Sources and suggested readings

Want to go further? Would you like to become an expert in chaos theory? Or do you simply want to continue your journey to discover the world as it is, not as it isn’t anymore?

I read about 100 books a year, and I’m often asked which ones I’d recommend reading. Somehow, all these books have influenced the way I look at things… and wrote this book. So here’s a list of my favorite books on these subjects.

And if you’ve read a book that’s had a big influence on you, drop me a line – I’m always waiting for your recommendations!

Enjoy your reading!

Complexity, Uncertainty, and Chaos Theory

• Bak, Per. How Nature Works: The Science of Self-Organized Criticality. Copernicus, 1996.
• Elrod, Hal. The Miracle Morning. Hal Elrod International, 2012.
• Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin Books, 1987.
  • Chaos: Making a New Science is the book you should start with if you want to know more about chaos theory. If you want to read only one book on this subject, this is the one I recommend. The author is a journalist who has made this subject accessible to everyone.
• Hoverstadt, Patrick. The Fractal Organization: Creating Sustainable Organizations with the Viable System Model. Wiley, 2008.
• Gribbin, John. Deep Simplicity: Chaos, Complexity and the Emergence of Life. Allen Lane, 2004.
• Lazlo, Ervin. Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything. Inner Traditions, 2004.
  • In my opinion, Ervin is one of the leading spiritual leaders (and also an artist… and a scientist…) of our time.
• Mandelbrot, Benoît. The (Mis)Behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward. Basic Books, 2004.
• Mandelbrot, Benoît. Fractals and Scaling in Finance: Discontinuity, Concentration, Risk. Springer, 1997.
  • Benoit Mandelbrot actually invented the word “fractal.”
• Merry, Uri. Coping with Uncertainty: Insights from the New Sciences of Chaos, Self-Organization, and Complexity. Praeger, 1995.
• Morin, Edgar. Method (Vol. 1-6). Seuil, 1977-2004.
• Morin, Edgar. Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millennium. Hampton Press, 1999.
• Morin, Edgar. Politics of Civilization. Arléa, 2002.
• Morin, Edgar. Introduction to Complex Thought. Seuil, 1990.
• Morin, Edgar. The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything. Polity, 2011.
  • Edgar Morin has changed my way of seeing the world. He introduced me to the world of complexity, which then led me to chaos theory.
• Prigogine, Ilya. Order Out of Chaos. Bantam Books, 1984.
• Prigogine, Ilya. The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature. Free Press, 1997.
  • He received the Nobel Prize and remains one of the few thinkers of Einstein’s intellectual level. I recall with emotion reading The End of Certainty as if it were yesterday, and I still feel the enthusiasm of discovering a new world.
• Pryor, Robert, and Bright, Jim. The Chaos Theory of Careers: A New Perspective on Working in the Twenty-First Century. Routledge, 2011.
• Roddier, François. Thermodynamics of Evolution. Editions Parole, 2021.
• Roucoux, Katherine, and Malin, David. Beyond the Visible: From the Atom to the Universe. Phaidon, 2002.
  • An illustration of the fractal aspect of the world with wonderful photos.
• Taleb, Nassim. Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets. Random House, 2001.
• Taleb, Nassim. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Random House, 2007.
• Taleb, Nassim. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. Random House, 2012.
• Taleb, Nassim. Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life. Random House, 2018.
  • Sometimes I am a bit bothered by his oversized ego, but for me Nassim Taleb deserves immense credit just for the ideas in The Black Swan and Antifragile.
• Ruelle, David. Chance and Chaos. Princeton University Press, 1991.
  • One of the “founders” of chaos theory.
• Waldrop, Mitchell. Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos. Simon & Schuster, 1992.
• Ware, Bronnie. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. Hay House, 2012.
• Warnecke, Hans J. The Fractal Company: A Revolution in Corporate Culture. Springer, 1993.
• Weinberger, David. Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility. Harvard Business Review Press, 2019.

Sociology and Understanding the Modern World

• Anderson, Chris. Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Hyperion, 2009.
• Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. Hyperion, 2006.
• Asimov, Isaac. The Last Question in Robot Dreams. Ace Books, 1986.
• Bregman, Rutger. Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
• Bregman, Rutger. Humankind: A Hopeful History. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.
• Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.
  • A good read on how the Internet is changing the way we think and process information… and how the Internet is changing the very functioning of our brain.
• Clear, James. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery, 2018.
• Covey, Stephen. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Free Press, 1989.
• Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
• Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Penguin Books, 2005.
• Diamond, Jared. The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. Harper Perennial, 1992.
  • Pulitzer Prize! I wish I had learned all this in school in History. It’s never too late…
• Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Random House, 2012.
• Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Little, Brown and Company, 2005.
• Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
• Gladwell, Malcolm. What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures. Little, Brown and Company, 2009.
• Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Little, Brown and Company, 2000.
  • Always funny and inspiring.
• Graeber, David, and Wengrow, David. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.
• Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper, 2015.
• Harari, Yuval Noah. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Harper, 2017.
• Harari, Yuval Noah. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Spiegel & Grau, 2018.
• Heath, Chip, and Heath, Dan. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Crown Business, 2010.
• Heath, Chip, and Heath, Dan. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Random House, 2007.
• Heath, Chip, and Heath, Dan. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. Crown Business, 2013.
• Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery. Pantheon Books, 1953.
• Huntington, Samuel. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Simon & Schuster, 1996.
• Khan, Salman. The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined. Twelve, 2012.
  • If you don’t want to read the book, at least watch his TEDTalk (www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education). A revolution in the field of education that already touches millions of people around the world. Essential if you have children… or if you don’t fit into the current educational system.
• Lee, Kai-Fu. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.
• Lee, Kai-Fu, and Chen, Qiufan. AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future. Currency, 2021.
• Klein, Naomi. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Knopf, 2000.
• Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Knopf, 2007.
• Klein, Naomi. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate. Simon & Schuster, 2014.
  • It takes Naomi Klein several years to write each of her books for an absolutely incredible result. They have all changed my way of reading the news.
• Lagadec, Patrick. Le temps de l’invention. Préventique, 2019.
• Langlois, Matthieu. Médecin du RAID. Albin Michel, 2016.
• Maalouf, Amin. In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong. Arcade Publishing, 2001.
  • This book greatly influenced what I wrote about fractal identity.
• Maltz, Maxwell. Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded. TarcherPerigee, 2016.
• Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Little, Brown and Company, 1994.
• Manson, Mark. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life*. Harper, 2016.
• Manson, Mark. Everything is Fcked: A Book About Hope*. Harper, 2019.
• Margonelli, Lisa. Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology. Scientific American, 2018.
• Marion, Bruno. Chaos mode d’emploi. Yves Michel, 2014.
• Marion, Bruno. Réussir avec les Asiatiques. Eyrolles, 2008.
• Marion, Bruno. “S’orienter dans un monde chaotique” in Carine Dartiguepeyrou (dir.) Prospective d’un monde en mutation. L’Harmattan, 2009.
• Meunier, Eliott. Arrêtez d’oublier ce que vous lisez !. Eyrolles, 2022.
• Naam, Ramez. Nexus. Angry Robot, 2012.
• Naam, Ramez. Crux. Angry Robot, 2013.
• Naam, Ramez. Apex. Angry Robot, 2015.
  • Among my favorite science fiction books. Visionary!
• Nowak, Martin. SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. Free Press, 2011.
  • For all your friends who tell you that life is a race where only the strongest survive, this is the best way to learn and show them that Darwin is just part of the story. And not the most important one!
• Peters, John, and Nichol, John. Tornado Down. Penguin Books, 1992.
• Ramonet, Ignacio. The Tyranny of Communication. Le Monde diplomatique, 1999.
• Ray, Paul, and Anderson, Sherry Ruth. The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World. Harmony, 2000.
  • If you have never heard of cultural creatives, you must read this book, especially since there is a good chance that you are one yourself. Therefore, it is time to discover who they are… and realize that you are not alone!
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. Putnam Publishing Group, 1995.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life is a Paid-For Experience. Tarcher/Putnam, 2000.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream. Tarcher, 2004.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis. Tarcher, 2009.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth. St. Martin’s Press, 2019.
• Rifkin, Jeremy. The Age of Resilience: Reimagining Existence on a Rewilding Earth. St. Martin’s Press, 2022.
  • Jeremy Rifkin always finds a way to demonstrate major societal evolutions clearly and simply.
• De Rosnay, Joël. Surfer la vie: Vers la société fluide. Les Liens Qui Libèrent, 2012.
• Ruiz, Miguel Angel. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. Amber-Allen Publishing, 1997.
• Servan-Schreiber, Florence. 3 kifs par jour. Marabout, 2019.
• Servigne, Pablo, and Stevens, Raphaël. How Everything Can Collapse: A Manual for Our Times. Polity, 2020.
• Servigne, Pablo, and Chapelle, Gauthier. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Polity, 2020.
• Servigne, Pablo, Chapelle, Gauthier, and Stevens, Raphaël. Another End of the World is Possible: Living the Collapse (and Not Merely Surviving It). Polity, 2020.
• Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. Bantam Books, 1980.
• Toffler, Alvin. Future Shock. Bantam Books, 1970.
• Toffler, Alvin. Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century. Bantam Books, 1990.
  • I do not share his latest opinions on the world… but I still consider him one of the “godfathers” of all futurists or foresight experts, including myself.
• Willink, Jocko. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win. St. Martin’s Press, 2015.

Integral Theory

• Laloux, Frédéric. Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness. Nelson Parker, 2014.
  • The application of integral theory in organizations… and the best management book since Peter Drucker.
• McIntosh, Steve. Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution. Paragon House, 2007.
  • Here is one of the books to start reading (along with those by Ken Wilber) to discover integral philosophy.
• Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. Shambhala, 1996.
• Wilber, Ken. One Taste: Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality. Shambhala, 1999.
• Wilber, Ken. A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality. Shambhala, 2000.
• Wilber, Ken. Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution. Shambhala, 1995.
• Wilber, Ken. The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything. Shambhala, 2007.
• Wilber, Ken. Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. Integral Books, 2008.
• Wilber, Ken. Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber. Shambhala, 1991.
• Wilber, Ken. The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions – More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete. Shambhala, 2017.
  • Yes, I have read them all! In fact, I have read them several times. I suggest you start with The Integral Vision, and if you enjoy them, then you must read his masterpiece: Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality, one of my ten favorite books.
• Morin, Edgar, and Viveret, Patrick. Comment vivre en temps de crise. Bayard, 2010.
• Saloff-Coste, Michel. Le Management du troisième millénaire. Guy Trédaniel, 2005.
• Saloff-Coste, Michel. Trouver son génie. Guy Trédaniel, 2005.