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Geoffrey Miller's Top Book Recommendations

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

1

The Thing Which Has No Name

The legendary advertising guru—Ogilvy UK’s vice chairman—and star of three massively popular TED Talks, blends the science of human behavior with his vast experience in the art of persuasion in this incomparable book that decodes successful branding and marketing in the vein of Freakonomics, Thinking Fast and Slow, and The Power of Habit.

When Rory Sutherland was a trainee working on a direct mail campaign at the famed advertising firm OgilvyOne, he noticed that very small changes in design often had immense effects on the number of consumer responses. Yet no one he worked with...
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb4 hours dinner conversation with @rorysutherland and Rohan @Silva in a Pakistani restaurant in London (2 bottles of wine, but no Negroni). You must buy two copies of Rory's book, in case one is stolen, lost, damaged (by the rain), or self-destructs. https://t.co/Xa5WFOGCNt (Source)

Geoffrey MillerAgree. This is a great book by @rorysutherland that will shake up how you think about lots of things. Try it, and you'll realize you're nowhere near as epistemically humble as you should be. https://t.co/8U1iAxji8Z (Source)

Preston Pysh@rorysutherland I would love to interview you on our podcast. Your book was incredible! (Source)

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2

The Aesthetic Animal

The Aesthetic Animal answers the ultimate questions of why we adorn ourselves, embellish our things and surroundings, and produce art, music, song dance, and fiction. Humans are aesthetic animals that spend vast amounts of time and resources on seemingly useless aesthetic activities. However, nature would not allow a species to waste precious time and effort on activities completely unrelated to survival, reproduction, and the well-being of that species. Consequently, the aesthetic impulse must have some important biological functions. A number of observations indicate that the... more
Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, and 1 others.

Geoffrey Miller'The Aesthetic Animal' (2018) by Henrik Høgh-Olesen (Aarhus U., Denmark) is the best book I've ever read on the evolutionary origins of art. Incredibly concise (144 pp). Required reading for anybody interested in beauty. https://t.co/5pcvt02m6S https://t.co/Lu3TUx77Lu (Source)

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3
In Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, contrarian economist Bryan Caplan argues that we've needlessly turned parenting into an unpleasant chore, and don't know the real plusses and minuses of having kids. Parents today spend more time investing in their kids than ever, but twin and adoption research shows that upbringing is much less important than we imagine, especially in the long-run. Kids aren't like clay that parents mold for life; they're more like flexible plastic that pops back to its original shape once you relax your grip. These revelations are wonderful news for anyone with... more
Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, and 1 others.

Geoffrey Miller@PolyGalSeeks The book 'Selfish reasons to have more kids' by @bryan_caplan is the best book on parenting. Because it's one of the few to take genetics seriously. (Source)

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4
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before... more

Geoffrey MillerWorld War Z (the book, not the movie) by @maxbrooksauthor is an incredibly well-researched, thoughtful, horrifying page-turner that explores the many ways that people, media, & gov'ts are likely to mismanage global pandemics. Highly prescient must-read. https://t.co/04YMqnu06e https://t.co/7dyx0F9qqB (Source)

P W Singer and August ColeIt’s about more than a zombie takeover, it’s about what it means to live together in a prosperous and stable world. (Source)

Greg GarrettWorld War Z is a novel that bridges the gap between pulp and high literature. It takes a subject matter which we would think of as mainstream geek culture, but it finds universal human themes, develops characters that you care about, and also manages to be culturally critical. It is clearly critical of many of the post-9/11 choices made by the United States and Britain. (Source)

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5
Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things. less

Steve JurvetsonThe single book that’s had the most influence on me my entire life. [...] It started my life long fascination of the biological metaphors in technology. (Source)

Geoffrey Miller@kevin2kelly Love that book. Read it in grad school. Inspired my evolutionary robotics and artificial life research. (Source)

Cynthia JohnsonThis book was the basis of The Matrix. It goes down this rabbit hole of where machines begin and end, and where we fit into that. The entire idea is that as we move into this revolutionary, technology-driven world, we then also become parts of that. (Source)

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6
Why do girls tend to earn better grades in school than boys? Why are men still far more likely than women to earn degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? And why are men on average more likely to be injured in accidents and fights than women? These and many other questions are the subject of both informal investigation in the media and formal investigation in academic and scientific circles.
In his landmark book Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences, author David Geary provided the first comprehensive evolutionary model to explain human...
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Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, and 1 others.

Geoffrey MillerFor anyone interested in the actual research on sex differences in psychological traits, this classic book by David Geary (U. Missouri Psychology) is a great place to start: https://t.co/jQ3oNAhmV2 (Source)

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7
A bold yet realistic vision of how technology and social change are creating a food system in which we no longer use animals to produce meat, dairy, or eggs.

Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals brought widespread attention to the disturbing realities of factory farming. The End of Animal Farming pushes this conversation forward by outlining a strategic roadmap to a humane, ethical, and efficient food system in which slaughterhouses are obsolete—where the tastes of even the most die-hard meat eater are...
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Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, and 1 others.

Geoffrey MillerMost humans like eating meat. But how can we do that without imposing factory-farming suffering on billions of sentient animals every year? My pal @jacyreese has a great new book out today on how new technology & new ethics can overcome this dilemma. We can solve this. https://t.co/RMwNLLsAXy (Source)

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8

Science Ink

Tattoos of the Science Obsessed

Body art meets popular science in this elegant, mind-blowing collection, written by renowned science writer Carl Zimmer. Showcasing hundreds of eye-catching tattoos that pay tribute to various scientific disciplines, from evolutionary biology and neuroscience to mathematics and astrophysics, Science Ink reveals the stories of the individuals who chose to inscribe their obsessions in their skin. Best of all, each tattoo provides a leaping-off point for bestselling essayist and lecturer Zimmer to reflect on the science in question, whether it's the importance of an image of Darwin's... more
Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, Natasha Mitchell, and 2 others.

Geoffrey MillerPPS The book 'Science Ink' by @carlzimmer is a fascinating look at scientists' science-themed tattoos. https://t.co/YDTsO4uUPq (Source)

Natasha Mitchell@Constababble Yes and it's in @carlzimmer's beautiful book, if you haven't seen Carl's book you will love it https://t.co/FiOAOWw5Na (Source)

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9
The structure of modern successful marriages is revealed in this inspiring and useful new perspective on the most important relationship a human being can have.
The institution of marriage in America is struggling. But as Eli Finkel's most recent research reveals, the best marriages today are better than the best marriages of earlier eras. Indeed, they are the best marriages the world has ever known. Still, the quality of the average marriage is in decline. This book reverse engineers the best marriages--from the "traditional" to the utterly nontraditional--showing how...
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Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, and 1 others.

Geoffrey MillerWant a happier marriage? Want to choose the right mate to marry? There's a lot of good 'relationship science' full of useful insights and practical tips. This new book by @EliJFinkel is a great, easy-to-read review. Highly recommended. https://t.co/KdjwU4vUBI (Source)

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10
From the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers, an eyewitness exposé of the awful dangers of America’s hidden, fifty-year-long nuclear policy that continues to this day.

When former presidential advisor Daniel Ellsberg famously took the top-secret Pentagon Papers, he also took with him a chilling cache of top secret documents related to America’s nuclear program in the 1960s. Here for the first time he reveals the contents of those documents, and makes clear their shocking relevance for today.

The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg’s...
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Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, and 1 others.

Geoffrey MillerYou think the US gov't had a safe, thoughtful, well-informed, and coherent nuclear strategy during the Cold War? So did I, until I read this. The most fascinating and horrifying book on recent history I've ever read. https://t.co/y5MJWMmgZ9 (Source)

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11

Bronze Age Mindset

The Atlantic named this author as possibly Steve Bannon's contact in the White House (Rosie Gray, The Atlantic Feb 10 2017: " 'Think you should speak directly to my WH cutout / cell leader,' Yarvin said in an email. 'I've never met him and don't know his identity, we just DM on Twitter. He's said to be ‘very close’ to Bannon...Goal is to intimidate Congress with pure masculine show of youth, energy. Trump is said to know, will coordinate with powerful EOs…"); and a recent Vox article (Tara Isabella Burton, Vox June 1 2018) claimed that he is the "text" to Jordan Peterson's "subtext," and a... more
Recommended by Geoffrey Miller, and 1 others.

Geoffrey Miller'Bronze Age Mindset' by @bronzeagemantisis is a fascinating & entertaining book on many levels. Required reading if want to understand Gen Z's politics. Here's a good review by Michael Anton: https://t.co/ofSY0dOdYX And a good reply by the author: https://t.co/IMWWYQYpE8 https://t.co/Fjl98rGxb3 (Source)

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12
An unimpeachable classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics, The Road to Serfdom has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and general readers for half a century. Originally published in 1944—when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist program—The Road to Serfdom was seen as heretical for its passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production. For F. A. Hayek, the collectivist idea of empowering government with... more

Geoffrey Miller@bdmarotta No, The Road to Serfdom by Hayek is the best book on modern evil (Source)

Yuval LevinThe Road to Serfdom is a very polemical book. It was published in 1944. It’s a warning not exactly about Communism, but about the coming of statism in the West, about the ways that some of the governing élites that Hayek saw, especially in Britain, thought about governing. The book is really mostly about Britain. He talks about the dangers of central planning, of the attempt to take over the... (Source)

Mitch DanielsThis book convincingly demonstrated what was already intuitive to me: namely, the utter futility, the illusion of government planning as a mechanism for uplifting those less fortunate. (Source)

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13
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Four, Scott Galloway, a provocative book of hard-won wisdom for achieving a fulfilling career and life, based on his viral video of the same name.

Scott Galloway teaches brand strategy at NYU's Stern School of Business, but often his class veers to life strategy. His students are smart and hardworking, but they struggle with life's biggest questions, just like the rest of us. What's the formula for a life well lived? How can you have a meaningful career, not just a lucrative one? Is work/life balance really...
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Eric BarkerThis book is required reading for everyone with a heartbeat. Scott delivers powerful, hard-earned life lessons that will resonate with anyone who hasn’t had their common sense surgically removed. (Source)

Geoffrey MillerThis is a really interesting, short, super-readable book by leading NYU marketer @profgalloway. He invents a whole new genre of nonfiction: radically honest memoir + intrepid self-analysis + life advice. I wish everybody I admire would write their own version of it. https://t.co/2kXlf9cDb1 (Source)

Derek SiversThe Algebra of Happiness offers raw and vulnerable wisdom, delivered with heart. We all can learn from Galloway's mistakes and insights. (Source)

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Don't have time to read Geoffrey Miller'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.