Every time I give a talk or lead a workshop, I make a point to recommend at least one book that I’m sure the audience hasn’t read. When I say audience, I mean someone like you—a person interested in improving land use and transportation so that it fits who we are as humans.
It’s easy enough to find reading lists featuring books that are intended to be read by architects, engineers, planners, and advocates. Those are important books, but there’s a subject matter that’s vital to the future of our work and it’s regularly overlooked.
After you learn traditional architecture, you want to convince the planning commission to approve your project.
After you learn about single-use zoning, you want to convince your neighbors to vote to legalize housing.
After you learn just how deadly speed is in the crash energy equation, you want to convince your leaders to calm all the streets.
Implementing good urbanism requires persuasion. The professionals who study the human mind understand that we are not the logical, fact-first creatures we claim to be. Please keep reading the books about the history, characteristics, and case studies of good urban form. But I’d like to offer a baker’s dozen books that I’ve found very useful in our joint quest to change culture.
This list is in no particular order, and the short blurbs from Goodreads are to help you decide which to read first.
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense, by Rory Sutherland
Why is Red Bull so popular even though everyone hates the taste? Why do we prefer stripy toothpaste? We aren’t rational creatures and we don’t make logical decisions based on evidence.
Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains, by Matt Johnson and Prince Ghuman
How marketing taps every aspect of our mental lives, covering the neuroscience of pain and pleasure, emotion and logic, fear and safety, attention and addiction, and much more.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini
Explains the psychology of why people say “yes.” Thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book.
The Win Without Pitching Manifesto, by Blair Enns
Twelve steps to inspire people who sell ideas and services to rethink how their “products” are bought and sold.
Evolutionary Ideas: Unlocking Ancient Innovation to Solve Tomorrow’s Challenges, by Sam Tatum
How behavioural science and evolutionary psychology can help us solve tomorrow’s challenges. Exploring five of the most critical challenges we face today, we learn how to ‘breed’ more effective solutions.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Taleb
Humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We’re unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.”
Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter, by Scott Adams
Adams offers nothing less than “access to the admin passwords to human beings.” This is a must-read if you care about persuading others in any field. This book goes beyond politics to look at persuasion tools that can work in any setting.
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. Practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives.
A New Way To Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness, by Roger Martin
Reading like a series of one-on-one sessions with one of the world’s leading business thinkers, A New Way to Think is an essential primer for any current or aspiring business leader.
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, by Will Guidara
Every business can choose to be a hospitality business—and we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences. How to find the magic in what we do—for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
By knowing how people think, we can use sensible “choice architecture” to nudge people toward the best decisions for ourselves, our families, and our society, without restricting our freedom of choice.
Serendipity: Seemingly Random Events, Insignificant Decisions, and Accidental Discoveries that Altered History, by Thomas Thorson
World history is replete with instances in which a critically important event would not have occurred but for the intervention of fortune. Each chapter sets a pivotal event in its historical context and raises the question of how chance may have changed our world on both a global and personal level.
Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense: Why Some Organisations Consistently Outperform Others, by Jules Goddard and Tony Eccles
The application of uncommon sense—thinking or acting differently from other organizations in a way that makes unusual sense—is the secret to competitive success.
Happy reading!
Nice list. I've only read Black Swan so far. I definitely second that recommendation. I found *Burglar's guide to the city* a good urbanism adjacent read.
I'd also recommend Carlton Reid's book *Roads weren't built for cars* and Kenneth R. Schneider's book *Autokind vs mankind*. Great history lessons.
Great list! I'm adding lots of these to my TBR. I'd add "How Minds Change" by David McRaney.