Reading List · Rebbelib

These are the books in my workshop — a piece of the map for orientation.

This reading list sharpens the ability to read the human terrain, move through complex systems and act within them.

It starts with the basic tools of behavioural analysis and communication psychology, pushes into the deeper, less charted territories of system dynamics, conflict doctrine and intelligence methodology, and arrives at the question of how sovereignty and co-creative systems emerge.

Questions? Write to me.

1. The human operating system

Psychology, influence and communication.

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman, 2011) → The operating manual for human cognition. Explains the two-system model of thinking: System 1, fast and intuitive; System 2, slow and analytical, and the systematic errors in thinking to which we are prone. Note: Parts of the underlying research cannot be replicated.
The Enigma of Reason (Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber, 2017) → Turns the standard assumption that reason serves the individual pursuit of truth on its head: it is a social adaptation that emerged to justify actions and exchange arguments.
Descartes' Error (Antonio Damasio, 2005) → Refutes the separation of reason and emotion. The definitive work of neuroscience: rational decisions without emotional signals, the so-called somatic markers, are impossible. The foundation for seeing emotions not as a disruption, but as part of thinking.
The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk, 2014) → The definitive explanation of how traumatic experiences are stored in the body and govern behaviour. Makes the connection between mind and body tangible. How to use it: A foundational work for understanding the physiology of trauma, less a clinical manual for treating it.
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire (Luke Burgis, 2021) → Makes René Girard's theory of mimetic desire accessible. Explains that we do not develop most of our desires autonomously but copy them from others, leading to hidden rivalries and status hierarchies.
The Status Game (Will Storr, 2021) → Synthesises modern research and shows that the pursuit of status is the fundamental driver of human behaviour. Explains why we constantly play status games without realising it, and how they determine our lives.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert B. Cialdini, 2021) → Defines the six universal principles of persuasion, a tool for recognising and applying psychological levers, offensively and defensively.
Miteinander reden 1–3 (Friedemann Schulz von Thun) → The standard toolkit of German communication psychology. Provides models such as the communication square and the Inner Team to diagnose and improve everyday interactions.
Die neue gewaltfreie Kommunikation (Markus Fischer, 2021) → An operational model for de-escalation and building connection through language. Provides the four-step technique for speaking constructively even in conflict-ridden situations.
Getting to Yes (Roger Fisher, William Ury & Bruce Patton, 2011) → The definitive work on principled negotiation. Teaches how to move from confrontational positions to cooperative interests and find win-win solutions. The cooperative counterpart to Never Split the Difference.
Never Split the Difference (Chris Voss & Tahl Raz, 2016) → Brings proven FBI negotiation tactics into the business world. Teaches techniques such as tactical empathy and mirroring to build trust and gather information even in confrontational situations. The tactical counterpart to Getting to Yes.
Motivational Interviewing (William R. Miller & Stephen Rollnick, 2023) → An evidence-based conversational technique for awakening the internal motivation to change, without pressure. The core principle: the other person formulates the arguments themselves.
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis (Richards J. Heuer Jr., 1999) → A CIA manual for countering cognitive biases. Provides structured analytical techniques for recognising and avoiding common errors in thinking when evaluating information.
The Intelligence Trap (David Robson, 2019) → Explains why intelligent and educated people are particularly susceptible to certain errors in thinking. Provides strategies for recognising motivated reasoning and actually putting your intelligence to work in making better decisions.
The Storytelling Animal (Jonathan Gottschall, 2013) → Argues from an evolutionary perspective: stories are not escapism but a survival mechanism. The brain is a story-making machine that simulates and understands the world.
Narrative Warfare (Ajit Maan, 2024) → A contemporary analysis of the use of narratives as weapons in modern conflicts. Examines how stories are used to shape identities, mobilise people and destabilise opponents.
Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman, 1985) → A foundational analysis of how the medium shapes the message. Explains why a culture dominated by entertaining, image-based media inevitably trivialises public discourse.
Simulacres et Simulation (Jean Baudrillard, 1981) → The key work of postmodern theory. Argues that our reality has been replaced by a flood of signs and simulations that no longer bear any relation to the original: the so-called hyperreal. Explains the sense of alienation in a media-saturated world.
Doppelganger (Naomi Klein, 2023) → A contemporary analysis of modern crises of identity and information. Examines how doppelganger identities, polarisation and conspiracy narratives emerge in the digital age and distort social reality.
Alchemy (Rory Sutherland, 2019) → Teaches how to harness the power of psycho-logic. Uses case studies from advertising to show why irrational, context-dependent, seemingly illogical solutions are often the most effective.
Kommunikologie (Vilém Flusser, 1996) → A profound philosophical theory of human communication. Analyses how technical codes and media fundamentally structure and transform our perception and our dialogue with the world.

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2. The logic of conflict

Strategy, war and competition.

Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (Frans P.B. Osinga, 2007) → The most profound academic analysis of the theories of military strategist John Boyd. Deconstructs Boyd's complex briefings and his revolutionary ideas on conflict, systems thinking and destruction/creation.
Snowmobiles and Grand Ideals: John Boyd's Vision for Thriving in Chaos (Ian T. Brown & Frans P.B. Osinga, 2025) → Osinga's analysis is the map; this work is the territory: Boyd's unpublished magnum opus. How to use it: Do not read it as a text. Study it as the score of a manoeuvre, with the aim of thinking like Boyd.
Warfighting (MCDP 1) (U.S. Marine Corps, 1997) → The foundational doctrine document of the U.S. Marine Corps. Defines the philosophy of manoeuvre warfare: speed, initiative and an attack on the opponent's cognitive capabilities.
Patterns of Strategy (Patrick Hoverstadt & Lucy Loh, 2017) → A deconstruction of strategy. Rather than plans, it focuses on the invisible physics of relationships between organisations, Structural Coupling, and provides a precise language and a framework for determining strategic direction.
Open Strategy (Christian Stadler et al., 2021) → Argues that traditional, secretive strategy development no longer works in the digital age. Shows how companies develop better, more robust strategies through transparency and the involvement of external actors.
Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business (Chet Richards, 2004) → Translates John Boyd's military strategy, particularly the OODA loop, into the business world. Teaches how to win any competition by adapting faster and better to a complex environment.
Der Fürst (Il Principe) (Niccolò Machiavelli, 1532) → The founding document of modern realist analysis of power. Separates politics from traditional morality and analyses what rulers must do to acquire and retain power. How to use it: An essential tool for diagnosing power dynamics. Its purpose is analysis, not apologetics.
The 33 Strategies of War & The 48 Laws of Power (Robert Greene) → A tactical lexicon of historical power games and conflict manoeuvres. How to use it: Read as a defensive tool for recognising manipulative tactics, not as a strategic philosophy.
The Hidden Globe (Atossa Abrahamian, 2024) → A dossier on the invisible geography of power. Maps the world of free-trade zones, tax havens and flags of convenience: a parallel infrastructure that allows capital and elites to evade national law. Shows the real theatre of operations in which global conflicts are decided.
Die Anerkennung von Grenzen (Ramy Youssef, 2020) → A sociological analysis of diplomacy as interaction between sovereign systems. A profound manual for strategic communication: trust, mistrust and even espionage become tools of coordination.
The Warrior Ethos (Steven Pressfield, 2011) → The companion work to The War of Art. Where The War of Art describes the struggle against inner resistance, this book dissects the inner constitution of the warrior: honour, shame, overcoming fear and total commitment to the mission.
Thinking Strategically (Avinash K. Dixit & Barry J. Nalebuff, 1991) → An accessible introduction to game theory. Teaches how to analyse strategic situations: anticipate others' moves, think backwards from the desired outcome.
Thinking in Bets (Annie Duke, 2018) → An operational framework for decisions under uncertainty. Teaches how to distinguish the quality of a decision from its outcome, and use probabilities to act more rationally when not all the facts are available.
Command in War (Martin Van Creveld, 1985) → A historical analysis of how military command works under extreme uncertainty. Teaches the principles of mission command and decentralised command.
Feuerkampf und Taktik (Henning Hoffmann, 2012) → A modern technical manual for infantry tactics. Provides insights into the granular, physical reality of conflict and the principles of fire and movement.
The Hedgehog and the Fox (Isaiah Berlin, 1953) → A philosophical essay on two fundamental styles of thinking: hedgehogs, who see everything through a single grand idea, and foxes, who know many different things and adapt to complexity.
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny (Robert Wright, 1999) → A macro-theory of human history. Argues through game theory that history has a direction: towards increasing complexity and cooperation, the so-called non-zero-sum games.
Ultrasociety (Peter Turchin, 2015) → Uses mathematical models, known as cliodynamics, to explain how human societies grew from small groups into vast empires, particularly through the evolutionary development of cooperation in armed conflict.
The Master Switch (Tim Wu, 2010) → Explains the historical cycle of information technologies: from an open, revolutionary phase to a closed, controlled monopoly. Provides the strategic understanding of the power dynamics of today's tech giants.

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3. The craft of intelligence

Deception, profiling and trust.

The Big Con (David W. Maurer, 1940) → A linguistic and sociological study of the classic Confidence Men of the 1930s. A timeless analysis of the psychology and methods of large-scale confidence tricks.
The Confidence Game (Maria Konnikova, 2016) → A psychological analysis of the art of the confidence trick. Explains why we are all susceptible to fraudsters and which cognitive biases and psychological needs they exploit.
Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking (Christopher Hadnagy, 2018) → The definitive technical work on social engineering. Categorises and explains the psychological tactics hackers and fraudsters use to make people divulge information. Essential for defence.
The Rape of the Mind (Joost A. M. Meerloo, 1956) → A psychological analysis of menticide, the systematic destruction of individual thought by totalitarian regimes. A historically important work for understanding psychological warfare.
Left of Bang (Patrick Van Horne & Jason A. Riley, 2014) → An operational system for proactive threat detection. Teaches how to recognise threats before they escalate by systematically observing patterns of behaviour and deviations from the baseline.
Observation: Praxisleitfaden (Klaus-Henning Glitza, 2009) → A technical manual teaching the fundamental methods and tactics of professional surveillance.
Be Exceptional (Joe Navarro & Toni Sciarra Poynter, 2021) → A former FBI agent's guide to developing exceptional observational and social skills. How to use it: A masterful collection of heuristics from operational practice. Read as a behavioural framework, not as a scientific paper.
P.E.A.C.E.: A Different Approach to Investigative Interviewing (Forensic Interview Solutions, 2005) → Defines the ethical and effective standard for modern investigative interviewing. Relies on rapport and information gathering rather than confessions and confrontational methods.
Prinzipien zu effektiven Vernehmungen (Ménde-Prinzipien) (UN, 2021) → The global human rights and scientific standard for investigative interviewing. Based on the finding that rapport-based methods are more effective and more ethical than coercion.
The Code of Trust (Robin Dreeke, 2017) → A manual for systematically building trust, based on the experience of a head of behavioural analysis at the FBI. Defines the five rules for making any relationship positive and trusting.
Sell Like a Spy (Jeremy Hurewitz, 2024) → Applies spies' techniques for building trust and gathering information to sales and business relationships. Shows how deep, resilient relationships form quickly.
Source Handler Perceptions of the Interviewing Processes Employed with Informants (Jordan Nunan et al., 2020) → A scientific study of how Source Handlers, the people who manage informants, themselves perceive the relationship and the process of gathering information.
Mitigating and Responding to Cognitive Warfare (NATO, 2023) → A contemporary NATO report on the modern threat of cognitive warfare — the manipulation of a population's perception — and strategic responses to it.
Nachrichtendienstpsychologie (Band 1–8) (various editors) → A German-language series of specialist books addressing specific psychological topics and methods in the context of intelligence services, investigations and security.

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4. The dynamics of reality

Systems, complexity and control.

Thinking in Systems (Donella H. Meadows, 2008) → Training in recognising the invisible structures behind visible behaviour. Meadows provides the vocabulary — stocks, flows, loops — to model the dynamics of any system and find the powerful, often counterintuitive leverage points. Note: A mechanistic worldview underpins this work.
The Systems Bible (John Gall, 2002) → A collection of sarcastic but profoundly true aphorisms about the behaviour of complex systems. Uses humour to teach why systems often do not work as planned.
Complexity (M. Mitchell Waldrop, 1992) → A chronicle of the emergence of complexity science at the Santa Fe Institute. Explains how complex adaptive systems operate at the edge of chaos and spontaneously generate order.
Chaos (James Gleick, 1987) → The classic that made chaos theory accessible to a wide audience. Explains how complex nonlinear systems are deterministic yet unpredictable and sensitively dependent on initial conditions: the so-called butterfly effect.
Antifragile (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2012) → Introduces the concept of antifragility: systems that not only withstand stress, volatility and randomness, but actually benefit from them and grow stronger. A guide to acting robustly in an uncertain world.
The Goal (Eliyahu M. Goldratt & Jeff Cox, 1984) → A didactic novella introducing the Theory of Constraints. Teaches the fundamental operational logic: a system's performance improves not by optimising every part but by managing its central constraint, the Bottleneck.
The Logical Thinking Process (H. William Dettmer, 2007) → A manual explaining the logical tools of the Theory of Constraints in detail. Offers step-by-step guidance for systematically analysing complex problems and developing robust solutions.
Cynefin (Dave Snowden et al., 2020) → A framework for Sensemaking that divides problems and contexts into five domains: simple, complicated, complex, chaotic, disordered. Provides the appropriate strategy for analysis and action in each domain.
Managing Complexity (and Chaos) in Times of Crisis (Dave Snowden et al., 2025) → An operational doctrine for the chaotic field. Building on the Cynefin framework, it provides the protocols for acting when all other plans fail. It teaches when draconian constraints are needed for stabilisation, and how sensor networks and repurposed structures turn a crisis into a catalyst for radical innovation.
Wholehearted (Mike Burrows, 2025) → An operational framework that makes Stafford Beer's Viable System Model usable for the 21st century. Deconstructs organisations into their fundamental, interacting spaces and provides a precise language for diagnosing their dysfunctions.
Seeing Like a State (James C. Scott, 1998) → A foundational work showing how central-state attempts to order and rationalise society systematically fail because they ignore complex, informal and local knowledge, known as Mētis.
Children of a Modest Star (Jonathan S. Blake & Nils Gilman, 2024) → A blueprint for system design at a planetary level. Argues that the architecture of nation states is not equal to global crises, and outlines a new, decentralised governance model based on the indivisibility of ecosystems.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Gregory Bateson, 1972) → A collection of essays by one of the founding figures of systems thinking. Introduces concepts such as the Double Bind and logical types, laying the foundation for an interconnected, cybernetic understanding of mind, nature and society.
How Big Things Get Done (Bent Flyvbjerg & Dan Gardner, 2023) → A data-driven analysis of why large projects systematically fail. Provides evidence-based strategies, such as “Think Slow, Act Fast”, for managing the risks of megaprojects and increasing their chances of success.
Understanding Variation (Donald J. Wheeler, 1993) → A practical introduction to statistical process control. Teaches the crucial skill of distinguishing noise from signals in data to avoid bad decisions.
Making Sense of Behavior (William T Powers, 1998) → Introduces Perceptual Control Theory. Proposes that behaviour is not a response to a stimulus, but an attempt to maintain a desired perception. An alternative, cybernetic model of the mind.
Fuzzy Thinking (Bart Kosko, 1993) → An introduction to fuzzy logic, which transcends the black-and-white thinking of classical logic. Shows how thinking in shades of grey and probabilities better represents reality and leads to wiser decisions.
Tempo (Venkatesh Rao, 2011) → An analysis of the different ways individuals and organisations perceive and use time. Shows how the right tempo is crucial to effective action.
The Symbiotic Planet (Lynn Margulis, 1998) → Challenges the traditional evolutionary view of the struggle for existence. Argues that symbiosis and cooperation — the merging of life forms — are the driving force of evolutionary innovation.
Ishmael (Daniel Quinn, 1992) → A philosophical novella questioning the invisible myths and assumptions that drive our modern civilisation. Encourages a fundamental re-examination of your own cultural operating system.
The Exploit: A Theory of Networks (Alexander Galloway & Eugene Thacker, 2007) → A critical theory of modern networks. Argues that the decentralised structure of the internet leads not to greater freedom, but to new, subtler forms of control and exploitation.
Machine and Sovereignty (Yuk Hui, 2024) → An investigation of how technology, political power and ways of thinking are inseparably connected. Argues that political orders, such as the nation state, are themselves megamachines legitimised by a specific worldview, a political epistemology.
Simulative Souveränität (Andreas Kretschmann, 2023) → An analysis of how simulations and models not only represent reality but also create new realities and power structures, particularly in the political and military fields.
What Theory Is Not, Theorizing Is (Karl E. Weick, 1995) → An essay arguing that theory is not a static product but a dynamic process of theorising: an act of disciplined conjecture and connection-making to render the world intelligible.
Exhalation (Ted Chiang, 2019) → A collection of science-fiction short stories that serve as philosophical parables. Each story explores profound concepts — free will, artificial intelligence, the nature of time — in a way that invites reflection on complex systems.

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5. The path to mastery

Development, culture and performance.

The War of Art (Steven Pressfield, 2012) → The companion work to The Warrior Ethos. Personifies creative blockage as Resistance. A manifesto for anyone who wants to overcome procrastination and consistently pursue their creative or entrepreneurial work.
The Confidence Gap (Russ Harris, 2011) → A practical introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Teaches how to stop fighting negative thoughts and feelings, accept them instead, and still act in accordance with your values.
Why Motivating People Doesn't Work … and What Does (Susan Fowler, 2014) → Argues on the basis of self-determination theory that traditional motivational methods — carrot and stick — are counterproductive. Shows that motivation rests on three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness.
Ich-Entwicklung für effektives Beraten (Thomas Binder, 2016) → Applies models of adult developmental psychology, such as Jane Loevinger's, to the practice of coaching and consultancy. Shows how the developmental stage of consultants and clients determines the interaction.
Measuring Ego Development (Le Xuan Hy & Jane Loevinger, 1996) → The definitive scientific work on the theory and measurement of ego development. Provides the theoretical foundation for understanding how the complexity of thinking and feeling develops across the lifespan.
Immunity to Change (Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey, 2009) → An operational model for overcoming persistent barriers to change. Provides the method for uncovering the hidden, contradictory assumptions that unconsciously prevent us from making the changes we consciously seek.
An Everyone Culture (Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey, 2016) → Introduces the concept of the Deliberately Developmental Organisation: companies whose entire culture is designed to foster employees' personal development as a central part of everyday work.
Mastery (Robert Greene, 2012) → Analyses the path to mastery through historical and contemporary examples. Defines the phases and mindsets needed to achieve exceptional competence in a field.
Deep Work (Cal Newport, 2016) → Argues that the ability to do deep, focused work is becoming ever rarer and more valuable in a world full of distractions. Provides strategies for cultivating this ability.
Accelerated Expertise (Robert R. Hoffman et al., 2013) → A collection of methods for drastically accelerating the process of acquiring competence. Examines how experts think and how these mental models can be extracted and learnt more quickly.
Unreasonable Hospitality (Will Guidara, 2022) → A practical guide to creating exceptional experiences. Uses a world-class restaurant to show how systematically exceeding expectations leads to outstanding performance and loyalty.
Overcome Any Obstacle to Creativity (Tony McCaffrey, 2018) → A technical deconstruction of creative blocks. Identifies Functional Fixedness as the core glitch and provides specific protocols for breaking through it and systematically generating new solutions.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being (Rick Rubin, 2023) → A philosophical meditation on the creative process. Rubin describes creativity not as a rare flash of inspiration but as a constant stance of perception and attunement: the ability to open yourself to the subtle ideas that surround us.
From Habits to Habitat Design (Navarun Batthacharya, 2025) → A radical deconstruction of the L&D and OD industry. Argues that optimising individual Habits fails, and provides the doctrine of Habitat Design: designing organisational environments in which agency and adaptation emerge. The manual for redesigning the learning architecture of systems.
Wayshaping: A Multiscale Framework for Behavior Change (Mark M. James et al., 2025) → An operational framework that reframes behaviour change through the lens of Embodied Cognition and complexity science. It understands the individual as a multiscale Self-Collective and provides the protocols for shaping your own internal behavioural architecture with confidence and autonomy.

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6. The craft of coherence

Connection, resonance and co-creative systems.

Resonanz: Eine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung (Hartmut Rosa, 2016) → Provides the sociological account of why a world optimised for efficiency and control leads to alienation, and why a vibrant, responsive relationship with the world — resonance — is the condition for a flourishing life.
The Listening Society & Nordic Ideology (Hanzi Freinacht, 2019) → The political operating system for a complex world. Freinacht outlines the model of a Listening Society, metamodernity, as a synthesis of progressive politics, developmental psychology and participatory culture. It is the blueprint for a society that embeds development and coherence.
Business Slowdown (Svenja Hofert, 2022) → An operational manual for navigating the ambivalence of the post-agile world. Rather than simple either-or recipes, Hofert provides the mental equipment not to resolve the central contradictions of modern leadership but to live with them productively: an invitation to think about leadership that holds contradictions rather than fighting them.
Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together (William Isaacs, 1999) → The definitive work on bringing collective intelligence into practice. Building on David Bohm's work, Isaacs dissects the anatomy of genuine dialogue and provides the protocols for creating a shared space for thought from a group of individuals.
Community: The Structure of Belonging (Peter Block, 2008) → A radical deconstruction of what constitutes a community. Block argues that transformation comes not through problem-solving but through changing the conversation: from one about problems to one about possibilities.
Ganz im Gegenteil (Matthias Varga von Kibéd & Insa Sparrer, 2020) → A practical manual for systemic structural constellations. Teaches a method for making the hidden dynamics in social systems — teams, families — visible and therefore open to change.
Die Große Ko-Kreation (Jascha Rohr, 2023) → A workshop for the age after transformation. Rohr provides the practical process models and the paradigm of co-creation as an operational response to the destructive tendencies of current systems: the manual for forging citizens and actors into shapers of a new, creative economy and society.
A Collective Blooming (Joe Lightfoot, 2020) → The operational countermove to the atomising logic of the entrepreneurial self. Provides a blueprint for building decentralised, resilient communities as a practical response to systemic crises. A manual for cultivating collective agency from below.
The Leadership Dojo (Richard Strozzi-Heckler, 2007) → The decisive work for bringing analysis out of the purely cognitive domain and into the physical. Shows how stance, presence and leadership capacity are anchored in the body and trained through somatic practice.
Moralische Ambition (Rutger Bregman, 2024) → A manifesto for moral ambition. Calls on us to use our abilities and resources not just for personal success but for the greatest possible positive impact on the world.

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Updated: 2026.11.