Inspired by mike_mclaren's comment: "Thanks for posting this. Posts introducing books or other bodies of work not explicitly about EA or an EA cause area, but that introduce or explain relevant ideas from disparate disciplines, seem valuable and I would like to see more."
What books or other bodies of work, not explicitly about EA or an EA cause area, might be interesting or beneficial to EAs?
The books on this list by conceptually are quite useful. The ones I've read and thought are useful I've listed below.
Superforecasting
Thinking Fast and Slow
The Undercover Economist
The Righteous Mind
Predictably Irrational
The Better Angels of our Nature
Influence
Adapt
The Signal and the Noise
Some others I have found useful
4DX - How to execute plans efficiently (meant more for people in charge of orgs or teams but still applicable to individuals)
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy - Summary of a useful strategy framework
The Charisma Myth
Lean Startup
The Art of Gathering
The Art of Community
You Are Not So Smart
Also two EA reading lists that cover poverty, future generations, animal welfare, psychology, productivity, career/business and advocacy.
Although related, EA has grown and includes many people who don't share the rationalist/LW most prevalent among EAs concerned with x-risk, so LessWrong and especially the Sequences are probably worth mentioning.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality can be for inspiring an EA-like mood, as well as for introducing the idea of thinking ways that can be helpful for EAs (although some ways of thinking that end up being effectively promoted are anti-EA to varying degrees).
Obvious point: While EAs are special in some important ways, there are many more ways in which EAs aren't that special. So if you want to be effective at what you do, then often generally good advice/resources for your field would be helpful.
Eg, if you want to be good at accounting, the best books on accounting continue to be useful as an "EA accountant", if you want to be good at entrepreneurship/programming/social skills/research, the generally useful resources are still good for those things.
Books I found helpful:
Decisive[1]
The Productivity Project
Code Complete
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Anathem (fiction)
Books that have the potential to be helpful, but I did not personally find dramatically helpful:
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Deep Work
The Signal and the Noise
Crucial Conversations
The Art of Learning [2]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14kwkA0XBHSewIjlfIHHqQH9ISo0s5d_kp-w7w594Pks/edit
[2] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WCMQyOBo7ROx012CkIIzQ7rklBecaRzRhxusPDh3wBY/edit
Facebook post that has a longer list (though the framing's slightly different. "potentially lifechanging" rather than useful):
https://www.facebook.com/linchuan.zhang/posts/1697471177010326
80K's All the evidence-based advice we found on how to be successful in any job (link).
Thanks for posting! I have an analytic background and have therefore found it particularly useful to shore up on "soft skills" from books like:
Working with emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman
Daring greatly, Brené Brown
The wilderness, Brené Brown
I also read articles and listen to podcasts from Harvard Business Review on emotional intelligence, leadership, and management.
Thanks for asking this question! We like having brief questions like this on the Forum as a way to easily gather knowledge from a lot of different users.
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My suggestions so far:
Other suggestions and brief summary of what you'll get out of them:
Hunger and Public Action by Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze
https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Public-Studies-Development-Economics/dp/0198283652\
Demographic and human capital scenarios for the 21st century
http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/15226/1/lutz_et_al_2018_demographic_and_human_capital.pdf
Obvious point: While EAs are special in some important ways, there are many more ways in which EAs aren't that special. So if you want to be effective at what you do, then often generally good advice/resources for your field would be helpful.
Eg, if you want to be good at accounting, the best books on accounting continue to be useful as an "EA accountant", if you want to be good at entrepreneurship/programming/social skills/research, the generally useful resources are still good for those things.
Books I found helpful:
Decisive[1]
The Productivity Project
Code Complete
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Anathem (fiction)
Books that have the potential to be helpful, but I did not personally find dramatically helpful:
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Deep Work
The Signal and the Noise
Crucial Conversations
The Art of Learning [2]
[1]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14kwkA0XBHSewIjlfIHHqQH9ISo0s5d_kp-w7w594Pks/edit
[2] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WCMQyOBo7ROx012CkIIzQ7rklBecaRzRhxusPDh3wBY/edit
Facebook post that has a longer list (though the framing's slightly different. "potentially lifechanging" rather than useful):
https://www.facebook.com/linchuan.zhang/posts/1697471177010326