My 42 Favorite Books

Peres, Moritz, Gleick, Magee, Vinge, Soni, Mallaby: 42 books from the authors who changed how I think

Jun 02, 2025

If you come across any interesting book that you didn't know of, please thank me by commenting about your favorite book that is not on this list.

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World (David Deutsch)
My favorite book by far. It’s also Naval’s and Sam Altman's favorite book. Most of my blog posts touch on some of Deutsch’s ideas. Some favorites include Disobedience is Fundamental to Intelligence and Critical Rationalism for Founders and Managers.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel)
I reference Thiel's work on my blog in my post about startup ideas, LLMs not being creative, Transaction Cost, and others.
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
I found out about this book because it was one of the most recommended books in Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss (where he interviews successful people and asks them the same questions, including what books influenced them the most). I was more of a centrist or even left-leaning before reading this. Taught me a lot about ambition and obsession.
Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
Read this about 5 times. Notes (German).
Philosophy and the Real World: An Introduction to Karl Popper (Brian Magee)
Great overview of Karl Popper’s work. To be honest, I found it hard to get through some of Popper’s books because of his academic writing style, but Magee’s book was a deeply enjoyable read.
Peak Human: What We Can Learn From History’s Greatest Civilizations (Johan Norberg)
16.5 mins into the audiobook Norberg quotes David Deutsch (on cultural relativism). Great read to understand why civilizations thrive and decline. Explains: Ancient Athens, The Roman Empire, The Abbasid Caliphate, Song Dynasty China, Renaissance Italy, The Dutch Republic, and The Anglosphere.
No Room for Small Dreams: Courage, Imagination and the Making of Modern Israel (Shimon Peres)
Great portrait of Israeli values and perseverance. Extremely moving. Read this after reading:
Startup Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle (Dan Senor and Saul Singer)
An incredible success story of capitalism and Western values. Israel, at the time of this writing, is only 77 years old and is still the 25th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP. Notes.
How Innovation Works: Serendipity, Energy and the Saving of Time (Matt Ridley)
Made me a lot more excited about private sector innovation/research. Also, check out Naval’s interviews with Ridley: Part 1, Part 2.
The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley (Jimmy Soni)
Incredible story of pivots and a showcase of an effective company culture.
The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--and Its Implications (David Deutsch)
Made me realize that human understanding is unbounded (and not primarily based on facts). Notes.
Several Short Sentences About Writing (Verlyn Klinkenborg)
Best book on good writing. Aligns well with my intuition about the value of simplicity.
Elon Musk (Walter Isaacson)
Great refresher from reading the Ashlee Vance bio about 10 years ago. Elon’s focus on simplifying processes is incredible.
The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future (Sebastian Mallaby)
Best book on the history of Venture Capital. I also highly recommend reading Tom Perkins’ biography, Valley Boy, and Michael Moritz’s portrait of Don Valentine (Founder of Sequoia).
The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World (Brad Stone)
Made me appreciate network effects (and hacking them) a lot more.
The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant (Tae Kim)
Companies constantly need to reinvent themselves.
Rainbows End (Vernor Vinge)
My favorite hard sci-fi book. Notes. If you like hard sci-fi too, I wrote a blog titled The 7 Best Optimistic Hard Sci-Fi Short Stories.
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management (Will Larson)
Best book on eng management. Great read for anyone leading a team of (software) engineers.
Scientific Freedom (Donald W. Braben)
Helped me realize the power of curiosity and open-ended science. Quoted this in my blog post Open-endedness in Society.
Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy (Thomas Sowell)
Must-read for anyone who wants to deeply understand how capitalism works. Notes.
How to Heal Your Metabolism: Stop blaming aging for your slowing metabolism (Kate Deering)
Best book about nutrition and health. I wrote a corresponding blog post titled The Bioenergetic Explanation of Health.
Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (Michael Matthews)
This was one of the first 2 books that showed up when I searched strength training on Audible. It includes several great workout plans and the theory behind them. Dispels the popular myth that you can't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood (James Gleick)
Great introduction to computing and information theory.
The Parasitic Mind (Gad Saad)
Read this in Feb 2021. First time reading about virtue signaling. Elon Musk is a big Gad Saad fan, too. I also wrote about virtue signaling in Criticism and The Ascent of Man.
The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do (Erik J. Larson)
I interviewed Erik here. This is the only book I’ve ever seen that Peter Thiel endorsed with a blurb.
Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life (Albert-László Barabási)
Helped me develop an appreciation for graph theory and network science. Made me realize networks of knowledge are modular, scale-free networks. Notes.
Who: The A Method for Hiring (Geoff Smart)
Best book on hiring. Notes. I also recommend this guide by the Gem.com founder.
Influence: Science and Practice (Robert Cialdini)
Becoming Steve Jobs (Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli)
I prefer this version over the Isaacson one.
Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science (Stuart Ritchie)
Explained how flawed most of science is.
Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire — Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do (Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa)
Fascinating evolutionary biology and psychology theories.
Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies (Geoffrey Brian West)
Interesting analogies between cities, animals, and other organisms. Notes.
Living With Complexity (Donald A. Norman)
Phenomenal book on simplicity and design.
Accelerando (Charles Stross)
Actually stopped reading this about 70% into the book as it felt too unrealistic. But the first part is very enthralling.
Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang)
Very thought-provoking.
Complexity: A Guided Tour (Melanie Mitchell)
Another great book on complexity theory. Explains how to measure complexity. Notes.
Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World (Marco Iansiti)
Good explanation about data vs. network effects. Written pre-GPT3 but still very relevant.
The Art of Thinking Clearly (Rolf Dobelli)
First self-development, non-fiction book I read when I was ~15. Taught me, among others, that reading the news is a waste of time.
Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards (Yu-kai Chou)
Best book on gamification, a very underappreciated area of ux design.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (Matt Ridley)
The Science of Science (Albert-László Barabási, Dashun Wang)
Great book for understanding science as an industry. Notes.
Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking (D. Q. McInerny)
Logic is underrated.

If you've read this far, I would like to again ask you: Is there any book that should be part of this list/I should prioritize? Please comment the name of the book below.

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