Date Updated: Aug 7, 2025
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These are my favorite books. Each has profoundly influenced my thinking in some way.

Philosophy & Life

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Timeless Stoic wisdom from a Roman emperor’s personal journal. Marcus Aurelius wrote these notes to himself while leading the Roman Empire, creating an intimate guide to living with virtue, accepting what we cannot control, and finding tranquility amidst chaos.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
A Holocaust survivor’s profound meditation on finding purpose in the darkest circumstances. Frankl’s experiences in Nazi concentration camps led him to discover that we cannot always choose our circumstances, but we can always choose our response.

On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
Life is long if you know how to use it. Seneca argues that we squander our time on trivial pursuits and fail to live deliberately. This brief but powerful essay challenges us to examine how we spend our most precious resource.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
A journey of spiritual discovery that parallels Buddha’s path while ultimately diverging from it. Hesse explores the tension between spiritual seeking and worldly experience, suggesting enlightenment comes through living fully rather than renunciation.

The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
Excellence through presence and deep practice. The chess prodigy and martial arts champion shares how to cultivate peak performance by embracing failure, finding stillness in chaos, and developing intuitive understanding through deliberate practice.

The Lion Tracker’s Guide To Life by Boyd Varty
Ancient wisdom meets modern life through the lens of tracking lions in the South African wilderness. Varty weaves together stories of following dangerous game with profound insights about attention, presence, and finding your own track in life


Business & Strategy

High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
The engineering approach to management from Intel’s legendary CEO. Grove treats management as a series of production processes that can be optimized, measured, and systematically improved. Essential reading for anyone managing teams or projects.

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
Focus on what matters most. Koch explores how 80% of results come from 20% of efforts across every domain of life. A powerful framework for prioritization and leverage that changed how I allocate time and energy.

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Timeless principles of wealth building through ancient parables. Set in ancient Babylon, these stories teach fundamental financial wisdom: pay yourself first, invest wisely, and seek counsel from those who’ve succeeded.

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Systems that gain from disorder. Taleb introduces the concept of antifragility—things that get stronger under stress. A paradigm-shifting work on risk, randomness, and how to build systems that thrive on volatility.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
Wealth and happiness distilled from the wisdom of AngelList founder Naval Ravikant. This collection captures Naval’s insights on building wealth through leverage, finding happiness through understanding, and the power of specific knowledge.


Science Fiction

Dune by Frank Herbert
Politics, ecology, and human potential on an epic scale. Herbert created not just a story but an entire universe exploring power, religion, ecology, and human evolution. The desert planet Arrakis becomes a crucible for humanity’s future.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
First contact through the lens of physics and game theory. Liu’s hard science fiction explores what happens when humanity discovers we’re not alone, weaving together Chinese history, theoretical physics, and cosmic horror.

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
The terrifying logic of cosmic sociology. The sequel introduces the dark forest hypothesis: why the universe seems empty despite its age. A chilling exploration of game theory applied to interstellar civilizations.

Death’s End by Cixin Liu
Time, dimension, and the ultimate fate of civilizations. The trilogy’s conclusion spans millions of years, exploring dimensional warfare, time as a weapon, and the price of survival in a hostile universe.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The universe is absurd, and that’s okay. Adams’ comedic masterpiece uses humor to explore profound questions about life, the universe, and everything. Don’t panic, and always bring a towel.

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
Ideas that resist being known. A mind-bending exploration of antimemes—concepts that prevent themselves from being remembered or spread. Part SCP Foundation, part philosophical thriller about the nature of knowledge itself.


History & Biography

The Lessons of History by Will Durant
Patterns across civilizations distilled into 100 pages. The Durants compress their lifelong study of history into fundamental lessons about human nature, power, morality, and the cycles that repeat across cultures and centuries.

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
The drive and demons behind extreme achievement. Isaacson’s intimate portrait reveals how childhood trauma, boundless ambition, and an engineering mindset combined to create the world’s most impactful entrepreneur.

The Cryptopians by Laura Shin
The chaotic early days of Ethereum. Shin chronicles the personalities and power struggles that shaped the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, revealing how a utopian vision collided with human nature and billions of dollars.