Person
Every book Michael Mauboussin recommended on podcasts
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Michael Mauboussin appears on, in one place — not just one.
Michael J. Mauboussin heads consilient research at Morgan Stanley division Morgan Stanley Investment Management's Counterpoint Global, an open-end mutual fund. Previously, he was director of research at BlueMountain Capital and head of global financial strategies at Credit Suisse, where he advised clients on valuation and portfolio positioning, capital markets theory, competitive strategy analysis, and decision making. He is also an adjunct professor of finance at the Columbia Business School and serves as chairman emeritus of the board of trustees at the Santa Fe Institute, a multi-disciplinary research center for complex adaptive systems, after serving as its chairman from 2012 until retiring in May 2021. On The Tim Ferriss Show, Mauboussin recommended and discussed several books relevant to decision-making, finance, and science. He cited James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds on how crowds make decisions, Scott E. Page's The Difference and The Diversity Bonus regarding cognitive diversity, and Peter L. Bernstein's Capital Ideas for the history of finance. He also highly praised Robert Sapolsky's Behave and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers for insights on human nature and stress, Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning for discussions on intuition, and Melanie Mitchell's Complexity: A Guided Tour as an entry point to complex adaptive systems.
Books recommended by Michael Mauboussin
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Fooled by Randomness
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a popular exploration of the massive role that chance, luck, and probability play in human success, finance, and everyday life.
Discussed“One was Fooled by Randomness, where that came out in 2001. And I read it and I was like, absolutely makes sense.”
Where to get it
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The Wisdom of Crowds
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki is a well-known book examining how information markets, collective intelligence, and group decision-making function.
Discussed“Fast-forward, and this also ties into the work at the Santa Fe Institute, but Jim Surowiecki writes The Wisdom of Crowds and the ideas have been percolating for a while.”
Where to get it
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Creating Shareholder Value
Creating Shareholder Value is a foundational corporate finance book by Alfred Rappaport that outlines principles for running businesses to maximize long-term returns for investors.
Discussed“Guy in my training program gave me a copy of Al Rapaort's book called Creating Shoulder Value which was published in 1986.”
Where to get it
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Full House
Full House by Stephen Jay Gould is a non-fiction book that explores the concept of variation and common misconceptions about progress and trends in various fields.
Discussed“I got that from reading his book, Full House, in the book. I give him full attribution.”
Where to get it
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Behave
Behave by Robert M.
Recommended“You know, he wrote a book called Behave in 2017, which is, I would say, probably the best book I've ever read on human nature.”
Where to get it
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Capital Ideas
Capital Ideas by Peter L.
Recommended“He also wrote a book called capital ideas which basically does the same thing for the history of finance.”
Where to get it
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Complexity
Complexity by Melanie Mitchell serves as an accessible introduction to the science of complex systems, exploring how order emerges from decentralized interactions.
Recommended“There's a book by Melanie Mitchell who is now resident faculty at the Santa Fe Institute called Complexity a guided tour”
Where to get it
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Psychology of Intelligence Analysis
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by Richards J.
Recommended“There's a really interesting book called The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. Do you know that? You probably do know that book by Richard's Huer.”
Where to get it
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Superforecasting
Philip E.
Recommended“There's just a quote which I love and I find myself repeating it often and it says, "Beliefs are hypotheses to be tested, not treasures to be protected."”
Where to get it
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The Art of Learning
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin is a deeply reflective book detailing the author's journey from a prodigy in chess and martial arts to mastering the principles of peak performance and learning.
Recommended“By the way, the art of learning is fabulous. I'm a huge fan.”
Where to get it
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The Difference
The Difference by Scott E.
Recommended“And Scott's written a number of great books. The difference is his big book on this.”
Where to get it
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The Diversity Bonus
The Diversity Bonus by Scott E.
Recommended“And he wrote a smaller book called The Diversity Bonus, which is, you know, shorter treatment of the same topic.”
Where to get it
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Understanding Michael Porter
Understanding Michael Porter by Joan Magretta is an accessible guide that breaks down the foundational competitive strategy frameworks developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter.
Recommended“in fact i usually recommend that people who are interested in understanding porter read a book by a woman named joan mcgretta called understanding michael porter”
Where to get it
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Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M.
Recommended“So he wrote a book called Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers in the mid 1990s, which is it's a wonderful title and it's a wonderful book about the idea of stress.”
Where to get it
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Bionomics
Discussed“They had a bunch of books and I just scrolled over there and I picked up a book called Bionomics by a guy named Michael Rothschild.”
Where to get it
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Consilience
Consilience by E.O.
Discussed“So I was very taken in the late 1990s by a book called Consilience by Eo Wilson”
Where to get it
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Expectations Investing
Expectations Investing by Michael J.
Discussed“so that was the birth of expectations investing that former one was sort of aimed at executives at ceos”
Where to get it
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Expert Political Judgment
Expert Political Judgment by Philip E.
Discussed“you know, Phil Tetlock's the first book I read of his was in the mid I think 2006 2007 called expert political judgment”
Where to get it
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Letters of E. B. White
Discussed“So for example, Strunk and White, which is another classic book I'm writing, is more of a practical style.”
Where to get it
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Moneyball
Moneyball by Michael Lewis is a groundbreaking non-fiction book that explores how the Oakland Athletics baseball team leveraged advanced statistical analytics to compete against wealthier franchises with larger payrolls.
Discussed“but then i read moneyball and i was like this is awesome this is like so interesting right”
Where to get it
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More Heat Than Light
Discussed“And in fact, there's a wonderful book called more heat than light by a professor named Phil Morowski which documents how econ economists literally and I mean literally mapped over equations from Newtonian physics”
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On Writing
Stephen King's On Writing is a celebrated hybrid of memoir and practical manual that chronicles the author's formative struggles and recovery while offering direct, invaluable advice for aspiring writers on craft, discipline, and the mechanics of prose.
Discussed“No, over the last year, I'm embarrassed to say this, I hadn't read it before, but I read Stephen King's book on writing. Have you read that book?”
Where to get it
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The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. & How To Speak And Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin
Discussed“So for example, Strunk and White, which is another classic book I'm writing, is more of a practical style.”
Where to get it
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The Nurture Assumption
The Nurture Assumption by Judith Rich Harris is a provocative work of psychology and developmental science that challenges conventional parenting wisdom by arguing that peer groups and genetics play a far more decisive role in shaping children than parental upbringing.
Discussed“First of all, her background is very interesting because she was sort of shunned from a PhD program in psychology, but went on to like write textbooks and was basically an independent scholar. You know, one of the premises I think most people operate with is that parents are really important in how their children's turn out. And I think”
Where to get it
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The Sense of Style
Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style offers a comprehensive guide to modern writing by blending traditional grammar with linguistics and cognitive psychology.
Discussed“And then I'll go back to Pinker, Pinker wrote in that same book, the sense of style. Chapter two is actually about this. It's all about classic style.”
Where to get it
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The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a foundational text in classical economics that explores the nature and causes of national wealth through the division of labor, productivity, and free markets.
Discussed“Increasing returns, first described by Adam Smith and Wealth of Nations in 1776. You remember the pin factory idea?”
Where to get it
Books Michael Mauboussin wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“So I wrote a book in 2009 called 2010, 2009 called Think Twice. And it's about exactly what the title says, when you are faced with certain types of situations,”
“and then um i wrote a book called think twice in 2009 and think twice as about decision making it's really an homage to kahneman”