The following list are books that I’ve read and absolutely loved.
Last Updated: 19/02/2021
Understanding the current state of the world
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind By Yuval Noah Harari. – I read this book on kindle, then had to buy the physical and read it again. It’s my number 1 recommended book, after you read it, your view of humans and society forever changes. It helps you to understand who we are as monkeys and how we ended up at the top of the apex species when we are not the strongest, fastest animal in the world, nor do we have claws or sharp teeth. It also helps you to understand the world we have built
The Fourth Turning – This book in order to understand the crisis we are going through.
When Money Dies: The nightmare of deficit Spending, devaluation and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany – By Adam Fergusson
Disunited Nation by Peter Zeihan- This book to understand the countries that will possibly come out on top after the crisis will be the US, Japan, France, Turkey and Argentina.
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt- This is an easy book to read to help you understand how economics really works. It gets you started in the Austrian economics way of thinking instead of what some of you have been taught.
Permanent Record – Edward Snowden book, on his life and why he leaked that the government is spying on everyone.
The Bitcoin Standard – If you want to understand bitcoin this is probably not the book, the book is 80% about understanding money, what hard money is. And 20% what bitcoin is. It’s the book that I recommend to people who have been misled on how to view money.
21 Lesson for the 21st Century – 3rd book that I’ve read by Yuval Noah Harari.
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – understanding hindsight bias, and difference between conditional and unconditional probability.
Homo Deus – If you liked sapiens then this is the next book he wrote that goes into where he thinks we are going as a species.
Finite and Infinite Games By James P Carse – Life is a huge game that we’re all playing the question is are you playing a Finite game or an infinite game.
Rational Optimist By Matt Ridley – If you’re feeling pessimistic in the current environment because of climate change or global pandemic then this is a great read. It makes the argument that bio-fuels such as ethanol is causing more climate change then fossil fuels. And that the doomsayers have existed since forever. Remember those who predicted we would have acid rain??
Why Buddhism Is True By Robert Wright – This book is about Buddhism minus the worshiping. It links things back to current thinking science which bring it into the modern era of what we know.
The Price of Tomorrow By Jeff Both – The world is inherently deflationary because of technology. Central banks are fighting a losing battle for inflation.
America’s Great Depression By Murray N. Rothbard – One of the great Austrian Economist walks us through an era where there was money printing, cheap credit and everything we are seeing in 2021. An interesting read of what could be coming up for us today.
Space
Cosmos – By Carl Sagan. If you don’t know Carl Sagan, watch the pale blue dot
A Brief History of Time – By Steven Hawking – One of the great thinkers of our time. What is space? What is time? How did the universe start? What will happen when it end?
Astrophysics for people in a hurry By Neil deGrasse Tyson- Give you a good basis of understanding astrophysics.
Brief Answer to the big questions by Stephen hawking – I think this was his last book before he died, so i read it for that reason. It answers some questions I had, but now I have tonnes more.
Biographies
Surely You’re Joking Mr Feyneman – From Richard Feyneman one of the great theoretical physicists of our time. I liked how he was picking everyone’s locks when he was in their office. I remember the story of how he was in investigation to the challenger shuttle disaster, and he came into the meeting and simply dropped an o-ring in some cold water and said that’s the problem.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson – His obsession with the small details. One of my fav biographies.
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance- one of my other favourite biographies. The man is a wizard. He taught himself rocket science from reading books. I think Elon is one of the people of our times that will change the world.
When Breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi – Very emotional book about how short life is. Written by a neurosurgeon who discovered he had stage 4 cancer
Can’t Hurt Me by David Groggins – He the only guy in history to complete the training for the Navy SEAL, Army Rangers, and Air force tactical air controller. And he ran on broken legs!!
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson – I own a dogged eared copy that i couldn’t put down.
Productivity
The ONE thing – The lesson was prioritise your life to just ONE thing that will make an impact.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less By Greg McKeown – The disciplined pursuit of less. Ignore the advice of other people who don’t know you well. Get rid of the noise, just execute on the thing that will make a big impact for you. That’s the advice of this book.
Leap First: Creating Work that Matters by Seth Godin.
The 5 Second Rule – If you procrastinate, basically this book tells you to count backwards from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And then just do it.
Leadership
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink – Leadership is something that is bestowed upon you by the people. Management is something that’s bestowed upon you by the organisation. Jocko Willink is Former Navy SEAL, commander of SEAL Team 3’s Task Unit Bruiser. That moment in the debrief when he asked who’s fault was it that there was friendly fire and one person was dead. That is what leadership is.
The dichotomy of leadership By Jocko Willink – If you liked Extreme ownership then you will like this book, it’s basically just an extension.
Linchpin – Are You Indispensable by Seth Godin – There use to be two group of people in the work place, management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These are the people who figure out what to do when there is no rule book, they are delighted and challenge their peers and customers. Work out the shortcuts, the hacks, find new ways. To the point they become an art and cannot be turned into process. They are the game changers in organisations, and are often seen as key person risk. Your job is to be that person.
Business
The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz – This books covers the problems with building a startup and lots of valuable insight
Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle – This is the leadership handbook from Bill Campell who was considered the coach to all the well known people in Silicon Valley. There is a lot to learn in this book.
Zero to One By Peter Thiel – Innovation happens when we do something completely different. When we move the world forward by building something completely different.
The Inevitable – Software is going to eat the world. It is a thing that I believe, and i’m not the only one.
Never Split the Difference – This is the only person you should learn negotiation from, he was former head hostage negotiator for the FBI. Don’t attend negotiation courses from people who can’t negotiate themselves out of a paper bag, just learn from the very best in the world, who will tell you that WIN-WIN situation is a stupid idea. Example – if i have a pair of shoes, and your job is to negotiate for my pair of shoes, then win win situation is where i get the left shoe and you get the right shoe, and therefore we both get a shoe. See how stupid that is.
Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson – This book to understand the future is remote work.
Principles – By Ray Dalio, gives you insight on the culture of Bridgewater, and their idea-meritocracy – an environment where you can openly have a disagreement with anyone including the executive team. Where every single meeting is recorded for anyone in the company to watch (except for extremely private health related matters)
This is marketing By Seth Godin – One of my favourite marketing books. Seth is the thought leader of marketing.
Pitch Anything – The book you need to read if you ever need to stand up and sell something.
Mindset
Man’s Search for Meaning By Viktor E. Frankl- This book documents Viktor’s life in the Nazi concentration camp. The lesson I learnt was that we can choose our attitude, we can choose our own way.
The Power of Now By Eckhart Tolle – I have read this one multiple times years ago. It must have been time I journeyed into this mindfulness and meditation
The Obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday- The premise is simple, don’t waste your energy on things you can’t change, and focus on things that you can change.
Ego is the enemy by Ryan Holiday- Everyone has an ego, and you may not know it, but it’s holding you back. So your objective is to overcome it.
Waking Up By Sam Harris. – This is the guide to spirituality without all the religious aspect, looking at it from a neuroscience
The courage to be disliked by Fumitake Koga, Ichiro Kishimi – The title of this book is deceptive, since I recommended it to my sister last year, and she was like I don’t care if people like me or not. But that’s not what the book is about, it goes into the theory of a prominent psychologist Alfred Adler, and how you can free yourself from the limitation placed on us by ourselves and those around us.
The subtle Art of not giving a f’ck – This book starts off well, and was entertaining at the start, but you get the message pretty quickly and not necessary to read the whole thing.
Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths- I resonated with this book, because you are taking computer algorithms and applying it to various aspects of your life.
Fitness & Health
Starting Strength By Mark Rippetoe – This is the bible of barbell strength training at the gym, it has detailed explanation of all the mechanics behind all the big lifts. Normally if someone comes trains with me at the gym then you will be doing my modified version of this. Only because i find teaching someone how to power clean when they have never been to the gym before is hard. Follow this and you have a better program than a majority of the personal trainers at the gym.
Kettlebell Simple & Sinister – by Pavel Tsatsouline – This guy is the bible of kettlebell. Also because he’s russian and and i like that he calls people – comrade.
Gut By Giulia Enders – It’s about your second brain, your gut. And how it affects different things in our lives. The holy Sh!t moment comes when she’s talking about this creature that lives in the sea, floats about, then plants itself in a location, and then proceeds to eat their brain and continues to live. What the..?!
The Brain – The story of you by David Eagleman – Interesting book by a neuroscientist that asks an interesting question – Who are you, what is reality, how do you make decisions?
Others
Forever Fluent by Gabriel Wyner – If you’re learning a language, i found the tips in this book helpful.
Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world – He wasn’t just a guy who went around chopping off heads.
The life-changing magic of tidying up By Marie Kondo – After reading this book we got rid of a bunch of things and clutter in our lives, feels so much lighter.
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance By Josh Waitzkin – follow josh well thought out principal to learning things.
Fiction
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – One of my all time favourite sci-fi fiction books.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse – Very mesmerizing story as one man goes through life and finds enlightenment his own way. It doesn’t relate to the historical buddha, but he does make an appearance.