That's a very broad question, so I read your comments to get a feel from where you might be coming from and/or going to and where you and I might overlap:

* Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragile, things that gain from disorder http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Incer...

* Jared Diamond. The World until yesterday, what can we learn from traditional societies http://www.amazon.com/World-Until-Yesterday-Traditional-Soci...

* Frans de Waal. The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates http://www.amazon.com/Bonobo-Atheist-Search-Humanism-Primate...

* John Higgs. The KLF: Chaos, Magic... http://www.amazon.com/KLF-Chaos-Magic-Music-Money-ebook/dp/B...

* Joseph Jaworski. Synchronicity, the inner Path of leadership http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-The-Inner-Path-Leadershi...

* Piero Ferrucci. Your Inner Will, finding personal strength in critical times http://www.amazon.com/Your-Inner-Will-Personal-Strength/dp/0...

* William Irvine. A Guide to the good life, the ancient art of stoic joy http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-Stoic/dp/01953...

* Chogyam Trungpa. Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior http://www.amazon.com/Shambhala-Sacred-Warrior-Chogyam-Trung...

* Tomas Malik. Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing In Us http://www.amazon.com/Patience-God-Story-Zacchaeus-Continuin...

* Nick Winter. The Motivation Hacker http://www.amazon.com/Motivation-Hacker-Nick-Winter/dp/09892...

* Chas Emerick, Brian Carper, Christophe Grad. Clojure Programming http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Programming-Chas-Emerick/dp/14...

Fiction:

* Peter Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction

* Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon (his other hit: Snow Crash is surprisingly more history then SF now...)

Check out "The Motivation Hacker" by Nick Winter (http://www.amazon.com/The-Motivation-Hacker-Nick-Winter-eboo... - $3 ebook) for some reasons why commitment contracts might help - not everyone is that strongly self-motivated, and even strongly self-motivated people can benefit from them.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to read a comment here about the 4 Hour Body and how it changed someones life. I downloaded it and read it that night. Lost 50lbs. Never looked back.

This year the book that shaped my year has to be The Motivation Hacker by Nick Winter. Great read, teaches you how to motivate yourself to get shit done. Has worked really well for me.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Motivation-Hacker-Nick-Winter-eboo...

Nick Winter describes an interesting approach to building habits and reaching goals in his ebook, "The Motivation Hacker" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Motivation-Hacker-Nick-Winter-eboo...).

He talks about using overwhelming pre-commitment as a way to force yourself to adopt a habit or reach a goal. Try to set up an environment where your success is over-ensured. Rather than tell a few friends that you'll stop smoking, destroy all of your cigarettes, pledge hundreds of dollars on Beeminder that you won't indulge in the habit, ask people to publicly shame you if you relapse, find and use the absolute best treatments and programs in the world for quitting, etc. Attack the habit with overwhelming force, much more than is probably necessary to overcome it. Doing so makes it easier to win.

Oh, thank you, sir! Didn't expect to get a reply from the cofounder of Beeminder.

I don't think it's possible for to fully explain how big of a difference Beeminder has made in my life. I was much like some of the folks in this thread (as in, starting projects but not finishing them; struggling to get stuff done), but since implementing Beeminder in my life, my productivity has gone through the roof. It's also given me a lot of self confidence in my abilities, which is pushing me to take on more ambitious projects and ambitious tasks.

The focus on averages is definitely what I like most about Beeminder.

On more than one occasion, I've fallen asleep without writing my daily 750 words, only to wake up 20 minutes later in a cold sweat, rushing to my laptop so that I can quickly write my words so I can get back to bed.

With Beeminder, that's not a problem. I usually have reserves built up, or, alternatively, I can simply put in some extra time the next day.

Case in point, last Friday, I went to the doctors for a routine asthma checkup and they gave me a flu shot that completely knocked me out. It effectively ruined my plans for the day. Instead of worrying, I went home, rested, and put in some extra time on Saturday instead. It's simply not possible to do this with the Seinfeld method.

One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post is that I heard about Beeminder through Nick Winter's book 'The Motivation Hacker'. http://www.amazon.com/The-Motivation-Hacker-Nick-Winter-eboo...

It's cheap, it's a quick read, and it's got some great information inside. I made some notes while I was reading the book - I've uploaded them here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9f6xofet38ka1x2/Nick%20Winter%20-%...

If anyone's on the fence about buying it, it's definitely worth picking up, in my opinion. There's a lot of great stuff in there that I didn't cover in the notes.

Cheers again, man.

Read The Motivation Hacker by Nick Winter. $2.99. I will personally guarantee you'll get a ton of value out of it. If you don't, I'll paypal you the cost of the book, just email me.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Motivation-Hacker-ebook/dp/B00C8N4...