What's it about? The View from Ninety (2025) is a collection of final essays written while facing mortality after a stroke. It distills nine decades of experience into reflections on what truly matters – distinguishing the important from merely serious, measuring success in relationships rather than wealth, and finding peace with the natural cycle of life and death. It offers practical lessons for living contentedly when all pretense falls away and only essentials remain. At 90, Charles Handy woke up each morning surprised still to be alive.Doctors told him his stroke would likely trigger a fatal second one within two years.He called himself “statistically dead.” Instead of waiting passively, he spent those borrowed years writing essays for the Idler magazine, transforming nine decades of lived experience into practical wisdom. Handy’s credentials were impressive – Shell executive, best-selling business author, London Business School professor, Warden of Windsor Castle’s think ta...

What's it about? Make Work Fair (2025) offers a data-driven alternative to ineffective diversity training by showing how to redesign workplace systems themselves. It demonstrates how measuring patterns, removing structural barriers, and building accountability into daily work creates organizations that are both fairer and more effective. Early voice recognition software worked beautifully for some people and failed spectacularly for others. Engineers trained the algorithms primarily on white male voices from California, assuming this would be sufficient for everyone.Research revealed something different.These systems misunderstood 35 percent of words spoken by Black Americans but only 19 percent of words spoken by white Americans. Women fared worse than men across all racial groups. In the UK, Scottish accents produced error rates so high that when Siri launched, Scottish users struggled even with the most basic commands.Welsh accents confused smart speakers over 23 percent of ...

What's it about? Manias, Panics, and Crashes (1978; 8th edition 2023) analyzes financial crises spanning three centuries to identify recurring patterns in market booms and busts. It demonstrates how speculation, credit expansion, and euphoria have repeatedly led to panic and collapse across different eras and economic systems. Drawing on historical evidence from the South Sea Bubble to the 2008 financial crisis and beyond, it provides a comprehensive framework for understanding why financial instability is inevitable in credit-based economies. In 1720, shares in the South Sea Company soared from £100 to over £1,000 in months as investors scrambled for exposure to its monopoly on British government debt consolidation.By September, the price had collapsed back to £100, destroying fortunes and triggering a crisis so severe that Parliament confiscated the estates of company directors.Three centuries later, the pattern remains hauntingly familiar.Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History...

What's it about? Doing Meritocracy Right (2025) challenges you to reject the flawed systems of credentialism and nepotism that have turned a noble American ideal into an artificial aristocracy. It argues that private sector leaders, rather than politicians, possess the unique ability to redefine success by valuing character and integrity alongside talent. By implementing practical reforms in hiring and promotion, you can strengthen your organization and help restore the promise of upward mobility for all. When it comes to getting ahead, you might be under the misconception that effort and talent are the only currencies that matter.After all, it’s a story that has the potential to fuel your ambition – and justifies every late night you put into your career. But there’s often a nagging feeling that something’s off – that the machinery of advancement keeps jamming, or that the criteria for leadership have drifted from actual capability toward something more exclusionary.Noticing t...

What's it about? How to Be a Friend (In an Unfriendly World) (2025) explores friendship as a transformative pathway to personal healing and genuine connection in an increasingly divided world. Drawing from a Columbia University master's course for psychologists, it offers practical guidance for becoming the kind of friend you wish to have, starting with befriending yourself. We all make up stories about why we feel separate from other people. Stories about what happened to us, about what we need to prove to ourselves before we’re worthy of love. Along with stories about why we're not quite ready for deep connection with others. These stories feel true because they are true. But they're not the whole truth. There's a third story waiting, one that's not about your past wounds or future achievements. It's about this moment, right now, and how you choose to show up in it. This third story asks a different question entirely. Not am I getting enough, but how ...

What's it about? The Lost Art of Listening (2009) shows how conversations break down and why even well intentioned people end up talking past each other. It explains the emotional forces that disrupt understanding and offers clear, practical ways to create more receptive, empathic exchanges in everyday life. We all know the quiet frustration of talking to someone who’s little more than half present.You share a quick win from your day or mention something that’s been bothering you and feel their attention drift.At work, this throws meetings and projects off balance.At home, a simple exchange leaves you wondering why it feels oddly heavy. These moments seem minor, but they add up and shape how safe or connected relationships feel.Disconnection shows up in small but familiar ways.A colleague cuts in before you reach your point.A partner reacts as if you’re criticising them when you’re only trying to explain a concern.A friend listens just long enough to jump into their own story.Non...

What's it about? Success is a Numbers Game (2025) spills a well-kept secret: every goal has hidden probabilities of success and failure attached to it, but most people never analyze or attempt to manipulate these odds. A practical “probability hacking” framework helps you map your goals, spot critical decision points and risks, and intentionally adjust the variables that influence success – increasing your odds, every time you make a choice. Think about the last time someone told you about their “lucky break”: landing their dream job, meeting the right investor, getting discovered by the right person at the right moment.We treat these stories like lottery wins – random strikes of fortune that some people get and others don’t.But what if luck isn’t actually random?What if the difference between people who consistently succeed and those who keep falling short isn’t talent, effort, or cosmic favor but an understanding of how probability works? Every goal you’re pursuing right now h...