Patrick Collison Recommended Books

"My favorite recent discovery." - Naval Ravikant

"Greatly expanded my sense of the potential power of human knowledge." - Sam Harris

"About how the way we explain things unlocks greater possibilities." - Mark Zuckerberg

"This 21st-century statement of the ideals of the Enlightenment offers fresh insight on a vast number of topics." - Steven Pinker

"A remarkable argument for the power of knowledge—as not just a human capability but as a force that shapes the universe." - Chris Anderson

"The book is changing my perspective on what I thought smart was. This is transformative." - Mark Bell

"Love [this book]." - Naval Ravikant

This book was on Sam Altman's bookshelf.

Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.

"I’m not a visual person, but this book taught me to see the world around me in an entirely new way." - Gretchen Rubin

"[The author] is a writer and a thinker about architecture and about how we build." - Liz Lambert

"It had a huge effect." - Dave Elitch

Ryan Shea recommended this book on his website.

"Gives excellent advice about how to move on constructively from mistakes, which I’ve tried to follow both on and off the court over the years." - Bill Gates

"Not for everyone but recommend for tech folks." - Keith Rabois

John Collison mentioned this book on Twitter.

"I recommended it to [Patrick Collison] as 'something I thought he'd be really interested in.'" - Stewart Butterfield

"I really love tech history books like this." - Tobi Lütke

"A good read for anyone who wants to understand what actually determines whether a developing economy will succeed." - Bill Gates

"I HIGHLY recommend [this book]." - Noah Smith

"This is one of the great classics of computer science. I bought my first copy 15 years ago, and I still don't feel I have learned everything the book has to teach." - Paul Graham

"Easier to read [than "The Art of Computer Programming"] end-to-end quickly." - Max Levchin

"[This book] convinced me to start a company. Thanks for helping create Reddit." - Alexis Ohanian

"Please read [this book]. It's such a great book." - Jeff Atwood

"Wonderful." - Tobi Lütke

"Amazing book." - Austen Allred

"A great book." - Elon Musk

"About the PC Gaming industry." - Trung Phan

"I always recommend [this book] as my top business book." - Naval Ravikant

"Tremendous." - Marc Andreessen

List of books Bill Gates read in 2011.

"The ever-popular book about my partner." - Warren Buffett

Tim Ferriss mentioned this book on Twitter.

"A great book." - Drew Houston

"The best business book I've ever read." - Bill Gates

Warren Buffett's favorite book about business.

"Tells the stories of 12 notable companies and how they navigated the trials and tribulations of corporate life in America back in the day."- Michael Dell

"Written in 1982. It literally predicts everything that's going on now." - Tristan Harris

Keith Rabois recommended this book on a Medium blog post.

"We’re kind of, like the title of the book, amusing ourselves to death. We’re so caught up in distractions and pleasure and entertainment that we might be missing out on the bigger things." - Matt Mullenweg

"This book has the best foreword I can recall. Read the entire thing." - Patrick O'Shaughnessy

"One of the best books on communication that I’ve ever read." - Michael Batnick

"I give [this book] away a lot." - Neil Strauss

"A poignant reminder of what we so deeply intuit yet so easily forget and so chronically fail to put into practice." - Maria Popova

Jim Collins mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

"Says something about the fact that it’s not so much the shortness of life, it’s how we waste it." - Chip Conley

Keith Rabois recommended this book on a Medium blog post.

On the "books read" section of Ev Williams' GoodReads profile.

"If [this book] is not the best book ever written, what is?" - Jeremy Clarkson

"Drop everything and read [Understand]." - Naval Ravikant

"Incredible collection of short stories." - Tim Ferriss

Ezra Klein recommended this book on Twitter.

Richard Branson recommended this book on his "70 must-read books" blog post.

"Read this book and you’ll never look at a pencil or razor the same way." - Bill Gates

"Answers why US chocolate tastes like ground-up newspaper to me." - John Collison

"About the Post-deregulation Airlines industry." - Trung Phan

"One of my favorite non-fiction books." - John Collison

"Is the future knowable, and by whom? All pundits and commentators should publish their prediction track records, yet don't." - Marc Andreessen

"[Made me feel a] sense of revelation." - Michael Mauboussin

"In terms of just packing a punch per page I really enjoyed this back in the day." - Balaji Srinivasan

This book was on Sam Altman's bookshelf.

"If you want to learn more about hunter gatherers I strongly recommend [this book]." - Paul Graham

"I did find his historical analysis, which makes up the bulk of the book, utterly fascinating." - Bill Gates

"Concludes that innovation is the ultimate source of dramatic improvements in the human condition." - Satya Nadella

"I'm reading this book and I can already tell I am going to be so annoying about it afterwards. Sorry in advance." - Stewart Butterfield

"I disagree with the book, but it's a very well written book." - Marc Andreessen

"Really enjoyed it." - Tobi Lütke

"Great book. Read it when it came out." - Elon Musk

"I suspect if you'd read 'Guns, Sails, and Empires' and [this book], little in 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' would surprise you." - Paul Graham

Brad Delong recommended this book in his website.

One of Sam Altman's answers to "What are some of the best books you recommend for a young startup founder?"

"[One of] my favorite books for understanding the history of Silicon Valley." - Austen Allred

Ryan Shea recommended this book on his website.

"One of my all time favorite books. I quote it all the time." - Naval Ravikant

"A great [book]." - Edward Norton

"The most fabulous book." - Paul Graham

"Really is great." - Sam Altman

"An amazing book!" - Adam Tooze

"Awesomely creative think-piece. 40 very short fictional stories about what happens when you die." - Derek Sivers

"If you read it and aren't enchanted I will eat 40 hats." - Stephen Fry

Patrick Bet-David recommended this book on his website.

"[The author] does an excellent job of capturing the Bob Noyce I knew: part small-town boy, part big-time genius and always a wonderful friend and citizen." - Warren Buffett

"It was small, clear, concise, but you need to already have a programming background to appreciate it." - Linus Torvalds

"On why even environmentalists should be pro building, pro cities, pro nuclear, and pro genetic engineering." - Marc Andreessen

"An allusion to [the author]'s groundbreaking 'Whole Earth Catalog,' which merged technology with the counterculture and encouraged global consciousness." - Steven Pinker

"Incredible book." - Jack Dorsey

"Describes how one of the things he did was spawn a back-to-the-land movement with people growing their own vegetables and forming communes." - Matt Ridley

Keith Rabois recommended this book on a Medium blog post.

"Combines historical reality and mythical fiction to deliver a magnificent and magical account of India’s transition to independence and partition." - Lisa Ling

"Speaking of a book about grudges." - Mike Maples, Jr.

"Incredible." - PewDiePie

"This treasure will prevent you from enjoying other novels." - Nassim Taleb

"[One of] the 10 best fiction books." - James Clear

"New and notable." - Tyler Cowen

"Short and well worth reading. Presages much of today's train crash on social media." - Balaji Srinivasan

"Brilliant and written as though by an alien intelligence." - Sam Harris

"One of the most important books written in the 20th century." - Will MacAskill

Keith Rabois recommended this book on a Medium blog post.

"At Spotify the 7 Powers are widely used as we discuss new initiatives." - Daniel Ek

"[The author] understands that strategy starts with invention. He can't tell you what to invent, but he can and does show what it takes for a new invention to become a valuable business." - Peter Thiel

"The forces of competition are just incredibly strong. Everyone is trying to eat your lunch, and if you don't read [this book] you're going to die alot sooner." - Reed Hastings

"[Part of] my biz book canon." - Ryan Petersen

"A bit uncomfortable as an example of how a mass production strategy can overwhelm a generally technically superior adversary." - John Carmack

"Enjoyed [this book]. Odd time to read about end-of-world scenarios." - Tobi Lütke

"An inspiring and informative page-turner." - Walter Isaacson

"If you want to understand how venture capital works and the effect it has had on the US economy, this is the book to read." - Paul Graham

"About the Venture Capital industry." - Trung Phan

"Excellent." - Barry Ritholtz

"About the Biotech industry." - Trung Phan

"[Looks] at Bell Labs, which was one of the most innovative labs in history." - Mark Zuckerberg

"The definitive history of America's greatest incubator of technological innovation." - Ron Conway

"Strongly recommended." - David Friedberg

"I enjoyed this accounting-focused treatment of many major frauds." - John Collison

Patrick Bet-David recommended this book on his website.

Jack Ma always carries a copy of this book.