Lukas Püttmann    About    Research    Blog

Improved book titles

I think a lot of authors pick names that promise more than they deliver. Here are my (mostly tongue-in-cheek) “improved” titles:

    • Original title: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Steven Pinker)
    • Better title: Why the World Wars Were Incredible Outliers
    • Original title: Capital in the 21st Century (Thomas Piketty)
    • Better title: Wealth in the 20th Century
    • Original title: Zero To One (Blake Masters and Peter Thiel)
    • Better title: How to Become a Monopolist
    • Original title: Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein)
    • Better title: Regulation
    • Original title: The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It (Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig)
    • Better title: Just Increase the Minimum Equity Requirements
    • Original title: Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
    • Better title: Tehran
    • Original title: The Globalization of Inequality (François Bourguignon)
    • Better title: The Globalization of Equality
    • Original title: Across Asia on the Cheap (Maureen and Tony Wheeler)
    • Better title: How to Finance your Weed by Donating Blood in Kuwait
    • Original title: Economics Rules (Dani Rodrik)
    • Better title: Economic Models
    • Original title: Poor Economics (Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo)
    • Better title: Poor People