Fire service reading list
As a starting point, I’ve assembled a list of books designed to incorporate the science of hard and soft skills. From complexity science to selectorate theory, the readers of these books will see the world through the lens of military leaders, scientists, and politicians. I scored the books on three categories, relevance to the fire service, difficulty, and academic rigor. The list is not meant to be a finish line for knowledge, but rather a starting point for growth.
Note: Extreme Ownership is used to an example of what NOT to read. It’s a fun book, but lacks any academic rigor. In essence, it is a string of really cool stories with no empirical evidence.
Extreme Ownership — Willink
Team of Teams — McChrystal
Thinking Fast and Slow — Kahneman
America Burning
The Tyranny of Metrics — Muller
One Mission — Fussell
Algorithms to Live By — Christian
The Dictators Handbook — Heller
Metaphors we Live by — Lakoff
The Black Swan — Nassim Talib
Bak’s Sand Pile — Ted Lewis
A Plague on your Houses — Deborah Wallace
Critical Infrastructure in Homeland Security — Ted Lewis
