Joseph Ratliff

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari

This book helped me frame my thinking about attention in the modern world of ubiquitous screens, internet, and intelligence. I’m particularly concerned by some research it discusses, which found that increasing the amount of information exposure alone is enough to damage people's attention spans. Information overabundance thus poses a serious problem for pro-human design.

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

It might seem strange to have a book about the restaurant industry here, but I find the hospitality industry to be an excellent mental model for experience design. While so much UX work is focused on extracting value from users via conversions, retention, and other metrics, Unreasonable Hospitality reminds me that the people using digital products are our guests. Treating them with more hospitality than expected enriches both their experience and ours.

Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari

This book delves into the role of information technologies in history, leading up to the current popularization of artificial intelligence. The idea of collective myths as "technologies" encourages imagining what other seemingly mundane aspects of life were, in fact, pivotal moments in humanity's development — and what new subtle technologies we might design to solve this generation's challenges.