A good place to start is to read the only four books on the list: * Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People * Edward Tufte: The Visual Display

A good place to start is to read the only four books on the list: * Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People * Edward Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information * Paul Graham: Hackers and Painters * Jessica Livingston: Founders at Work Those had a pretty big impact on me. I'd already read 3 of the 4 when I came across the list and I read Carnegie's book just because it was on there, after having previously written it off by judging it from the huckster-sounding title. I'm glad I did end up giving it a chance - it should be a required textbook in every high school and college.