Books I've Read

A distilled brain-dump of Naval’s best ideas on wealth and happiness: leverage, specific knowledge, compounding, and building freedom. Short, dense, and absurdly quotable. It’s a manual for thinking clearly about money, status, and what you actually want. I review these notes at least once a month.

Creativity, Inc tells the story about building a creative team that doesn’t kill its best ideas before they’re ready. Catmull, one of Pixar’s founders, goes deep on culture, candor, and managing through growth and uncertainty. The stories about early feedback and protecting fragile projects hit especially hard if you’ve ever led something from scratch. It’s practical, thoughtful, and quietly one of the best leadership books out there.

This is the version of Jobs that actually changed. It focuses less on the myth and more on how he learned to lead. His time at NeXT and Pixar shaped the way he came back to Apple, and the book captures that transformation. It’s not just a story of vision but of growth, and that makes it way more useful than the Isaacson version.

Michael Dell tells the story of how he built and rebuilt Dell, and it’s way more strategic than I expected. He talks about using distribution and operational efficiency to outpace competitors with better tech. The later chapters on taking Dell private show how quiet execution can beat flashier plays. It’s the kind of founder story that actually teaches you how to think.

Phil Knight's memoir of creating Nike, from selling shoes out of his car trunk to building a global brand. Honest, raw, and funny account of the near-death experiences, betrayals, and victories along the way. Shows that even iconic companies were once startups struggling to make payroll and survive another year.

Two guys with no fancy degrees beat the world to powered flight by iterating harder than anyone else. The story reads like a blueprint for makers: observe, test, learn, repeat. What stands out isn’t genius, it’s stubborn process. It makes you believe that patience and tinkering can actually change the world.

Brad Jacobs writes like an operator, not a storyteller. He explains how to build big companies by buying into fragmented industries and then winning through better operations, incentives, and discipline. The tone is blunt, but that’s the point. It reads like a usable playbook for execution.

This one hits hard. Andreessen explains what product-market fit actually is, what it feels like, and why nothing else matters until you have it. It clears up a lot of confusion between “making progress” and “making noise.” Short, sharp, and something you’ll probably want to reread every time you're building something new.

Munger’s wisdom isn’t flashy, but it sticks. He pulls ideas from psychology, economics, and simple logic to help you think better and avoid dumb decisions. It’s funny, dense, and packed with frameworks. You don’t read this once; you keep coming back to it over years.

These essays shaped how a lot of builders think, and they still hold up. Graham writes clearly and directly about ambition, taste, startups, and what it means to make things that matter. His style is part of the lesson: sharp, simple, and useful. Necessary for any startup founder.

An essay on high agency: the idea that people can shape their future through clear thinking, bias to action, and disagreeability. Explores how high agency individuals solve problems others see as impossible, with examples from history and modern life. A practical guide to moving up the agency spectrum and becoming someone others would call when stuck in impossible situations.

Walton comes off humble but ruthless in his standards. He built Walmart on relentless execution, customer focus, and scrappy efficiency. He simply copied everything everyone else did that was smart. It’s a field manual for builders who don’t need flash to win.

Bill Walsh treats leadership as standards enforced over time, not motivation in the moment. He rebuilt the 49ers by making excellence normal in small details, because details become habits, and habits show up under pressure. What makes the book great is how transferable it is. If you are building any team, the lessons fit.

Arnold’s life reads like fiction, but the way he approaches goals is very real. He breaks things down, commits, and does the reps until he wins. Whether it’s bodybuilding, acting, or politics, the system stays the same. It’s intense, chaotic, and unexpectedly instructive.

Graham frames programming as craft and startups as creative work. Some essays are dated, but the core idea stays sharp: taste matters, simplicity is power, and builders win by creating instead of talking. It is more mindset than manual. You come away wanting to make something clean and real.

This is a journal, not a book. Aurelius was trying to stay sane while running an empire. The thoughts are short, clear, and grounded. Focus on your duty, drop the drama, and remember how little is actually in your control. Quietly powerful.

The early Musk years, when every project was on the edge of failure. Vance captures the obsession, the technical ambition, and the chaos that made it all possible. It’s both impressive and unsettling. A high-stakes look at what it takes to build against the odds.

This is how Bezos built Amazon, and it’s not sugarcoated. Customer obsession, long-term bets, and brutal internal standards. It shows how those principles can be turned into a machine. If you want to understand scale, this is required reading.

A closer look at how Musk actually operates: urgency, intensity, and constant pressure. The book doesn’t try to make him a hero or a villain. It just shows what he does and what it costs. Useful, even when you don’t agree with the approach.

Thiel pushes you to stop thinking incrementally. He argues that real value comes from building something new, not improving something old. The best parts are the questions it forces you to ask about what you're building and why.

This is a story about staying small, focused, and high-quality. No franchising, no compromise, and massive customer loyalty. It’s a masterclass in doing fewer things better, even when scale is tempting.

A big-picture look at future tech. Kaku explores everything from AI to space elevators. It’s part science, part sci-fi, and full of ideas to steal or chase. Great for sparking curiosity.

The definitive guide to venture capital deals from the perspective of experienced VCs. Demystifies term sheets, valuations, and the fundraising process for entrepreneurs. Essential for anyone raising venture capital or wanting to understand how VC works.

Kurzweil's updated vision of how exponential technologies will lead to the merger of human and machine intelligence. Details the acceleration of AI, biotech, and nanotech that will radically extend human longevity and capabilities. Makes bold predictions about the 2030s and 2040s when humans will transcend biological limitations.

Explores how AI will transform work, creativity, and decision-making as our 'co-intelligence' partner. Mollick argues we're entering an era where humans and AI collaborate rather than compete. Provides practical frameworks for leveraging AI while understanding its limitations and risks.

Explains why great companies fail: they focus on current customers and miss disruptive innovations. Christensen shows how disruptive technologies start small, improve rapidly, and eventually dominate markets. Essential reading for understanding why listening to your best customers can lead to your downfall.

This book captures Jobs at full volume, including the vision, obsession, and collateral damage. You get a comprehensive look at his leadership style and the intensity that powered it. At times the storytelling feels more curated than raw, but the lessons still land. It’s essential context for understanding what extreme standards can build, and what they can break.

Linus built Linux almost by accident and tells the story with dry humor. It’s fast, funny, and makes open-source software feel like a garage band. A reminder that you can do serious work without taking yourself too seriously.

Drucker's timeless guide to getting the right things done in organizations. Effectiveness can be learned: manage time, focus on contribution, build on strengths, set priorities. Essential reading for anyone who wants to make an impact through their work.

Old-fashioned but useful. Helps you stop spiraling about things you can’t control and focus on what you can do now. Good to revisit when you need a mental reset.

The principles are simple. Respect people, remember names, listen more. The examples are dated, but the psychology is solid. Still one of the best guides to human interaction.

It’s big energy and sometimes over the top, but there are tools here that work. It’s about rewiring beliefs, setting standards, and taking ownership of your actions. If you want change, this helps you start.

Contrasts two fathers' philosophies: one values job security, the other financial independence. Teaches the difference between assets and liabilities, and why the rich focus on acquiring assets. Challenges conventional wisdom about money, work, and building wealth through investments.

Not a cohesive book, more like a buffet of tactics from people who get results. Best used by skimming and grabbing what clicks. Great if you like hacking routines or finding new ideas.

Franklin was a builder of systems, relationships, and ideas. He treated self-improvement like an engineering problem. This biography captures his curiosity, charm, and relentless drive to improve. You walk away thinking better is always possible. Warning: There is a lot of fluff.