Books Recommended by Patrick Collison
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The Billion-Dollar Molecule
The Quest for the Perfect Drug
Barry Werth
Source: "Lots about entrepreneurship, science, pharmacology, risk, importance of work ethic, management practices, fundraising, and the impressive depth of US capital markets." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Talent
How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World
Tyler Cowen
Source: "They've seen how undergrad & grad programs, academic departments, YC, startups, Apple, and Pioneer do talent selection." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Freedom's Forge
How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
Arthur Herman
Source: "About the logistical efforts -- led mostly by high school dropouts and immigrants -- that yielded the Arsenal of Democracy." - Patrick Collison
2 recommenders
Reasons and Persons
Derek Parfit
Source: "I don't totally agree, but I think it's a really interesting modern take on moral philosophy." - Patrick Collison
3 recommenders
Scientific Freedom
The Elixir of Civilization
Donald W. Braben
Source: "One of the best [books putting forth different visions for how science can be structured]." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
A Culture of Growth
The Origins of the Modern Economy
Joel Mokyr
Source: "All of [this author’s] work is great, but [this book] in particular really stands out to me." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
The Idea Factory
Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
Jon Gertner
Source: "Sets the context for the hardware inventions that directly led to Silicon Valley." - Patrick Collison
4 recommenders
Electronic Payment Systems for E-Commerce
Donal O'Mahony
Source: "Our childhood home in Limerick was previously inhabited by one of the authors of this book." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
The Secret Commonwealth
Book Of Dust, Book 2
Philip Pullman
Source: "Going to own up to being very excited that there's a new Philip Pullman book." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Harold Abelson
Source: "In the aggregate [with other programming books] hugely shaped me." - Patrick Collison
3 recommenders
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming
Case Studies in Common Lisp
Peter Norvig
Source: "In the aggregate [with other programming books] hugely shaped me." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
The C Programming Language
Brian W. Kernighan
Source: "In the aggregate [with other programming books] hugely shaped me." - Patrick Collison
2 recommenders
Modern Operating Systems
Andrew S Tanenbaum
Source: "In the aggregate [with other programming books] hugely shaped me." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Organizing Genius
The Secrets of Creative Collaboration
Warren Bennis
Source: "Talks a bit about this phenomenon of a really productive small group." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Generations
The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future
Jean M. Twenge
Source: "It's excellent: exceptionally data-rich and comprehensive." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Designing Brand Identity
An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team
Alina Wheeler
Source: "It's excellent: exceptionally data-rich and comprehensive." - Patrick Collison
Perspective on McKinsey
Marvin Bower
Source: "Can’t shake the feeling that a consultant wrote this book." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
A Shot to Save the World
The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine
Gregory Zuckerman
Source: "[This book], about the creation of the COVID vaccines, is terrific." - Patrick Collison
2 recommenders
The Power Law
Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
Sebastian Mallaby
Source: "By far the best book I've read on the sector." - Patrick Collison
4 recommenders
The Inner Game of Tennis
The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance
W. Timothy Gallwey
Source: "A really good book that I very highly recommend." - Patrick Collison
4 recommenders
Financial Shenanigans
How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports
Howard M. Schilit
Source: John Collison called this "a well-targeted gift from [Patrick Collison]."
2 recommenders
Masters of Doom
How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
David Kushner
Source: "One of my favorite books about building software." - Patrick Collison
Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine
Thomas H. Lee
Source: "Very good (And Eugene Kleiner's first cousin!)." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Business Adventures
Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street
John Brooks
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
4 recommenders
A Course in Mathematical Analysis
Douard Goursat
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
On the Shortness of Life
Lucius Seneca
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Neil Postman
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
On Intelligence
How a New Understanding of the Brain Will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines
Jeff Hawkins
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
Matterhorn
A Novel of the Vietnam War
Karl Marlantes
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
Stories of Your Life and Others
Ted Chiang
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
4 recommenders
Longitude
The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Dava Sobel
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
A Great Leap Forward
1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth
Alexander J. Field Ph.D.
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Stuff Matters
Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World
Mark Miodownik
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
Global Catastrophic Risks
Nick Bostrom
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Old Way
A Story of the First People
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
The Nature of Mathematical Modeling
Neil Gershenfeld
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
Expert Political Judgment
How Good Is It? How Can We Know?
Philip E. Tetlock
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
Feynman Lectures on Computation
Richard P. Feynman
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
On Lisp
Advanced Techniques for Common Lisp
Paul Graham
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Plagues and Peoples
William McNeill
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
Incompleteness
The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel
Rebecca Goldstein
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Asimov's New Guide to Science
Isaac Asimov
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Feminine Mystique
Betty Friedan
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Foucault's Pendulum
Umberto Eco
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Educated Mind
How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding
Kieran Egan
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Dealers of Lightning
Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
Michael A. Hiltzik
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
4 recommenders
China Airborne
James Fallows
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Scramble for Africa
White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912
Thomas Pakenham
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Men, Machines, and Modern Times
Elting E. Morison
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Wind, Sand and Stars
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
Plato at the Googleplex
Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
Rebecca Goldstein
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Ocean Flying
A Pilot's Guide
Louise Sacchi
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Big Score
The Billion Dollar Story of Silicon Valley
Michael S. Malone
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Arabs
A History
Eugene Rogan
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Technics and Civilization
Lewis Mumford
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Medieval Technology and Social Change
Lynn White
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
Justice as Fairness
A Restatement
John Rawls
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Toward a Theory of Instruction
Jerome Bruner
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics
Nicholas J. Higham
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan
James Morier
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Sum
Forty Tales from the Afterlives
David Eagleman
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
3 recommenders
A Vast Machine
Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming
Paul N. Edwards
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
The Planet Remade
How Geoengineering Could Change the World
Oliver Morton
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Man Behind the Microchip
Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley
Leslie Berlin
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
Spacetime and Geometry
An Introduction to General Relativity
Sean Carroll
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Science
A History
John Gribbin
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Popper Selections
Karl R. Popper
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Computer Lib
Dream Machines
Theodore H. Nelson
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
A Decade of Research
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 1970-1980
Giuliana ed. Lavendel
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Whole Earth Discipline
Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary
Stewart Brand
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
The Long Way
Bernard Moitessier
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Quantum Computing since Democritus
Scott Aaronson
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
I Didn't Do It for You
How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation
Michela Wrong
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Weather of the San Francisco Bay Region
Harold Gilliam
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The City in History
Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects
Lewis Mumford
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
The Ocean of Life
The Fate of Man and the Sea
Callum Roberts
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Chip
How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution
T. R. Reid
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics
Gerald Jay Sussman
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Season of the Witch
Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love
David Talbot
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
River Town
Two Years on the Yangtze
Peter Hessler
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Myth of the Machine
Technics and Human Development
Lewis Mumford
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
1 recommender
The Cowshed
Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution
Ji Xianlin
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
Postcards from Tomorrow Square
Reports from China
James Fallows
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Nixonland
The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
Rick Perlstein
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz
Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo
Michela Wrong
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Journalist And The Murderer
Janet Malcolm
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
2 recommenders
Orality and Literacy
Walter J. Ong
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
1 recommender
Pacific
Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers
Simon Winchester
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
Moral Mazes
The World of Corporate Managers
Robert Jackall
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."
1 recommender
The Beginning of Infinity
Explanations That Transform the World
David Deutsch
Source: "A really beautiful modern philosophy book." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
A Pattern Language
Towns, Buildings, Construction
Christopher Alexander
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
Poor Charlie's Almanack
The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
Charlie Munger
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens
Frank Oppenheimer and His Astonishing Exploratorium
K. C. Cole
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
Mindstorms
Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas
Seymour A. Papert
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
Hard Landing
The Epic Contest for Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos
Thomas Petzinger Jr.
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
3 recommenders
The Paris Review Interviews, I
16 Celebrated Interviews
The Paris Review
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa
Jason Stearns
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
The Rise and Fall of American Growth
The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War
Robert J. Gordon
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
Age of Ambition
Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
Evan Osnos
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... Where is Everybody?
Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life
Stephen Webb
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
2 recommenders
1 recommender
Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
2 recommenders
Metamagical Themas
Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
Douglas R. Hofstadter
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
Out of Mao's Shadow
The Struggle for the Soul of a New China
Philip P. Pan
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
Nixon Agonistes
The Crisis of the Self-Made Man
Garry Wills
Source: Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."
1 recommender
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
Learning to Learn
Richard W. Hamming
Source: "One of my favorite books." - Patrick Collison
3 recommenders
3 recommenders
The Precipice
Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
Toby Ord
Source: "A great contribution." - Patrick Collison
2 recommenders
3 recommenders
7 Powers
The Foundations of Business Strategy
Hamilton Helmer
Source: "Deeply incisive." - Patrick Collison
The Enlightened Economy
An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850
Joel Mokyr
Source: "It's very good." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
Tuxedo Park
A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II
Jennet Conant
Source: "It’s very good." - Patrick Collison
2 recommenders
Spastic Diplegia--Bilateral Cerebral Palsy
Understanding the Motor Problems, Their Impact on Walking, and Management Throughout Life
Lily Collison
Source: "Congrats, Mom!" - Patrick Collison
2 recommenders
Genentech
The Beginnings of Biotech
Sally Smith Hughes
Source: "Enjoyed [this book]." - Patrick Collison
2 recommenders
The Infidel and the Professor
David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought
Dennis C. Rasmussen
Source: "Great book." - Patrick Collison
1 recommender
51 books
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