Discover what your favourite authors are reading and recommending
Author, Media Strategist, Stoic
Ryan Holiday is an American author known for his books on Stoic philosophy. His "Obstacle Is the Way" trilogy has been translated into over 40 languages and is used by sports teams, military leaders, and CEOs worldwide.
Biographer, Historian, Professor
Walter Isaacson is an American biographer, journalist, and professor of history at Tulane University. Former CEO of CNN and the Aspen Institute, he is best known for his bestselling biographies of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, and Elon Musk.
Cognitive Psychologist, Harvard Professor
Steven Pinker is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist and the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. His influential books include 'The Language Instinct,' 'How the Mind Works,' 'The Blank Slate,' 'The Better Angels of Our Nature,' and 'Enlightenment Now.'
Research Professor and Author
Brene Brown is an American research professor at the University of Houston whose work explores courage, vulnerability, and empathy. Her books, including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection, have become bestsellers and her TED talk on vulnerability is one of the most viewed of all time.
Journalist, Author, Podcaster
Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, author, and staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. His books "The Tipping Point", "Blink", "Outliers", and "David and Goliath" have all been number one NYT bestsellers.
Marketer, Entrepreneur, Author
Seth Godin is an American entrepreneur, marketer, and prolific author inducted into the American Marketing Association's Hall of Fame. He has written more than 20 bestsellers including 'Purple Cow,' 'Tribes,' 'Linchpin,' 'The Dip,' 'This Is Marketing,' and 'The Practice.'
Computer Science Professor, Author
Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University and the author of "Deep Work" and "Digital Minimalism". He advocates for focused, distraction-free work in an increasingly noisy world.
Theoretical Physicist, Author
Carlo Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist and a founder of loop quantum gravity theory, long based at the Centre de Physique Théorique in Marseille. His bestselling popular science books include 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,' 'The Order of Time,' and 'Helgoland.'
Stanford Professor, Author
Chip Heath is a professor of organisational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. With his brother Dan Heath, he co-authored the bestsellers 'Made to Stick,' 'Switch,' 'Decisive,' and 'The Power of Moments,' exploring why ideas catch on and how to drive change.
Behavioral Economist, Duke Professor
Dan Ariely is an Israeli-American behavioural economist and professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers 'Predictably Irrational,' 'The Upside of Irrationality,' and 'The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty.'
Psychologist, Science Journalist
Daniel Goleman is an American psychologist and science journalist who earned his PhD at Harvard and reported on brain and behavioural sciences for The New York Times. He is best known for 'Emotional Intelligence' (1995), which spent over 18 months on the bestseller list, and follow-ups like 'Social Intelligence' and 'Focus.'
Business Researcher, Author
Jim Collins is an American researcher, author, and management consultant focused on what makes companies endure and excel. A former Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty member, he wrote the bestsellers 'Good to Great,' 'Built to Last,' 'Great by Choice,' and 'How the Mighty Fall.'
Social Psychologist, NYU Professor
Jonathan Haidt is an American social psychologist and the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU Stern School of Business. He developed Moral Foundations Theory and wrote the bestsellers 'The Happiness Hypothesis,' 'The Righteous Mind,' 'The Coddling of the American Mind,' and 'The Anxious Generation.'
Scholar, Statistician, Author
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese-American essayist and mathematical statistician. His Incerto series, including "The Black Swan" and "Antifragile", has been published in 41 languages.
Author, Motivational Speaker
Simon Sinek is a British-American author and motivational speaker. His TED talk on "Start with Why" is the third most watched of all time with over 60 million views.
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Wharton Professor, Organizational Psychologist
Adam Grant is an American organisational psychologist and the youngest tenured professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers 'Give and Take,' 'Originals,' 'Think Again,' and 'Hidden Potential,' and hosts the TED podcast 'WorkLife.'
Productivity Author, Consultant
Chris Bailey is a Canadian productivity consultant and author who rose to prominence through 'A Year of Productivity,' a yearlong self-experiment documenting his research on time, energy, and attention. His bestselling books include 'The Productivity Project,' 'Hyperfocus,' and 'How to Calm Your Mind.'
DevOps Researcher, Author
Gene Kim is an American author, researcher, and founder and former CTO of Tripwire who has studied high-performing technology organisations since 1999. He co-authored the seminal DevOps novel 'The Phoenix Project,' its sequel 'The Unicorn Project,' 'The DevOps Handbook,' and 'Accelerate.'
Wharton Marketing Professor, Author
Jonah Berger is an American marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who studies social influence, word of mouth, and why things catch on. He is the author of the bestsellers 'Contagious,' 'Invisible Influence,' 'The Catalyst,' and 'Magic Words.'
Theoretical Physicist, Author
Leonard Mlodinow is an American theoretical physicist and author who earned his PhD at UC Berkeley and taught at Caltech. His popular science books include 'The Drunkard's Walk,' 'Subliminal' (PEN/E.O. Wilson Award winner), and 'The Grand Design,' co-authored with Stephen Hawking.
Science Writer, Author
Matt Ridley is a British science writer and journalist with a doctorate in zoology from Oxford. His bestselling books include 'The Red Queen,' 'Genome,' 'The Rational Optimist,' 'The Evolution of Everything,' and 'How Innovation Works,' exploring evolution, genetics, and human progress.
British Author, Journalist
Matthew Syed is a British author, journalist for The Times, and former Olympic table tennis player who represented Great Britain at the 1992 and 2000 Games. His bestsellers include 'Bounce,' 'Black Box Thinking,' and 'Rebel Ideas,' exploring expertise, failure, and cognitive diversity.
Journalist, Non-Fiction Author
Michael Lewis is an American author and financial journalist renowned for his ability to make complex subjects compelling through vivid storytelling and memorable characters. His bestseller Moneyball revealed how data analytics revolutionised professional baseball, while The Big Short provided a gripping account of the individuals who foresaw the 2008 financial crisis. His work consistently illuminates hidden systems and the mavericks who challenge conventional wisdom.
Business Consultant, Author
Patrick Lencioni is an American business management consultant and founder of The Table Group, a firm focused on organisational health and team dynamics. He is best known for his business fable 'The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,' along with 'The Advantage,' 'The Ideal Team Player,' and 'Death by Meeting.'
Evolutionary Biologist, Author
Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist and the former Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. His landmark book 'The Selfish Gene' (1976) popularized the gene-centreed view of evolution and coined the term 'meme'; later works include 'The Blind Watchmaker' and 'The God Delusion.'
Author, Entrepreneur, Podcaster
Tim Ferriss is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, and podcaster. Best known for "The 4-Hour Workweek" and "Tools of Titans", where he distils advice from over 200 world-class performers. His podcast has over 900 million downloads.
Philosopher, Author
Alain de Botton is a Swiss born British philosopher and author who founded The School of Life, an organisation devoted to developing emotional intelligence. His books, including The Consolations of Philosophy and Status Anxiety, make philosophical ideas accessible and relevant to everyday concerns such as work, love, and self worth. He has written extensively on architecture, travel, and religion, consistently bridging the gap between academic philosophy and popular culture.
Novelist, Philosopher
Albert Camus (1913 to 1960) was a French novelist, essayist, and philosopher who became one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 for his body of work, which includes The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague, and The Rebel. His philosophy of absurdism explored the tension between humanity's search for meaning and the indifference of the universe.
Professor, Author
Amy Edmondson is a professor of leadership at Harvard Business School known for her pioneering research on psychological safety and organisational learning. She was ranked the number one management thinker in the world by Thinkers50 in 2023.
Neuroscientist, Professor
Antonio Damasio is a Portuguese American neuroscientist and professor at the University of Southern California whose work has demonstrated the central role emotions play in rational decision making. His somatic marker hypothesis and bestselling book Descartes' Error fundamentally changed how science understands the relationship between feeling and reason.
Surgeon, Public Health Leader, Author
Atul Gawande is an American surgeon, public health researcher, and author who is a professor at Harvard Medical School and a staff writer for The New Yorker. His book The Checklist Manifesto demonstrated how simple checklists can dramatically reduce errors in medicine and other complex fields, influencing hospital practices globally. His deeply moving work Being Mortal challenged the medical profession to rethink its approach to ageing and end of life care.
Author, Artist
Austin Kleon is an American author and artist whose bestselling book Steal Like an Artist encourages creative people to embrace influence and share their work openly. His writing on creativity has reached millions through his books, talks, and a popular weekly newsletter.
Author, Science Communicator
Bill Bryson is an American British author known for his humorous and accessible books on travel, science, and the English language. His bestseller A Short History of Nearly Everything made complex scientific topics entertaining and understandable for a general readership, winning multiple awards including the Aventis Prize for Science Books. His later work The Body: A Guide for Occupants applied the same wit and curiosity to human anatomy and physiology.
Journalist, Author
Brad Stone is an American journalist and author who serves as editor of Bloomberg Businessweek. He is best known for The Everything Store, his definitive account of Jeff Bezos and the rise of Amazon, which won the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. His other books include The Upstarts, on the rise of Uber and Airbnb, and Amazon Unbound.
Author, Researcher
Brian Christian is an American author, researcher, and poet whose work explores the human implications of computer science and artificial intelligence. His bestselling books include The Most Human Human, Algorithms to Live By, and The Alignment Problem, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He holds degrees in computer science and philosophy from Brown University and is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
Astronomer, Science Communicator
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, and one of the most celebrated science communicators of the twentieth century. His television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage and the accompanying book brought the wonders of the universe into millions of homes, inspiring a generation of scientists. His book The Demon-Haunted World remains an influential defence of scientific thinking and scepticism against pseudoscience.
Naturalist, Evolutionary Biologist
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist and biologist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed our understanding of life on Earth. His landmark work On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, provided a unifying framework for the diversity of life and remains one of the most influential scientific works ever written. His later book The Descent of Man applied evolutionary theory to human origins and introduced the concept of sexual selection.
Journalist, Author
Charles Duhigg is an American journalist and author who writes for The New Yorker, having previously been a reporter for The New York Times. His bestselling book The Power of Habit explored the science of habit formation in individuals, organisations, and societies. His later works, including Smarter Faster Better and Supercommunicators, examine productivity and the science of effective communication.
Historian, Author
Sir Christopher Clark is an Australian born historian who serves as Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge. His book The Sleepwalkers, a sweeping reinterpretation of how Europe stumbled into the First World War, became an international bestseller and reshaped scholarly debate on the conflict's origins. He was knighted in 2015 for his services to Anglo-German relations, and his other works include Iron Kingdom and Revolutionary Spring.
Harvard Business School Professor
Clayton Christensen was an American academic, business consultant, and Harvard Business School professor who developed the influential theory of disruptive innovation. His book The Innovator's Dilemma explained why successful companies can fail by ignoring emerging markets, and it became essential reading for entrepreneurs and executives worldwide. His ideas profoundly shaped modern business strategy and technology industry thinking.
Author, Journalist
Dan Gardner is a Canadian journalist and bestselling author whose work examines risk perception, forecasting, and decision making. His books include Risk, Future Babble, and the New York Times bestseller Superforecasting, co-authored with Philip Tetlock, as well as How Big Things Get Done with Bent Flyvbjerg. His writing has won or been nominated for most major Canadian journalism awards, including the National Newspaper Award.
Philosopher, Cognitive Scientist
Daniel Dennett was an American philosopher and cognitive scientist who was one of the most influential thinkers on consciousness, free will, and evolutionary theory. His book Consciousness Explained offered a bold materialist account of how subjective experience arises from brain processes, challenging dualist assumptions. His work Darwin's Dangerous Idea explored the far reaching implications of natural selection, arguing it is the single best idea anyone has ever had.
Psychiatrist, Author
Daniel J. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and codirector of the Mindful Awareness Research Centre. He and psychotherapist Tina Payne Bryson have coauthored bestselling books on child development, drawing on interpersonal neurobiology to help parents nurture their children's developing brains.
Nobel Laureate, Psychologist
Daniel Kahneman was an Israeli American psychologist and Nobel Prize laureate in Economics, renowned for his groundbreaking work on the psychology of judgement and decision making. His bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow introduced millions of readers to the two systems that drive the way we think. His research on cognitive biases and prospect theory, conducted with Amos Tversky, fundamentally reshaped the fields of behavioural economics and public policy.
Author, Behavioural Science Writer
Daniel Pink is an American author and former chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, known for his influential books on work, motivation, and human behaviour. His bestseller Drive challenged traditional reward based motivation models, arguing that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the true drivers of high performance. His other works, including When and To Sell Is Human, apply behavioural science to everyday life and business.
New York Times Columnist, Author
David Brooks is a Canadian born American author and political and cultural commentator who writes an opinion column for The New York Times. His books, including The Social Animal and The Second Mountain, explore the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and moral philosophy, examining what drives human character and community. He is widely regarded as one of America's most thoughtful public intellectuals on culture and society.
Journalist, Author
David Epstein is an American investigative journalist and author, formerly of ProPublica and Sports Illustrated. His bestselling book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World challenged the cult of early specialisation, arguing that breadth of experience is often more valuable than narrow expertise. His earlier book The Sports Gene explored the interplay of nature and nurture in athletic performance.
Author, Science Journalist
David McRaney is an American science journalist and two time winner of the William Randolph Hearst Award, best known for his internationally bestselling book You Are Not So Smart and its companion podcast. His work explores cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and the ways in which human thinking goes astray. His most recent book, How Minds Change, examines the science of belief, opinion, and persuasion.
Design Researcher, Cognitive Scientist
Don Norman is an American researcher, professor, and author widely regarded as a pioneer of user centred design. His influential book The Design of Everyday Things introduced concepts such as affordances and signifiers, fundamentally changing how designers think about the relationship between people and products. He has held positions at Apple, UC San Diego, and Northwestern University, and co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group.
Historian, Author
Doris Kearns Goodwin is an American biographer and historian whose work focuses on the lives and leadership of American presidents. Her book No Ordinary Time won the Pulitzer Prize for History, and Team of Rivals, her acclaimed study of Abraham Lincoln's political genius, was adapted by Steven Spielberg into the film Lincoln. Her other works include Leadership in Turbulent Times and The Bully Pulpit.
Author, Spiritual Teacher
Eckhart Tolle is a German born spiritual teacher and bestselling author best known for The Power of Now and A New Earth, both of which have sold millions of copies worldwide. His teachings emphasise the importance of present moment awareness and the transcendence of ego based consciousness. His work draws on a range of spiritual traditions and has been widely popularised through his collaboration with Oprah Winfrey.
Journalist, Environmental Author
Elizabeth Kolbert is an American journalist and author who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1999. Her Pulitzer Prize winning book The Sixth Extinction examined how human activity is driving a mass extinction event on par with the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs. Her subsequent work Under a White Sky explored the often paradoxical ways humans are intervening in nature to try to save it.
Entrepreneur, Author
Eric Ries is an American entrepreneur, blogger, and author who pioneered the lean startup methodology. His bestselling book The Lean Startup introduced the concepts of the minimum viable product and validated learning, transforming how startups and established organisations build products. He has advised numerous technology companies and government organisations on applying entrepreneurial principles to reduce waste and increase innovation.
Psychologist, Researcher
Gary Klein is an American research psychologist who pioneered the field of naturalistic decision making by studying how experts such as firefighters and military commanders make decisions under pressure. His recognition primed decision model has influenced training programmes across the US Marines and Army. His books Sources of Power and Seeing What Others Don't offer compelling accounts of intuition and insight in real world settings.
Psychologist, Researcher
Gerd Gigerenzer is a German psychologist and director emeritus of the Centre for Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. His research demonstrates that simple heuristics can often outperform complex statistical models, challenging prevailing views on cognitive bias and rationality. His accessible books Risk Savvy and Gut Feelings have brought the science of decision making under uncertainty to a broad audience.
Investor, Author
Howard Marks is an American investor and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, the world's largest investor in distressed securities. He is widely admired in the investment community for his insightful memos on market cycles, risk, and investor psychology. His books The Most Important Thing and Mastering the Market Cycle distil decades of experience into practical wisdom about navigating financial markets.
Journalist, Author
Isabel Wilkerson is an American journalist and author who became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Her debut book The Warmth of Other Suns chronicles the Great Migration of African Americans from the southern United States, and her second book Caste examines the unspoken systems of hierarchy that shape societies around the world. Both works are considered landmark contributions to American nonfiction.
Author, Science Historian
James Gleick is an American author and historian of science whose work chronicles the cultural impact of modern technology. His landmark book Chaos: Making a New Science helped popularise chaos theory, and his subsequent works include The Information and Time Travel. His writing has earned multiple National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize nominations.
Geographer, Evolutionary Biologist
Jared Diamond is an American scientist, author, and Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. His Pulitzer Prize winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel examined why certain civilisations came to dominate others, weaving together insights from ecology, linguistics, and anthropology. His subsequent work Collapse explored how societies choose to fail or succeed in the face of environmental challenges.
Author, Software Engineer
Jez Humble is a software engineer and co-author of the Shingo Publication Award winning book Accelerate, along with Continuous Delivery and The DevOps Handbook. He co-founded DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA), which was acquired by Google, where he works as a site reliability engineer. He also teaches at UC Berkeley's School of Information and holds a BA in Physics and Philosophy from Oxford University.
Author and Journalist
Joan Didion was an American writer and journalist who pioneered the New Journalism movement. She was best known for her essay collections Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, and her National Book Award winning memoir The Year of Magical Thinking.
Professor, Mindfulness Pioneer
Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American professor emeritus of medicine who founded the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Centre for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He developed Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), an eight week programme that has become a cornerstone of clinical mindfulness practice worldwide. His books Wherever You Go, There You Are and Full Catastrophe Living have introduced millions to the practice of mindfulness.
Psychologist and Author
Kelly McGonigal is an American health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University known for translating insights from psychology and neuroscience into practical strategies. She is the author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress, and her TED talk on stress is one of the most viewed of all time.
Author, Leadership Consultant
Kerry Patterson is an American author and co-founder of VitalSmarts (now Crucial Learning), an organisation specialising in corporate training and behavioural change. He co-authored the New York Times bestsellers Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, and Influencer, which have helped millions of people navigate high stakes dialogue. He completed doctoral work at Stanford University and is a recipient of the Brigham Young University Distinguished Alumni Award.
Software Engineer, Author
Martin Fowler is a British software developer, author, and chief scientist at ThoughtWorks, specialising in object oriented design, refactoring, and enterprise software architecture. His influential book Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code established systematic approaches to restructuring code that are now standard practice across the software industry. His work on Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture provided foundational design patterns for building scalable business systems.
Product Management Expert, Author
Marty Cagan is an American product management thought leader and founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group. His bestselling book Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love has become essential reading for product managers, offering a practical framework for building products in empowered teams. His follow up Empowered extended these ideas to help leaders create the organisational culture needed for truly innovative product development.
Author, Journalist
Michael Pollan is an American journalist and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers on food, agriculture, and the relationship between nature and culture. His bestselling books include The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defence of Food, and How to Change Your Mind, which explores the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. He is the Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University.
Psychologist, Researcher
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was a Hungarian American psychologist who recognised and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity and fulfilment. His bestselling book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience explored how people find genuine satisfaction through complete absorption in challenging activities. His research laid the foundations for the field of positive psychology.
Media Theorist, Author
Neil Postman (1931 to 2003) was an American author, educator, and media theorist who spent his career examining how communications technologies reshape culture and thought. His best known work, Amusing Ourselves to Death, argued that television was trivialising public discourse, while Technopoly warned of a society surrendering its culture to technology. He founded the graduate programme in media ecology at New York University, where he taught for over four decades.
Author, Behavioural Design Expert
Nir Eyal is an Israeli born American author, lecturer, and investor who writes about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. His bestselling book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products provided a practical framework for designing products that engage users through a cycle of triggers, actions, rewards, and investment. His follow up book Indistractable offered strategies for mastering attention and overcoming distraction in the modern world.
Nobel Laureate, Behavioural Economist
Richard Thaler is an American economist and Nobel Prize laureate who is considered a founding father of behavioural economics. His bestselling book Nudge, co-authored with Cass Sunstein, demonstrated how subtle changes in choice architecture can guide people towards better decisions without restricting freedom. His memoir Misbehaving chronicled his career long battle to bring psychological realism into economic theory.
Psychology Professor, Author
Robert Cialdini is an American psychologist and Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. He is best known for his seminal book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, which identified six universal principles of ethical persuasion and has sold millions of copies worldwide. His later work Pre-Suasion explored how to prime audiences for receptivity before delivering a message.
Neuroscientist, Primatologist
Robert Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist and professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, renowned for his research on stress and behaviour. His book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst provided a comprehensive account of why humans act the way they do, spanning neuroscience, genetics, and evolutionary biology. His earlier book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers became a classic guide to understanding stress and its effects on the body.
Author, Journalist
Robert Wright is an American author and journalist whose work spans evolutionary psychology, philosophy, religion, and international relations. His books include The Moral Animal, Nonzero, The Evolution of God, and Why Buddhism Is True, which draws on both cognitive science and contemplative practice. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, and co-founded the online discussion platform Bloggingheads.tv.
Professor, Psychologist
Sherry Turkle is an American sociologist and the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT. Her research explores the psychology of human relationships with technology, and her influential books Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation examine how digital devices are eroding the capacity for empathy and meaningful dialogue. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Physician, Oncologist, Author
Siddhartha Mukherjee is an Indian American physician, oncologist, and author who is a professor at Columbia University. His debut book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, offering a sweeping narrative history of humanity's struggle against the disease. His subsequent work The Gene: An Intimate History explored the science of heredity and its profound implications for human identity.
Entrepreneur, Educator
Steve Blank is an American entrepreneur, educator, and author who created the customer development methodology that launched the lean startup movement. He founded or co-founded eight technology startups and authored The Four Steps to the Epiphany and The Startup Owner's Manual. His Lean LaunchPad curriculum became the standard for science commercialisation at the National Science Foundation, and he has taught at Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Author, Journalist
Steven Kotler is an American author, journalist, and entrepreneur who is one of the world's leading experts on human performance and the science of flow states. He is the founder and executive director of the Flow Research Collective, and his bestselling books include The Rise of Superman, Stealing Fire, and Abundance. His work has been translated into over 80 languages and has appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine and Wired.
Management Consultancy
The Arbinger Institute is an American management training and consulting firm specialising in organisational performance and mindset change. Their book Leadership and Self Deception uses a business fable to explore how self deception undermines leadership and teamwork.
Economist, Journalist
Tim Harford OBE is a British economist and journalist who writes the long running Undercover Economist column for the Financial Times and presents the BBC Radio 4 programme More or Less. His books, including Adapt, Messy, and The Data Detective, explore how economic thinking and statistical reasoning can illuminate everyday life. He is a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.
Psychiatrist, Holocaust Survivor
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, and Holocaust survivor who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy centred on finding meaning in life. His landmark memoir Man's Search for Meaning chronicled his experiences in Nazi concentration camps and articulated his belief that meaning can be found even in the most extreme suffering. His work has influenced generations of psychologists, philosophers, and readers worldwide.
Author, Engineering Leader
Will Larson is a technology executive and author who has held engineering leadership roles at Stripe, Uber, Calm, and Carta, where he serves as CTO. His books An Elegant Puzzle, Staff Engineer, and The Engineering Executive's Primer offer practical guidance on the challenges of engineering management and organisational design. He also writes the widely read blog Irrational Exuberance.
Author, Journalist
William Poundstone is an American author and journalist who has written extensively on science, mathematics, economics, and human behaviour. His books, including Priceless, Fortune's Formula, and Head in the Cloud, reveal the hidden forces that shape pricing, prediction, and knowledge. He studied physics at MIT, and two of his earlier works were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Historian, Author, Professor
Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His bestsellers "Sapiens", "Homo Deus", and "21 Lessons" have sold over 45 million copies worldwide.
Business Executive, Author
A.G. Lafley is an American businessman who served as chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble across two separate tenures, revitalising the company with a consumer focused strategy and open innovation. He has been recognised as one of the most celebrated CEOs in corporate history.
Psychologist, Author
Adam Alter is a professor of marketing and psychology at New York University's Stern School of Business. His research and writing explore behavioural addiction, the psychology of naming, and how environmental cues shape decision making.
Journalist, Author
Adam Fisher is an American journalist and author best known for Valley of Genius, an oral history of Silicon Valley told through the words of the people who built it.
Historian, Author
Adam Hochschild is an American author, journalist, and lecturer whose work examines human rights, colonialism, and war. His most celebrated book, King Leopold's Ghost, chronicles the exploitation of the Congo and the international campaign that arose in response.
Economists, Professors
Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb are professors at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management who research the economics of artificial intelligence. Their collaborative work explores how prediction machines reshape business strategy and decision making.
Marketing Strategist, Author
Al Ries was an American marketing professional who coined the concept of positioning alongside Jack Trout and coauthored The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. He was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame and spent decades advising organisations on brand strategy.
Software Designer, Author
Alan Cooper is an American software designer known as the Father of Visual Basic and a pioneer of interaction design. Along with coauthors Robert Reimann, David Cronin, and Christopher Noessel, he wrote About Face, a foundational text on goal directed design methodology.
Philosopher, Writer
Alan Watts was a British born philosopher and writer who interpreted and popularised Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for Western audiences. His books, lectures, and radio broadcasts made Eastern thought accessible to millions during the mid twentieth century.
Entrepreneur, Author
Alex Hormozi is an American entrepreneur and author who built a portfolio of companies in the fitness and software industries. He is known for his practical teachings on customer acquisition, offer creation, and business growth.
Journalist, Author
Alex Hutchinson is a Canadian journalist and author who writes about the science of endurance and human performance. A former physicist and national team runner, he contributed a long running Sweat Science column exploring the boundaries of athletic achievement.
Engineer, Author
Alex Xu is a software engineer and author best known for his System Design Interview book series, which has become a go to resource for engineers preparing for technical interviews at major technology companies.
Author, Lecturer
Alfie Kohn is an American author and lecturer who challenges conventional thinking on education, parenting, and motivation. His work draws on social science research to question the use of competition, rewards, and standardised testing.
Journalist, Author
Alfred Lansing was an American journalist and author best known for Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, his gripping 1959 account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's failed Antarctic expedition. He drew on interviews with surviving crew members and their personal diaries to reconstruct the ordeal.
Venture Capitalist, Author
Ali Tamaseb is a venture capitalist and author who analysed hundreds of billion dollar startups to identify common patterns of success. His data driven research offers insights into what distinguishes the highest performing founders and companies.
Psychologist, Professor
Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research on cognitive and language development, particularly how children learn causal relationships, has shaped the field of developmental psychology.
Entrepreneur, Author
Alistair Croll is a Canadian entrepreneur and author who cowrote Lean Analytics, a guide to using data to build better startups faster. He has founded multiple technology companies and is a prominent speaker on the intersection of data, startups, and innovation.
Psychiatrist, Author
Amir Levine is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Columbia University who researches human attachment. Together with psychologist Rachel Heller, he coauthored Attached, a book that applies attachment theory to adult romantic relationships.
Psychologist, Professor
K. Anders Ericsson was a Swedish psychologist and professor at Florida State University who spent decades studying the nature of expert performance. His research on deliberate practice became one of the most influential frameworks for understanding how people develop exceptional skill.
Historian, Author
Andrea Wulf is a German born, British historian and writer whose books explore the intersection of science, nature, and history. Her award winning work The Invention of Nature brought the legacy of explorer Alexander von Humboldt to a new generation of readers.
Business Executive, Engineer
Andrew Grove was a Hungarian born American businessman and engineer who, as the third CEO of Intel, transformed the company into the world's dominant microprocessor manufacturer. Named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1997, he was celebrated for his management philosophy that only the paranoid survive.
Journalist, Author
Andrew Ross Sorkin is an American financial journalist, anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box, and founder of The New York Times' DealBook. His bestselling book Too Big to Fail chronicled the 2008 financial crisis from inside the boardrooms of Wall Street.
Psychologist, Author
Angela Duckworth is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of Character Lab. Her research on grit, the combination of passion and perseverance for long term goals, has reshaped how educators and organisations think about achievement.
Novelist, Essayist
Anne Lamott is an American novelist and nonfiction writer whose work is known for its wry humour and candid exploration of faith, addiction, and motherhood. Her book Bird by Bird remains one of the most beloved guides on the craft of writing.
Decision Strategist, Author
Annie Duke is a former professional poker player turned author and corporate speaker who specialises in decision science. Her books, including Thinking in Bets, teach readers how to make better choices by embracing uncertainty and separating decisions from outcomes.
Tech Entrepreneur, Author
Antonio Garcia Martinez is an American author and tech entrepreneur who worked at Goldman Sachs, cofounded the Y Combinator backed startup AdGrok, and served as a product manager at Facebook. His bestselling memoir Chaos Monkeys offers a candid insider account of Silicon Valley's startup culture.
Marketing Consultant, Author
April Dunford is a positioning consultant and author of Obviously Awesome, a practical guide to helping companies articulate what makes their product unique. She has led marketing and positioning efforts at multiple technology startups and enterprises.
Philosopher
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath whose writings on logic, ethics, politics, and the natural sciences laid the foundations of Western intellectual thought. A student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great, his ideas shaped scholarship for centuries across the classical, medieval, and modern eras.
Entrepreneur, Author
Ash Maurya is an entrepreneur and author who created the Lean Canvas, a widely adopted one page business modelling tool for startups. His book Running Lean offers a systematic process for iterating from an initial idea to a product that customers want.
Journalist, Author
Ashlee Vance is a South African born American journalist and author who covers the technology industry for Bloomberg Businessweek. He is best known for his bestselling biography of Elon Musk, which chronicles the entrepreneur's ventures from PayPal to SpaceX and Tesla.
Economist, Professor
Avinash Dixit is an Indian American economist and emeritus professor at Princeton University whose research spans trade theory, game theory, and industrial organisation. He served as president of the Econometric Society and the American Economic Association, and codeveloped the influential Dixit Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition.
Historian, Author
Barbara W. Tuchman was an American historian and author who won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Guns of August and Stilwell and the American Experience in China. She became the first female president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was celebrated for making history vivid and accessible to general readers.
Psychologist, Professor
Barry Schwartz is an American psychologist and emeritus professor at Swarthmore College whose research explores the intersection of psychology and economics. His book The Paradox of Choice argues that an overabundance of options can lead to anxiety and dissatisfaction rather than freedom.
Venture Capitalist, Author
Ben Horowitz is an American businessman and cofounder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. His bestselling book The Hard Thing About Hard Things draws on his experience as a CEO to offer frank advice on the toughest challenges of building and running a company.
Philosopher and Mathematician
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, and mathematician whose work spanned logic, epistemology, and social criticism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 and remained a prominent advocate for peace and civil liberties throughout his life.
Psychiatrist and Trauma Researcher
Bessel van der Kolk is a Dutch American psychiatrist and author whose research has focused on the effects of psychological trauma. He is best known for his bestselling book The Body Keeps the Score, which explores how trauma reshapes the body and brain.
Google Site Reliability Engineers and Editors
Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, and Niall Richard Murphy are editors of Site Reliability Engineering, the definitive guide to how Google runs its production systems. The book brings together essays from dozens of Google engineers on building and operating large scale, reliable software systems.
Tech Pioneer, Philanthropist, Reader
Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Gates Foundation. One of the world's most prolific public readers, his annual reading lists consistently influence global bestseller charts.
NFL Head Coach and Author
Bill Walsh was an American football coach who led the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl victories and pioneered the West Coast offence. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993 and authored The Score Takes Care of Itself on leadership principles.
Behavioural Scientist, Author
BJ Fogg is a behavioural scientist and founder of the Behaviour Design Lab at Stanford University. His Fogg Behaviour Model explains how motivation, ability, and prompts combine to drive human behaviour, and his book Tiny Habits popularised the practice of starting small to create lasting change.
Screenwriter and Author
Blake Snyder was an American screenwriter and author best known for Save the Cat!, one of the most widely read books on screenwriting craft. His beat sheet structure for storytelling has become a foundational tool used by screenwriters and novelists worldwide.
Venture Capitalists and Authors
Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson are co founders of Foundry Group and co authors of Venture Deals, the go to guide for entrepreneurs navigating venture capital financing. Feld is also a co founder of Techstars, while Mendelson brings deep legal and operational expertise to the venture industry.
Research Professor and Author
Brené Brown is an American research professor at the University of Houston whose work explores courage, vulnerability, and empathy. Her books, including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection, have become bestsellers and her TED talk on vulnerability is one of the most viewed of all time.
Technology Journalists and Authors
Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli are journalists who co authored Becoming Steve Jobs, a biography praised for its intimate portrayal of Apple's co founder. Schlender covered Steve Jobs for the Wall Street Journal and Fortune for nearly 25 years, while Tetzeli served as executive editor of Fast Company.
Theoretical Physicist and Author
Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist and professor at Columbia University known for his groundbreaking work on string theory. He is the author of several bestselling popular science books, including The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, and co founded the World Science Festival.
Business Consultants and Authors
Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington are the authors of The 12 Week Year, a productivity framework that condenses annual goals into 12 week cycles. Moran is the founder of The Execution Company, while Lennington serves as its vice president and specialises in implementing lasting organisational change.
Civil Rights Lawyer and Author
Bryan Stevenson is an American lawyer and social justice activist who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the wrongly condemned and the most vulnerable. His memoir Just Mercy chronicles his work challenging racial inequality in the criminal justice system and was adapted into a major film.
Mortician and Author
Caitlin Doughty is an American mortician, author, and YouTuber dedicated to transforming Western attitudes towards death. She founded The Order of the Good Death and created the popular Ask a Mortician series, and her books include Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
Technology Executive and Author
Camille Fournier is an American technology executive and author of The Manager's Path, a widely read guide for engineering leaders navigating growth and change. She has held senior roles at Rent the Runway, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and CoreWeave.
Psychologist and Author
Carol Dweck is an American psychologist and professor at Stanford University best known for her research on mindset and motivation. Her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success popularised the concepts of fixed and growth mindsets, influencing education and leadership practice worldwide.
Social Psychologist and Author
Carol Tavris is an American social psychologist and author whose work examines cognitive dissonance, pseudoscience, and the psychology of self justification. She co authored Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) with Elliot Aronson, exploring how people rationalise foolish beliefs and harmful decisions.
Feminist Author and Activist
Caroline Criado Perez is a British feminist author, journalist, and campaigner who was appointed OBE for her services to equality and diversity. Her bestselling book Invisible Women exposes the gender data gap in a world largely designed around male defaults.
Physicist and Author
Cesar Hidalgo is a Chilean American physicist, author, and entrepreneur whose research explores how information grows in economies and societies. He is the author of Why Information Grows, which investigates the relationship between information, networks, and economic development.
Science Journalist and Author
Charles C. Mann is an American journalist and author whose work examines the intersection of science, technology, and commerce. He is best known for 1491 and 1493, sweeping accounts of the Americas before and after Columbus that transformed popular understanding of pre Columbian civilisations.
Investor and Business Thinker
Charlie Munger was an American investor, businessman, and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway alongside Warren Buffett. He was renowned for his multidisciplinary approach to decision making and his emphasis on mental models, articulated in Poor Charlie's Almanack.
McKinsey Strategy Partners and Authors
Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit are senior leaders in McKinsey's Strategy Practice and co authors of Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick. Their book draws on empirical research of 2,400 companies to reveal what truly drives long term corporate performance.
Former FBI Negotiator and Author
Chris Voss is an American businessman and former FBI hostage negotiator who served as the bureau's chief international kidnapping negotiator. His bestselling book Never Split the Difference draws on his 24 years of field experience to teach practical negotiation techniques.
Cognitive Psychologists and Authors
Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons are cognitive psychologists best known for the invisible gorilla experiment, which demonstrated the surprising limits of human attention. Their book The Invisible Gorilla explores everyday illusions that profoundly influence how we perceive the world.
Data Scientist and Whistleblower
Christopher Wylie is a Canadian data scientist and whistleblower who exposed Cambridge Analytica's misuse of Facebook data for political targeting. His book Mindf*ck details how he helped build the company's data operation and ultimately chose to reveal its practices to the public.
Business Scholar and Author
Clayton M. Christensen was an American academic and professor at Harvard Business School who developed the hugely influential theory of disruptive innovation. His landmark book The Innovator's Dilemma became one of the most important business texts of the early 21st century.
Spiritual Leader and Author
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate recognised for his advocacy of nonviolence and interfaith dialogue. He has authored numerous books on compassion, happiness, and mindfulness, including The Art of Happiness.
Self Help Author and Lecturer
Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer who pioneered the fields of self improvement and interpersonal skills training. His 1936 book How to Win Friends and Influence People remains one of the bestselling books of all time and established many of the core principles of modern personal development.
Bestselling Author and Speaker
Dan Heath is an American author and senior fellow at Duke University's CASE centre, known for writing about behaviour change and decision making. Together with his brother Chip Heath, he co authored Made to Stick, Switch, and Decisive, and later published the solo work Upstream.
SaaS Coach and Entrepreneur
Dan Martell is a Canadian entrepreneur, angel investor, and founder of SaaS Academy, one of the largest coaching programmes for software founders in the world. His book Buy Back Your Time teaches entrepreneurs how to scale their businesses while reclaiming personal freedom.
Product Management Consultant and Author
Dan Olsen is a product management consultant, speaker, and author of The Lean Product Playbook, a practical guide to building products that customers love. He has advised companies including Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Uber on product strategy and innovation.
Organisational Behaviour Professor and Author
Daniel Cable is a professor of organisational behaviour at London Business School whose research explores employee engagement and workplace culture. He is the author of Alive at Work, which draws on neuroscience to show how leaders can help people find purpose and energy in their roles.
Bestselling Author
Daniel Coyle is an American author and journalist whose books explore the science of talent, skill, and group culture. He is best known for The Talent Code and The Culture Code, which investigate how individuals and organisations unlock high performance.
Psychologist and Author
Daniel Gilbert is an American social psychologist and professor at Harvard University known for his research on affective forecasting and cognitive bias. His bestselling book Stumbling on Happiness explores why humans are remarkably poor at predicting what will make them happy.
Psychologist and Neuroscientist
Daniel Goleman is a psychologist and science journalist who popularised the concept of emotional intelligence, while Richard J. Davidson is a neuroscientist and professor at the University of Wisconsin who pioneered research on meditation and the brain. They co authored Altered Traits, examining how meditation produces lasting changes in the mind.
Bestselling Author
Daniel H. Pink is an American author whose books on business, work, and behaviour have been translated into dozens of languages. His bestsellers include Drive, on the science of motivation, A Whole New Mind, and To Sell Is Human.
Neuroscientist and Author
Daniel Levitin is a Canadian American neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, and bestselling author who explores the intersection of music, the mind, and human behaviour. His books include This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organised Mind, which examine how the brain processes information and sound.
Economists and Authors
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson are economists and co authors of Why Nations Fail, which argues that political institutions are the primary driver of differences in prosperity across countries. Both were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics for their research on how institutions shape economic outcomes.
Author and Publisher
Darren Hardy is an American author, keynote speaker, and former publisher of SUCCESS magazine. He is best known for his book The Compound Effect, which explores how small, consistent actions lead to extraordinary results over time.
Author and Professor
Dave Logan is an American author and management consultant who co-founded CultureSync and taught at the USC Marshall School of Business. He is best known for co-authoring the New York Times bestseller Tribal Leadership, drawing on a decade of research into organisational culture.
Productivity Consultant and Author
David Allen is an American productivity consultant and author widely recognised as one of the world's leading experts on personal and organisational effectiveness. His Getting Things Done methodology, first published in 2001, has become one of the most influential frameworks in time management.
Physicist and Author
David Deutsch is a British Israeli physicist at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Society, whose pioneering papers laid the foundations of quantum computation. He is the author of The Beginning of Infinity, which explores how explanations transform the world across science, philosophy, and culture.
Journalist and Author
David E. Sanger is an American journalist and chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, covering foreign policy, nuclear proliferation, and national security for over four decades. He has been a member of three Pulitzer Prize winning teams and is the author of several books on American foreign policy.
Neuroscientist and Author
David Eagleman is an American neuroscientist, author, and science communicator who teaches at Stanford University and is known for his research on brain plasticity, time perception, and sensory substitution. His books, including Sum and Livewired, have been published in over thirty languages.
Anthropologist and Archaeologist
David Graeber (1961 to 2020) was an American anthropologist and activist at the London School of Economics, celebrated for his influential works including Debt: The First 5,000 Years. David Wengrow is a British archaeologist and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London, and together they co-authored The Dawn of Everything, a sweeping reinterpretation of human history.
Journalist and Author
David Kushner is an American journalist and author who is a contributing editor at Wired and Rolling Stone and teaches journalism at New York University. He is best known for Masters of Doom, a celebrated account of id Software's co-founders and their impact on gaming culture.
Science Writer
David Quammen is an American science and nature writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, and Harper's over a career spanning four decades. His books, including Spillover and The Song of the Dodo, explore the intersections of ecology, evolution, and infectious disease.
Science Writer
David Robson is a British science writer and Cambridge graduate who formerly served as an editor at New Scientist and senior journalist at the BBC. His books The Intelligence Trap and The Expectation Effect explore cognitive biases and the surprising power of beliefs on human behaviour.
Biologist and Author
David Sinclair is an Australian American biologist and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, known for his pioneering research into the biology of ageing and the role of sirtuins. His New York Times bestselling book Lifespan explores why we age and how science may one day slow or reverse the process.
Evolutionary Biologist
David Sloan Wilson is an American evolutionary biologist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Binghamton University, known for championing multilevel selection theory. His books, including This View of Life, apply evolutionary thinking to human societies, economics, and public policy.
Programmer and Author
Dave Thomas is a British American programmer, author, and co-founder of The Pragmatic Bookshelf publishing company. He co-authored The Pragmatic Programmer with Andrew Hunt, coined the term DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself), and was an original signatory of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
Journalist and Author
David Wallace-Wells is an American journalist and columnist at The New York Times, known for his writing on climate change. His 2017 essay "The Uninhabitable Earth" became the most read article in the history of New York Magazine and was later expanded into an internationally bestselling book.
Business Professors and Authors
Deepak Malhotra is the Eli Goldston Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, specialising in negotiation, diplomacy, and conflict resolution. Max Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor at Harvard Business School, and together they co-authored Negotiation Genius, a guide to achieving brilliant results in negotiations.
Spiritual Teacher and Author
Don Miguel Ruiz is a Mexican author and spiritual teacher whose work draws on ancient Toltec wisdom traditions passed down through his family. His bestselling book The Four Agreements has sold over fifteen million copies and has been translated into more than fifty languages.
Psychotherapist and Author
Donald Robertson is a Scottish Canadian cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and one of the founding members of the Modern Stoicism organisation. He is the author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, which weaves the life of Marcus Aurelius together with practical techniques from Stoic philosophy and modern therapy.
Environmental Scientist and Author
Donella Meadows (1941 to 2001) was an American environmental scientist, educator, and systems thinker who taught at Dartmouth College for nearly three decades. She was the lead author of the landmark study The Limits to Growth and wrote Thinking in Systems, a foundational primer on systems dynamics published posthumously.
Performance Psychologist and Author
Dr. Joseph Parent is an American performance psychologist who has coached the mental game in golf, business, and life for over forty years. His international bestseller Zen Golf introduced mindfulness as a foundation for excellence in sport and has been translated into ten languages.
Advertising Expert and Author
Drew Eric Whitman is an American advertising consultant and speaker with over thirty five years of industry experience, having worked at major agencies and direct marketing firms. His book Cashvertising, translated into over a dozen languages, distils consumer psychology principles into practical techniques for creating effective advertising.
Computer Scientist and Author
Ed Catmull is an American computer scientist, co-founder of Pixar, and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, whose work helped define modern computer generated imagery. He shared the 2019 Turing Award and wrote Creativity, Inc., a bestselling account of building and sustaining a creative culture.
Science Journalist and Author
Ed Yong is a British American science journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, formerly a staff writer at The Atlantic. His bestselling books I Contain Multitudes and An Immense World explore the hidden worlds of microbes and animal senses, with the latter winning the Royal Society Science Book Prize.
Author and Activist
Eli Pariser is an American author, activist, and entrepreneur who co-founded Upworthy and served as executive director of MoveOn.org. His bestselling book The Filter Bubble introduced the concept of algorithmically curated content and its implications for democracy and public discourse.
Author
Elizabeth Gilbert is an American author and journalist whose memoir Eat, Pray, Love sold over twelve million copies worldwide and was adapted into a major film. Her book Big Magic offers an inspiring guide to creative living, drawing on her own journey and philosophy of curiosity over fear.
Journalist and Author
Emily Chang is an American journalist and television host at Bloomberg, where she anchored Bloomberg Technology for over a decade and now presents The Circuit. Her book Brotopia examines gender inequality in Silicon Valley, drawing on more than two hundred interviews across the technology industry.
Software Designer and Author
Eric Evans is an American software designer and the founder of Domain Language, a consulting group that helps organisations build software deeply connected to their businesses. His seminal book Domain-Driven Design established a widely adopted approach to tackling complexity in software through rich domain modelling.
Author and Entrepreneur
Eric Jorgenson is an American author, entrepreneur, and CEO of Scribe Media who writes about technology, startups, and timeless wisdom. His book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, which curates the insights of the investor and philosopher Naval Ravikant, has sold over two million copies.
Technology Executives and Authors
Eric Schmidt served as CEO and executive chairman of Google, Jonathan Rosenberg was Senior Vice President of Products, and Alan Eagle led executive communications at the company. Together they authored How Google Works, drawing on their combined experience to reveal the management principles behind one of the world's most innovative organisations.
Economist and Author
Erik Brynjolfsson is a Professor at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, recognised as one of the most cited scholars in information systems and economics. He co-authored The Second Machine Age, which examines how digital technologies are transforming work, productivity, and prosperity.
Professor and Author
Erin Meyer is an American professor at INSEAD who specialises in cross-cultural management and has been named one of the world's most influential business thinkers by Thinkers50. She is the author of The Culture Map, a guide to navigating cultural differences in global business, and co-authored No Rules Rules with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
Cultural Anthropologist
Ernest Becker (1924 to 1974) was an American cultural anthropologist whose work explored the psychological and philosophical implications of humanity's awareness of mortality. His book The Denial of Death won the Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1974 and remains a foundational text in existential psychology.
Psychotherapist and Author
Esther Perel is a Belgian American psychotherapist, speaker, and relationship expert who is fluent in nine languages and maintains a therapy practice in New York City. Her bestselling book Mating in Captivity explores the tension between domestic security and erotic desire in long-term relationships.
Psychologist and Author
Ethan Kross is an American psychologist, professor at the University of Michigan, and director of the Emotion and Self Control Laboratory. His international bestseller Chatter examines the inner voice and offers evidence-based strategies for harnessing self-talk to improve decision making and well-being.
Technology Executive and Author
Frank Slootman is a Dutch American technology executive who has taken three companies through initial public offerings, including Data Domain, ServiceNow, and Snowflake. His book Amp It Up shares his leadership philosophy of raising expectations, increasing urgency, and elevating intensity to drive hypergrowth.
Computer Scientist and Author
Frederick Brooks (1931 to 2022) was an American computer scientist and Turing Award recipient who managed the development of IBM's System/360 and founded the Computer Science Department at the University of North Carolina. His classic book The Mythical Man-Month, first published in 1975, introduced Brooks's Law and remains one of the most influential works in software engineering.
Philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 to 1900) was a German philosopher and classical philologist whose ideas on morality, power, and human existence profoundly shaped modern Western thought. His works, including Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil, continue to influence philosophy, literature, and culture worldwide.
Professor and Author
G. Richard Shell is the Thomas Gerrity Professor of Legal Studies, Business Ethics, and Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Executive Negotiation Workshop. His award winning book Bargaining for Advantage provides a research-based framework for effective negotiation that has been adopted by business leaders, lawyers, and government officials worldwide.
Entrepreneur and Author
Gary Keller is the founder and executive chairman of Keller Williams, the world's largest real estate company by agent count. His book The ONE Thing, co-authored with Jay Papasan, became a number one Wall Street Journal bestseller by arguing that extraordinary results come from narrowing your focus to the single most important task.
Sports Psychologist and Sportswriter
Gary Mack was a pioneering sports psychology consultant who worked with athletes across the NBA, NFL, NHL, and Major League Baseball before his death in 2002. David Casstevens was an award winning sportswriter and senior writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram who co-authored their book Mind Gym.
Author and Spiritual Teacher
Gary Zukav is an American author, Harvard graduate, and former Green Beret whose first book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, won a US National Book Award. He appeared more than thirty times on The Oprah Winfrey Show and co-founded the Seat of the Soul Institute with his wife Linda Francis.
Military Leaders and Strategists
General Stanley McChrystal is a retired four star US Army general who commanded NATO forces in Afghanistan and previously led the Joint Special Operations Command. His co-authors Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell are former military officers and leadership consultants at McChrystal Group.
Journalist and Author
Geoff Colvin is Fortune magazine's senior editor at large and one of America's most respected business journalists. A Harvard graduate with an MBA from NYU Stern, he is best known for his bestselling book Talent Is Overrated, which explores the role of deliberate practice in high achievement.
Business Consultant and Author
Geoffrey Moore is an American organisational theorist and management consultant best known for Crossing the Chasm, his influential 1991 book on marketing high tech products to mainstream customers. He holds a doctorate in English literature from the University of Washington and advises leading technology firms including Salesforce and Microsoft.
Nobel Laureate Economist
George Akerlof is an American economist who was awarded the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. His landmark 1970 paper, The Market for Lemons, transformed the understanding of how information imbalances shape economic behaviour.
Entrepreneur and Business Author
Gino Wickman is an American entrepreneur and the creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical framework for helping companies achieve operational excellence. His bestselling book Traction has sold over one million copies and he co-founded EOS Worldwide, one of the largest business coaching companies in the world.
Political Scientist
Graham Allison is an American political scientist and the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard Kennedy School, where he served as dean from 1977 to 1989. He is best known for coining the concept of the Thucydides Trap and for his foundational work Essence of Decision on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Author and Leadership Strategist
Greg McKeown is a British American author, speaker, and leadership strategist originally from London. His New York Times bestseller Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less has sold over three million copies, and in 2012 the World Economic Forum inducted him as a Young Global Leader.
Journalist and Author
Gregory Zuckerman is a special writer at The Wall Street Journal and a three time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honour in business journalism. He is the author of six books, including the bestselling The Man Who Solved the Market, which tells the story of Renaissance Technologies founder Jim Simons.
Author and Motivational Speaker
Hal Elrod is an American author and keynote speaker best known for The Miracle Morning, which has been translated into 37 languages and inspired millions of readers worldwide. After surviving a fatal car accident at age twenty and later overcoming cancer, he dedicated his career to helping people unlock their full potential.
Strategist and Author
Hamilton Helmer is an American business strategist with a PhD in economics from Yale University who taught strategy at Stanford for a decade. His book 7 Powers distils decades of consulting experience into a framework identifying the foundations of durable competitive advantage.
Physician and Statistician
Hans Rosling was a Swedish physician, statistician, and co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation, renowned for his captivating data visualisations that challenged misconceptions about global development. His posthumously published bestseller Factfulness, completed with his son and daughter in law, urged readers to adopt a fact based worldview.
Writer and Naturalist
Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and affiliated research scholar at the University of Cambridge, specialising in the history of science and ornithology. Their memoir H is for Hawk, about training a goshawk in the wake of their father's death, won both the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Costa Book of the Year.
Geochemist and Author
Hope Jahren is an American geochemist and geobiologist known for her pioneering work using stable isotope analysis to study ancient forests. Her award winning memoir Lab Girl earned the National Book Critics Circle Award and led Time to name her one of the world's 100 Most Influential People in 2016.
Historian and Author
Ibram X. Kendi is an American historian, author, and 2021 MacArthur Fellow whose work focuses on racism and antiracism in the United States. His bestselling book How to Be an Antiracist became a cultural phenomenon in 2020, and his earlier work Stamped from the Beginning won the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Politician and Author
J.D. Vance is an American politician serving as the 50th Vice President of the United States, and the author of the 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which chronicled his upbringing in Appalachian Ohio. The book became a New York Times bestseller and shaped national conversations about the American working class.
Anthropologist and Author
Jack Weatherford is an American anthropologist and former DeWitt Wallace Distinguished Chair at Macalester College, specialising in the history of tribal peoples and civilisations. His New York Times bestseller Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World earned him Mongolia's highest national honours, including the Order of Chinggis Khan.
Designer and Author
Jake Knapp is an American designer, investor, and bestselling author who spent ten years at Google and Google Ventures, where he created the Design Sprint process. He co-founded Google Meet and has coached teams at organisations including Slack, LEGO, IDEO, and NASA on product strategy.
Designers and Authors
Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky are former Google Ventures design partners who together created the Design Sprint methodology and co-authored the bestselling books Sprint, Make Time, and Click. They are co-founders of Character Capital, applying their product design expertise to venture investing.
Philosopher and Professor
James P. Carse was an American academic who served as Professor of the History and Literature of Religion at New York University for thirty years and won the university's Great Teacher Award. His 1986 book Finite and Infinite Games became a widely influential philosophical work exploring how the framing of life as play shapes human possibility.
Author and Speaker
James Clear is an American author and speaker best known for Atomic Habits, which has sold over 25 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 60 languages. A Denison University graduate in biomechanics, he also writes a popular weekly newsletter reaching over three million subscribers.
Molecular Biologist and Nobel Laureate
James D. Watson was an American molecular biologist who co-discovered the double helix structure of DNA with Francis Crick, for which they shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. His 1968 memoir The Double Helix offered a candid and controversial account of one of the twentieth century's most important scientific breakthroughs.
Leadership Consultant and Author
James Kerr is a British leadership consultant, speaker, and coach who works with elite teams including the US Special Forces and Google. His bestselling book Legacy draws on time embedded with New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team to distil fifteen powerful lessons on culture, purpose, and sustained high performance.
Journalist and Author
James Nestor is an American journalist and author whose writing has appeared in Scientific American, The New York Times, and The Atlantic. His international bestseller Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art has sold over two million copies and earned the American Society of Journalists and Authors award for best general nonfiction.
Journalist and Author
James Surowiecki is an American journalist who wrote The Financial Page column for The New Yorker and has contributed to publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Wired. His 2004 book The Wisdom of Crowds explored how collective intelligence can outperform individual expertise in decision making.
Computer Scientist and Author
Jaron Lanier is an American computer scientist, futurist, and musician widely credited with coining the term virtual reality and founding VPL Research, the first company to sell VR products. He works at Microsoft Research and has written several influential books warning about the social harms of technology and social media.
Entrepreneur and Author
Jason Fried is the co-founder and CEO of 37signals, the company behind Basecamp and HEY, which also created the widely adopted Ruby on Rails web framework. His New York Times bestseller Rework, co-authored with David Heinemeier Hansson, champions a contrarian approach to building profitable, sustainable businesses without venture capital.
Philosopher and Writer
Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher, novelist, and playwright who became one of the leading figures of twentieth century existentialism. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but famously declined it, and his major philosophical work Being and Nothingness remains a foundational text in modern philosophy.
Sales Trainer and Author
Jeb Blount is an American sales expert and the founder and CEO of Sales Gravy, a leading sales training and consulting firm. His bestselling book Fanatical Prospecting has sold over 500,000 copies and is widely regarded as an essential guide to filling the sales pipeline.
Strategy Professor and Author
Jeff Dyer is the Horace Beesley Distinguished Professor of Strategy at Brigham Young University and an adjunct professor at the Wharton School. He co-authored the bestselling The Innovator's DNA with Clayton Christensen and Hal Gregersen, identifying the five skills that distinguish the world's most disruptive innovators.
Product Design Leaders and Authors
Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden are product development thought leaders who co-authored the award winning Lean UX, which has sold over 100,000 copies in eleven languages. Together they have also written Sense and Respond and are recognised as founders of the global Lean UX movement.
Scrum Co-creator and Author
Jeff Sutherland is an American software developer and former US Air Force fighter pilot who co-created the Scrum framework and helped write the Agile Manifesto. He founded Scrum, Inc. and co-authored Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, drawing on decades of experience across military, medical, and technology fields.
Teacher and Author
Jessica Lahey is an American educator, writer, and attorney who spent over twenty years teaching middle and high school students. Her New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure draws on her experience in the classroom to argue that allowing children to struggle is essential to building resilience and independence.
Investor and Author
Jessica Livingston is an American investor and co-founder of Y Combinator, one of the most influential startup accelerators in the world. Her book Founders at Work collects candid interviews with startup founders including Steve Wozniak and Max Levchin, capturing the earliest days of companies that went on to reshape entire industries.
Sports Psychologist and Author
Jim Afremow is an American sports psychologist who has spent over twenty years working with Olympic, professional, and collegiate athletes across every major sport. His book The Champion's Mind shares the mental training techniques he has used with Olympians, NFL players, and MLB organisations including the San Francisco Giants.
Performance Psychologist and Author
Jim Loehr is a world renowned performance psychologist and co-founder of the Johnson and Johnson Human Performance Institute, where he trained over 250,000 leaders across sport, business, and the military. His bestselling book The Power of Full Engagement introduced the influential concept of managing energy rather than time for sustained high performance.
Author and Journalist
Jimmy Soni is an American author and former managing editor of The Huffington Post, known for deeply researched narrative nonfiction. His bestselling book The Founders tells the inside story of PayPal's turbulent early days, drawing on over 150,000 pages of internal documents and hundreds of interviews.
Author and Retired Navy SEAL
Jocko Willink is an American author, podcaster, and retired United States Navy SEAL officer who commanded SEAL Team Three's Task Unit Bruiser during the Battle of Ramadi. He co founded the leadership consulting firm Echelon Front and hosts the popular Jocko Podcast.
Authors and Leadership Consultants
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are former US Navy SEAL officers who served together in Task Unit Bruiser during the Battle of Ramadi. They co founded the leadership consulting firm Echelon Front and co authored the bestselling book Extreme Ownership.
Author and Journalist
Johann Hari is a British writer and journalist known for his books on depression, addiction, and attention, including Lost Connections and Stolen Focus. He previously wrote for The Independent before resigning in 2011.
Author and Leadership Expert
John C. Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor whose books on leadership have sold more than twenty million copies worldwide. He is best known for The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.
Investigative Journalist and Author
John Carreyrou is a French American investigative journalist who exposed the Theranos fraud through his reporting at The Wall Street Journal. His bestselling book Bad Blood chronicled the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes's blood testing startup.
Venture Capitalist and Author
John Doerr is an American investor and venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins who has backed companies including Google, Amazon, and Intuit. He is the author of Measure What Matters, which popularised the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework.
Computer Scientist and Author
John Ousterhout is an American computer scientist and professor at Stanford University, best known for creating the Tcl scripting language and the Tk toolkit. He is the author of A Philosophy of Software Design and a recipient of the Grace Murray Hopper Award.
Psychiatrist and Author
John Ratey is an American psychiatrist and associate clinical professor at Harvard Medical School known for his research on the connection between exercise and brain health. He is the author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
Physician and Author
John E. Sarno was an American professor of rehabilitation medicine at New York University School of Medicine who developed the theory of tension myositis syndrome (TMS). He authored several influential books on the mind body connection, including Healing Back Pain.
Philosopher and Economist
John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, and civil servant widely regarded as the most influential English speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century. His major works include On Liberty and Utilitarianism, which remain foundational texts in liberal political thought.
Entrepreneur and Author
John Warrillow is a Canadian entrepreneur and author who has started and exited four companies. He is best known for his book Built to Sell, which was recognised by Fortune and Inc. as one of the best business books of 2011.
Journalist and Author
Jon Gertner is an American journalist and author who writes on science, technology, and nature for the New York Times Magazine. His bestselling book The Idea Factory chronicled the history and innovations of Bell Labs.
Author and Journalist
Jon Ronson is a Welsh British American journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker known for his investigations into fringe politics and science. His best known works include The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Psychopath Test, and So You've Been Publicly Shamed.
Designer and Author
Jon Yablonski is an American designer who specialises in translating complex psychology principles into practical design guidance. He is the creator of the Laws of UX project and author of the book Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products and Services.
Author and Science Writer
Jonah Lehrer is an American author and former journalist who studied neuroscience at Columbia University and was a Rhodes Scholar. He wrote the bestselling books Proust Was a Neuroscientist and How We Decide before facing controversy over fabricated quotations.
Author and Film Producer
Jonathan Taplin is an American author, film producer, and academic who served as Director Emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. He is the author of Move Fast and Break Things and was formerly a tour manager for Bob Dylan and a film producer for Martin Scorsese.
Anthropologist and Author
Joseph Henrich is an American professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University whose research explores how culture drives human evolution. He coined the influential WEIRD acronym and authored The Secret of Our Success and The WEIRDest People in the World.
Business Author, Educator
Josh Kaufman is the author of "The Personal MBA", a comprehensive guide to essential business concepts. He helps entrepreneurs and professionals master business fundamentals without formal business school education.
Author and Chess Master
Josh Waitzkin is an American author, martial arts champion, and former chess prodigy who won the US Junior Chess Championship twice. His memoir The Art of Learning draws on his experiences in both chess and martial arts to explore the process of mastering complex skills.
Journalist and Author
Joshua Foer is an American journalist and author who won the 2006 USA Memory Championship after covering the competition as a reporter. His bestselling book Moonwalking with Einstein chronicles his journey from journalist to memory champion, and he co founded the Atlas Obscura website.
Psychologist and Author
Joshua Greene is an American experimental psychologist, neuroscientist, and professor of psychology at Harvard University who studies moral judgement and decision making. He is the author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them.
Author and Performance Coach
Joshua Medcalf is an American author and mental performance coach who mentors athletes and professionals on mastering mental toughness. He is best known for his book Chop Wood Carry Water, which uses the parable of a young samurai to teach the importance of embracing the process.
Author and Artist
Julia Cameron is an American author, teacher, and artist best known for The Artist's Way, a twelve week programme for creative recovery that has sold over six million copies. Her work on creative unblocking, including the practice of morning pages, has influenced artists and writers worldwide.
Technologist and Author
Kai-Fu Lee is a Taiwanese American computer scientist, venture capitalist, and former executive at Apple, Microsoft, and Google. He is the author of AI Superpowers and the founder of Sinovation Ventures, a leading Chinese technology venture capital firm.
Researcher and Author
Kate Crawford is an Australian researcher and academic who studies the social and political implications of artificial intelligence. She is the author of Atlas of AI, a critically acclaimed examination of how AI systems are built on networks of extraction and exploitation.
Economist and Author
Kate Raworth is an English economist and senior associate at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute known for developing the doughnut economics model. Her book Doughnut Economics proposes a framework that balances essential human needs with planetary boundaries.
Author and Entrepreneur
Keith Ferrazzi is an American author and entrepreneur who founded the consulting firm Ferrazzi Greenlight. He is best known for his bestselling book Never Eat Alone, which draws on his networking experiences to teach relationship building strategies.
Historian and Author
Keith Lowe is an English historian and author widely recognised as a leading authority on the Second World War and its aftermath. His book Savage Continent won the PEN/Hessell Tiltman Prize for History and has been translated into more than twenty languages.
Software Engineer and Author
Kent Beck is an American software engineer who created Extreme Programming and is a leading proponent of test driven development. He was one of the original signatories of the Agile Manifesto and has been a pioneer in software design patterns.
Author and Business Leader
Kim Scott is an American author and former executive at Apple and Google who led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams. She is the author of Radical Candor, a bestselling management book that teaches leaders to care personally while challenging directly.
Basketball Player and Author
Kobe Bryant was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire twenty year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five NBA championships. He authored The Mamba Mentality, sharing his approach to preparation and performance, and won an Academy Award for his animated short film Dear Basketball.
Psychologist and Author
Kristin Neff is an American associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin who conducted the first academic studies on self compassion. She developed the Self Compassion Scale and is the author of Self Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself.
Author and Retired Navy Captain
L. David Marquet is a retired United States Navy captain who transformed the submarine USS Santa Fe from the worst to first in operational standing by replacing command and control with intent based leadership. He is the bestselling author of Turn the Ship Around!
Philosopher
Lao Tzu was a legendary Chinese philosopher traditionally regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching, one of the foundational texts of Taoism. Modern scholarship generally considers him a semi mythical figure whose name, meaning 'Old Master', may represent an archetype rather than a single historical person.
Business Leaders and Authors
Larry Bossidy was a former CEO of AlliedSignal and veteran General Electric executive, and Ram Charan is an Indian American business consultant and adviser to Fortune 500 CEOs. They co authored the bestselling book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.
Author and Speaker
Laura Vanderkam is an American author and speaker who specialises in time management and productivity. She is the author of several books including 168 Hours, Off the Clock, and Tranquility by Tuesday, and hosts the Before Breakfast podcast.
Social Psychologist and Author
Lee Ross was a Canadian American social psychologist and professor at Stanford University who coined the term 'fundamental attribution error' and made lasting contributions to understanding cognitive biases. He co authored The Person and the Situation and co founded the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation.
Theoretical Physicist
Lee Smolin is an American theoretical physicist and a founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, known for his contributions to loop quantum gravity. He is the author of The Trouble with Physics and Time Reborn, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Story Coach and Author
Lisa Cron is an American story coach and author of Wired for Story and Story Genius, drawing on neuroscience to explore how the brain engages with narrative. She has taught in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and worked as a producer and story consultant in Hollywood.
Leadership Researcher and Author
Liz Wiseman is an American researcher, executive adviser, and author of the bestselling book Multipliers, exploring how the best leaders amplify the intelligence of their teams. She is the CEO of the Wiseman Group and a former executive at Oracle Corporation.
Psychotherapist and Author
Lori Gottlieb is an American psychotherapist and author of the bestselling memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which has sold over three million copies worldwide. She writes the weekly "Dear Therapist" advice column for The Atlantic.
Historian
Marc David Baer is an American historian and professor of international history at the London School of Economics, specialising in the connected histories of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. His book The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs was shortlisted for the 2022 Wolfson History Prize.
Roman Emperor and Philosopher
Marcus Aurelius (121 to 180 AD) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher whose private reflections, known as Meditations, became one of the most influential works of philosophy. Often called the "philosopher king," he was the last of the Five Good Emperors.
Leadership Researchers and Authors
Marcus Buckingham is an English author and business consultant known for his strengths based approach to management, while Ashley Goodall is a leadership researcher and former Senior Vice President of HR at Cisco. Together they co authored Nine Lies About Work, challenging conventional wisdom about the modern workplace.
Management Researchers and Authors
Marcus Buckingham is an English author and business consultant recruited by the Gallup Organisation while studying at Cambridge, and Curt Coffman is a former Global Practice Leader at Gallup. Their co authored book First, Break All the Rules, based on 80,000 manager interviews, spent 93 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Economist
Mariana Mazzucato is an Italian American economist and professor at University College London, known for her work on the role of the public sector in driving innovation. She is the author of The Entrepreneurial State and The Value of Everything, and founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.
Management Author and Podcaster
Mark Horstman is an American management consultant and co founder of Manager Tools, the producer of one of the most downloaded business podcasts in the world. He is the author of The Effective Manager and a West Point graduate with experience at Procter & Gamble.
Author and Blogger
Mark Manson is an American self help author and blogger best known for his bestselling book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, which rejects conventional positivity in favour of honest self improvement. He also co authored Will Smith's autobiography, Will.
Inherited Trauma Expert
Mark Wolynn is an American author and the director of the Family Constellation Institute, recognised as a leading expert on inherited family trauma. His international bestseller It Didn't Start with You draws on epigenetic research to explore how trauma is passed down through generations.
Psychologist and Mediator
Marshall B. Rosenberg (1934 to 2015) was an American psychologist who developed Nonviolent Communication, a process for resolving conflict and building empathy rooted in humanistic psychology. He earned his doctorate under Carl Rogers at the University of Wisconsin and founded the Center for Nonviolent Communication.
Executive Coach and Author
Marshall Goldsmith is an American executive leadership coach and author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, widely regarded as a pioneer in the use of 360 degree feedback. He has coached CEOs from over 200 major companies and holds a PhD from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Computer Scientist and Author
Martin Kleppmann is a British computer scientist, associate professor at the University of Cambridge, and author of the bestselling Designing Data Intensive Applications. He co founded Rapportive, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012, and researches distributed systems and local first collaboration software.
Classicist and Author
Dame Mary Beard is an English classicist and professor at the University of Cambridge, widely described as Britain's best known classicist. She is the author of the bestselling SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome and a trustee of the British Museum.
Lean Software Development Expert
Mary Poppendieck is an American software development leader and co author, with Tom Poppendieck, of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit, which brought lean production principles to the software industry. She built one of 3M's first just in time lean production systems and has over 25 years of IT experience.
Science Writer
Mary Roach is an American author specialising in popular science and humour, known for her witty explorations of the human body and its quirks. She has published eight New York Times bestsellers, including Stiff, Bonk, and Gulp.
Journalist and Author
Matt Richtel is an American journalist for The New York Times and the winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his series on distracted driving. He is the author of A Deadly Wandering and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and the Columbia School of Journalism.
Sales Researchers and Authors
Matthew Dixon is an American sales and customer experience expert and founding partner of DCM Insights, while Brent Adamson is a researcher and former chief storyteller at CEB (now Gartner). Their co authored book The Challenger Sale, based on a study of thousands of sales representatives, became a number one Wall Street Journal bestseller.
Software Consultant and Author
Matthew Skelton is a British software consultant and co author, with Manuel Pais, of Team Topologies, a widely adopted guide to organising technology teams for fast delivery of value. He has been building and deploying commercial software since 1998, working with organisations including the London Stock Exchange and the UK government.
Philosopher and Author
Matthew Stewart is an American philosopher and author of The Management Myth, a sharp critique of management consulting and business philosophy. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University and worked as a management consultant before turning to writing full time.
Neuroscientist and Author
Matthew Walker is a British neuroscientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, specialising in the impact of sleep on human health. He is the author of the bestselling Why We Sleep and the founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science.
Physicist and AI Researcher
Max Tegmark is a Swedish American physicist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known for his work on cosmology and the mathematical universe hypothesis. He co founded the Future of Life Institute and is the author of Life 3.0, exploring the future of artificial intelligence.
Product Management Expert
Melissa Perri is an American product management strategist and author of Escaping the Build Trap, a guide to creating genuine customer value through effective product strategy. She is the CEO of Produx Labs and has taught product management at Harvard Business School.
Mycologist and Author
Merlin Sheldrake is a British mycologist and author of Entangled Life, a bestselling exploration of the hidden world of fungi that won the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize. He earned his PhD in tropical ecology from the University of Cambridge, studying underground fungal networks in Panama.
Spiritual Teacher and Author
Michael A. Singer is an American author and spiritual teacher best known for his New York Times bestseller The Untethered Soul, which explores consciousness, meditation, and the nature of self. He founded the Temple of the Universe, a meditation centre in Florida, and co founded the software company Medical Manager.
Business Author and Entrepreneur
Michael E. Gerber is an American author and small business expert best known for The E Myth Revisited, which spent two decades on the New York Times bestseller list. Named the world's number one small business guru by Inc. Magazine, he coined the term "E Myth" to describe the misconception that technical expertise alone can sustain a business.
Software Developer and Author
Michael Feathers is an American software developer and author of Working Effectively with Legacy Code, a widely respected guide to improving and testing large, untested codebases. He has worked with Object Mentor and is recognised for his expertise in software design and refactoring.
Physician and Nutrition Advocate
Michael Greger is an American physician and author of How Not to Die, advocating for a whole food, plant based diet grounded in nutritional science. He is the founder of NutritionFacts.org, a nonprofit providing free evidence based information on healthy eating.
Leadership Author and Entrepreneur
Michael Hyatt is an American author, speaker, and founder of Full Focus, a leadership performance company. He is the former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and the author of several bestsellers, including Platform and Your Best Year Ever.
Investment Strategist and Author
Michael J. Mauboussin is an American investment strategist who heads consilient research at Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global, noted as one of Wall Street's most creative minds. He is the author of The Success Equation and More Than You Know, and an adjunct professor of finance at Columbia Business School.
Political Philosopher
Michael J. Sandel is an American political philosopher and professor of government at Harvard University, where his course Justice became the university's first to be made freely available online. He is the author of The Tyranny of Merit and Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, exploring morality, markets, and civic life.
Computer Scientists and Authors
Michael Kearns is an American computer scientist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specialising in computational learning theory and algorithmic game theory, while Aaron Roth is a professor at the same university known for his work on differential privacy and algorithmic fairness. Together they explore the ethical implications of algorithms and machine learning.
Political Philosopher
Michael Sandel is an American political philosopher and professor of government at Harvard University, whose Justice course has been viewed by tens of millions of people worldwide. He is known for his critique of meritocracy in The Tyranny of Merit and his accessible approach to moral and political philosophy.
Software Architect and Author
Michael T. Nygard is an American software architect and author of Release It!, a widely influential guide to designing and deploying production ready software systems. He has over 20 years of experience building highly scalable and resilient systems for organisations of all sizes.
Leadership Author and Professor
Michael Watkins is a Canadian born author and professor of leadership and organisational change at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. His bestselling book The First 90 Days, dubbed "The Onboarding Bible" by The Economist, has sold over a million copies and become a standard resource for leaders in transition.
Science journalist and author
Michaeleen Doucleff is an NPR science correspondent and New York Times bestselling author of Hunt, Gather, Parent, which explores parenting strategies from indigenous communities around the world. She holds a doctorate in chemistry from UC Berkeley and has earned a George Foster Peabody Award for her reporting on the Ebola outbreak.
Civil rights lawyer and author
Michelle Alexander is an American civil rights lawyer, legal scholar, and author of The New Jim Crow, a landmark bestseller that transformed the national debate on racial justice and mass incarceration. She has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.
Technology journalist and author
Mike Isaac is a technology reporter at The New York Times and the bestselling author of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber. His coverage of Silicon Valley giants has earned him a Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business reporting.
Entrepreneur and Author
MJ DeMarco is an American entrepreneur and author of The Millionaire Fastlane, a bestselling guide to building wealth outside conventional financial planning. He is the former founder and CEO of Limos.com and creator of The Fastlane Forum.
Financial writer and author
Morgan Housel is a partner at The Collaborative Fund and the bestselling author of The Psychology of Money, which has sold over eleven million copies and been translated into more than sixty languages. He is a two time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
AI entrepreneur and author
Mustafa Suleyman is the CEO of Microsoft AI and co-founder of DeepMind, the pioneering artificial intelligence company acquired by Google. He is the author of The Coming Wave, which examines the promises and perils of emerging technologies.
Writer and researcher
Nadia Eghbal (now Nadia Asparouhova) is a writer and researcher who explores how the internet enables individual creators, known for her influential book Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software. She previously worked at GitHub to improve the open source developer experience and authored the Ford Foundation report Roads and Bridges.
Author and activist
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker whose books, including No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, and This Changes Everything, have shaped global debates on corporate power, capitalism, and climate justice. She is the UBC Professor of Climate Justice and founding co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice.
Self-help author
Napoleon Hill was an American self-help author best known for Think and Grow Rich, first published in 1937, which became one of the bestselling personal development books of all time with over fifteen million copies sold. His philosophy of achievement, developed over more than twenty years of research, laid the foundation for modern motivational literature.
Statistician and author
Nate Silver is an American statistician, writer, and founder of FiveThirtyEight, known for his pioneering work in election forecasting and data analysis. He is the bestselling author of The Signal and the Noise, which explores why so many predictions fail and how to seek truth from data.
Business professors and authors
Nathan Furr and Jeff Dyer are professors at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management and co-authors of The Innovator's Method, which presents a practical framework for bringing lean startup principles into established organisations. Their research focuses on innovation strategy and entrepreneurial leadership.
Therapist and author
Nedra Glover Tawwab is a licensed clinical social worker and the New York Times bestselling author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace, which has been translated into over thirty five languages. With nearly twenty years of experience in relationship therapy, she is a leading voice on boundaries and mental health.
Astrophysicist and author
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator who has served as director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York since 1996. He is the bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and the host of the television series StarTalk.
Archaeologist and author
Neil Price is an English archaeologist and professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, specialising in the Viking Age and pre-Christian religions of Scandinavia. He is the author of Children of Ash and Elm and The Viking Way, both widely regarded as essential works of Viking scholarship.
Technology writer and author
Nicholas Carr is an American journalist and author whose work examines how technology shapes our lives and minds. His book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times bestseller.
Behavioural scientist and author
Nicholas Epley is the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the author of Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want. His research explores social cognition and the ways people perceive and misunderstand one another.
Journalist and author
Nick Bilton is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and a former New York Times columnist known for his bestselling book Hatching Twitter, which chronicles the dramatic founding of Twitter. His reporting covers technology, business, and culture across Silicon Valley.
Philosopher and author
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish born philosopher known for his work on existential risk, superintelligence, and the ethics of human enhancement. His bestselling book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies is widely regarded as a foundational text on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
Technology researchers and authors
Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim are the co-authors of the Shingo Award winning book Accelerate, which presents groundbreaking research into the science of software delivery and DevOps performance. Forsgren holds a PhD in management information systems and led the influential State of DevOps research programme.
Behavioural scientists and authors
Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini are behavioural scientists and co-authors of Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, which distils decades of research on influence into practical strategies. Their work builds on Cialdini's foundational research into the psychology of persuasion.
Journalist and author
Oliver Burkeman is a British journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, a philosophical exploration of how to make the most of our finite time. He formerly wrote the popular weekly column This Column Will Change Your Life for The Guardian.
Investment banker and author
Oren Klaff is the Director of Capital Markets at Intersection Capital and the author of Pitch Anything, which introduces a neuroscience based method for delivering winning pitches and presentations. He has used his approach to raise over four hundred million dollars from investors and institutions.
Author and organisational expert
Ori Brafman is a Distinguished Teaching Fellow at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the New York Times bestselling author of The Starfish and the Spider and Sway. His work explores decentralised leadership, human networks, and the hidden psychological forces that shape decision making.
Consumer behaviour expert and author
Paco Underhill is an environmental psychologist and founder of the research firm Envirosell, whose clients include more than a third of the Fortune 100. His bestselling book Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping has been published in twenty six languages and remains the definitive work on consumer behaviour in retail environments.
HR executive and author
Patty McCord is an HR consultant and the former chief talent officer at Netflix, where she helped create the celebrated Netflix Culture Deck, viewed over fifteen million times online. She is the author of Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility.
Essayist and entrepreneur
Paul Graham is an English-American computer scientist, essayist, and co-founder of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator behind companies such as Airbnb, Stripe, and Dropbox. He is the author of Hackers & Painters and his influential online essays on startups, technology, and ambition have shaped a generation of founders.
Environmentalist and author
Paul Hawken is an American environmentalist, entrepreneur, and bestselling author whose books, including Drawdown and The Ecology of Commerce, explore the relationship between nature and business. He co-created Project Drawdown, the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.
Writer and entrepreneur
Paul Jarvis is a web designer, writer, and entrepreneur who has spent over twenty years working for himself, with past clients including Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz. He is the author of Company of One, which challenges the assumption that growth is always the goal and argues for the benefits of staying small.
Neurosurgeon and author
Paul Kalanithi was an American neurosurgeon whose posthumous memoir When Breath Becomes Air, published in 2016, spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He held degrees from Stanford, Cambridge, and Yale before his death from lung cancer at the age of thirty seven.
Journalist and author
Paul Tough is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and the author of How Children Succeed, which argues that character traits such as perseverance and curiosity matter more than intelligence for long term success. His writing on education, parenting, and inequality has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and GQ.
Computer scientist and author
Pedro Domingos is a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Washington and the author of The Master Algorithm, which explores the quest for a universal learning machine. He is a winner of the SIGKDD Innovation Award and the IJCAI John McCarthy Award, two of the highest honours in data science and artificial intelligence.
Buddhist teacher and author
Pema Chödrön is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun, teacher, and author of numerous bestselling books, including When Things Fall Apart and The Wisdom of No Escape. She was the first American woman to be fully ordained in the Vajrayana tradition and served as principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia.
Physician and author
Peter Attia is a Canadian-American physician specialising in longevity medicine and the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity. He is the founder of Early Medical and the host of The Peter Attia Drive, one of the most popular health and medicine podcasts.
Management thinker and author
Peter Drucker was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author whose thirty nine books helped shape the foundations of modern management theory. Often called the father of modern management, he popularised concepts such as management by objectives and the knowledge worker.
Historian and author
Peter Frankopan is an English historian at the University of Oxford and the author of the international bestseller The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, which reframes global history by placing the crossroads of East and West at its centre. His work has been praised for its ambitious scope and narrative power.
Philosopher of science and author
Peter Godfrey-Smith is an Australian philosopher of science at the University of Sydney and the author of Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. His work explores the evolution of intelligence by examining cephalopods as perhaps the closest thing to meeting an intelligent alien.
Systems scientist and author
Peter Senge is an American systems scientist and senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, best known for his influential book The Fifth Discipline, which introduced the concept of the learning organisation. The book, which has sold over a million copies, was named one of the seminal management books of the twentieth century by Harvard Business Review.
Entrepreneur and author
Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor who co-founded PayPal and was the first outside investor in Facebook. He is the co-author of Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, which argues that true innovation means creating something entirely new rather than copying what already exists.
Forester and author
Peter Wohlleben is a German forester and bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees, which has sold over two million copies and reveals how trees communicate, support one another, and form complex social networks. He spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission before dedicating himself to running an environmentally friendly woodland in Germany.
Business executive and author
Phil Knight is an American billionaire businessman who co founded Nike with his college track coach Bill Bowerman in 1964. His memoir Shoe Dog chronicles Nike's journey from a small startup selling Japanese running shoes to one of the world's most recognisable brands.
Business professor and author
Phil Rosenzweig is Professor Emeritus of Strategy and International Management at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a former assistant professor at Harvard Business School. He is best known for The Halo Effect, which critically examines the cognitive biases and delusions that pervade much of business thinking.
Political psychologist and author
Philip Tetlock is a Canadian American political psychologist and the Annenberg University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. His research on forecasting accuracy led to the bestselling book Superforecasting, which reveals why certain individuals consistently outperform experts at predicting future events.
Psychologist and author
Philip Zimbardo was an American psychologist and professor at Stanford University, best known for conducting the controversial 1971 Stanford prison experiment. He authored over 500 articles and numerous books exploring the psychology of evil, heroism, and the power of situational forces on human behaviour.
Science communicator and author
Philipp Dettmer is a German science communicator and the founder, CEO, and head writer of Kurzgesagt, one of the world's most popular educational YouTube channels. His book Immune offers a richly illustrated exploration of the human immune system, drawing on the studio's signature style of making complex science accessible.
Philosopher
Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Athens around 428 BC, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the Western philosophical tradition. He founded the Academy in Athens, authored over thirty dialogues exploring justice, beauty, and the nature of reality, and was a student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle.
Marine biologist and author
Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist and writer whose 1962 book Silent Spring documented the devastating environmental effects of pesticides and helped launch the modern environmental movement. Her work led to a nationwide ban on DDT and inspired the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Entrepreneur and author
Rand Fishkin is an American entrepreneur and digital marketing expert who co founded Moz, one of the most influential SEO software companies, and later founded SparkToro. His book Lost and Founder offers a candid account of the highs and lows of building venture backed startups.
Physician and evolutionary medicine pioneer
Randolph M. Nesse is an American physician and professor at Arizona State University who is widely recognised as a founder of the field of evolutionary medicine. His work, including the influential book Why We Get Sick co authored with George C. Williams, applies evolutionary biology to understanding human disease and vulnerability.
Investor, Hedge Fund Manager, Author
Ray Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund. His book "Principles" shares the unconventional life and work principles that have driven his success.
Science writer
Rebecca Skloot is an American science writer best known for her debut book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which spent over six years on the New York Times bestseller list. The book tells the story of the woman behind the HeLa cell line and explores the intersection of race, ethics, and medical research.
Business executive and author
Reed Hastings is an American billionaire businessman who co founded Netflix in 1997 and served as its CEO until 2023, transforming the company from a DVD by mail service into the world's leading streaming platform. His book No Rules Rules, co authored with Erin Meyer, describes the unconventional corporate culture that powered Netflix's success.
Entrepreneur and venture capitalist
Reid Hoffman is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author who co founded LinkedIn, the world's largest professional networking platform. He is a partner at Greylock Partners and the author of books including The Start up of You and Blitzscaling, which draw on his experience building and investing in technology companies.
Social psychologist and author
Richard Nisbett is an American social psychologist and the Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished Professor at the University of Michigan. His books, including The Geography of Thought and Mindware, explore how culture shapes cognition and how people can improve their reasoning and decision making.
Strategy professor and author
Richard Rumelt is an American emeritus professor of strategy at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a founding member of the Strategic Management Society. His bestselling book Good Strategy Bad Strategy is widely regarded as one of the most important works on strategic thinking, arguing that effective strategy requires a clear diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action.
Music producer and author
Rick Rubin is an American record producer who co founded Def Jam Recordings and has shaped the sound of artists across genres from hip hop and rock to country, earning eight Grammy Awards. His book The Creative Act: A Way of Being distils decades of creative wisdom into a meditative guide for anyone seeking to make meaningful work.
Entrepreneur and author
Rob Fitzpatrick is a tech entrepreneur and author whose book The Mom Test has become essential reading for startup founders learning how to conduct effective customer interviews. His practical handbooks are taught at universities including Harvard, MIT, and UCL, and used as training resources at companies such as Shopify.
Biographer and journalist
Robert A. Caro is an American journalist and biographer renowned for his exhaustively researched works on political power, including The Power Broker and the multi volume series The Years of Lyndon Johnson. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for Biography and received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2010.
Software engineer and author
Robert C. Martin, known as Uncle Bob, is an American software engineer and a co author of the Agile Manifesto who has been a professional programmer since 1970. His influential Clean Code series of books has become essential reading for software developers seeking to write maintainable, well crafted code.
Political scientist and author
Robert D. Putnam is an American political scientist and the Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. His landmark book Bowling Alone documented the decline of civic engagement and social capital in the United States, becoming one of the most cited works in the social sciences.
Business executive and author
Robert Iger is an American businessman who served as CEO and Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, overseeing the transformative acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox. His memoir The Ride of a Lifetime shares the leadership principles that guided Disney through a period of extraordinary growth and reinvention.
Developmental psychologist and author
Robert Kegan is an American developmental psychologist who taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for forty years. His work on adult development, particularly the constructive developmental framework outlined in The Evolving Self and In Over Our Heads, has profoundly influenced how organisations think about personal growth and leadership.
Psychologists and authors
Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey are Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty members who have spent decades researching why personal and organisational change is so difficult. Their book Immunity to Change introduces a powerful framework for uncovering the hidden competing commitments that prevent individuals and organisations from achieving their goals.
Entrepreneur and financial author
Robert Kiyosaki is an American businessman and author best known for Rich Dad Poor Dad, which has sold over 32 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 50 languages. The book uses the contrasting financial philosophies of two father figures to argue for financial literacy, investing in assets, and building entrepreneurial skills.
Philosopher and author
Robert M. Pirsig was an American writer and philosopher whose 1974 book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance became the bestselling philosophy book of all time. Rejected by 121 publishers before finding a home, the book weaves a cross country motorcycle journey with a profound inquiry into the nature of quality, values, and the good life.
Screenwriting lecturer and author
Robert McKee is an American author and lecturer whose Story Seminar has become a rite of passage for screenwriters, novelists, and storytellers worldwide. His book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting is widely considered one of the most comprehensive guides to narrative craft ever written.
Leadership author and speaker
Robin Sharma is a Canadian author and leadership speaker, born in Uganda in 1965, who left a career as a litigation lawyer to write about personal mastery and self development. His book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari has been translated into over 70 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide.
Botanist and author
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and a MacArthur Fellow. Her bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass weaves together Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge to offer a transformative vision of humanity's relationship with the natural world.
Author and entrepreneur
Rolf Dobelli is a Swiss author and entrepreneur who co founded getAbstract, the world's largest publisher of compressed knowledge, and founded Zurich.Minds, a community of distinguished thinkers. His bestselling book The Art of Thinking Clearly catalogues 99 common cognitive biases and reasoning errors that distort everyday decision making.
Leadership scholars and authors
Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky are Harvard Kennedy School faculty members who co developed the adaptive leadership framework, one of the most widely taught approaches to leading through complex change. Their book Leadership on the Line explores the personal dangers of exercising leadership and offers practical strategies for surviving and thriving in the process.
Advertising executive and author
Rory Sutherland is a British advertising executive who founded the behavioural science practice at Ogilvy and served as president of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. His book Alchemy argues that the most powerful ideas in marketing and human behaviour are often profoundly irrational, drawing on insights from psychology and behavioural economics.
Child psychologist and author
Ross W. Greene is an American clinical child psychologist who served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over twenty years and is the Founding Director of the nonprofit Lives in the Balance. His bestselling book The Explosive Child introduced the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model, a compassionate approach to understanding and helping children who struggle with flexibility and frustration tolerance.
Sociologist and author
Ruha Benjamin is a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a 2024 MacArthur Fellow whose work examines the relationship between race, justice, and technology. Her book Race After Technology introduces the concept of the "New Jim Code" to reveal how seemingly neutral algorithms and technologies can reinforce racial inequality.
Therapist and author
Russ Harris is a British born, Australia based medical doctor and psychotherapist who is one of the world's foremost trainers in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. His book The Happiness Trap, which has sold over a million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages, teaches readers how to handle difficult thoughts and feelings using evidence based ACT principles.
Authors and Stoic philosophy advocates
Ryan Holiday is an American author and modern Stoic philosopher whose books, including The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, have sold millions of copies worldwide. Stephen Hanselman is a Harvard Divinity School graduate and veteran literary agent who translates ancient Stoic texts; together they co authored The Daily Stoic, offering 366 meditations on wisdom and resilience.
Physicist and author
Safi Bahcall is a physicist, former biotech CEO, and author who studied at Harvard and earned his PhD from Stanford. His bestselling book Loonshots uses the science of phase transitions to explain why teams and organisations suddenly shift from embracing breakthrough ideas to rejecting them, and how leaders can nurture radical innovation.
Neuroscientist and author
Sam Harris is an American neuroscientist, philosopher, and author whose work spans religion, ethics, free will, and meditation. His book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion draws on neuroscience and contemplative practice to argue that meaningful spiritual experience is possible without adherence to organised religion.
Science writer
Sam Kean is an American science writer whose narrative style books, including The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist's Thumb, bring the stories behind scientific discoveries vividly to life. His work has been featured on NPR's Radiolab and Science Friday, and has been recognised by the Royal Society and The Guardian as among the best science writing of its year.
Author and philosopher
Sarah Bakewell is a British author who studied philosophy at the University of Essex and teaches Creative Writing at Kellogg College, Oxford. Her book At the Existentialist Cafe, named one of the Ten Best Books of 2016 by the New York Times, brings the story of existentialism to life through the personalities and ideas of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, and Heidegger.
Circadian Biologist, Professor
Satchin Panda is an Indian American circadian biology researcher and professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is best known for his work on time restricted eating and the circadian clock, explored in his book The Circadian Code.
CEO of Microsoft, Author
Satya Nadella is the chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. His book Hit Refresh chronicles how he transformed Microsoft's culture through a growth mindset philosophy inspired by Carol Dweck.
Author, Learning Researcher
Scott H. Young is a Canadian author and self directed learning advocate best known for his MIT Challenge, in which he completed MIT's computer science curriculum in one year. His books Ultralearning and Get Better at Anything explore the science of rapid skill acquisition.
Venture Capitalist, Author
Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms. His book Secrets of Sand Hill Road demystifies how venture capital works for founders and investors.
Journalist, Author
Sebastian Junger is an American journalist, author, and filmmaker best known for The Perfect Storm. His book Tribe explores why soldiers miss war and what modern society has lost in terms of communal belonging.
Journalist, Author
Sebastian Mallaby is a British American journalist and the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His book The Power Law is a definitive history of the venture capital industry.
Economist, Professor
Sendhil Mullainathan is an Indian American economist and professor of computation and behavioural science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His book Scarcity, co authored with Eldar Shafir, explores how having too little captures the mind and affects decision making.
Stoic Philosopher, Statesman
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist who served as advisor to Emperor Nero. His Letters from a Stoic remains one of the most widely read works of practical philosophy, offering timeless wisdom on virtue, mortality, and the good life.
Data Scientist, Author
Seth Stephens Davidowitz is an American data scientist, author, and former Google data scientist. His book Everybody Lies uses internet search data to reveal what people truly think, want, and do when they believe nobody is watching.
Positive Psychologist, Author
Shawn Achor is an American author and positive psychology researcher who spent twelve years at Harvard University studying the connection between happiness and success. His TED talk on the happiness advantage is one of the most watched of all time.
Harvard Professor, Author
Shoshana Zuboff is an American author and professor emerita at Harvard Business School. Her book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism argues that tech companies have created a new form of power by extracting and monetising human behavioural data.
Zen Master, Teacher
Shunryu Suzuki was a Japanese Soto Zen monk and teacher who founded the San Francisco Zen Centre, the first Buddhist monastery outside Asia. His book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind remains one of the most influential introductions to Zen practice in the West.
Philosopher, Author
Simone de Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher, novelist, and feminist thinker. Her works The Ethics of Ambiguity and The Second Sex were foundational to existentialist thought and the modern feminist movement.
MIT Professor, Author
Sinan Aral is the David Austin Professor of Management at MIT Sloan School of Management. His book The Hype Machine examines how social media reshapes business, politics, and society through the science of viral spread.
Tibetan Buddhist Teacher, Author
Sogyal Rinpoche was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author. His book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying brought ancient Buddhist teachings on death, dying, and the nature of mind to a global audience.
Neuroscientist, Professor
Stanislas Dehaene is a French neuroscientist and professor at the College de France who holds the chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology. His research on the neuroscience of reading, numeracy, and consciousness has been published in How We Learn and other influential works.
Neuroscientist, Author
Stephan Guyenet is an American neuroscientist and obesity researcher who earned his PhD in neuroscience at the University of Washington. His book The Hungry Brain explores how the brain's reward and appetite circuits drive overeating.
Author, Educator
Stephen R. Covey was an American educator, author, and businessman. His book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold over 40 million copies worldwide and is widely regarded as one of the most influential self help books ever written.
Theoretical Physicist
Stephen Hawking was a British theoretical physicist and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. His book A Brief History of Time spent a record breaking 237 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list and made cosmology accessible to millions of readers.
Novelist, Author
Stephen King is an American author of horror, suspense, and literary fiction who has published over 65 novels and sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. His memoir On Writing is widely regarded as one of the finest books on the craft of writing.
UX Consultant, Author
Steve Krug is an American usability consultant and the author of Don't Make Me Think, widely considered the definitive book on web usability. His approach emphasises common sense over complex methodology.
Software Engineer, Author
Steve McConnell is the CEO of Construx Software and an American author of books on software development best practices. His book Code Complete is widely considered one of the most comprehensive guides to software construction ever written.
Journalist, Author
Steven Levy is an American journalist and editor at large for Wired magazine. His books Hackers and In the Plex chronicle the people and culture behind the personal computer revolution and Google's rise to dominance.
Author, Screenwriter
Steven Pressfield is an American author of fiction and nonfiction. His book The War of Art identifies Resistance as the universal force that prevents creative work and has become essential reading for artists, entrepreneurs, and writers.
AI Researcher, Professor
Stuart Russell is a British computer scientist and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He co authored the standard AI textbook and his book Human Compatible argues that AI must be redesigned around human preferences.
Clinical Psychologist, Author
Sue Johnson is a British Canadian clinical psychologist and the primary developer of Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples. Her book Hold Me Tight translates attachment science into practical guidance for strengthening romantic relationships.
Military Strategist, Philosopher
Sun Tzu was an ancient Chinese military strategist and philosopher traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War. Written around the fifth century BC, the text remains one of the most influential treatises on strategy, competition, and leadership.
Author, Lecturer
Susan Cain is an American author and lecturer whose book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking challenged the cultural bias towards extroversion. Her TED talk on the power of introverts has been viewed over 40 million times.
Behavioural Psychologist, Author
Susan Weinschenk is an American behavioural psychologist and the chief behavioural scientist at The Team W consultancy. Her book 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People distils cognitive psychology research into practical design principles.
Forest Ecologist, Professor
Suzanne Simard is a Canadian forest ecologist and professor at the University of British Columbia. Her groundbreaking research on mycorrhizal networks, which she calls the wood wide web, revealed how trees communicate and share resources underground.
Journalist, Author
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American journalist and author who served as a national correspondent for The Atlantic. His book Between the World and Me, written as a letter to his son, won the National Book Award and became a landmark work on race in America.
Psychologist, Meditation Teacher
Tara Brach is an American psychologist, meditation teacher, and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Her books Radical Acceptance and True Refuge combine Buddhist mindfulness practice with Western psychology.
Memoirist, Historian
Tara Westover is an American memoirist and historian. Her debut memoir Educated recounts growing up in a survivalist family in Idaho and her journey from having no formal schooling to earning a PhD from Cambridge University.
Product Discovery Coach, Author
Teresa Torres is a product discovery coach who helps product teams build better products through continuous customer engagement. Her book Continuous Discovery Habits provides a structured framework for integrating customer research into weekly product development cycles.
Psychologist, Cornell Professor
Thomas Gilovich is an American psychologist and the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. His research on judgement, decision making, and behavioural economics has influenced the fields of psychology and economics.
Business Analytics Authors
Thomas H. Davenport is an American academic and author who is the President's Distinguished Professor of IT and Management at Babson College. His book Competing on Analytics, co authored with Jeanne G. Harris, explores how organisations use data driven strategies to outperform competitors.
Philosopher of Science
Thomas Kuhn was an American philosopher and historian of science who introduced the concept of the paradigm shift in his landmark 1962 work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. He held positions at Harvard, UC Berkeley, Princeton and MIT, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Designer and Innovation Leader
Tim Brown is a British industrial designer and chair emeritus of IDEO, widely credited with popularising design thinking as a methodology for innovation. He is the author of Change by Design and a frequent speaker on creative leadership and human centred design.
Journalist and Author
Tim Marshall is a British journalist, author and broadcaster who spent over 25 years reporting from conflict zones for Sky News. He is best known for his bestselling book Prisoners of Geography, which explores how physical geography shapes global politics.
Athletic Performance Coach
Tim S. Grover is an American athletic trainer and author best known for coaching Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. His bestselling book Relentless distils the mental toughness principles he observed in elite competitors over three decades.
Legal Scholar and Author
Tim Wu is a Taiwanese American law professor at Columbia University who coined the term net neutrality and served as a White House technology adviser. He is the author of The Attention Merchants, which examines how human attention became a tradeable commodity.
Software Engineer and Author
Titus Winters is a senior staff software engineer at Google, where he leads the C++ library team and oversees 250 million lines of code. He co-authored Software Engineering at Google, drawing on his experience with some of the largest code refactorings in history.
Philosopher
Toby Ord is an Australian moral philosopher and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, where his work focuses on existential risk and the long term future of humanity. He founded Giving What We Can in 2009 and is a key figure in the effective altruism movement, best known for his book The Precipice.
Software Engineering Author
Tom DeMarco is an American software engineer, author and consultant who was a pioneer of structured analysis in the 1970s. He co-founded the Atlantic Systems Guild and is best known for Peopleware, a seminal work on managing software teams, as well as Slack and The Deadline.
UX Design Leader
Tom Greever is an American UX design leader and consultant with over 20 years of experience designing interfaces and leading design teams. He is the author of Articulating Design Decisions, which teaches designers how to communicate their work effectively to stakeholders.
Historian and Author
Tom Holland is an English historian, author and podcaster who co-hosts The Rest is History with Dominic Sandbrook. His books span the ancient and medieval worlds, including Rubicon and Persian Fire, and he is especially known for Dominion, which traces the influence of Christianity on Western civilisation.
Entrepreneur
Tony Hsieh was an American internet entrepreneur who served as CEO of Zappos for over two decades, building a company culture celebrated for its focus on employee happiness. He authored the bestselling Delivering Happiness and previously co-founded LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft in 1998.
Historian and Essayist
Tony Judt was a British born historian and public intellectual who specialised in modern European history and served as director of the Remarque Institute at New York University. His magnum opus Postwar is widely regarded as one of the definitive histories of Europe since 1945.
Motivational Speaker and Author
Tony Robbins is an American author, coach and motivational speaker who has empowered millions through his seminars and self-help programmes. His bestselling books include Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within, and he is one of the most recognised figures in personal development.
Author
Tracy Kidder was an American nonfiction writer who won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for The Soul of a New Machine, his 1981 account of a computer engineering team racing to build a new minicomputer. His later works included the acclaimed Mountains Beyond Mountains, a biography of physician Paul Farmer.
Comedian and Author
Trevor Noah is a South African comedian, writer and television host who presented The Daily Show on Comedy Central from 2015 to 2022. His bestselling memoir Born a Crime recounts his upbringing in apartheid era South Africa as the child of a Black mother and a white father.
Biogerontologist
Valter Longo is an Italian American biogerontologist and professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, where he directs the Longevity Institute. He is best known for his research on fasting mimicking diets and ageing, which he distilled in his popular book The Longevity Diet.
Entrepreneur and Business Author
Verne Harnish is an American entrepreneur who founded the Entrepreneurs' Organisation and serves as CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company. His book Scaling Up has been translated into 26 languages and won eight major international book awards.
Political Scientist and Author
Virginia Eubanks is an American political scientist and associate professor at the University at Albany, SUNY, who studies the intersection of technology and social justice. Her book Automating Inequality exposes how algorithmic decision making systems disproportionately harm economically disadvantaged communities.
Business Strategist
W. Chan Kim is a Korean born professor of strategy at INSEAD and co-director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. He co-authored the internationally bestselling Blue Ocean Strategy, which argues that organisations should create uncontested market space rather than compete in crowded industries.
Performance Coach and Author
W. Timothy Gallwey is an American author and coaching pioneer who captained the Harvard University tennis team in 1960 and went on to develop the Inner Game methodology. His 1974 book The Inner Game of Tennis, which explores the mental side of peak performance, has sold over a million copies and influenced modern coaching practice.
Legal Scholar and Author
Ward Farnsworth is an American legal scholar and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where he previously served as dean. He is the author of several widely admired books on philosophy and rhetoric, including The Practicing Stoic and The Socratic Method.
Leadership Thinker and Author
Whitney Johnson is an American author, executive coach and CEO of Disruption Advisors, named by Thinkers50 as one of the ten leading business thinkers in the world. She co-founded the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Clayton Christensen and authored the bestselling Disrupt Yourself and Build an A-Team.
Historian and Philosopher
Will Durant was an American historian and philosopher best known for the eleven volume Story of Civilization, written with his wife Ariel over four decades. The Durants won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Rousseau and Revolution, and their earlier Story of Philosophy helped popularise the discipline for a general readership.
Journalist and Author
Will Storr is a British author and journalist who has served as a contributing editor at Esquire and reported from conflict zones including South Sudan and Uganda. His books explore human psychology and behaviour, including The Science of Storytelling, Selfie and The Status Game.
Historian and Author
William Dalrymple is a Scottish historian, author and broadcaster whose work focuses on the history and culture of the Indian subcontinent and the Islamic world. His award winning books include White Mughals, The Last Mughal and Return of a King, and he co-founded the Jaipur Literature Festival.
Philosopher
William B. Irvine is an American philosopher and emeritus professor at Wright State University whose work has helped spark a modern revival of Stoic philosophy. His book A Guide to the Good Life offers practical techniques drawn from the ancient Stoics for cultivating tranquillity and reducing chronic dissatisfaction.
Design Authors
William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler are the co-authors of Universal Principles of Design, a cross-disciplinary reference that catalogues key design concepts from psychology, engineering and architecture. The book has become a standard resource for designers and creative professionals worldwide.
Retired Admiral and Author
William H. McRaven is a retired United States Navy four star admiral who commanded US Special Operations Command and organised the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. His bestselling book Make Your Bed, drawn from a viral commencement speech at the University of Texas, distils ten leadership lessons from Navy SEAL training.
Journalist and Historian
William L. Shirer was an American journalist and historian who reported from Berlin for CBS during the rise of Nazi Germany. His monumental work The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, published in 1960 and based on captured documents and personal experience, won the National Book Award and remains one of the most widely read histories of the Nazi era.
Neuropsychologist and Educator
William Stixrud is a clinical neuropsychologist and faculty member at George Washington University, and Ned Johnson is the founder of the educational company PrepMatters. Together they co-authored the bestselling Self-Driven Child, which argues that giving children a greater sense of control over their lives is the most effective antidote to stress.
Negotiation Expert and Author
William Ury is an American negotiation expert who co-founded the Harvard Negotiation Project and has advised governments and Fortune 500 companies worldwide. He co-authored the fifteen million copy bestseller Getting to Yes, which established principled negotiation as a widely practised framework for resolving disputes.
Behavioural Scientist and Author
Zoe Chance is a senior lecturer at the Yale School of Management, where she teaches the institution's most popular course on influence and persuasion. Her book Influence Is Your Superpower draws on behavioural economics and neuroscience to show how anyone can become more persuasive without compromising their values.
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