? Why do the lonely find it hard to make friends? These questions seem unconnected, yet Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir show that they are all are examples of a mind-set produced by scarcity.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from behavioral science and...
more
Recommended by Daniel Kahneman, Esther Dyson, and 2 others.

Esther DysonAn explanation of scarcity for rich intellectuals, showing how poor people do stupid things for lack of money, while rich people do stupid things for lack of time. (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

Don't have time to read Esther Dyson's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.