BEST Matthew Syed Books & Quotes of All Time (September 2022)

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Contents

1. Who Is Matthew Syed?

2. The Best Matthew Syed Books of All Time

3. More Books Like Matthew Syed's Books

4. Best Matthew Syed Quotes

5. Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Who Is Matthew Syed?

Matthew Syed (2 November 1970) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and former table tennis player. He competed as an English table tennis international, and was the English number one for many years. He was three times the men's singles champion at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships (in 1997, 2000 and 2001), and also competed for Great Britain in two Olympic Games, at Barcelona in 1992 and at Sydney in 2000.

Learn more about Matthew Syed

The Best Matthew Syed Books of All Time

Why these best Matthew Syed books and not others? To stay objective, I rank all my book recommendations by a combination of what’s most loved (Goodreads rating), what’s most popular (Goodreads review count) and what’s proven timlessly relevant (first publication date).

This isn’t a whimsical list. It’s a data-driven, crowdsourced collection of the best Matthew Syed books ever published as decided by book lovers like you.

And if you think something's missing? I LOVE book recommendations so if there are any other books by Matthew Syed that you think deserve mentioning, email me and I’ll be sure to include them in the next round of updates.

Until then, here are the best Matthew Syed books of all time...

Best Matthew Syed Books: Black Box Thinking

1. Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed (FREE Summary)

Why Some People Never Learn from Their Mistakes - But Some Do

A fascinating account of how cognitive biases and fixed mindsets cause individuals and institutions to fail to learn from their mistakes (and what to do about it) - by athlete and author, Matthew Syed.

Published 2015 // 320 pages // Rated 4.3 over 8,900 reviews on Goodreads

2. Bounce - Matthew Syed (FREE Summary)

Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success

A thoughtful investigation into the primacy of practice and mindset over talent when learning and mastering new skills - by top-ranked table tennis champion and journalist, Matthew Syed.

Published 2010 // 320 pages // Rated 4.1 over 7,400 reviews on Goodreads

3. Rebel Ideas - Matthew Syed

The Power of Diverse Thinking

Published 2019 // 320 pages // Rated 4.3 over 2,900 reviews on Goodreads

Best Matthew Syed Books: You Are Awesome

4. You Are Awesome - Matthew Syed

Find Your Confidence and Dare to be Brilliant at (Almost) Anything

Published 2018 // 160 pages // Rated 4.2 over 900 reviews on Goodreads

See all Matthew Syed's books on Amazon
Visit Matthew Syed's Goodreads profile

More Books Like Matthew Syed's Books

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Best Matthew Syed Quotes

Here are some of the best Matthew Syed of all time...

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself."

- Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

"We are often so worried about failure that we create vague goals, so that nobody can point the finger when we don’t achieve them. We come up with face-saving excuses, even before we have attempted anything."

- Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

"The only way to be sure is to go out and test your ideas and programmes, and to realise that you will often be wrong. But that is not a bad thing. It leads to progress."

- Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

"It is partly because we are so willing to blame others for their mistakes that we are so keen to conceal our own."

- Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

"If we drop out when we hit problems, progress is scuppered, no matter how talented we are. If we interpret difficulties as indictments of who we are, rather than as pathways to progress, we will run a mile from failure."

- Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

"Marginal gains is not about making small changes and hoping they fly. Rather, it is about breaking down a big problem into small parts in order to rigorously establish what works and what doesn’t. Ultimately the approach emerges from a basic property of empirical evidence: to find out if something is working, you must isolate its effect. Controlled experimentation is inherently “marginal” in character."

- Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

"True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it."

- Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

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Arthur Worsley
I founded TAoL to discover and share the best wisdom on how to live long and prosper. Before that I studied Psychology, Philosophy & Physiology at Oxford and consulted at McKinsey. Still curious? Learn more or take my FREE productivity quiz.