One of the world's greatest scientists of human behaviour, the bestselling author of Behave, shows that free will does not exist - and challenges us to rethink the notions of choice, identity, responsibility, justice, morality and how we live together.

'One of the best scientist-writers of our time' OLIVER SACKS

'A bravura performance . . . moving, absorbing, compassionate' OLIVER BURKEMAN, Observer

Behind every thought, action and experience there lies a chain of biological and environmental causes, stretching back from the moment a neuron fires to the dawn of our species and beyond. Nowhere in this infinite sequence is there a place where free will could play a role.

Without free will, it makes no more sense to punish people for antisocial behaviour than it does to scold a car for breaking down. It is no one's fault they are poor or overweight or unsuccessful, nor do people deserve praise for their talent or hard work; 'grit' is a myth. This mechanistic view of human behaviour challenges our most powerful instincts, but history suggests that we have already made great strides toward it: where once we saw demonic possession or cowardice, for example, now we diagnose illness or trauma and offer help.

Determined confronts us with our true nature: who and what we are is biology and nothing more. Disturbing and liberating in equal measure, it explores the far-reaching implications for society of accepting this reality. Monumentally difficult as it may be, the reward will be a far more just and humane world.

‘Utterly fascinating … with mind-boggling implications’ FRANS DE WAAL

'Wonderfully readable ... humorous and warm and humane' Justin Webb, Today (BBC Radio 4)

Genres:
Influence, Thinking

From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion.

A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion.

In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.

Genres:
Influence, Thinking

The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains.

If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.

But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed AI or otherwise to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?

To get closer to an answer to this question, we must make our way through a fascinating landscape of topics and considerations. Read the book and learn about oracles, genies, singletons; about boxing methods, tripwires, and mind crime; about humanity's cosmic endowment and differential technological development; indirect normativity, instrumental convergence, whole brain emulation and technology couplings; Malthusian economics and dystopian evolution; artificial intelligence, and biological cognitive enhancement, and collective intelligence.

This profoundly ambitious and original book picks its way carefully through a vast tract of forbiddingly difficult intellectual terrain. Yet the writing is so lucid that it somehow makes it all seem easy. After an utterly engrossing journey that takes us to the frontiers of thinking about the human condition and the future of intelligent life, we find in Nick Bostrom's work nothing less than a reconceptualization of the essential task of our time.

Genres:
AI, Business, Influence, Thinking

The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage *Brand New, Hardcover Edition. Ships promptly with tracking details*

Ryan Holiday is one of the world's bestselling living philosophers. His books like The Obstacle Is the Way,Ego Is the Enemy,The Daily Stoic, and the #1 New York Times bestseller Stillness Is the Key appear in more than 40 languages and have sold more than 5 million copies. Together, they've spent over 300 weeks on the bestseller lists. He lives outside Austin with his wife and two boys...and a small herd of cows and donkeys and goats. His bookstore, The Painted Porch, sits on historic Main St in Bastrop, Texas.

Genres:
Leadership, Productivity, Thinking

Poke the Box is Seth Godin's spirited call to action for anybody too afraid to try something new, now relaunched and repackaged

If you are happy being just a dreamer, perhaps you don't need this book.

If you're enjoying the status quo, don't even consider reading this book.

If you are content waiting for success to find you, please put this book down and go find something else to read.

Why has Poke the Box become a cult classic?

Because it's a book that dares readers to do something they're afraid of.

It could be what you need, too.

'Like the man who produced it, Poke the Box is inspired and inspiring' Daniel H. Pink

'A one-two punch! Half kick in the ass, half cheerleading encouragement' Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art

Genres:
Business, Leadership, Productivity, Thinking

As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie.

In Lying, best-selling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie. He focuses on "white" lies—those lies we tell for the purpose of sparing people discomfort—for these are the lies that most often tempt us. And they tend to be the only lies that good people tell while imagining that they are being good in the process.

Genres:
Influence, Thinking

The 14 Patterns for Mastering the Language of Influence

HOW TO MASTER INFLUENCING LANGUAGE AND GET WHAT YOU WANT, WITHOUT MANIPULATING.

Do you work and live with people who are hard to convince? Who dismiss ideas before even thinking about them?

Do you want to know how to influence people, without being manipulative?

Want to find out how people get motivated, make decisions, to be more persuasive with everyone?

Learn how to use the right words with the right people, and get through the “Communication Wall”

Have you ever felt like you were talking to a wall? Well, that’s a very accurate description of what’s happening when 2 people are communicating! Everyone has a metaphorical “Communication Wall” around them to protect them from “bad people”. But in all of our walls, we have left some bricks out, to let the “good people” communicate with us.

The problem in communication is not the wall, because the wall is standard equipment that everyone has. The problem comes from the holes where the bricks have been left out. The holes come in specific shapes, unique to each person.

And if you want to communicate with that person, you need to use words, and behavior that fit exactly with the holes in the other person’s wall.

Shelle Rose Charvet, best-selling author of Words That Change Minds shows you how to match your language to people around you (in your work, with your colleagues, your boss and your clients, and at home, with your partner, family and other relationships).

Learn the persuasion psychology, spark interest and enthusiasm and get what you want.

In Words That Change Minds you will:

- Learn the influence science and practice.
- Discover the ways people unconsciously get motivated, process information and make decisions.
- Decode any communication problem and solve it.
- Find out how to pry open mental space in even the most closed of minds.
- Create rapport and credibility with anyone.
- Avoid inadvertently saying or doing the wrong thing.
- Get practical applications for sales, marketing, recruiting, negotiation, teaching, training, communication at work, conflict resolution.
- Increase your impact in interpersonal communication, teamwork, and in mass communication.

Words That Change Minds is based on the Language and Behavior Profile, (LAB Profile® for short) – a powerful tool that enables you to understand, predict and influence behavior by de-coding the language people use.

You can directly influence people one-on-one, in groups and even in mass communication by customizing your language to match their subconscious Motivation Patterns.

Increase your impact, improve relationships and reduce conflicts, by using the Words That Change Minds.

The NEW 3rd edition of Words That Change Minds has more than 50% new material; examples, research, advanced applications, with 7 completely new chapters, including:
1. How to Complete a LAB Profile®
2. Conversational Coaching with the LAB Profile®
3. Understanding and Working with Combination Patterns
4. Solving Communication Problems
5. Influencing Strategies and Techniques
6. The LAB Profile® of Conflict
7. LAB Profile® Inventions and Tools, and more.

Interested? Just scroll up and get your copy today!

About the author:

Shelle Rose Charvet is a bestselling author and the international expert on Influencing Language. The earlier editions of, “Words That Change Minds” are international bestsellers, available in 15 languages. Shelle has been researching and teaching for over 35 years and is known for her advanced techniques used to enhance rapport, trust, credibility, and influence.

Genres:
Influence, Thinking

How to Make Better Decisions

Just making a decision can be hard enough, but how do you begin to judge whether it's the right one? Chip and Dan Heath, authors of #1 New York Times best-seller Switch, show you how to overcome your brain's natural shortcomings.

In Decisive, Chip and Dan Heath draw on decades of psychological research to explain why we so often get it very badly wrong - why our supposedly rational brains are frequently tripped up by powerful biases and wishful thinking. At the same time they demonstrate how relatively easy it is to avoid the pitfalls and find the best answers, offering four simple principles that we can all learn and follow. In the process, they show why it is that experts frequently make mistakes. They demonstrate the perils of getting trapped in a narrow decision frame. And they explore people's tendency to be over-confident about how their choices will unfold.

Drawing on case studies as diverse as the downfall of Kodak and the inspiring account of a cancer survivor, they offer both a fascinating tour through the workings of our minds and an invaluable guide to making smarter decisions.

Winner in the Practical Manager category of the CMI Management Book of the Year awards 2014.

Genres:
Influence, Thinking

The Surprising Truth About Persuading, Convincing, and Influencing Others

We're all in Sales now

Parents sell their kids on going to bed. Spouses sell their partners on mowing the lawn. We sell our bosses on giving us more money and more time off. And in astonishing numbers we go online to sell ourselves on Facebook, Twitter and online dating profiles.

Relying on science, analysis and his trademark clarity of thought, Daniel Pink shows that sales isn't what it used to be. Then he provides a set of tools, tips, and exercises for succeeding on each new terrain: six new ways to pitch your idea, three ways to understand another's perspective, five frames that can make your message clearer, and much more.

Genres:
Sales

A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume

This revised and expanded edition of the bestselling book, The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman, gives you everything you need to transform your business, your career or your working life forever.

An MBA at a top school is an enormous investment in time, effort and cold, hard cash. And if you don't want to work for a consulting firm or an investment bank, the chances are it simply isn't worth it.

Josh Kaufman is the rogue professor of modern business education. Feted by everyone from the business media to Seth Godin and David Allen, he's torn up the rulebook and given thousands of people worldwide the tools to teach themselves everything they need to know.

The Personal MBA teaches simple mental models for every subject that's key to commercial success. From the basics of products, sales & marketing and finance to the nuances of human psychology, teamwork and creating systems, this book distils everything you need to know to take on the MBA graduates and win.

'File this book under: NO EXCUSES' Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and Linchpin

'Well on its way to becoming a business classic. You're pretty much guaranteed to get your money's worth - if not much, much more' Jason Hesse, Real Business

'Josh Kaufman has synthesized the most important topics in business into a book that truly lives up to its title. It's rare to find complicated concepts explained with such clarity. Highly recommended' Ben Casnocha, author of My Start-Up Life

Josh Kaufman is an acclaimed blogger and consultant who helps people improve their business skills. He previously worked at Proctor & Gamble. Since 2005 Josh has been helping people learn about business without remortgaging their lives through his website, www.PersonalMBA.com

Genres:
Business, Leadership