giants whose shoulders i stand on
Nassim Taleb —
Skin in the Game, Antifragile
Real knowledge comes from risk.
David Deutsch —
The Beginning of Infinity
Problems are inevitable, but problems are soluble. Optimism is a duty.
Jane Jacobs —
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Cities thrive on diversity, density, and messy organic growth.
Derek Sivers —
Anything You Want
Hell yes or no. The art of keeping it simple and focused.
📚 philosophy & meaning
• meditations - marcus aurelius
• the beginning of infinity - david deutsch
• the republic - plato
•
the iliad & the odyssey - homer
• thus spoke zarathustra - nietzsche
• will to power - nietzsche
• autobiography of a yogi
• siddhartha - hermann hesse
• the alchemist - paulo coelho
• bed of procrustes - nassim taleb
💰 economics & business
•
basic economics - thomas sowell
• man, economy, and state - murray rothbard
• the capitalist manifesto
• debt: the first 5000 years
• the goal - eliyahu goldratt
• zero to one - peter thiel
• hard thing about hard things - ben horowitz
• how to get rich - felix dennis
• think and grow rich - napoleon hill
• poor charlie's almanack - charlie munger
• only the paranoid survive - andy grove
•
the mom test - rob fitzpatrick
•
good work - paul millerd
🏗️ building & creating
• hackers and painters - paul graham
• the war of art - steven pressfield
•
anything you want - derek sivers
• read write own - chris dixon
🧬 longevity & flow
• the hope circuit - martin seligman
📖 biographies & stories
• steve jobs - walter isaacson
• against the odds - james dyson
• benjamin franklin autobiography
• lords of the cosmos - arjun khemani
• tribal future - david samson
🚀 science fiction & fantasy
• foundation series - isaac asimov
• lord of the rings - j.r.r. tolkien
• atlas shrugged - ayn rand
• hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
🎬 films & series (must watch)
• shawshank redemption
• 12 angry men
• whiplash
• waking life (athon recommended twice)
• city of god
• scott pilgrim (netflix)
• the defiant ones (netflix)
• avatar: the last airbender (s01-s03)
• dragon ball / dragon ball z
• star trek: the next generation
🎓 recommended by heroes
🎵 music & playlists
vision: each book should go with a song. turn books into immersive experiences - like movies with scores, voice actors, narrators. accessible, engaging knowledge. thinking about building talktoabook.com for this. extract titles from desktop bookshelf to add here.
projects to build: turn long educational youtube videos/podcasts into ebooks (e.g., "the economic machine" by ray dalio). create narrated movie versions of books. build ai voice clones + pdf covers for interactive reading experiences.