Rolf Dobelli (2025)
Founder, WORLD.MINDS
Author, The Not To Do List: The Surprisingly Simple Art of Success
This episode will air on Thursday, July 3 at 7:00 p.m. ET
If you want to have business relationships, you have to be reliable. You don't have to be a genius, but you have to be reliable.
Summary
Bestselling author and philosopher Rolf Dobelli joins Alan again to share his unique approach to leadership, decision-making, and personal development. In their first conversation, they explored Rolf’s journey to author, public thinker and entrepreneur. In this episode, they go deeper into his philosophy of leadership, how to make better decisions in a chaotic world, and the discipline required to sustain this. Drawing from his book The Not To Do List, Dobelli argues that avoiding negative behaviors like unreliability or the victim mentality is more powerful than simply chasing goals. He explores how reducing media consumption sharpens clarity, why great relationships matter, and how systematic thinking can guide complex decisions. The conversation also dives into AI’s implications for human connection, the role of philosophy in leadership training, and why building your circle of competence leads to a more meaningful life.
Mentions & Resources in this Episode
The Not To Do List (upcoming) - by Rolf Dobelli
The Art of the Good Life - by Rolf Dobelli
The Art of Thinking Clearly - by Rolf Dobelli
Stop Reading the News - by Rolf Dobelli
Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger - by Janet Lowe
Guest Bio
Rolf Dobelli (born in 1966) received his MBA and PhD in philosophy from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is a serial entrepreneur, thinker and writer. He co-founded getAbstract. He also founded WORLD.MINDS, a community of some of the world’s most distinguished thinkers, scientists, artists and entrepreneurs, including Nobel prize winner Joe Stiglitz, Matt Ridley (The Rational Optimist), Henry Kissinger, historian Niall Ferguson, philosopher Daniel Dennett, Henry Kravis, General David Petraeus and many others. He regularly writes for Europe’s most esteemed newspapers, including Germany’s Die Zeit, FAZ („Germany’s New York Times“), NZZ, Die WELT, and Switzerland’s Sonntagszeitung. From 2003 until 2008, Dobelli hosted a weekly television show about books and business topics on Bloomberg Television Germany. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, POLICITO, Financial Times, Harvard Management Update and many other U.S. and European business publications.
Dobelli is best known as the author of The Art of Thinking Clearly, an instant success which spent 30 weeks in the number one spot on Germany’s Der Spiegel bestseller list and was the most popular non-fiction book for the entire 2012. He is also known for his book The Art of the Good Life, which was the most sold non-fiction book in Japan by a non-Japanese author in 2019. His books have reached the bestseller lists in Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Ireland, India, Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Dobelli is member of edge.org, The Royal Society of Arts and PEN and serves on the boards of The Stern Stewart Institute and of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce. Besides the non-fiction works, he has written seven novels published by Diogenes. Critics and readers praise Dobelli as “a new voice in German fiction” and one of the few fiction writers who thoroughly understands the business world, from both an academic and a practical point of view. Rolf Dobelli does not consume news, with the exception of the magazines The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, Science and Nature — hence his book Stop Reading the News.
Episode Transcript
Transcript will be uploaded upon the episode’s premiere.