Stewart Brand Recommended Books

"About life and how to [...] navigate in a more improvisational way." - Tristan Harris

"Gave me a mathematical framework for my own spirituality." - Kevin Kelly

"Defines these two kinds of games." - Simon Sinek

"I like [this book] which has been going around a lot." - Graham Duncan

"It’s basically a book about games, but then it turns out it’s about the meaning of life." - Jane McGonigal

"It came up in twice today in different meetings." - Tobi Lütke

Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."

"Love [this book]." - Naval Ravikant

This book was on Sam Altman's bookshelf.

"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

"The physics behind biology, cities, economics and companies." - Vinod Khosla

"If you want to know why companies fail, how cities persist and what is needed to sustain our civilization in this era of rapid innovation, read this amazing book." - Marc Benioff

"Will expand your thinking from three dimensions to four." - Nassim Taleb

"If you are curious about how the world really works, you must read this book." - Bill Miller

"One of the most important books I’ve read—not just this year, but ever." - Bill Gates

"Encouraged the better side of ourselves." - Lex Fridman

"About how and why violence has steadily decreased throughout our history, and how we can continue this trend." - Mark Zuckerberg

"One of my favorite recent books." - Jack Kornfield

"When you finish [this book], which takes a long time, you conclude that the world is in a much, much better place than it has been in the past." - Eric Schmidt

"Traces the history of violence and how we are in the safest time ever." - A.J. Jacobs

List of books Bill Gates read in 2012.

Ray Dalio mentioned this book in his book, "Principles."

One of the books on Scott Adams' "Persuasion Reading List."

"Fine book but it didn’t need to be an entire book. A blog post would have gotten the point across." - Naval Ravikant

"I love surprising scientific findings, as well as information about how our brains work. [This book] is a treasure trove of both." - Ev Williams

"Captivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale?" - Marc Andreessen

"Always what you need to read at that particular period of time. It’s a magic book, in that way, in that it always fits." - Rick Rubin

Naval Ravikant tweeted about this book.

"[The author's] depth of teachings are complicated to decode and provide foundations for wisdom." - Michael Gervais

"Inspired my study of softness and receptivity as a counterpoint to my mad passions." - Josh Waitzkin

"Once you get to a certain level, it’s like, wow." - Brian MacKenzie

"Oftentimes before meditation, I’ll just open [this book] randomly to a page and read about something and then just have that be what I steep in as I sit." - Jason Nemer

"Everyone should read some of [this author]... It's important..." - Shah Rukh Khan

One of J.K. Rowling's answers to "If you could bring only three books to a desert island, which would you pack?"

On the "favorite books" section of Barack Obama's Facebook profile.

"Has all of the human traits; if you look somewhere you will find it, either in King Lear or Hamlet or Macbeth; it’s there." - Ricardo Semler

Christopher Hitchens mentioned Shakespeare's work in the "Hitch-22" book.

Fred Wilson recommended this book on his blog.

"Every once in a while I feel a little bit burnt out and I’ll open up any section of [this book], and it will stick with me." - Seth Godin

One of the books in a "list of favorite books" Jason Silva tweeted about.

"Realises that there’s an inexorability about the way technology changes and that it’s almost as if technology has its own agenda." - Matt Ridley

"How cities drive the development of civilization, by putting people together. Highly relevant to the future of the Internet!" - Marc Andreessen

"It’s very impressive [to] read about people pondering how to figure out the weight of the Earth or something in the 18th century." - Warren Buffett

"I do a read [this book] often." - Shah Rukh Khan

Amanda Palmer mentioned this book in the "Tools of Titans" book.

On Jamie Dimon's list of favorite books.

"Information-dense and manages to be humorous and super entertaining." - Dominic D'Agostino

Recommended on Jordan Peterson's website.

"The best science fiction book ever, definitely the most prescient." - Yuval Noah Harari

"Slightly older and less well known [than 1984] but equally chilling vision." - Tristan Harris

Matt Mullenweg mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

This book was on Sam Altman's bookshelf.

"In [this book], one can often detect strong hints of a vicarious approval of what is ostensibly being satirized." - Christopher Hitchens

"One of my favorite books of all time." - Naval Ravikant

"My most read book." - Tobi Lütke

"Finished reading." - Jack Dorsey

"I kind of thrive on stress, so I’m almost embarrassed by how comforting I find this book." - Anna Kendrick

"Great read." - Sam Altman

Neil Strauss recommended this book in the "Tools of Titans" book.

"To learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog.

"A fascinating study and still wholly relevant." - Eric Ripert

Fred Wilson recommended this book on his blog.

"Methods still valuable and can be used for good." - Garry Tan

Ryan Shea recommended this book on his website.

"Read [this book]." - Nick Kokonas

List of books Bill Gates read in 2011.

"Actually enjoyable to read." - Matthew Yglesias

"An amazing book." - Joe Rogan

"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history." - Bill Gates

Charlie Munger recommended this book in the "Poor Charlie's Almanack" book.

"Offers us a new and remarkably simple way of looking at our world." - Simon Sinek

"A brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents." - Daniel Ek

"Helped rid me of the nagging incompleteness in my understood connection between the successes and failings of ancient and modern civilizations." - Jesse Williams

"Was the basis for the foundation of Singularity University." - Peter Diamandis

"It opened me up to the idea of science fiction becoming science fact." - Steve Aoki

One of the books in a "list of favorite books" Jason Silva tweeted about.

"Many major problems, like education and disease, will be totally transformed by this in our lifetimes." - Brian Armstrong

"Has shown [...] that there is this persistent exponential pace of technology." - Marc Goodman

"Shows that the processing power of computers and technology has increased exponentially through history and is likely to continue doing so." - Mark Manson

"It was written almost 20 years ago now, and it seems as if [the author's] hypothesis is getting more and more credit than Francis Fukuyama’s (The End of History) about what the world will look like." - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

On Jamie Dimon's list of favorite books.

Lloyd Blankfein recommended this book on the "Exchanges at Goldman Sachs" podcast.

"I read this on my honeymoon (probably the only person on the beach reading it, if I had to guess)." - Ryan Holiday

Paul Graham's (funny) answer to "what are your favourite books with a politics very different to your own?"

"I was thinking of [this book] when Harry saved Cedric’s body." - J.K. Rowling

"Best story ever." - Elon Musk

Tim O’Reilly mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

"There’s something beautiful about [this book] because Ulysses is on the boat and then he’ll have this incredible adventure. But then he gets to get back on the boat and move on." - Walter Isaacson

"... And not just because there are so many great barbecue scenes." - Michael Pollan

Caterina Fake mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

"This epic poem was kind of difficult for me to get through, but it has a beautiful rhythm." - Jay-Z

"A thriller in which the hero in peril is us." - John Green

"[The author]'s famous book." - Elon Musk

"Portrays a mass of facts in his own imitable style." - Mahatma Gandhi