The Investor's Shelf — one person
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Shane Parrish

T3JournalistsRecommendationsInvestor psychology

Founder of Farnam Street and host of The Knowledge Project podcast; previously an analyst for a Canadian intelligence agency.

The Great Mental Models collects the reasoning tools investors borrow from other disciplines - inversion, second-order effects, margin of safety, the map and the territory, circle of competence - and gives each a worked example rather than a slogan. Clear Thinking covers the practices around those models: noticing that a decision is being made at all, and setting rules before the moment arrives.

2 books of their own · 50 books they recommend

Books they wrote 2

Start here

  1. The Great Mental ModelsShane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien, 2020
  2. Clear ThinkingShane Parrish, 2023
The Great Mental Models
The Great Mental Models
Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien · 2020
OL20774533W
Clear Thinking
Clear Thinking
Shane Parrish · 2023
OL34374688W

Books they recommend 50

Parrish publishes a yearly "best books I read" roundup on Farnam Street and tracks his full reading on Goodreads, plus recommends widely on The Knowledge Project. The selections come primarily from his published "16 Best Books I Read in 2016" list and other Farnam Street recommendations; his taste runs to mental models, history, philosophy, decision-making, and biography.

Book recommendations listed on their Good Books profile 22

Philosophy 5

Meditations
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius aggregator only
source
Antifragile
Antifragile
Nassim Nicholas Taleb aggregator only
source
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Eric Jorgenson · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Tiny Beautiful Things
Tiny Beautiful Things
Cheryl Strayed · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Brave Enough
Brave Enough
Cheryl Strayed · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Biography and Memoir 3

The Power Broker
The Power Broker
Robert A. Caro aggregator only
source
Buffett
Buffett
Roger Lowenstein aggregator only
source
Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger
Tren Griffin aggregator only
source

Psychology and Behaviour 2

Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Walden
Walden
Henry David Thoreau · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Entrepreneurship and Startups 2

Rework
Rework
David Heinemeier Hansson · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Trump
Trump
Donald Trump aggregator only
source

Investing 1

Poor Charlie's Almanack
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charlie Munger aggregator only
source

General History 1

The Lessons of History
The Lessons of History
Will, Ariel Durant aggregator only
source

Decision Making 1

Seeking Wisdom
Seeking Wisdom
Peter Bevelin aggregator only
source

Travel and Exploration 1

Wild
Wild
Cheryl Strayed · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Education and Learning 1

How to Read a Book
How to Read a Book
Mortimer J. Adler · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Financial History 1

When Genius Failed
When Genius Failed
Roger Lowenstein aggregator only
source

Productivity and Habits 1

Managing Oneself
Managing Oneself
Peter Drucker aggregator only
source

Environment and Energy 1

Living within Limits
Living within Limits
Garrett Hardin aggregator only
source

Religion and Spirituality 1

Mindfulness in Plain English
Mindfulness in Plain English
Henepola Gunaratana · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Art and Design 1

Thinking with Type
Thinking with Type
Ellen Lupton · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

The Sixteen Best Books I Read in 2016 16

Psychology and Behaviour 3

The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution
The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution
P. D. Ouspensky · not in an entry yet
source
The Seven Sins of Memory
The Seven Sins of Memory
Daniel L. Schacter
source
The Happiness Trap
The Happiness Trap
Russ Harris · not in an entry yet
source

Biography and Memoir 2

When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi · not in an entry yet
source
A Powerful Mind
A Powerful Mind
Adrienne M. Harrison · not in an entry yet
source

Politics and Government 2

The Sovereign Individual
The Sovereign Individual
James Dale Davidson, William Rees-Mogg
source
Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on
Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World
Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill
source

Philosophy 2

An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments
An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments
Ali Almossawi
source
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
Daniel C. Dennett
source

General History 2

Why Don't We Learn from History?
Why Don't We Learn from History?
B. H. Liddell Hart
source
Sapiens
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
source

Science 1

The Island of Knowledge
The Island of Knowledge
Marcelo Gleiser
source

Fiction 1

To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee · not in an entry yet
source

Negotiation and Persuasion 1

Talk Lean
Talk Lean
Alan Palmer
source

Artificial Intelligence 1

The Master Algorithm
The Master Algorithm
Pedro Domingos
source

Religion and Spirituality 1

Becoming Wise
Becoming Wise
Krista Tippett · not in an entry yet
source

Superbook reading list 12

General History 2

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari · not in an entry yet
source
“Named a best book of 2016; Parrish calls it one of the best "big history" syntheses he'd read in a long time.”
Why Don't We Learn from History?
Why Don't We Learn from History?
B.H. Liddell Hart
source
“A 2016 pick he recommends as a short, sharp synthesis on extracting lessons from the past.”

Psychology and Behaviour 2

The Seven Sins of Memory
The Seven Sins of Memory
Daniel Schacter
source
“2016 best book on the systematic ways human memory fails — core mental-models material.”
The Happiness Trap
The Happiness Trap
Russ Harris · not in an entry yet
source
“A 2016 pick on the paradox that chasing happiness directly tends to backfire.”

Not yet given a topic 2

Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery a
Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living
Krista Tippett · not in an entry yet
source
“A 2016 best book; he describes pages densely underlined, on wisdom and the art of living.”
Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights
Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights
Graham Allison et al. · not in an entry yet
source
“A 2016 pick collecting the Singapore founder's hard-nosed views on geopolitics and economics.”

Politics and Government 1

The Sovereign Individual
The Sovereign Individual
James Dale Davidson, William Rees-Mogg
source
“A 2016 best-book pick; he highlights its argument that technology will erode the nation-state's power over individuals.”

Biography and Memoir 1

When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi · not in an entry yet
source
“A 2016 favorite; he recommends the neurosurgeon's memoir for its meditation on what makes life meaningful.”

Philosophy 1

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
Daniel Dennett
source
“A 2016 pick; squarely in Parrish's wheelhouse of thinking tools and thought experiments.”

Artificial Intelligence 1

The Master Algorithm
The Master Algorithm
Pedro Domingos
source
“A 2016 favorite he recommends as the best overview of the competing schools of machine learning.”

Decision Making 1

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions W
Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
Annie Duke · not in an entry yet
source
“Parrish recommends Duke's work on decision-making under uncertainty; he later hosted her and features the book repeatedly.”

Fiction 1

To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee · not in an entry yet
source
“He revisited it as a 2016 best book to study Atticus Finch's blend of toughness, humility, and judgment.”

Where they publish 4

Tags

charlie-mungermental-modelsdecision-makingfirst-principlessecond-order-thinkinginversionreasoning