Our 22 Best Books of '22

Looking for books for yourself or to give as gifts?

Our year-end list of recommended books is always the most popular Artificiality of the year. This year, there’s 22 for '22.

But first! Our book! Give a better gift with Make Better Decisions. Through the end of this month the paperback of Make Better Decisions is 20% off and the eBook is 90% off on Amazon only.

Make Better Decisions is great for improving your mindset, up-skilling, preparing for a new role or job, switching careers, and tackling the hard parts of your job. Perhaps it’s the right book for the messy friend who needs to take a hint. Or the sister who needs a nudge to go after a promotion with her new skillset. Or the book-addict neighbor who can’t get enough nonfiction reads. Or the parent struggling to make critical decisions with parenting and life. We’re biased but we think it’s a great gift for all kinds of people!

Now onto our 22 book recommendations for ‘22.

1. The Nexus, Augmented Thinking For a Complex World and the New Convergence of Art, Technology, and Science
   —Julio Mario Ottino with Bruce Mau
   A fabulous, visually stunning journey of complexity. New ways to think about convergence across different fields giving rise to different opportunities and problems. For readers who revel in multidisciplinary approaches and seek inspiration through linking and association of many ideas. Listen to our interview with Julio in Artificiality.
2. The Crux, How Leaders Become Strategists
   —Richard Rumelt
   An enlightening challenge to the norms of problem solving, this is a book about designing for action without getting ahead of understanding the problem. For readers who want to ditch wishful thinking or unproductive brainstorming and bust the bullshit of how strategic decisions really get made in organizations.
3. Power and Prediction, The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence
   —Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb
   The gripping sequel to Prediction Machines, with new thinking on how AI changes business models and decisions. For readers who enjoyed their first book and want to know how the authors’ predictions worked out versus what they think now.
4. Reality+, Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
   —David Chalmers
   This book does a lot of work. Chalmers catches you up on key ideas in philosophy then applies them to current day digital discussions. It’s a clever read because long dead philosophers aren’t boring or confusing. For readers who have “to finally understand philosophy” on their list of New Year’s resolutions and want to think about it in the context of Meta.
5. Stolen Focus, Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again
   —Johann Hari
   Riveting personal journey through the collapse of attention we are collectively experiencing as technology takes over our attention. For readers who want to see the deeper patterns between technology, attention, and the ability to know ourselves and lead a meaningful life.

The Loop, How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back
—Jacob Ward

Packed full of easy-to-understand examples and good stories of how human psychology gets twisted by tech, how choice is eroded, and why this matters. For readers who’d like a lite version of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism meets Thinking Fast and Slow.

1. The Neuroscience of You, How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours
   —Chantel Prat
   Accessible, fun, practical guide to the different ways our brains process information and make us who we are. For readers who want to understand how their own brains work with a ton of fun exercises and quizzes alongside the relevant science.
2. The Eye Test, A Case for Human Creativity in the Age of Analytics
   —Chris Jones
   Hallelujah! In a world of books about machines being better than humans, this is the book from 2022 to feel better about being human. For readers who want to immerse themselves in all the reasons why analytics can’t deliver on its core promise of finding a one single optimizable answer (and nor would we want it to).
3. Emotional, How Feelings Shape Our Thinking
   —Leonard Mlodinow
   Well perhaps The Eye Test isn’t the only book…Emotional is the most complete, comprehensive yet accessible book I’ve found so far on why all decisions (all thinking, all experience) is emotional. For readers who want a take down on rationality.
4. How to Stay Smart in a Smart World, Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms
   —Gerd Gigerenzer
   There’s a theme developing here… Gerd’s latest book lays out the logic for human strenghts against machines and algorithms. For readers who want more detail and useful ideas for when not to look for an algorithm and when to use simple human-level structures over complex machines and data. Listen to our interview with Gerd in Artificiality.
5. Don’t Trust Your Gut, Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life
   —Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
   Such a fun romp through what large, open datasets are able to tell us about love, careers, and other life choices. For readers who are fascinated by what data scientists are able to find out about humans from recently released large scale open datasets.

Inspired, Understanding Creativity, A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul

—Matt Richtel
How humans create. That’s it. For readers who want to “be in the mystery” and understand how creativity works.

1. Difficult Decisions, How Leaders Make the Right Call with Insight, Integrity, and Empathy
   —Eric Pliner
   The most difficult leadership decisions are subjective and human. They don’t yield to more data. For readers who want an alternative to data-driven leadership and how to consider your own morality in the process. Listen to our interview with Eric in Artificiality.
2. Hack Your Bureaucracy, Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team
   —Marina Nitze and Nick Sanai
   I wish I’d had this book when I was in my 20s and 30s. So many practical tips and examples to speed up your own learning on how to get stuff done in organizations. For readers who want an alternative to the ethos of “move fast and break things.” Listen to our interview with Marina and Nick in Artificiality.
3. Both/And Thinking, Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems
   —Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis
   In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, it doesn’t work to think either/or. For readers that are curious about paradoxes and how to resolve them in decisions.
4. How to Begin, Start Doing Something that Matters
   —Michael Bungay Stanier
   MBS is a genius at straight talk coaching. For readers who want to “start showing up” for themselves and for the world." Listen to our interview with Michael in Artificiality.
5. Making Numbers Count, The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers.
   —Chip Heath and Karla Starr
   This concise book gives so many illustrations and creative ways to help you take the math out of numbers so that people understand them more. For readers who have to talk in numbers (pretty much all of us).
6. The Digital Mindset, What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI
   —Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley
   A minimum viable methodology for coding, statistics, and mindset for the world of data and algorithms. For readers who are worried they need to learn code and absolutely hate the idea, this will give you a different perspective on what’s needed to stay relevant in the digital age.
7. Collective Wisdom, Co-Creating Media for Equity and Justice
   —Katerina Cizek and William Uricchio
   An important reset in perspective about co-creation: what happens when we rethink attribution and structure creativity around justice. For readers who wonder about different ways of innovating for social justice and don’t want to see the term co-creation be simply co-opted as the next innovation buzzword. Listen to our interview with Kat and Will in Artificiality.
8. Get It Done, Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation
   —Ayelet Fishbach
   A very practical and scientifically grounded explanation of what it takes to get and stay motivated. For readers that would like to understand more about what motivation actually is and enjoy unintuitive answers.
9. Collective Illusions, Conformity, Complicity and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions
   —Todd Rose
   We are social beings and make decisions based on our social brains, not all of them good. For readers that want to know more about the neuroscience, behavioral science, and psychology of conformity.
10. The Ascent of Information, How Data Rules the World
    —Caleb Scharf
    Technically 2021 but, hey. Scarf’s ideas about the dataome (the data that we live in) will change how you see data forever. Warning: plot bust. For readers who are intrigued by the idea that humans might end being mitochondria in the machines.

That’s it from us for 2022. We are off to the South Pacific for some beach and family time.

See you 2023 and don’t let the data byte.

Helen and Dave