8 Picks for Your Summer Reading List

Whether it’s an investment classic, behavioral research manifesto, or tale of sporting victory, Betterment team members love to read. You’re bound to find something engaging and delightful on our summer reading list—no book report required.

“Designing for Performance: Weighing Aesthetics and Speed,” by Lara Callender Hogan

As a web designer, finding a balance between how a website looks and how it performs—for example, in functionality and speed—is often a frustrating task. This book really helped me reevaluate the way I think about performance as part of a customer’s overall web experience, and how to best integrate it into all of our processes.

— Ken Yang, Senior Design Manager

“The Signal and the Noise,” by Nate Silver

This interesting read on data and statistics helps explain some of [Betterment’s] analysis and advice.
—Sarah Michaelson, Senior Marketing Manager

“The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It,” by Scott Patterson

This is a fun account of the cultures and practices of hedge fund quantitative traders, and how influential they are to our overall financial system.
—Eli Broverman, President and Co-Founder

“The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business,” by Charles Duhigg

Be your best, automatically, through good habits.
—Dan Egan, Director of Behavioral Economics & Investing

“Underdawgs: How Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs Marched Their Way to the Brink of College Basketball’s National Championship,” by David Woods

This is a great story of building a winning team with substantially fewer resources than that of the competition.
—Joe Ziemer, Director of Communications (and Butler alum)

“Good to Great,” by Jim Collins

An awesome book that teaches about what makes a business great and stand out from the competition.
— Max Slavin, Customer Service Associate

“Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics,” by Richard Thaler

A first-person history of behavioral economics from its very beginnings. Behavioral economics is now widely accepted as a necessary lens for anyone trying to understand or predict the behavior of consumers, investors, and organizations. This book tells the story of the people and ideas as they challenged the well entrenched field of traditional economics.
— Sam Swift, Director of Analytics and Data Science

“But What if We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past, by Chuck Klosterman

In classic Klosterman humor, this book starts out like a fun summer read but ends with a unique examination of the U.S. Constitution, which certainly resonates in the current presidential cycle.
—Trevor Clark, Head of New Business, Betterment for Business