The Intelligent Investor
A clear introduction to value investing and one of my all-time favorites.
Books
258 notes on books. Search by title, author, category, tag, or notes.
The Buy Side
A crazy rise, fall and rise again story that highlights how the sell-side (brokers) pampers the buy-side (hedge funds) for their business.
Practical Speculation
Victor Niederhoffer has a unique data-driven way of looking at markets. Even though nowadays we can process a lot more data this book still provides inspiring examples of analysis.
The Education of a Speculator
Great autobiography of Victor Niederhoffer. Niederhoffer has a very interesting background as a top athlete, high level chess player and worked for George Soros. He has a very creative and open minded way of looking at finance.
Uncommon Sense
Great overview of value investing principles and why it's hard for humans to stick to them.
Modern Value Investing
Practical guide to value investing.
The Dao of Capital
Spitznagel captures the essence of investing as long-term compounding. The ideas of the roundabout can be quite counter-intuitive, but its definitely worth it to carefully read and think about what Spitznagel talks about here.
Safe Haven
Another gem by Spitznagel and definitely a must read! Thinking about geometric vs. arithmetic effects goes way beyond finance and is essential to understand for intelligent decision making.
Margin of Safety
Great common sense approach to value investing. More focused on catalysts.
Panics, Manias, and Crashes
Kindleberger is a master storyteller. Great book if you like reading financial history. Else one might find it too dry and detailed.
King of Capital
Good biography of Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman.
The Alchemy of Finance
Thre core topic of this book is Soros's explanation of reflexivity. A very important concept to understand for every investor. This allowed him to ride bubbles and panics with extraordinary success. Also contains a diary-like account of his turbulent portfolio and bold decisions. These serve to further illustrate Soros's investing thought process.
The (Mis)Behavior of Markets
The popular account of Mandelbrot's work on fractals. Mandelbrot was a unique thinker. Great book to start with to understand Mandelbrot's work.
Paul Wilmott on Quantitative Finance (Vol 1 and 2)
Two tomes covering fundamentals of quantitative finance. Worth to revisit now and then and use as reference. Wilmott is also very funny! You definitely wouldn't expect a textbook on quantitative finance to be this funny.
Dynamic Hedging
I haven't seen any book on options theory that explains things better than this book by Taleb. Taleb comes from a lot of practical experience as an option trader and is one of the most clear thinkers I know. Covers things I haven't seen anywhere on the Internet. Not only covers the mathematics, but also how to think about them and their limitations.Seeking out old books like this definitely pays off. Would recommend just reading everything written by Taleb.
Security Analysis
Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
Some of the fundamental books on value investing. Parts of it can feel outdated, but still would recommend checking it out if you take value investing seriously.
Advances in Financial Machine Learning
Nice overview of financial ML techniques. The mathematics is fascinating, especially if you are familiar with ML. For implementing these techniques in the real world I would make sure to also research the limitations of these techniques, especially on the portfolio construction side.
Causal Factor Investing
A cool overview of how we can make an attempt to train models that have actual causal relevance. I'm personally more excited about innovating in Machine Learning explainability versus trying to force causality on models. Still a great read and I'm sure you'll learn something new from it.
Lords of Finance
This book follows 4 of the most important central bankers in the 20th century and the crucial misjudgment that were made in the 1920s and 1930s. Good book if you are interesting in macroeconomics, else it will probably feel too dry.
The Big Secret for the Small Investor
Funny book which stunningly pinpoints the essence of value investing. Features a lot of fun personal stories and is a quick read.
Investment Science
Good gentle textbook on quantitative finance. Used this when I first started with mathematical finance.
Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial Finance
Marco Da Rin and Thomas Hellmann
Good textbook to have as a reference when starting a business or studying entrepreneurship. Among other things covers valuation, fundraising, IPOs, debt. Important things to get right with lots of pitfalls to avoid.
Hedge Fund Market Wizards
Interviews and stories from some of the most successful fund managers. Not all are well known, but all are pioneers and Schwager does a great job at asking essential questions. Would recommend checking the table of contents and start with the interview that resonates the most with you.
Flash Boys
A history of High Frequency Trading and its impact on markets. It's important to note that Michael Lewis is not a financial or technical expert so his views can be taken with a grain of salt. Still this is an essential book to read if you are interested in HFT.
What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars
Very interesting book where Jim Paul recounts his rise and fall as a fund manager. A lot of important lessons here on how hubris and excessiveness lead to undesirable outcomes.
Fooling Some of the People All of the Time
Very cool autobiographical story by David Einhorn. The book is centered around own on his greatest shorts on Allied Capital. Reads like a thriller if you are interesting in finance, else it might feel very dry. The book goes into a lot of detail about what was wrong with Allied Capital and how he approached the situation.
The Domain Game: How People Get Rich From Internet Domain Names
Fascinating biography about some of the earliest domain name 'investors' and how domain names evolved as a commodity. I love how informed the author is and how it conveys the excitement of how the early commercial Internet evolved.
The Warren Buffett Portfolio
One of those classic gems on value investing. Must read for any value investor.
Margin of Trust
This book is an underappreciated gem! It goes into detail how Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have been so successful from a more human perspective. Berkshire Hathaway's unique management style and deicision making is often brutalized and misunderstood. This book is enlightening and gives you a new perspecitve on what Berkshire Hathaway is.
Monkey Business
One of the funnies and entertaining books I've ever read on finance. Rolfe and Troob tell their stories about working in investment banking with its upsides and downsides. The stories are hilarious!
Quantum Computation and Quantum Information
Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang
Definitive text book on quantum computing and quantum information. If you are new to quantum computing I advice to 1st read the essays on quantum.country before picking up this book. You will already be familiar with much of the notation and will be less confused by it.
Black Edge
History of Steve Cohen and S.A.C. Capital Advisors. Controversial trades and the story of an insanely successful fund manager. He survived one of the largest criminal cases against a hedge fund, paid $1.8B in fines and is nowadays active under Point72 Asset Management. He is also still a majority owner in the New York Mets.
Quality of Earnings
Very underrated little classic on pitfalls of accounting. Reading this and taking it seriously will save you a lot of money. Thornton also has a fascinating story of his own.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Partly fictionalized autobiography of Jesse Livermore. An essential read if you are in finance.
The Great Crash of 1929
History of the crash of 1929 and The Great Depression. Galbraith is a great storyteller and the book is easy to read.
The Physics of Wall Street
Fun history of how physicists revolutionized finance and stories about some of the early funds that used physic models in finance. Nice as a basic overview. For more in-depth insights I would recommend 'My Life as a Quant' by Emanuel Derman.
The Greatest Trade Ever
Biography of John Paulson and his legendary trade on the 2008 financial crash. Reads like a great drama with suspense, betrayal and enormous payoffs. Also provides context on other that were involved in the same trade, like Michael Burry.
Beating the Street
A classic gem on common sense investing. You will definitely not regret reading this as a value investor. There also some great anecdotes about Lynch's time at Fidelity in here.
The Predators' Ball
History of Michael Milken and the story of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Reads like a crime thriller story and Connie Bruck tells the story like a master.
My Life as a Quant
Fascinating autobiography of Emanuel Derman. One of the legendary quants who went from a PhD in physics to working at Goldman Sachs. Emanual is an admirable man who continued to stay true to himself and developed legendary models like Black-Derman-Toy. Derman is also very funny and down to earth!
Models. Behaving. Badly
Very cool book by Derman on the limitation of models in finance. Emanuel Derman is amazingly knowledgeable so definitely worth a read if you are into quantitative finance.
The Money Formula
One of the funniest and most honest books I've read about the world of quantitative finance. If this doesn't take you out of taking quantitative finance seriously, I don't know what will.
Killing The Market
Roemer McPhee
Biography of Robert W. Wilson, who for most of his life managed his own money and has one of the most extraordinary investment records. Running $150,000 to $800M compounding at about 30% a year. A fascinating short biography (~80 pages).
The Dealmaker
Guy Hands
Autobiography of Guy Hands, which is one of the most prominent figures in the private equity world. Very interesting look into big deals, lawsuits and how an extreme work life takes its toll. Definitely read this book if you are curious about how private equity works and what it entails.
Machine Learning with Quantum Computers
Maria Schuld and Francesco Petruccione
The most up to date and comprehensive book on quantum machine learning. The authors make sure that the book is approachable from both the physics and ML side. I came from the ML side and the book goes into some quantum computing basics, but there is less hand holding compared to the ML side in this book. If you are new to quantum computing would recommend checking out quantum.country and the Quantum Computing in Practice course by IBM first.
Wholeness and the Implicate Order
One of the most remarkable books I've ever read on physics! David Bohm unifies physical theories in this book. The concept of implicate (enfolded) and explicate (unfolded) orders make a lot of sense. His theories are massively underrated to this day.
The Theoretical Minimum: Classical Mechanics
Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky
Introduction to classical Newtonian physics. Starts out pretty gentle with refreshers on Calculus, but already gets heavy at the end with Lagrangian mechanics. If you regret not studying more physics in college, reading Susskind's books is one a the best ways to get going again!
The Theoretical Minimum: Quantum Mechanics
Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman
Introduction to quantum mechanics. I personally found this book easier compared to classical mechanics. If you are proficient in probability theory and have a creative mind, I'm sure you will be able to enjoy this book and follow along with the concepts.
The Theoretical Minimum: Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory
Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman
Introduction into Einstein's special relativity and classical field theory. Had a hard time getting through this, but fascinating and solid introduction into Einstein.
The Theoretical Minimum: General Relativity
Leonard Susskind and Andre Cabannes
One of the most recent Susskind books on General Relativity. I would recommend first reading about special relativity. Fascinating if you are serious about physics.
Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Physics
Interesting overview of that small period of time in the 20th century when quantum physics was born and insane breakthrough after breakthrough occurred within a short time. Definitely worth a read if you are new to quantum physics. The author George Gamow was himself a theoretical physicist so he is able to give a lot of context.
Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!
Amazingly funny and entertaining autobiography of Richard Feynman. Would definitely recommend checking out this book even if you are not interested in physics.
Mindful Universe
Stapp is one of the most clear thinkers I know on interpreting quantum mechanics. This book goes into the role of measurement in quantum mechanics. Amazing interpretations of core concepts like Zeno's paradox. Also features replies to critics of his work.
Modern Quantum Mechanics
J. J. Sakurai and Jim Napolitano
One of the more challenging textbooks on quantum mechanics. Still have a long way to go to form a solid understanding. Great reference for quantum mechanics.
The Strangest Man
Biography on legendary physicist Paul Dirac. Gave me a lot of respect for Dirac and his genius. Fascinating if you are interested in quantum physics, else really dry.
Artificial General Intelligence
Ben Goertzel & Cassio Pennachin
A collection of research papers on AGI, published in 2006. Many of these approaches are not popular anymore, but there are definitely great and ignored ideas in here for building AGI. Many of these approaches are more holistic compared to the narrow approaches that are popular today.
The AGI Revolution
Partly autobiographical book about Ben Goertzel's work. Ben Goertzel is credited with writing the first book on AGI and popularizing the term 'Artificial General Intelligence', which I believe was suggested by Shane Legg.
Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction
Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto
Still the most important book on reinforcement learning. Read if you want to understand the fundamentals.
Deep Learning
Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio and Aaron Courville
Popular textbook on deep learning. It has been a while I've read this, but its still a good reference. Written before transformers and has a lot of material on computer vision.
Godel, Escher, Bach
Must read for anyone seriously interested in AI. Some may say this book is outdated, but I think these ideas are more relevant than ever. Among other things, Hofstadter goes into great detail on Godel's incompleteness theorem. Its essential to understand this and what it means for limitations of computing and AI systems.
My Years at General Motors
Unique mix between an autobiography and educational book on business. A lot of Sloan's insights are still highly relevant today. Highly recommend reading if you are interested in management!
Random Reminiscences of Men and Events
Autobiographical stories and musings of John D. Rockefeller. A fascinating look into the mind of a legend. Retired early to focus on a long career of philanthropy.
Ogilvy on Advertising
Practical approach to Ogilvy's approach to advertising. While the platforms of advertising has changed, the principles explained by Ogilvy are still the same. Also check out his autobiography 'Confessions of an Advertising Man'.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Great book with autobiographical insights on running startups.
Build
Tony Fadell worked with Steve Jobs on the iPod and iPhone. He was also CTO of Philips. Great book if you are figuring out how to build something worth building or feel that itch to become a startup founder.
Invent & Wander
Collection of Amazon shareholder letters by Jeff Bezos and transcripts of some of his talks. Gives a cool overview of how Amazon evolved and how they reasoned about crucial decisions like AWS and Amazon Prime, before they wildly succeeded. Gave me a lot of respect for Bezos as an entrepreneur.
How to Sell Anything to Anybody
Interesting book on sales from the world's most successful (car) salesman. Shows the integrity, grit and craftsmanship of great sales. Focuses on desirable outcomes for both parties (win-win).
Buffett
Definitive biography on Warren Buffett. Lowenstein does a great job approaching Chernow's biography of Rockefeller. Reading this will give a renewed respect of Buffett, his insane early track record and work ethic.
The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse
Very solid book on how to spot ethical collapse in companies and its consequences. Interesting if you are an investor, manager, business owner or interested in ethics. As a value investor it will help you greatly to avoid investing in companies that will go out of business due to silly behavior.
The Juggling Act
Pat Gelsinger is the current CEO of Intel. He was previously CTO of Intel and CEO of VMWare. This has a kind of autobiography feel. Goes into how he balances business, family and faith.
Trillion Dollar Coach
Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
Biography of Bill Campbell, who coached most of the successful founders and executives in Silicon Valley, but also was a successful football coach and CEO of Intuit. You will not regret reading this book.
Made in America
Amazing autobiography by Walmart's founder Sam Walton. There are many great lessons in here! You will not regret reading this book.
Only the Paranoid Survive
Excellent book by Intel CEO Andy Grove on inflection points. He goes into detail how Intel made the transition from a memory chip company to a microprocessor company. Really solid!
High Output Management
Another amazing instructional book by Intel CEO Andy Grove. It's best to just go and read all of Andy Grove's writings. You will not regret it.
Zero to One
A mandatory read if you are into startups. Thiel explains different kinds of businesses and why the most successful startups create monopolies.
Damn Right!
Janet Lowe
Nice biography of Charlie Munger, but also check out Poor Charlie's Almanack.
Confessions of an Advertising Man
Autobiography of David Ogilvy, one of the greatest advertising executives who ever lived. Ogilvy's self-confidence rubs off on you and there is some interesting practical advice in there. Obviously you have to translate some of it the context of modern times.
The Tao of Charlie Munger
Fun overview of Charlie Munger's philosophy. Generally a compilation of quotes. Great book for a Charlie Munger fan!
Remote: Office Not Required
Jason Fried and DHH
Helpful overview of the realities and challenges of working remotely. Written by the founders of 37Signals. They were one of the first advocates and succesful examples of remote work culture. The book was written in 2013 before remote work became common. Some of the suggestions for tools are outdated, but the general philosophy is more valid than ever.
Knockout Entrepreneur
One of the most impactful books I've read on business. Foreman explains how he went from a heavyweight boxing champion. George Foreman has a fascinating integrity and work ethic that is admirable.
Personal History
Katherine Graham
Autobiography of one of the most legendary and courageous CEOs. Katherine Graham inherited The Washington Post under difficult circumstances and it shaped here into an extraordinary character.
Born To Be Wired
John Malone
Autobiography of John Malone who built one of the largest business empires called Liberty Global. Among other things, his endeavors encompass SiriusXM, Discovery, Atlanta Braves and Formula One Management. Liberty Global is sometimes compared to Berkshire Hathaway in terms of its extraordinary compounding and shareholder returns.
The Book of my Life
Autobiography of Girolamo Cardano, who contributing to a wide variety of fields including science, algebra, probability and medicine.
Fortune's Formula
The original history book on advantage play. Covers Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and John Kelly (Kelly Criterion), among others.
Beat The Dealer
Essential reading if you are interested in decision making and gaining an edge. This book is legendary and unsettled a lot of casinos in the 1960s. Even though some rules sets, like one deck blackjack don't exist anymore, this is the fundamental book to teach you how to gain an edge in blackjack.
Blackjack Secrets
Stanford Wong is one of the original legendary blackjack card counters. He wrote a series of books on blackjack card counting. They offer a great mix of math theory and practical advice.
Professional Blackjack
One of the more technical books on blackjack card counting. Fascinating if you like probability theory and figuring out how to gain an edge in games.
Statistical Consequences of Fat Tails
Beautiful book on fat tailed distributions and their implications. Taleb goes into great detail here on both the mathematics and implications. To be honest when I first read this I had to Google terms every couple of pages, but it was more than worth it!
The Mathematics of Poker
Technical book on Poker. Wouldn't start with this if you are new to poker. Read if you like diving into mathematics and probability theory. It will definitely give you a deeper understanding of balance and exploitability.
Probability and Random Processes
Geoffrey Grimmett and David Stirzaker
Solid book for studying stochastic processes. Your typical tough math textbook with mostly proofs and exercises in it.
American on Purpose
Craig Ferguson
Funny autobiography of the comedian and Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson.
Andy Kaufman
Bob Zmuda
Funny biography of the odd comedian Andy Kaufman.
Moorman
Cool autobiography of online poker legend Chris Moorman with stories about its ups and downs.
Moorman's Book of Poker
Cool overview of poker situation with commentary from Chris Moorman. Was released in 2014, so the effictiveness of some of the reasoning might be outdated, but still a great collection.
Ship It Holla Ballas!
Very cool biography about a group of poker players that are some of the original online crushers like Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond and Andrew Robl. Very entertaining read if you are into poker.
One of a Kind
Biography on one of the most legendary poker players of all time, Stu Ungar. Unfortunately its mostly a tragic story, but Nolan Dalla tells it really well.
No-Limit Hold'em For Advanced Players: Emphasis on Tough Games
Matthew Janda is one of the great poker educators. This book is one of his most recent and advanced books. Also discusses AI tools that you can use to study and provides ranges derived with PokerSnowie.
Applications of No-Limit Hold'em
Great introductory textbook on No-Limit Hold'em. A few thins might have become stale, but still provides a solid foundation from where you can tackles Janda's more advanced books.
Every Hand Revealed
Cool recount of Gus Hansen's win at the Aussie Millions. He goes through every hand of that tournament and discusses his decision making. Some strategies may not work as well anymore, but the reasoning is definitely still interesting to study.
Caro's Book of Poker Tells
Fun little book on spotting poker tells. Already quite old, but still great if you are studying poker.
Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker
Extensive history of poker from the origins of cars to the present day of online poker. Its a large book, but fascinating and seems to cover all the important development of the game.
An Introduction to Statistical Learning
Solid introduction to essential data science and statistics concepts, though code examples are written in R.
Data Science for Dummies
No kidding one the 1st books I've read on data science before starting formal study. Provides an interesting overview on setting up your 1st data science projects, platforms, skills and pitfalls to avoid. There are definitely some parts that have become stale and outdated. Would recommend taking an introductory course on coursera.org, kaggle.com, udacity.com, serrano.academy if you are starting out with Data Science.
Developing High-Frequency Trading Systems
Good introduction to the basics of high-frequency trading. Doesn't really talk about HFT algorithms, but mostly about how to write fast C++ code and network infrastructure.
Hypermedia Systems
The best introduction into hypermedia and HTMX. It also gives great historic context on how the web evolved and why hypermedia is still insanely powerful. You can read the book online for free here.
Hackers and Painters
Awesome collection of timeless Paul Graham essays! These can also be found on https://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html.
Alan Turing: The Enigma
Definitive biography on Alan Turing. Kind of a must read as an AI researcher. This is the book that the movie 'The Imitation Game' is based on.
iWoz
An an Apple nerd really enjoyed this autobiography of Steve Wozniak. Really cool to see how Wozniak kept playing and experimenting with new ideas after Apple became successful.
UNIX: A History and Memoir
Awesome biography of the UNIX operating system. There couldn't have been a better person to write this than Brian Kernighan. He was there at Bell Labs when computing history was written. Very fun book.
Hypercomputation
Some of the most unique Computer Science concepts I have ever encountered. Hypercomputation is about looking at computation beyond the limitations of Turing machines. These are machines that as of the time of writing don't have, but could potentially build in the future. Not for the faint of heart!
The Rust Programming Language
Steve Klabnik and Carol Nichols
Definitive textbook on Rust. As programming languages tend to evolve would recommend checking out the online version instead of the book.
The Art of Deception
Kevin Mitnick is one of the greatest hackers and social engineers of all time. This book talks about some techniques that are used by hackers and how to protect against them. Would also recommend reading his autobiography 'Ghost in the Wires'.
The Art of Intrusion
Solid overview of offensive cybersecurity. All of Mitnick's books are great reads.
The Art of Invisibility
Kevin Mitnick on privacy and how to protect yourself online.
Rest
Insights about rest and working more deliberately. Also includes ample neuroscience support for insights about rest.
The Courage To Be Happy
Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
Educational conversation between a youth and philosopher. Largely built on ideas from psychologist Alfred Adler.
Influence
A must read to become more aware of your own decision making and to protect yourself against manipulation. If you haven't read this book, stop what you're doing (if it's not urgent) and go read this book.
The Art of War
A timeless book on strategy. Still very relevant today. Might take multiple reads to really get the core message.
You are the Placebo
Joe Dispenza
An amazing book which brings a scientific foundation to the power of thinking, perception, and meditation. Also provides a history of the placebo and nocebo effect.
Atom and Archetype
Carl Gustav Jung and Wolfgang Pauli
Letters between Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli. A Fascinating real-time look at two geniuses trying to figure out the interwovenness between the mind and the physical world. If you are interesting in these interactions, I can recommend to check out David Bohm's books, who was a genius quantum physicist and also explored physical abstractions beyond reductionism.
Psychological Types
Carl Jung was the first to write about introvert vs. extravert types. Basically all of Myers-Briggs work on personality types can be traced to Jung's work on psychological types. Good place to start if you want to get into Jungian psychology. Caveat Emptor: It can be surprisingly confronting to read Jung expanding on your personality type in this book.
The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature
Volume 15 of Jung's Collected Works. An overview of Jung's essays related to art and literature.
The Practice of Psychotherapy
Volume 16 of Jung's Collected Works. Jung's work on psychotherapy. More practical and educational compared to other volumes. It's little known that Jung's work as a psychotherapist played a major role in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. Before AA's founding by Bill Wilson and its success, alcoholism was regarded as an incurable disease. For more information: https://aeon.co/ideas/how-jungs-collective-unconscious-inspired-alcoholics-anonymous
The Development of Personality
Volume 17 of Jung's Collected Works. Jung's writing on education and development of personality.
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Volume 9 (part 1) of Jung's Collected Works that features much of his work on archetypes and the collective unconscious. These writings are unique to Jung and really push the limits of what psychoanalysis can describe.
The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga
Collection of lectures by Carl Jung where he looks at concepts from Kundalini Yoga and relates them to his own patients. Interesting look at how Eastern symbols can be used in Jungian psychology. Makes Kundalini yoga concrete and pragmatic for Westerners.
Introduction to Jungian Psychology
Light and brief introduction into Jung's work from a 1925 seminar. Great introduction together with his (partial) autobiography 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections'.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Autobiographical book of Carl Jung. Features some of the last interviews of Jung before his death. Amazing book!
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
One of the most important books you'll read as a data scientist. Tufte goes into the history and most important aspects of data visualization. I wish I read this book earlier. Tufte has a strong preference towards focusing on data density and removing distractions. 'Above all else, show the data.'
The Mental Game of Poker (Part 1)
Nice book to improve your mental poker game. Contains lots of practical advice and examples of how players improved their mental game.
The Mental Game of Poker (Part 2)
Compared to Part 1, this book is more focused on endurance and keeping a flow state when playing poker. Would recommend to first read part 1.
Totem and Taboo
Obscure and short book on man's struggle to combine social behavior with unconscious desires. Translation by A. A. Brill.
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Gentle introduction into Freud's work. I'll leave it up to you to decide on how helpful Freud approach to psychoanalysis is to you.
When
Interesting practical advice on how to time things and how you can benefit from scheduling some things differently. It's a quick read and helps you give awareness on some habits that might not work well.
Jung contra Freud
Jung's 1912 lectures where he lays out his own views on psychoanalysis which differed from Freud. Interesting if you want to get a better understanding why Jung is so unique.
The Red Book (Liber Novus)
An odd book by Jung focusing on individuation and symbolism. Not sure how to explain this one. Read if you are a fan of Jung.
Your Body Doesn't Lie
One of the originals on applied kinesiology.
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
Great short book about how human stupidity arises. With foreword by Nassim Taleb.
Surrounded by idiots
Thomas Erikson
This is a life-changing book. A simple system to classify personalities into 4 behavior types. The system is not rigid, but very pragmatic for day to day interactions with people.
Flow
Historically important book on flow states and how to cultivate flow. Important read, though at times can be a bit reductionist.
Trust me, I'm Lying
Fascinating autobiographical insights into manipulation and the dark side of marketing. Be aware that Holiday is using these same techniques nowadays for selling courses and pushing Stoic merchandise. Reading books like Cialdini's 'Influence' can serve as protection against this type of manipulation.
The True Believer
Eric Hoffer
Interesting analysis on how mass movements come about and what draws people to them. This was written in early 1950s so the destructive force of mass movements was fresh in mind. Eric Hoffer is very intelligent and provides great insights.
Ultralearning
Essential book for learning to learn. Read this and Josh Waitzkin's 'The Art of Learning'. People often forget learning compounds exponentially so even becoming a little smarter about how you learn has a huge impact on your life over time. I wrote about Ultralearning in this blog post.
The Art of Learning
A very important book to read. Josh Waitzkin develop into both a chess and Tai Chi master. Josh Waitzkin was also the main subject of the movie 'Searching for Bobby Fisher'. He goes into deeper fundamentals of learning compared to Ultralearning. The Art of Learning might resonate more if you first read Ultralearning. I wrote about The Art of Learning in this blog post.
How to Solve It
An extraordinary book on problem solving by Hungarian mathematician George Pólya. I wrote about How to Solve It in this blog post.
The Lean Startup
On the surface, The Lean Startup looks like a book about building startups. Though if you read carefully this book presents a powerful general framework for learning. It generally focuses on validated learning, where you iterate on ideas, test assumptions and use measurable results to inform the next iteration. It takes great inspiration from Lean Manufacturing, pioneered by Toyota.
The Storyteller
Fun autobiography by Dave Grohl. How he came from nothing into the punk scene, Nirvana, Foo Fighters and developing as a family man.
Sound Man
Glyn Johns
Autobiography of legendary record producer Glyn Johns. Glyn Johns was at several legendary events in music history, like Rolling Stones recording sessions, The Beatles Let it Be sessions and the Beatles rooftop concert.
You've heard these Hands
Fascinating autobiography of Don Randi who was a legendary piano and keyboard player part of the Wrecking Crew.
Sting: Broken Music
Autobiography of Sting. Calming, brilliant, solid and poetic!
Mood Machine
Liz Pelly
Interesting history on Spotify and how it relates to pre-digital schemes like Muzak and Payola.
Life
A whirlwind of an autobiography by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Amazing!
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Rick Rubin on creativity and how to cultivate it.
The Baby Dodds Story
Larry Gara
Cool biography on one of first 'drumset' players.
Not Dead Yet
Fascinating autobiography of Phil Collins. Great insights and stories from a true music industry veteran.
Traps: The Drum Wonder
Definitive biography of Buddy Rich, one of the greatest drummers of all time. Told by legendary singer and friend of Buddy Rich Mel Tormé.
The Wrecking Crew
Great history of the Wrecking Crew, a group of session musicians who played on most of the hit songs of the 1960s and 1970s. Told by the son of one of the original members.
The View From The Back Of The Band
Really enjoyed this biography of legendary jazz drummer Mel Lewis. Also contains actual sheet music of his iconic parts. Highly recommend this book for drummers!
The Seeker King
An Elvis Presley biography with a focus on Elvis' spiritual journey and struggles. Gary Tillery has written some extraordinary biographies on Elvis Presley, John Lennon and George Harrison. All with a depth I haven't seen anywhere else.
The Cynical Idealist
A biography of John Lennon that explores his struggles with fame and view of life.
Working Class Mystic
Extraordinary biography of George Harrison. Gary Tillery has a great way of writing biographies from the perspective of musicians' internal perspective and spirituality. This lead to an extraordinary biography of Elvis Presley, but resonates most when writing about George Harrison.
Rick Rubin: In The Studio
A biography of Rick Rubin, one of the most legendary music producers of all time. Great stories behind for example some of Red Hot Chili Peppers' albums.
The Music Lesson
This is a unique book. It reads like a fiction novel and feels weirdly autobiographical. At the same time it conveys crucial concepts to focus on as a musician. I definitely became a better musician after reading this book. Also check out his book 'The Spirit of Music' book.
The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues
Victor Wooten's follow up to 'The Music Lesson'. One of the most inspiring books on music you will ever read.
How My Heart Sings
Beautiful biography of Jazz Pianist Bill Evans. Bill Evans' life reads like a novel with big ups, downs and astonishing beauty.
All You Need Is Ears
Autobiography of George Martin, one of the most legendary music producers of all time who worked with the Beatles and pioneered much of modern music production.
The Gospel According to Luke
Very entertaining autobiography of Steve Lukather, the legendary session guitarist who played with Michael Jackson, Toto and many others. Lukather is a great and open storyteller.
Chasin' the Trane
Definitive biography of John Coltrane. Fascinating and must read if you are a (Jazz) musician.
It's so easy, and other lies
Autobiography of legendary Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan. Some crazy rise, fall and rise stories. Good overview of what happens when alcoholism is pushed to its limits and the insights gained from becoming sober.
I, Me, Mine: Extended Edition
Autobiographical stories and lyrics by George Harrison. Beautiful raw collection of writings from a legend! Also a nice collector's item.
I'm The Beat (Dutch)
Great autobiography of legendary Jazz engineer and producer Max Bolleman. A lot of fascinating stories about Jazz recording in this book.Unfortunately this book is only available in Dutch.
Bowie
As the name says, a biography of David Bowie. The book is well written.
Tommyland
One of the most crazy autobiographies you will ever read! Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee has some wild wild stories!
Sex, Drums, Rock 'n' Roll
Amazing autobiography of legendary session drummer Kenny Aronoff. It's an astonishing story how he went from being inspired by The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 and ended up playing with all Beatles except for John Lennon. At the moment of writing Kenny Aronoff is still rocking and playing in the top of the session world in his 70s!
Man of Everest - The Autobiography of Tenzing
The autobiography of Tenzing Norgay who was one of the first people to climb Mount Everest together with Sir Edmund Hillary. Tenzing is an amazing human being. Inspiring, joyful and loving.
hackers: heroes of the computer revolution
Essential history of the early computer pioneers and how computing evolved from universities into businesses. Naturally a lot of the history plays itself out in California.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
A must read to understand how large groups of people can get caught up in manias and start to exhibit silly behavior. Especially for investing its essential to read and understand accounts of the South Sea Bubble and Tulip Mania. The exact same dynamics are still happening today in markets.
A Mind at Play
The definitive biography of Claude Shannon, the father of information theory. Not only are Shannon's story and achievement fascination, but it also give you and understand and appreciation of how much you can accomplish by playing and keeping a childlike attitude towards learning and creating.
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived
Biography on Jacob Fugger, a merchant and financier from the 15th century. Really enjoyable and insightful read as Fugger's story is not as well known as Rockefeller's or Carnegie's.
Expected Goals
Fun book on the history of football analytics and prediction. Great read if you are interested in sports analytics and sports betting.
Titan
The definitive biography on John D. Rockefeller Sr. It's a big book, but definitely worth it. Rockefeller is still a unique figure in history who built one of the largest empires of all time almost from scratch and gave most of his wealth away. He can still be felt in the largest oil companies on the planet, the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Foundation and Rockefeller Centre.
Mountains beyond Mountains
Tracy Kidder
Biography of Dr. Paul Farmer, who working tirelessly to treat the poorest of the poor in Haiti. Certainly gives you perspective!
The Master Switch
Intriguing history of networks, from telegraph, telephone, Internet, blockchain and beyond. Tim Wu did great research and this makes the book very insightful. You can bet people like Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and other people focusing on networks got some great inspiration from this book.
The Man from the Future
Fascinating biography of John von Neumann. It's astonishing how much we have to thank von Neumann for modern science. Also an extraordinary intelligent man that was interested in and pioneered many fields, like probability theory, game theory, quantum mechanics, computer science and economics.
Steve Jobs
The definitive biography on Steve Jobs. The biography is obviously great, but I would also recommend checking out some of the lesser known biographies like 'Becoming Steve Jobs'.
The Mastermind
Riveting story of Paul Le Roux, who used to be one of the most notorious cyber criminals. You will be stunned by how long Paul Le Roux was able to evade authorities and how large his empire became.
Enron: Anatomy of Greed
There is so much to learn from Enron's story. Also watch the documentary 'The Smartest Guys in the Room'.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Walter Isaacson
Excellent biography of Leonardo Da Vinci. I've learned a lot about curiosity and attention to detail by reading this.
Boyd
Robert Coram
One of the most profound biographies I have ever read. John Boyd was originally a fighter pilot who also placed a large role in the F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. Later he developed profound theories of strategies that saved countless of lives. He also theories of creativity and philosophy of mind. Visit carlo.ai/boyd to check out his paper 'Descruction and creation'.
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
Paul Hoffman
Profound and very funny biography of genius mathematician Paul Erdos. Erdos was truly one of a kind!
The Man Who Solved The Market
Biography of Jim Simons and Renaissance Technologies. Renaissance Technologies' Medallion fund is one of the most successful hedge funds of all time. It was very hard for Zuckerman to get access to sufficient material to write this biography as the fund is so secretive.
A Man for all Markets
Autobiography of Ed Thorp. A must read! Ed Thorp is one of those people that mastered wordly life. He pioneered blackjack card counting and option theory before Black-Scholes published their equation. He ran one of the first succesful quantitative hedge funds. He is also still a very clear thinker in his 90s. Would recommend also listening to podcasts of him.
Becoming Steve Jobs
Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli
One of the best biographies I've read on Steve Jobs!
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
Usage of the number 0 is more recent than you think. This book recounts the history of the number 0, its significance and resistance to its acceptance. Way more interesting than it initially sounds!
Against The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
Great history on how humans have dealt with uncertainty and risk over the past thousands of years. A really fun read if you are interested in risk, finance and human decision making.
Deep Thinking
A large chunk of the book is Kasparov recounting his games against IBM's Deep Blue and his view on AI. Fascinating book which also shows that IBM kind of played dirty against Kasparov in these matches. One could argue at the time Kasparov was the better player and would have won those famous matches against Deep Blue in a fair setup.
Swimming Across
Autobiography of Andy Grove's 1st 20 years and his journey to the US. As a Hungarian Jew he survived the second world war, a Russian communist regime and the Hungarian revolution. This is a great story about perseverance in the face of great uncertainty and adversity.
The Intel Trinity
Essential biography on Intel, focusing on Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove. It's easy to understand these men and their contributions to the world. Essential if you would like to understand what the modern world is built on and the culture that is still core to what Intel is today.
Facebook: The Inside Story
Solid biography of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.
Autobiography and Other Writings
Autobiography of one of the most extraordinary human beings of the modern world. Studying Benjamin Franklin will make you a better human being.
Return to the Little Kingdom
Biography on Steve Jobs and Apple by venture capitalist Michael Moritz. Has a focus on Steve Jobs' legendary return to Apple when Apple bought his company NeXT.
Morgan: American Financier
Great biography on J.P. Morgan, but can get quite dry at times. Unfortunately did not captivate my attention like Chernow's 'Titan' did. Still would consider this the definitive biography on J.P. Morgan.
The Quants
History of quantitative finance in general and central figures in this realm, like Jim Simons, Cliff Asness and Nassim Taleb. This was one of the first books that inspired me to learn more about quantitative finance. Along with Patterson's 'Dark Pools'. Also check out Patterson's 'Chaos Kings'.
Dark Pools
Books about obfuscated trading and usage of AI in finance. Fascinating book and in my opinion more substantial compared to a book like 'Flash Boys'. Also check out Patterson's 'Chaos Kings'.
Chaos Kings
Biography on tail risks, Mark Spitznagel and Nassim Taleb. Love all of Patterson's books, but this one is special to me because it's about Taleb and Spitznagel. The book is not easy to summarize, so just go and read it.
King of Oil
Biography about Marc Rich, who is credited of inventing the spot oil market and became one of the biggest oil traders of all time. Fascinating character with high stakes and controversial stories.
Bad Blood
Thrilling biography on Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. Carreyrou broke the story of Theranos and fought years to expose the fraudulent activities. Carreyrou is a great storyteller and one of the most knowledgeable person on what happened. What a story!
The Boy Who Could Change The World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz
Beautiful collection of Aaron Swartz's writings and blog posts. Aaron Swartz was a genius and pioneer of open source, having build tools like RSS and Markdown. He is also a cofounder of Reddit. A great writer, communicator, thinker, builder and human being. He got crushed by FBI prosecution and took his own life at the age of 26. 'The Internet's Own Boy' is a great documentary on his life.
Ghost in the Wires
Captivating autobiography of one of the most notorious early hackers of all time. Reads like a thriller and provides a lot of insight of how hacking and social engineering worked at the time.
Story
One of the most amazing books I've ever read on storytelling. McKee is a master screenwriting and breaks down how great stories are built. It has a systematic approach, but at the same time is exciting, creative and fun to read. Like taking a peek behind the curtain of why the great stories and movies you see are so great.
Conciousness: an introduction
Comprehensive textbook on the science of consciousness. Unfortunately sticks mostly to western academic theories of consciousness.
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charles T. Munger and Peter Kaufman
One of the most important books you'll ever read. Charlie Munger is one of the clearest thinkers I know. It offers plenty to learn for investors, but goes way beyond that.
Feel the Fear and do it anyway
Susan Jeffers
Interesting and simple way to overcome fear. This book recontextualizes fear from something that inhibits to a strong driver of action.
Skin in the Game
Would recommend reading everything Taleb has written. It would not be fair to summarize these books, but I can tell you it will make you a better decision maker.
Fooled by Randomness
One a Taleb's 1st books.
The Black Swan
The 1st book I read by Taleb. Wish I read it earlier.
The Bed of Procrustes
Collection of aphorisms by Taleb.
Antifragile
Crucial book to understand if you want to become a better decision maker.
Incerto
Incerto is the name for the collection of Taleb's non-technical books. Can highly recommend reading every single book in this collection. There is also the technical Incerto, which includes the great book 'Statistical Consequences of Fat Tails'.
Man's Search For Meaning
A book that illustrates how humans are able to recover and thrive from even the most extreme adversities. Viktor Frankl was an extraordinary human being. A very important book to read and learn from.
On Dialogue
Great collection of essays by one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. Bohm dives deep into communication, thought and the nature of reality.
Superintelligence
Interesting philosophy book about existential risk of AI and hypotheticals, although perhaps a bit outdated. Even Nick Bostrom himself changed his views on topics discussed in the book.
Paradoxes from A to Z
Very cool overview of human paradoxes. Fun to revisit once in a while.
Dictator's Handbook
Kind of a unique book going through decision making as a dictator. Some of it is academic and hypothetical, but it definitely gives you an interesting perspective and makes you aware of how politics can operate, especially in struggling countries.
The War of Art
A kind of unique little book on creativity and the obstacles to great creative expression. Really enjoyed this one, but may hit different for different people.
The Motor Racing Book: Vol. 1
Awesome book on (sim)racing. Suellio is a great teacher. The core concepts of mastering car-track combos are explained well in this book.
Life in the Pitlane
Calum Nicholas
Great autobiography from a Red Bull Racing F1 Engineer!
The Upanishads
Some of the most powerful writings available on earth. These are additions to the Hindu Vedsas and lay the foundation for Hinduism. For English translations also look for 'Dr. Max Müller'.
The Dhammapada (Wisdom of the Buddha)
Great unabridged translation of the Dhammapada. Probably one the purest ways to read the Dhammapada without having to learn Sanskrit.
Dark Night of the Soul
Classic Christian text.
The Practice of the Presence of God
Ramana Maharshi: Be as you are
Q&A's with Indian teacher Ramana Maharshi. Questions are from casual conversations and mostly from Western visitors.
Becoming Supernatural
Joe Dispenza
Great book from Joe Dispenza! Builds on his ideas from 'You are the Placebo'.
I am That
Transcripts of conversations with Indian teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj. He has a certain head-on, direct and abrupt way of teaching spiritual concepts. More akin to Zen.
Tao Te Ching
The classic Taoist text.
The Dhammapada
Translation and notes on the Dhammapada. The Dhammapada is a classic Buddhist text that collects sayings of the Buddha. Easwaran translates well and the book is accessible if you have no background in Buddhism.
The Upanishads
Translation and notes on the Upanishads. Like with the other books, Easwaran translates well and his books are accessible if you are not familiar with the texts.
The Bhagavad Gita
Translation and Easwaran's notes on the Gita. Written in a way that is accessible if you are not familiar with the Gita.
Autobiography of a Yogi
Autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda.
Power vs. Force
The Eye of the I
I: Reality and Subjectivity
Truth vs. Falsehood
Transcending the Level of Consciousness
Discovery of the Presence of God
Reality, Spirituality and Modern Man
Healing and Recovery
Letting Go
Success Is for You
Mahabharata
Retelling of the Mahabharata. Probably a bit popularized, but accessible if you want to get a sense of classic Hindu texts.
Ramayana
Retelling of the Ramayana. Like with Buck's telling of the Mahabharata probably a bit popularized, but accessible if you want to get a sense of classic Hindu texts.
Kundalini
Autobiographical account of Gopi Krishna's experiences, which were at times very intense and problematic. If you have been meditating a lot and are encountering strange sensations, it can be wise to read this book. Be aware of the fact that Gopi Krishna comes from a different historical context than you, namely India in the 1940s. For a modern Western take on Kundalini you can check out Carl Jung's lecture on Kundalini Yoga. Be careful with exploring many books about this topic as there is a lot of nonsense out there.
Essays in Zen Buddhism (1st Series)
3 part series on the history of Zen Buddhism. Also contains many stories of Zen masters interacting with students.
Essays in Zen Buddhism (2nd Series)
3 part series on the history of Zen Buddhism.
Essays in Zen Buddhism (3rd Series)
3 part series on the history of Zen Buddhism.
The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind
Translation of a classic Zen teaching. Huang Po has a very direct approach that might be hard to get if you are not familiar with Zen.
The Bhagavad Gita
One of the most powerful and fundamental books in Hinduism.
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
English translation of Bodhidharma's teachings. Bodhidharma brought Zen Buddhism to China.
