Dobelli studied philosophy and business administration at the University of St. Gallen where he graduated with a doctorate on the "Deconstruction of Economic Discourse" in 1995.

[2] From 2001 to 2009, Dobelli hosted a weekly television show "Seitenweise Wirtschaft" for the Swiss newspaper and media company, NZZ.

[7] Dobelli, who sees himself as a modern Stoic,[8] founded World.minds in 2008 to create a bridge between the science, business and cultural communities.

Dobelli's increasing dissatisfaction with the world of pure business was already reflected in his 2003 novel titled "35 - A Midlife Story".

[18] In 2003, Diogenes Verlag (Switzerland) published his first novel, Fünfunddreissig ("Thirty-five"), followed by Und was machen Sie beruflich?

Dobelli is the author of The Art of Thinking Clearly (Die Kunst des klaren Denkens), originally published by Carl Hanser Verlag in 2011, which was an instant success, entering Germany's Der Spiegel Bestseller list as number 1.

[20] It was translated into English in 2013 by Nicky Griffin and hit the top ten bestseller lists in the U.K,[21][22] South Korea, India,[23] Ireland,[24] Hong Kong and Singapore.

[25] In 2019 former Chief of Staff of the US Airforce Ronald Fogleman added the book to the top CSAF Required reading program.

[26] Dobelli presented his new book, "The Art of the Good Life", at a London School of Economics (LSE) Business Review event in October 2017.