Tristan Harris

How slot machines are designed to keep gamblers playing longer.

Behavioural training methods for animals and people, explained with examples.

Six principles of compliance, from reciprocity to scarcity, and how sellers use them.

Nudge: The Final Edition published 2021.

Experiments showing that people depart from rational choice in repeatable ways.

Self-control as a physical capacity, and how to build it, from a Stanford course.

Kahneman's synthesis of behavioral economics is the cognitive science underpinning every negotiation tactic. Anchoring, loss aversion, framing effects, and the planning fallacy — understanding why these biases operate, not just that they exist, makes you harder to exploit and more honest about your own irrationality.

A novel of a clerk who rewrites history under a totalitarian state that watches all.

A novel of a future world where people are bred in hatcheries into contented castes.

Finite games are played to win; infinite games are played to keep playing.

Metaphor as a basic mechanism of thought that shapes how people understand the world.

How television turned public discourse from argument into entertainment.

How the global elite's efforts to change the world keep the status quo in place.

Why some words persuade and others fail, from a political pollster.

Tim Ferriss's book belongs on a personal-finance list not for its investment advice but for its income argument: the fastest way to reach financial independence may be redesigning how and where you work rather than cutting spending to the bone. The 'new rich' framework is deliberately provocative, and the specific tactics age poorly, but the income-side case remains underweighted in most FIRE writing.

Twenty-two rules of marketing, such as being first is better than being better.

How a culture hands its judgement to machines, statistics and technical experts.

Six traits of memorable ideas, from simple and unexpected to emotional stories.