16 Books That Will Make You Smarter Than 99% of People

Key Points:

• After attending Columbia University, I found many classmates lacked introspection and critical thinking.
• I discovered 16 books that can enhance intelligence beyond a university education.
• The books are categorized into philosophy, economics, science, and business.
• Each category consists of four types of books with recommendations for beginners.

After attending Columbia University, I realized most of my classmates weren't actually that smart.
They were good at taking tests and getting good grades, but they got so focused on their career goals that they ended up lacking introspection, critical thinking skills, and ended up using their knowledge as if it were a dish rag—helpful for wiping up a mess but simply to be discarded afterward.

But after more than 15 years in the theoretical worlds of value theory and education, and the very practical world of sales, I've discovered 16 books that will make you intelligent—truly intelligent— even more so than if you had had a Columbia University education.

We'll divide this list up into four categories, each containing four types of books along with one of my favorites or a good beginner book for each type. These categories are:

• Philosophy
• Economics
• Science
• Business

Let's start with the first category of books: Philosophy. Now, I'm definitely biased here because my background is in value theory, which is a subset of philosophy.

However, here's why we really do need to start with philosophy: philosophy is at its heart critical thinking and conceptual analysis. The more armed we are with these skills, the more powerful we become as individuals because these skills allow us to expand our knowledge into a variety of fields. Having knowledge in a variety of fields has been shown to be important for three key reasons:

1. To ultimately increase our creativity.
2. To increase what's called our self-efficacy, which translates into greater personal freedom.
3. To ultimately make better decisions in life.

That being said, here are four types of books in philosophy we should read to create these results along with some of my favorites.

The first type of philosophy book you want to read is something on logic, just to get familiar with how good arguments as well as bad arguments are structured. Logic is the foundation of good thinking, so it's a great place to start. DQ McKinney's Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking is one of my favorites for this purpose.

The second type of philosophy book we should read is something on ethical theory—a broad overview of different systems of ethics such as utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics—just so we can develop a well-thought-out view of morality. I mean, I couldn't even decide to make a video on what you should read without making an ethical or moral judgment, right? So needless to say, studying this is pretty fundamental for understanding how to make good decisions in life. One of my favorites here is An Introduction to Ethics by Jeffrey Thomas.

The third type of philosophy book we should read follows the last one a bit, namely something on applied ethical theory. Now, applied ethics gets out of the theory altogether and gets right into practical situations—how should patient care be allocated? How should labor unions negotiate, if at all? How about issues like abortion, euthanasia, and the treatment of animals? Let's be real— isn't it a good idea to think through these situations before being faced with one of them? One of the best beginner books here is Social Ethics by Thomas Maps and Jane Zody.

The last book in this category we should read to have some well-rounded knowledge of conceptual analysis and critical thinking is a book on decision theory. This is as it sounds: the theory of how decisions are made. Now ironically, it's unlikely you'll actually use any of the theories laid out in a decision theory book—sorry, but it's kind of true. But learning some basics in decision theory will help you, first and foremost, to understand how people make decisions, what constitutes a good decision, and help you come up with your own framework on how to make good decisions in your life. In this category, I recommend reading An Introduction to Decision Theory by Martin Peterson.

The next category we want to explore is economics. Needless to say, economics fuels our lives. You've probably used dozens of products today without even thinking about it, and someone made those, sold them to you, and you allocated some of your budget to buy them. Understanding economics makes us a more informed citizen of the world, so to speak, which is especially important as the world becomes more and more connected.

The first type of book we should read in economics is something on microeconomics or essentially the interactions of firms and households. Understanding the basics here won't necessarily help us become financially literate or balance a budget, but understanding microeconomics is a great foundation for it. A great book here is Microeconomics Made Simple by Austin Fra and Mike Piper.

The second type of book we should read in economics is something on macroeconomics, or essentially an overall look at firm and individual behavior in aggregate. Macroeconomics is a major driver of all the world events we see today, so understanding it is key. A really useful book here is A Concise Guide to Microeconomics by David Moss.

The third book we should read in economics is something on Austrian economic theory. Austrian economic theory is one of the bedrocks of modern free-market and libertarian economic thought. From what I can tell, Austrian theory doesn't really hold up under scrutiny, and in all fairness, there's no perfect economic theory. But I believe it's essential to read all points of view on economics and not simply ignore the ones you think you disagree with—that's the essence of being a well-rounded thinker, right? A great book to read here is An Introduction to Austrian Economics by Thomas Taylor.

Finally, the fourth book you should read is something in the growing field of neuroeconomics. Neuroeconomics, put simply, is the study of brain processes underlying economic decisions. The more and more we learn about this field, the more it becomes clear that the idea of humans as rational decision-makers is pretty much a myth. There are so many decisions we make that are actively against our own interests, and it's important to understand why and how we make these decisions. Going back to the book on decision theory that I mentioned in our philosophy category, understanding decision-making in general only empowers you to make better decisions in your own life. A great book to start with here is Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain by Paul Glimcher.

And that takes us to the next category, which is the sciences. Now, the sciences are so broad that it’s hard to boil down my recommendations to just four subcategories, but I'm basing my recommendations here on what I believe are some of the most urgent areas for us to have a working knowledge of.

The first type of book we should read is something on the social sciences—understanding how people behave and what affects our behavior. I believe is the key to helping us create a better world. It's easy to look at crime, for example, and say, "Oh, those people are bad or violent," but it takes a more nuanced mind to say, "Okay, yes, they're violent," or "Okay, yes, there's a poverty problem here," and say, "Let's examine the factors behind this and understand how to engineer and incentivize better outcomes." A foundational book to read here is Social Cognitive Theory by the famous father of social cognitive theory, Albert Bandura.

The second type of book to read is something on artificial intelligence, especially what's called generative intelligence in systems we see such as ChatGPT and Gemini AI. AI is only going to become more and more advanced and play a bigger and bigger role in our work lives, our personal lives, and as a way to create income too. In the not too distant future, we may all even have intelligent robots washing our dishes and doing our laundry for us—who knows? I mean, I'd really like that! A great book to get started understanding the basics here is AI Made Simple by Rajiv Kapoor.

The third type of book we definitely want to read is something on computer science. We don’t know exactly when, but sooner or later, the field of quantum computing will make our current microprocessors obsolete and replace them with what are called qubits, exponentially increasing our ability to do clinical research, find cures for diseases, improve our engineering ability beyond our wildest imaginations, and find solutions to extremely complex problems. We don't simply want to understand how things currently work, but instead how they will work in the future. That kind of attitude ultimately positions us for future success. One of the greatest books on this topic is Quantum Supremacy by the famous physicist Michio Kaku.

Last but not least, we definitely want to understand cosmology, or something about the latest outer space discoveries. Understanding cosmology doesn't seem so practical, I know, and with respect to how we run our everyday lives, it's not really that practical, let's be real. But I believe knowledge is good in and of itself, and let's also be real about something else: compared to how huge the universe is, we're pretty insignificant. So for that reason alone, getting outside of our bubble and understanding the greater context in which we live is essential for being a well-rounded person. One of the best books for this, especially for beginners, is The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene.

And finally, we get to the last category: Business and Entrepreneurship. Now, before you click off of this video because you say, "Oh, business and entrepreneurship isn't relevant to me," just hear me out!

Back in 2013, right after I published my first peer-reviewed academic book, I started my first business as a broke introverted nerd with no connections and no social skills. By the time I started my second business in 2018, I had come to realize why knowledge about business and entrepreneurship is so essential—especially for us introverted nerds with no connections and no social skills.

You see, too many times, we find ourselves thinking through the first three categories I mentioned—economics, philosophy, science—even art and history. All that stuff, but that's just it—we're only sitting there thinking. We never actually interface with the real world and instead just live in a bubble of theory. And it's way too easy to do that. Trust me, I’ve been there big time!

So studying entrepreneurship forces us to think about how we can apply our knowledge creatively and how we can grow personally by putting ourselves in situations that are uncomfortable. As we'll see, the skills in entrepreneurship are incredibly transferable to whatever else we want to do, whether or not we want to actually start a business.

The first type of book we want to read here is something on sales. There are so many different types of sales—from front-facing to non-front-facing, from B2C to B2B—but they all share some common principles: identifying prospects, booking the appointment, closing the transaction, and follow-up. We might hear these and feel uncomfortable, and that's great because sales skills are universal skills we need to know for leading other people to take action. It does not have to be manipulative; we can do sales and sell in the right way. One of the best books on this topic, especially if you're a beginner, is The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld.

The second type of book we want to read in this category is something on marketing. This is extremely different from sales. While learning sales helps us really understand how to interact and communicate with people to get the results we're looking for, learning marketing helps us understand another crucial element of interpersonal interaction—how to attract people to us in the first place. This is an indispensable skill. In fact, people liking us or disliking us can really be the difference between getting chosen for an opportunity we want or not. One of the absolute best books on this is Day Trading Attention by Gary Vaynerchuk.

The third type of book to read in this category is something on cash flow management. If you ever want to start a business, then understanding how much money is coming in and how much money is going out is essential. A lot of people make mistakes here, but even if you're not building a business, understanding business cash flow and how to properly organize it and manage it will help you gain tremendous insights for managing your personal budget. A great book to read here is Conquering Cash Flow by Rob Stevens.

Finally, the fourth type of book everyone should read on business is simply an overall broad view understanding of how businesses work. Understanding how businesses work on a broad view will really give us a more detailed understanding of how to create and deliver value in general, even outside of business. I mean, let's say we want to start some engineering project—understanding sales, marketing, logistics, product and service viability, cash flow, and all the other aspects of business will make us exponentially better at managing, organizing, and carrying through our project to completion. The absolute best book I've ever read that provides such a broad yet detailed overview is A Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.

At the end of the day, knowledge should be practical and help us build a better life in real, tangible ways. It should help us become more moral, better decision makers, and have better-informed opinions of important global issues. But let's not also forget that knowledge is good in and of itself for its own sake. Just as the philosopher Aristotle emphasized through his concept of the Golden Mean, we should always have a balanced approach—don't just take action; become educated—but don't just become educated; make sure you take action too!

If you want to keep leveling up your critical thinking to live an impactful life, then be sure to watch this next video.