Experts > Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer's Top Book Recommendations

Former CEO/Yahoo!

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

1
Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious—even liberating—book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable... more
Recommended by Andrew Chen,  Nir Eyal,  Vinod Khosla,  and 26 others.

Trevor SumnerIf you design bad paths for your users no matter how obscure, they will find them. Keep the happy path simple and avoid complexity. This and many other great #design wisdoms in The Design of Everyday Things. Great book from @jnd1er. https://t.co/3CwSDubqFx (Source)

Julia EnthovenFor people interested in designing or building software products: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman and The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen. Both books have informed my product sense and helped me make decisions about great UX. (Source)

Kaci LambeThese three books are about how people actually use design in their lives. They helped me understand this very basic idea: There are no dumb users, only bad designers. Take the time to create based on how your design will be interacted with. Test it. Iterate. That's how you become a good designer. (Source)

2
What if charisma could be taught? For the first time, science and technology have taken charisma apart, figured it out and turned it into an applied science: In controlled laboratory experiments, researchers could raise or lower people's level of charisma as if they were turning a dial. What you'll find here is practical magic: unique knowledge, drawn from a variety of sciences, revealing what charisma really is and how it works. You'll get both the insights and the techniques you need to apply this knowledge. The world will become your lab, and every person you meet, a chance to... more

Marissa MayerProud of our friend and neighbor Olivia Fox Cabane - her book 'The Charisma Myth' launched today and is already #122 of all books on Amazon. It went into its second printing even before launch! (Source)

Laura LangOlivia Fox Cabane offers hands-on advice and a practical guide to humanizing leaders without comprising integrity or authority. She focused on the ‘it’ factors that can make a real difference. (Source)

Dr. Monali Y. DesaiCurrently, my favorite business book is The Charisma Myth (Olivia Fox Cabane) because I feel it has so many small but impactful takeaways about improving how you communicate with others, I try to reread it once a year. (Source)

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