Welcome to 2018!

And welcome to my third year writing this column. I hope it challenges and provokes your thinking as much as it challenges and provokes mine.

Now, you’ve heard me trash New Year’s Resolutions. “Systems over goals,” I always say. And one of my favourite systems is reading 100 books a year and sending out my recommendations to many of you over email each month.

So as this year begins, let’s talk about how we can provoke our own thoughts. What can we do to jostle patterns that are becoming stale? What old ideas are we clinging to as the world evolves? Minds atrophy if they aren’t poked so today I’m going to share a few of my favourite books to provoke your thinking:

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb. If I was teaching a course in life, philosophy, economics, motivation, or psychology, this would be my mandatory textbook. The title is demystified in an opening paragraph explaining how the entire Western world thought all swans were white … until a black swan was spotted. He defines black-swan events as events that 1) are disproportionately huge, 2) cannot be predicted, and 3) are mistakenly explained in retrospect with hindsight and fallacies. Examples range from Sept. 11 to “how you met your spouse” to the launch of the smartphone. The book is just absolutely exploding with ideas and reality-shattering views and carries the feeling of being written for the everyman by one of the brightest economics/chaos/risk theory minds in the world. Occasionally the book is too sprawling or chaotic, but think of it as a wild roller-coaster ride instead of a slow and straight drive. Absolutely life-changing.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Strong opinions, super -short chapters, extremely visceral prose. My kind of book! And somewhat of an antidote to The Black Swan. The book is a collection of the 100-plus new-era business principles the authors used to build a giant online company with less than a dozen employees spread around the world. The black cover and propaganda style of the book’s design hints at the subversive and counterintuitive nature of the advice. Samples include: ASAP is poison, Underdo the competition, Meetings are toxic, Fire the workaholics, and Planning is guessing. I liked it because it didn’t feel the need, like so many books, to rely on endless research studies — and instead was just really clear, short, logical essays reminiscent of Derek Sivers or Paul Graham. Fits into that non-existent “Wisdom” category between Business and Self-Help.

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. If you’ve caught onto the Stoic philosophy renaissance happening these days and want an accessible way to enter the long dark path of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus, among others, then this book can be your fiery torch. A wonderfully insightful guide to living a great life, with excerpts from the masters together with insightful commentary.

The Moth Presents … All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing The Unknown. Not all brain-poking need to be non-fiction. Do you know The Moth podcast? It’s perfect for long late-night car rides. Picture your closest friends going around the red-and-white checkered tablecloth sharing their best true stories over late-night chicken wings. That’s The Moth. There’s one from the woman who became David Bowie’s hair stylist. There’s another from an African child soldier asked to go to a paintball birthday party in a forest with his new classmates in New York. And another from an Indian guy standing at his white prom date’s door and being told by her parents they don’t want him in their family photos. The stories are gripping, insightful, addictive — and most of them end without any smarm or Full House-style group laughs … but rather with an honest emotional candid snapshot of what life felt like, for that person, at that time. Hard not to laugh, cry, or be a little moved by each one.

The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. This is the latest book by Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. I think it’s her best book. She’s created a fascinating 2x2 matrix of four tendencies based on how well we follow obligations — to ourselves and others. Follow neither? You’re a rebel. Follow both? You’re an obliger. Follow yourself but question others? You’re a questioner. (That’s me.) Follow others but not yourself? You’re an upholder. Gives simple ways to help navigate yourself and the people you spend time with. Anything that increases self-awareness in such an accessible way gets a thumbs-up from me.

Wait But Why by Tim Urban. OK, this one isn’t a book. It’s a blog. Tim is a zen master at disseminating hundreds of academic journals into accessible and funny flyover tours of the most complex topics in the world right now. If you want a primer on, say, artificial intelligence or cryonics, start here.

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. I’m going to close this week with a children’s book. The U.S. Surgeon General recently declared loneliness an epidemic. Do you know someone who lives alone … or with very little social connection? This book is a tear-inducing story of a lonely old man who receives a giant box of chocolates from a secret admirer and helps him become a loving citizen, friend and neighbour. When it turns out the box was delivered to the wrong address, he quickly returns to his glum and depressed state. But the people he began loving haven’t forgotten all the love he showed and the book closes with them lifting him back up. For ages 5-8 or, you know, anyone who wants to cry happy tears while putting their kid to bed.

Neil Pasricha is the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. His new journal Two-Minute Mornings contains his exact two-minute practice for starting each day. His bi-weekly column helps us live a good life.