Thinking in Systems
Read this if: You keep solving the same problem over and over.
"We can't impose our will on a system. We can dance with it."
Key Framework: Leverage Points — where small shifts create big changes
THE ARSENAL
15 Books. Zero Fluff.
These aren't "business books." They're weapons-grade problem-solving frameworks disguised as paperbacks. Each one has shaped how we think, diagnose, and fix.
Not sure where to start? Take the 3-question diagnostic →
Systems Architects
Understanding the machine. Read these if your problem is structural.
Finite and Infinite Games
Read this if: You're obsessed with "winning" but unclear what winning means.
"A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play."
Key Framework: Infinite Mindset — playing to keep playing, not to win
The Art of the Long View
Read this if: You're paralyzed by uncertainty about the future.
"Scenarios are not predictions. They are stories about the way the world might turn out."
Key Framework: Scenario Planning — rehearsing for multiple futures
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Read this if: Your strategy is actually just a list of goals.
"A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and provides an approach to overcoming them."
Key Framework: The Kernel — Diagnosis + Guiding Policy + Coherent Actions
Cynefin
Read this if: You apply "best practices" to problems where they don't work.
"We can know more than we can tell."
Key Framework: 5 Domains — Clear, Complicated, Complex, Chaotic, Confused
Creative Interrogators
Asking better questions. Read these if your problem is unclear.
A More Beautiful Question
Read this if: You're jumping to answers before understanding the question.
"The most creative, successful people tend to be expert questioners."
Key Framework: Why → What If → How cycle of inquiry
The Mom Test
Read this if: People keep telling you your idea is great (but it's not).
"It's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it."
Key Framework: Ask about past behavior, not future intentions
Liminal Thinking
Read this if: You're stuck in a worldview that's no longer serving you.
"Create the change you want by changing the way you think."
Key Framework: The Pyramid of Belief — how reality is constructed
Lateral Thinking
Read this if: Your logic keeps digging the same hole deeper.
"You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper."
Key Framework: Provocation & Random Entry — breaking patterns
Orbiting the Giant Hairball
Read this if: You're creative but trapped in corporate gravity.
"If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted."
Key Framework: Orbiting — being of the company, not crushed by it
Hard-Nosed Operators
Execution and decision. Read these if your problem is action.
Decisive
Read this if: You're paralyzed by analysis or keep making the same mistakes.
"Our brains are wired to make bad decisions due to biases."
Key Framework: WRAP — Widen, Reality-test, Attain distance, Prepare to fail
The Pyramid Principle
Read this if: People don't understand your recommendations.
"Start with the answer."
Key Framework: SCQA — Situation, Complication, Question, Answer
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis
Read this if: You need to separate signal from noise in high-stakes situations.
"Intelligence failures are rarely caused by a lack of information, but by the inability to process it correctly."
Key Framework: Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH)
Superforecasting
Read this if: You think in certainties instead of probabilities.
"Foresight is not a mysterious gift; it is the product of particular ways of thinking."
Key Framework: Probabilistic thinking & belief updating
The Dice Man
Read this if: You're too controlled, too predictable, too safe.
"I am large, I contain multitudes."
Key Framework: Randomness as liberation from conditioned patterns
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Books Only Get You So Far
These frameworks come alive when applied to your specific situation.
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