If you like to read, chances are this isn’t the first article about five books you “must read”, books that will “change your life”, or some similar “hook” designed to entice you to read a list of books in which you probably won’t find more than one new or interesting book. The idea of this text is a completely different experience.
Thinking about this, I didn’t want to recommend five clichés that you probably already know, although I definitely recommend some classics like “Ogilvy on Marketing” by the legendary David Ogilvy or “This is Marketing” by Seth Godin. I would like to recommend five books that – although they are not about marketing – help in understanding human thinking, the way we make decisions and communicate, and our experiences of reality.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari)
Let me be clear right away – this is not a small book, nor an extremely simple read that you’ll fly through in a day or two, but a book that everyone should read and no, I don’t think I am exaggerating. In order to understand ourselves and society, we must first of all understand how we became who we are. One of the foundations of this is the cognitive revolution, that is, the emergence of imagination and abstract thinking about seventy thousand years ago.
It is difficult and ungrateful trying to summarize a book like this, but it explains in a very detailed and easy-to-understand way some biological, historical and psychological processes that we went through as “homo sapiens” and which, to this day, influence our behavior.
One of the more interesting examples (from the very beginning of the book, not a major spoiler) is the author’s critical approach to the transition of human society from a “hunter-gatherer” lifestyle to agricultural communities, which brought greater security, more food and enabled population growth, but did not necessarily brought an increase in the quality of life due to a less varied diet and the establishment of foundations for oppression and unequal social relations.
Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian who became world famous thanks to this book, and then wrote several more, of which I have read Homo Deus and can also recommend it. It is definitely not the easiest topic, and the author is academically detailed, but if the title of this list were “five books that everyone should read” – Sapiens would be on it either way.
The Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel)
Unlike the previous one, this book is a really easy and quick read and if you really wanted, you could read it in one day. Through nineteen short, simple and independent stories, Morgan Housel explains our relationship with money and the decisions we make, but from an aspect we often don’t think about.
We often perceive the topics of personal finance, investing or saving as a question of mathematics, but the author in this book approaches these topics from a different point of view – in the real world, financial decisions are not made in Excel spreadsheets, we make them at the dinner table in a restaurant, in conversations with loved ones and in many other, not entirely rational situations. These decisions are influenced by our views on the world, our negative and positive experiences, other individuals, marketing campaigns… the question of money is to a large extent a question of psychology.
Through practical examples, this book explores the various ways in which we think about money and tries to make the reader aware of everything that one is most often unaware of when making financial decisions. Perhaps more importantly, many misconceptions that we are not aware of when making financial decisions also exist when we make other life and business decisions, small or large, which is why you can apply many of the conclusions from this book on a daily basis.
The 48 Laws of Power (Robert Greene)
This controversial classic about power dynamics, manipulation and strategies for controlling others was first published back in 1998, and despite the very bad reputation it has “enjoyed” in recent years thanks to the attention given to it by some very toxic elements of the Internet underworld, 48 Laws of Power actually is a very interesting read if used in the right way. The book draws on a wealth of examples from historical figures, from Machiavelli and Napoleon to Sun Tzu, illustrating how they used power – but also how power was used against them.
Although it’s naive to expect that one book can summarize power relations between people in a certain number of “laws”, the value of this book actually lies in its open discussion of manipulative and amoral tactics for acquiring power. While reading it, there is a high probability that in some of its “laws” you will recognize the behavior of others that you have witnessed at work, at university or elsewhere, but you may also become aware of some aspects of manipulation that you yourself, unknowingly, used.
The controversy of this book lies in the fact that its findings can be interpreted as a ruthless guide for immoral manipulation of people (or at least trying to do so), but also as a way of understanding, and – in a way – recognizing and defending against manipulation. Therefore – use what you have learned wisely.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Cal Newport)
In this book, the author sets the basic division of intellectual work into shallow and deep work: shallow work is a large amount of smaller tasks that are relatively easy to perform and can easily “eat up” time, but give minimal and often unsatisfactory results; while deep work is the ability to focus on cognitively demanding tasks without distraction. It is the latter that he considers a skill becoming increasingly rare, but very valuable in professional and personal activities in today’s world full of distractions.
Deep work is a particularly interesting book because it brings conclusions based on proven scientific research, but often presented through personalized, individual examples of real people. They, trying to create the best, established for themselves specific and often seemingly incomprehensible environments necessary for deep work – one of the more innovative examples is Adam Grant’s story about buying a return ticket to Tokyo so that he could write a book in the peace of the plane.
You probably won’t do something like that, and the question is how much you will be able to apply some of the practical advice from this book (I haven’t, really), but its conclusions alone are enough to start appreciating more the necessary need to create an environment where we can devote ourselves to deep work and give your best. In a time of multitasking and constant communication, sometimes it’s important to switch off and focus on what’s important.
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense (Rory Sutherland)
Ok, this one kind of is about marketing. Rory Sutherland is a marketing legend, and thanks to the power of social media algorithms, I can hardly spend more than 5 minutes on TikTok or Instagram without one of his videos popping up.
If you’ve ever listened to him, then you know what to expect from this book: it’s a very readable, humorous and above all interesting approach to the topic of seemingly bad or stupid ideas. As opposed to solving problems based on detailed analysis and lots of data, Sutherland promotes an illogical approach based on the fact that human behavior is far more unpredictable and emotional than we tend to admit.
The book is full of real-world examples, mostly from psychology and advertising, that show how unconventional ideas – those that defy rational thought – can often lead to new discoveries and better results. Sutherland’s engaging and witty writing style makes the complex topics of behavioral economics accessible and entertaining, and his central message is that sometimes the best solutions just don’t make logical sense, but work because they tap into human psychology in unexpected ways.
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Although these books are more or less far from some standard marketing literature, each of them in its own way offers insight into human behavior and the way we make decisions. Marketing, in the end, is not only about tools, strategies and data – marketing is about people, their habits, fears, desires and motivations. Sometimes rational, but much more often – not.
