Bookshelf

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

1855

by John Bartlett, Geoffrey O'Brien

What We Owe the Future

2022

by William MacAskill

Mastery

by Robert Greene

On Writing Well

1976

by William Zinsser

Influence

1984

by Robert Cialdini

The Art of Thinking Clearly

by Rolf Dobelli

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

2014

by Ben Horowitz

Sapiens

by Yuval Noah Harari

Ultralearning

2019

by Scott Young

Tested Advertising Methods

1932

by John Caples

How to Lie with Statistics

1954

by Darrell Huff

Benjamin Franklin

1938

by Carl Van Doren

Napoleon: A Concise Biography

by David A. Bell

The Philosophy Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)

2024

by DK

Benjamin Franklin

2003

by Edmund S. Morgan

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

by Haruki Murakami

Eric Ries · 2011

The Lean Startup

★★★★☆

Review — Eric Ries codified what many successful founders learned the hard way: build, measure, learn, repeat. The core insight is simple but profound: most startups fail not because they can't build a product, but because they build something nobody wants. The solution? Validated learning through rapid experimentation. The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) concept has been overused and misunderstood since this book, but Ries's original formulation is spot-on: build the smallest thing that lets you start learning. My favorite chapters focus on pivot vs. persevere decisions. Knowing when to change course is an art, and Ries provides frameworks to make that call more scientific. If I have one criticism, it's that the book can feel repetitive. The key concepts could have been compressed. But for anyone building a product, this is required reading.

The Lean Startup

by Eric Ries

Essential reading for entrepreneurs on building successful startups.

The Checklist Manifesto

by Atul Gawande

Who: The A Method for Hiring

2008

by Geoff Smart, Randy Street

Daniel Kahneman · 2011

Thinking, Fast and Slow

★★★★★

Review — Kahneman's magnum opus is dense, challenging, and absolutely essential for understanding how humans think. The dual-system framework—System 1 (fast, intuitive, emotional) and System 2 (slow, deliberate, logical)—explains so much about human behavior. We like to think we're rational, but System 1 is running the show most of the time. What makes this book brilliant is the decades of rigorous research behind every claim. Kahneman doesn't just theorize; he shows you the experiments, the data, the replication studies. Key insights that stuck with me: - Anchoring effects are everywhere and impossible to avoid - Loss aversion drives more decisions than we realize - The experiencing self vs. the remembering self explains why we make choices that don't maximize happiness Warning: This book will make you question every decision you've ever made. You'll start seeing cognitive biases in yourself and others constantly. It's both enlightening and slightly disturbing. Required reading for anyone interested in psychology, economics, or making better decisions.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

by Daniel Kahneman

A masterpiece on human cognition and decision-making.

Becoming Steve Jobs

by Brent Schlender, Rick Tetzeli

Sam Walton: Made in America

1992

by Sam Walton

Only the Paranoid Survive

1996

by Andrew S. Grove

Hitler

2008

by Ian Kershaw

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

1984

by Richard Feynman

Ogilvy on Advertising

1983

by David Ogilvy

Judgment in Managerial Decision Making

1986

by Max H. Bazerman, Don A. Moore

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook

by Joseph Sugarman

Bloomberg by Bloomberg

1997

by Michael Bloomberg

Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger

2000

by Janet Lowe

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

1791

by Benjamin Franklin

Choices, Values, and Frames

1985

by Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky

Thinking and Deciding

1988

by Jonathan Baron

To Pixar and Beyond

by Lawrence Levy

The Remains of the Day

1989

by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Coming Wave

2023

by Mustafa Suleyman

The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts

2024

by Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien

Hackers & Painters

2004

by Paul Graham

Churchill: Walking with Destiny

by Andrew Roberts

Bird by Bird

1994

by Anne Lamott

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

by Ron Chernow

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

by Neal Gabler

Confessions of an Advertising Man

1963

by David Ogilvy

The Habit of Labor

by Stef Wertheimer

James Clear · 2018

Atomic Habits

★★★★★

Review — James Clear's "Atomic Habits" is one of the most practical books on behavior change I've ever read. The framework is brilliantly simple: tiny changes compound over time. Clear doesn't promise overnight transformation—instead, he shows how 1% improvements, when stacked consistently, lead to remarkable results. What I loved most: - The habit loop framework (cue, craving, response, reward) makes abstract concepts concrete - Real-world examples from athletes, artists, and entrepreneurs - The focus on systems over goals—a paradigm shift in how I approach personal development Key takeaway: You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. This idea alone changed how I structure my daily routines. If you struggle with consistency or want to understand why you do what you do, read this book.

Atomic Habits

by James Clear

A transformative guide to building good habits and breaking bad ones.

The River of Doubt

2005

by Candice Millard

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

2003

by Walter Isaacson

The Chemistry Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)

2022

by DK

The Taste of Luxury

1992

by Yves Messarovitch

The Education of a Bodybuilder

1977

by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Douglas Kent Hall

Against the Odds

by James Dyson

Screw It, Let's Do It

by Richard Branson

The Psychology Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)

by DK

Zero to One

2014

by Peter Thiel

Striking Thoughts

2000

by Bruce Lee

Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing

1926

by A.S. Neill

Unbroken

by Laura Hillenbrand

A Man for All Markets

by Edward O. Thorp

Made to Stick

2007

by Chip Heath, Dan Heath

The Bed of Procrustes

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Creativity, Inc.

2001

by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace

Incerto

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

How to Write a Good Advertisement

1942

by Victor O. Schwab

Poor Richard's Almanack

1732

by Benjamin Franklin

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

1992

by James Wallace, Jim Erickson

Bruce Lee: Wisdom for the Way

2009

by Bruce Lee

Who Moved My Cheese?

by Spencer Johnson

The Lessons of History

1968

by Will Durant, Ariel Durant

Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation

2007

by George A. Roberts

Profit First

2014

by Mike Michalowicz

Predictable Revenue

by Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler

The Ultimate Blueprint for an Insanely Successful Business

by Keith J. Cunningham

The Road Less Stupid

by Keith J. Cunningham

Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders 1965-2023

by Warren Buffett

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

by Hamilton Helmer

Churchill

2009

by Paul Johnson

The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

1920

by Andrew Carnegie

High Performance Habits

by Brendon Burchard

The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

2009

by Kenneth Roman

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

2008

by Alice Schroeder

Random Reminiscences of Men and Events

1909

by John D. Rockefeller

Steve Jobs

by Walter Isaacson

Deep Work

by Cal Newport

The Physics Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)

2020

by DK

How to Read a Book

1940

by Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren

The Art of Worldly Wisdom

1647

by Baltasar Gracián

The Mom Test

by Rob Fitzpatrick

Principles

by Ray Dalio

Shoe Dog

by Phil Knight

What It Takes

2019

by Stephen A. Schwarzman

Disney's Land

2019

by Richard Snow

The Sales Acceleration Formula

by Mark Roberge

Can't Hurt Me

by David Goggins

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

2020

by Eric Jorgenson

One From Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization

2005

by Dee Hock

The Power of Now

1997

by Eckhart Tolle

Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger

2007

by Peter Bevelin

Poor Charlie's Almanack

2005

by Peter D. Kaufman (ed.)

The Narrow Road

by Felix Dennis

Insanely Simple

by Ken Segall

Am I Being Too Subtle?

by Sam Zell

Pushing to the Front

1894

by Orison Swett Marden

Never Enough

2024

by Andrew Wilkinson

Copywriting Secrets

by Jim Edwards

All I Want to Know is Where I'm Going to Die So I'll Never Go There

by Peter Bevelin

A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes

by Peter Bevelin

Nonviolent Communication

1999

by Marshall B. Rosenberg

Pieces of the Action

1970

by Vannevar Bush

Is This Anything?

2020

by Jerry Seinfeld

The Great Mental Models

2021

by Rhiannon Beaubien, Rosie Leizrowice

How to Take Smart Notes

by Sönke Ahrens

Letters from John D. Rockefeller to His Son

2023

by John D. Rockefeller

The Singapore Story

by Lee Kuan Yew

The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew

by Lee Kuan Yew

A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers from Warren Buffett

by Peter Bevelin

Autobiography of a Restless Mind

by Dee Hock

Quotations of David Ogilvy

1986

by David Ogilvy

Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing

1993

by Randall E. Stross

Tao of Charlie Munger

by David Clark

The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words

1955

by J. Christopher Herold

The One Sentence Persuasion Course

by Blair Warren