five authors that have helped me have a better understanding of the chaos…
1.) Ilya Prigogine: Literally wrote the book on thermodynamics; it’s literally called “Order Out of Chaos”. Entropy is present universally. If it defines everything in nature, you can bet it defines everything in life.
Where to Start?: His 1978 landmark work Order Out of Chaos is a definitive account of thermodynamics, dissipative systems, and entropy. While strictly speaking, this is a chemistry book, it's creative and philosophical implications stretch far beyond science.
Favorite Quote: “We grow in direct proportion to the amount of chaos we can sustain and dissipate.”
2.) Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The opposite of fragilility isn’t robustness, to be robust is to avoid damage by disorder; the opposite of fragility is anti-fragility; to be anti-fragile is to gain from disorder. His “Incerto” series of books provides a roadmap to navigating chaos.
Where to start?: The first book in NNT's Incerto series, a series of books covering the topic of uncertainty, Fooled by Randomness is the perfect intro.
Favorite Quote: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
3.) Douglas Rushkoff: This cultural theorist has some of the most prescient books I’ve ever read. Steven Soderbergh introduced me to Rushkoff when speaking of "a drumbeat that has gotten so fast, we can no longer hear between the individual beats", I haven't been able to stop reading Rushkoff's work since then.
Where to Start?: Rushkoff's Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now is incredibly prescient, especially for a book written in 2004.
Favorite Quote: “the future is less a noun than a verb, a thing we do.”
4.) Chuck Klosterman: Looking to understand our current political situation through the lens of a Hair Metal Cruise? Klosterman is your man. Counterintuitive insights that are extremely accessible and chalk full of sharp wit define his writing. Not only do I find meaning through his books, but I laugh throughout the whole thing.
Where to Start?: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto is a collection of essays on topics ranging from The Sims to Guns N' Roses to Zach Morris.
Favorite Quote: “In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever in and of itself.”
5.) Daniel Kahneman: People aren’t rationale, their decisions aren’t rationale, and Kahneman’s “Thinking Fast and Slow” provides a detailed look at all of the ways we are irrational.
Where to Start?: Thinking Fast and Slow is the definitive guide to the way people really think, the fallacies they (we) encounter, and the heuristics that drive most of our actions.
Favorite Quote: “Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.”
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