Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousness

Dennett takes a careful tour through the spectrum of minds — from the simplest goal-directed behaviour up to human self-reflective thought — and argues that consciousness is not a single kind of thing but a series of capacities stacked on top of each other. For product direction it is useful philosophical training: most product decisions are made for users whose mental models differ from the builders', and Dennett's layered taxonomy gives you a more honest frame for what "thinking about the user" actually means. The book is accessible without being thin; Dennett is one of the clearest philosophical writers of the last fifty years. Not a how-to, but the kind of book that changes the texture of your reasoning afterwards.