Scientists and researchers
What scientists recommend, in their own words, each with a link to where they said it.
- 742 thingsCosma Rohilla ShaliziStatistics professor at Carnegie Mellon University who writes the long-running blog Three-Toed Sloth and the Bactra Review of books.A History of Biology, Forty Signs of Rain, The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World, The Doxies Penalty, Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy and 736 more
- 36 thingsBret VictorInterface designer and researcher known for Inventing on Principle and Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction; founder of Dynamicland.The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, A History of Graphic Design, The Elements of Graphing Data, Logic & Design in Art, Science, & Mathematics, Understanding Comics and 31 more
- 34 thingsGrant SandersonMathematician and creator of the 3Blue1Brown YouTube channel and the Manim animation library.An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Chaos: Making a New Science, The Art of Problem Solving, Itempool, Wacom tablet and 29 more
- 33 thingsGwernPseudonymous independent researcher and essayist writing on gwern.net about statistics, psychology, genetics and AI.Blade Runner 2049, Redline, Made in Abyss, Mushishi Zoku Shou, Ringing Bell and 28 more
- 28 thingsRazib KhanGeneticist and writer on human population genetics, history and evolution; author of the Unsupervised Learning newsletter.Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter, From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Intelligence: All That Matters and 23 more
- 23 thingsHadley WickhamStatistician and software developer; chief scientist at RStudio/Posit and creator of the tidyverse of R packages.MacBook Pro Retina, Weber Gold grill, KitchenAid mixer, Timbuktu messenger bag, Wordament and 17 more
- 19 thingsMatt MightComputer science professor and author of The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D.Kensington remote, OmniGraphSketcher, GraphViz, Omnigraffle, Firebug and 13 more
- 17 thingsScott AlexanderPsychiatrist and blogger, author of Slate Star Codex and its successor Astral Codex Ten.The Secret of Our Success, Seeing Like a State, The Steerswoman, Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha and 11 more
- 16 thingsBennett FoddyGame developer and moral philosopher; made QWOP, GIRP and Getting Over It, and teaches at the NYU Game Center.iPhone 4S, Nikon D90, Flixel, Cocos2D, Chrome and 6 more
- 16 thingsKieran HealySociologist at Duke University who writes about markets and exchange, and about plain-text tools for social science.Dropbox, 1Password, Freedom, Anti-Social, Keynote and 10 more
- 15 thingsCal NewportComputer science professor at Georgetown and author of Deep Work, Digital Minimalism and Slow Productivity; writes at calnewport.com.Of Mice and Men, The World-Ending Fire, Relic, The Loop, Cathedral of the Wild and 10 more
- 15 thingsDaniel LemireComputer science professor who writes about software performance and indexing; blogs weekly at lemire.me.Theft of Fire, How Innovation Works, iPad 4, Prezi, FormulatePro and 10 more
- 14 thingsAlexey GuzeyWriter and researcher; founder of New Science, known for essays on science funding, sleep research and productivity at guzey.com.From Eros to Gaia, The Things They Carried, The Double Helix, Molly, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big and 9 more
- 13 thingsEthan MollickProfessor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who studies AI and innovation; writes the One Useful Thing newsletter.Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Veo 3, DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Gemini and 8 more
- 13 thingsRob HendersonPsychologist and writer; author of the memoir Troubled and of a newsletter on human nature, psychology and social class.A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of story to motivate and persuade, Bringing Up Baby: An Evolutionary View of Pediatrics, Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up, Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies, Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers and 8 more
- 12 thingsAdam GrantOrganizational psychologist and professor at the Wharton School; author of Give and Take, Originals, Think Again and Hidden Potential, and host of the Re:Thinking podcast.Poisonous People, The Balancing Act, Flourish, Mattering, The Story of Stories and 7 more
- 12 thingsAnil SethProfessor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and author of Being You.The Ego Tunnel, Klara and the Sun: A Novel, Never Let Me Go, Other Minds, The Feeling of Life Itself and 7 more
- 12 thingsKyle KingsburyDistributed-systems safety researcher; runs the Jepsen consistency-testing project and wrote the Riemann monitoring system.Logitech G5, UP3216Q, Nikon D700, fish shell, D7000 and 7 more
- 12 thingsPhilip GuoCognitive science professor at UC San Diego and creator of Python Tutor, the online code visualizer.Dell P4317Q, PDF Expert, iTerm2, Camtasia, Tempur-Pedic TP9000 Mesh Task Chair and 7 more
- 11 thingsClay ShirkyWriter and teacher at NYU; author of Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus, on the social and economic effects of the internet.Kindle Paperwhite, Sublime, Chrome, LG flip phone, BBEdit and 4 more
- 11 thingsdanah boydResearcher of social media, privacy and youth culture; founder of Data & Society and author of It’s Complicated.Sidekick, Scrivener, Katamari Damacy, VoodooPad, Adium and 5 more
- 11 thingsJohn MacFarlanePhilosophy professor at UC Berkeley and creator of the pandoc document converter and the gitit wiki.mutt, Evil-mode, Arq, Mendeley, Vim and 6 more
- 11 thingsPaul BloomProfessor of psychology at the University of Toronto and emeritus professor at Yale; author of books on morality, pleasure and empathy, and writer of the Small Potatoes newsletter.The Sense of Style, Clear and Simple as the Truth, The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't, The Biggest Bluff, Transformative Experience and 6 more
- 11 thingsSabine HossenfelderTheoretical physicist and science writer; runs the Backreaction blog and a physics YouTube channel.Cracking the Particle Code of the Universe, The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter, The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics, Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits, The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe and 6 more
- 10 thingsAda PalmerHistorian of the Renaissance at the University of Chicago and science-fiction novelist, author of Terra Ignota and Inventing the RenaissanceClerical Households in Late Medieval Italy, The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Renaissance, Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy, The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe, The Birth of the Modern Mind: The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th Centuries and 5 more
- 10 thingsJohn BaezMathematical physicist at UC Riverside; writes the Azimuth blog on mathematics, physics and environmental issues.Control System Design, The Higher Infinite, emacs, IrfanView, Audacity and 5 more
- 9 thingsNeha NarulaDirector of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative; computer scientist working on distributed systems and digital currency.MacBook Air, Kinesis Advantage, Evernote, Evernote Web Clipper, RescueTime and 4 more
- 9 thingsPeter WoitMathematician and senior lecturer at Columbia University; author of Not Even Wrong and the blog of the same name.The Conceptual Framework of Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe, Lectures of Sidney Coleman on Quantum Field Theory, The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics, Théorème Vivant and 3 more
- 9 thingsSaloni DattaniResearcher and science writer; co-founder and editor at Works in Progress, formerly Our World in Data, and author of the Scientific Discovery newsletter.Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech, A History of Immunology, The Butchering Art, The Code Breaker, Datawrapper and 4 more
- 9 thingsSamuel ArbesmanComplexity scientist and writer, author of The Half-Life of Facts and Overcomplicated; scientist in residence at Lux Capital.gephi, Mendeley, TeXShop, YoruFukurou, Scrivener and 4 more
- 9 thingsYihui XieStatistician and R developer, author of the knitr, bookdown and blogdown packages.MathJax, Jekyll, RStudio, R, LyX and 4 more
- 8 thingsAlex TelfordWrites about the biotech industry, drug development and forecastingNature: an economic history, Why Greatness Cannot be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, The Innovator's Dilemma, Good Enough: The Tolerance for Mediocrity in Nature and Society, Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind and 3 more
- 8 thingsDaniel W. DreznerPolitical scientist writing Drezner's World on international relations, American politics and the marketplace of ideas; author of The Ideas Industry.The Mercy of Gods, How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy, The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders, The Secret History, The Goldfinch and 3 more
- 8 thingsDon NormanCognitive scientist and designer; author of The Design of Everyday Things; co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group; former VP at Apple.How Big Things Get Done, Livable Proximity: Ideas for the City That Cares, Sustainable Innovation: Thinking as Behavioral Scientists, Acting as Designers, Swivel to Sustainability: A Guidebook to Full Systems Business Transformation, Make the World a Better Place: Design with Passion, Purpose, and Values and 3 more
- 8 thingsErik HoelNeuroscientist and novelist writing on consciousness, AI and culture in his newsletter The Intrinsic Perspective.The Nutcracker, The Decline of Deviance, The Sistine Chapel, Watership Down, Pompeii and 3 more
- 7 thingsHenry FarrellProfessor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS, co-author of Underground Empire, and author of the Programmable Mutter newsletter.The Singer of Tales, Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, The Concept of Representation, Aegypt, The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource and 2 more
- 7 thingsRoberto IerusalimschyAssociate professor at PUC-Rio and the lead architect of the Lua programming language.Microsoft Internet Keyboard, ASUS ZenBook UX305, Vim, mutt, Ubuntu and 2 more
- 6 thingsAwais AftabPsychiatrist and writer; author of the newsletter Psychiatry at the Margins and editor of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry.Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance, Roll Back the World: A Sister’s Memoir, Psychedelic Alpha, Susan T. Mahler, MD, The Infinitesimal and 1 more
- 6 thingsEric TopolCardiologist and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute; writes Ground Truths on biomedical researchGranted, Derek Thompson, One Useful Thing, Dr Paddy Barrett, Noahpinion and 1 more
- 6 thingsFrancis FukuyamaAmerican political scientist at Stanford; author of The End of History and the Last Man and The Origins of Political Order.The Old Regime and the Revolution, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition and 1 more
- 6 thingsGavin FrancisGP and writer; author of Adventures in Human Being, Shapeshifters and Intensive Care.A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor, Intoxicated By My Illness, That the Best Physician is Also a Philosopher, Hippocratic Writings, Frissure and 1 more
- 6 thingsJacob TrefethenRuns global health R&D at Open Philanthropy; writes about the science and medicine that could exist and does notHow to be a wise optimist about science and technology?, The Practical Guide to Biotech Partnerships, blog maximalism, Sampling the 2024 blogosphere: Part 1, Bio(un)ethical and 1 more
- 6 thingsJonathan HaidtAmerican social psychologist at NYU Stern; author of The Happiness Hypothesis, The Righteous Mind and The Anxious Generation.Dhammapada, Stumbling on Happiness, Dancing in the Streets, Ambition, The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less and 1 more
- 6 thingsJoseph HenrichProfessor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and author of The Secret of Our Success and The WEIRDest People in the World.Guns, Germs, and Steel, The Selfish Gene, Culture and the Evolutionary Process, Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire and 1 more
- 6 thingsMarcus du SautoyCharles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.The Glass Bead Game, Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, A Mathematician's Apology, A Disappearing Number, One, Two, Three...Infinity and 1 more
- 6 thingsMichael NielsenResearch Fellow at the Astera Institute, writes on existential risk, metascience and tools for thoughtHow God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others, How Buildings Learn, Dominion, The Transparent Society, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity and 1 more
- 6 thingsPeter SingerAustralian moral philosopher, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton and author of Animal Liberation and The Life You Can Save.The Methods of Ethics, Phenomenology of Spirit, The Communist Manifesto, On Liberty, The Descent of Man and 1 more
- 6 thingsScott AaronsonTheoretical computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin working on quantum computing; author of the blog Shtetl-Optimized.Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintelligence, Rationality, and the Race to Save the World, Inadequate Equilibria, 2040, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
- 6 thingsSean CarrollTheoretical physicist and philosopher at Johns Hopkins and the Santa Fe Institute; blogs at Preposterous Universe and hosts the Mindscape podcast.Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Wasp Factory, Love in a Dead Language, The Book of Revelation, The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics and 1 more
- 6 thingsStephen WolframFounder and CEO of Wolfram Research, creator of Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha, and author of A New Kind of Science.Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, Firefox, MacBook Pro, Lenovo ThinkPad X301 and 1 more
- 5 thingsAdam MastroianniExperimental psychologist and writer of the blog Experimental History, on psychology, science reform and creativity.How to Survive Boiling Water, Magical Constitutionalism, Remembering Indonesia from My Grandpa, Chatting Alone, Pangram
- 5 thingsAndrew GelmanProfessor of Statistics and Political Science at Columbia University and author of Bayesian Data Analysis.How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk, The Honest Rainmaker, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, How Animals Work
- 5 thingsArielle SchwartzClinical psychologist in Boulder, Colorado, founder of the Center for Resilience Informed Therapy, and author of books on complex PTSD, EMDR and therapeutic yoga.Innovations in Psychotherapy Conference, Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery: A Clinical Summit for Mind-Body Healing, The Complex PTSD Treatment Manual, Vagus Nerve and Polyvagal Practices retreat, Cancun, Unlocking the Past: A Yogic Perspective on Healing Intergenerational Trauma
- 5 thingsAswath DamodaranProfessor of finance at NYU Stern School of Business, known for his work on valuation; writes the Musings on Markets blog.Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, What Investors Really Want, Chaos, Investment Philosophies, Applied Corporate Finance
- 5 thingsBrian KernighanComputer scientist teaching at Princeton; spent three decades at Bell Labs in the group that produced Unix, C and C++, and co-authored The C Programming Language.Alpine, Sam, Awk, Python, iMac
- 5 thingsDavid SpiegelhalterEmeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Cambridge and author of The Art of Statistics.Do You Feel Lucky?, Damned Lies and Statistics, The Drunkard's Walk, Dicing with Death, How Risky Is It, Really?
- 5 thingsJonathan GagnéAstrophysicist and coffee researcher; author of The Physics of Filter Coffee and The Physics of Espresso, and writer of the Coffee ad Astra blog.Pulsar dripper, Lvl-10 dripper, James Hoffmann's AeroPress videos, Pulsar Mini, AeroPress
- 5 thingsKit YatesMathematical biologist at the University of Bath and author of The Maths of Life and Death.Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors, Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus, The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data, Do Dice Play God?: The Mathematics of Uncertainty, The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation in the Age of AI
- 5 thingsKwame Anthony AppiahBritish-Ghanaian philosopher and cultural theorist, Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU and author of The Honor Code and Cosmopolitanism.The Duel and Other Stories, In the Name of Honor, Honor, Moral Capital, The Economy of Esteem
- 5 thingsMary BeardBritish classicist, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and author of SPQR and Pompeii.The Annals, The Greeks and the Irrational, The Last Days of Pompeii, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo
- 5 thingsMatthew GreenCryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins UniversityIntroduction to Modern Cryptography, Foundations of Cryptography, Modern Cryptography, Security Engineering, The Handbook of Applied Cryptography
- 5 thingsTim SpectorProfessor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, co-founder of the nutrition company ZOE, and author of The Diet Myth and Spoon-Fed.Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public, Pure, White, and Deadly: How Sugar Is Killing Us and What We Can Do to Stop It, The Fast Diet, The F-Plan Diet: Lose Weight Fast and Live Longer, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted
- 5 thingsTimothy SnyderAmerican historian of Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust; author of Bloodlands and On Tyranny.Homage to Catalonia, The Captive Mind, The Church and the Left, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Power of the Powerless
- 4 thingsAnton HowesHistorian of invention; writes Age of InventionThe Works in Progress Newsletter, Construction Physics, What's New Under the Sun, Economic Forces
- 4 thingsPeter FrankopanBritish historian, Professor of Global History at Oxford and author of The Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed.The Cherry Orchard, The Alexiad, De Administrando Imperio, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North
- 4 thingsTerry RealPsychotherapist, founder of the Relational Life Institute, and author of books on male depression and couples therapy.Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, The New Rules of Marriage: What You Need to Know to Make Love Work, How Can I Get Through to You?: Reconnecting Men and Women, I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression
- 3 thingsAlice EvansSocial scientist writing The Great Gender DivergenceThe Poor Rich World, The Argument, Merchants of Virtue
- 3 thingsBret DevereauxAncient and military historian; writes A Collection of Unmitigated PedantryThe Iliad of Homer, Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity, The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States
- 3 thingsGabor MatéPhysician and author on addiction, trauma and childhood development; wrote In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and The Myth of Normal.Heal Squad, Compassionate Inquiry Online Training, Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health
- 3 thingsJanna LevinAstrophysicist at Barnard College; wrote Black Hole Blues and How the Universe Got Its Spots, and directs sciences at Pioneer Works.Mars trilogy, The Ministry for the Future, New York 2140
- 3 thingsJonathan ShedlerClinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF, creator of the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure and author of research on the efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy.The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy, The illusion of mental health, Where is the evidence for “evidence-based” therapy?
- 3 thingsPeter AttiaPhysician focused on longevity; wrote Outlive and hosts The DriveThe Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression, Howard Marks Memos
- 3 thingsWendy BeharyPsychotherapist specializing in narcissism and high-conflict couples, founder and director of The Cognitive Therapy Center of New Jersey and the Schema Therapy Institutes of NJ-NYC and DC.Disarming the Narcissist, Schema Therapy Online Community, Schema Therapy Training Institute video series
- 2 thingsEdward TufteStatistician and professor emeritus at Yale; author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.Babar books, Say It With Figures
- 2 thingsJulie MenannoLicensed marriage and family therapist behind The Secure Relationship, author of Secure Love and host of the Secure Love podcast.Secure Love, Attachment Style Quiz
- 2 thingsNassim Nicholas TalebFormer option trader and risk analyst, now a distinguished professor at NYU; author of the Incerto essay series.A History of God, Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs
- 2 thingsScott D. MillerPsychologist and founder of the International Center for Clinical Excellence; developer of Feedback Informed Treatment and an early researcher on deliberate practice in therapy.Outcome Rating Scale (ORS), Session Rating Scale (SRS)
- 1 thingElliot HershbergGenomics researcher and investor; writes The Century of Biology on where biotechnology is actually going.Decoding Bio
- 1 thingGary MarcusCognitive scientist and long-standing critic of deep learning's claims; writes Marcus on AI and wrote Rebooting AI.The Marketoonist
- 1 thingHannah RitchieData scientist and deputy editor of Our World in Data; writes the Sustainability by Numbers newsletter and the book Clearing the Air.Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food—and Our Future
- 1 thingJosé Luis RicónWrites Nintil, long researched essays on metascience, biology and economicsTalent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World
- 1 thingLyman StoneDemographer; writes on fertility, marriage and population, and directs the Pro-Family Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies.Silk
- 1 thingMartin KleppmannResearcher on distributed systems and local-first software at the University of Cambridge; wrote Designing Data-Intensive Applications.The Future of Fusion Energy
- 1 thingStuart RitchiePsychologist and science writer; wrote Science Fictions on how research goes wrongThe Studies Show
- 1 thingYoshua BengioDeep-learning researcher and Turing Award laureate; founder of the Mila institute.Preliminary Report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI