Elon Musk

“Meditations by Marcus Aurelius — it's very relevant even today.”

“The Art of War is still one of the best books on strategy. Sun Tzu's core insight — that the best victory is one achieved without fighting — applies everywhere.”

“Orwell understood the dynamics of totalitarianism better than anyone. 1984 is essential reading.”

“The Wealth of Nations — essential reading for understanding how economies actually work. Smith's insights about specialization and exchange are still underappreciated.”

“Homer's Odyssey is one of the greatest stories ever told. Odysseus is the ultimate hero of resourcefulness — he survives through wit, not just strength.”

“The heroes of Ayn Rand's books are the people who produce things. That resonated with me deeply.”

“Richard Dawkins is a brilliant thinker. The Selfish Gene is a must-read for understanding life and evolution.”

“Sapiens is worth reading. Harari asks the right questions about where we came from and where we're going.”

“Peter Thiel captures the essence of what it means to create something genuinely new. Zero to One is required reading for entrepreneurs.”

“Homer's Iliad is best experienced as an audiobook at 1.25x speed.”

“Foundation — I read it as a teenager. It affected my thinking more than almost anything. It is about the development of civilization and how you can take actions to minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce its length.”

“Lord of the Rings is just an amazing story. I've read it at least three or four times. There's something timeless about the struggle against forces of darkness.”

“Adams was the funniest philosopher who ever lived. The Hitchhiker's Guide taught me that the universe is absurd and that's okay.”

“I think Dune is a masterpiece of science fiction. The world-building is extraordinary — ecology, religion, politics, all interwoven.”

“Gödel, Escher, Bach — one of the most mind-bending books ever written.”

“Ender's Game taught me about strategy, leadership, and that sometimes the game is not what you think it is.”

“Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash predicted so much of today's digital world. Required reading for futurists.”

“Andy Grove's relentless self-questioning is the right mindset for anyone building in fast-moving industries.”

“Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.”

“I read Isaacson's biography of Jobs which I thought was quite interesting.”

“Feynman had an amazing ability to break problems down to first principles. Surely You're Joking captures his genius — curious, irreverent, and always getting to the truth.”

“Horowitz doesn't sugarcoat the horror of being a CEO. This is the most honest tech memoir I've read.”

“The Innovator's Dilemma changed the way I think about disruption. It's required reading for anyone building a company.”

“I like Stranger in a Strange Land, although it kind of goes off the rails at the end.”

“I think [The Moon is a Harsh Mistress] is Heinlein's best book, honestly.”

“Franklin was a polymath inventor and statesman — the closest thing to a Renaissance man in American history.”

“It is interesting to read Orwell’s account of the Spanish civil war. He started out fighting for the communists …”

“There's obviously Gibbon's famous book about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and how they had advanced technology in terms of roads, aqueducts, plumbing and so forth and then they basically forgot about it.”

“For maximum alpha, complete with fighting for princesses, the Iliad. Penguin audiobook at 1.25X speed is best. It was meant to be a spoken, not written, story. https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-odyssey/id1479199452”

“Age of Napoleon [is my favorite], so far. The first books are a little dry. Gets much better when Ariel is co-author.”

“I read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and basically what Douglas Adams was saying is: we don't really know what the right questions are to ask. The question is not "What's the meaning of life?" [...] In that book, which is really sort of an existential philosophy book disguised as as humor, they come to the conclusion that the real problem is trying to formulate the question. And to really have the right question you need a much bigger computer than earth. I think one way of characterizing this would be: The universe is the answer. What are the questions? The more we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness the better we can understand what questions to ask about the answer that is the universe. The more we expand consciousness to become a multi-planet species and ultimately a multi-stellar species, the more we have a chance of figuring out what the hell is going on.”

“Sam Harris is a pompous hypocrite (writes book about how lying is terrible and then advocates lying to keep Trump from being elected) who is visibly and audibly detached from reality. How far he has fallen.”

“Some audiobook recommendations: The Story of Civilization by Durant Iliad (Penguin Edition) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek American Caesar by Manchester Masters of Doom by Kushner The Wages of Destruction by Tooze The Storm of Steel by Junger The Guns of August by Tuchman The Gallic Wars by Caesar Twelve Against the Gods by Bolitho Genghis Khan by Weatherford The first one on the list will take a while to get through, but is very much worthwhile. Admittedly, this is a list that appeals to those who think about Rome every day. I hope someone makes an audiobook of The Encyclopedia of Military History by Dupuy and The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Creasy.”

“Some audiobook recommendations: The Story of Civilization by Durant Iliad (Penguin Edition) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek American Caesar by Manchester Masters of Doom by Kushner The Wages of Destruction by Tooze The Storm of Steel by Junger The Guns of August by Tuchman The Gallic Wars by Caesar Twelve Against the Gods by Bolitho Genghis Khan by Weatherford The first one on the list will take a while to get through, but is very much worthwhile. Admittedly, this is a list that appeals to those who think about Rome every day. I hope someone makes an audiobook of The Encyclopedia of Military History by Dupuy and The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Creasy.”

“Highly recommend anything by Sean Carroll https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll/status/728599116456984577”

“Some audiobook recommendations: The Story of Civilization by Durant Iliad (Penguin Edition) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek American Caesar by Manchester Masters of Doom by Kushner The Wages of Destruction by Tooze The Storm of Steel by Junger The Guns of August by Tuchman The Gallic Wars by Caesar Twelve Against the Gods by Bolitho Genghis Khan by Weatherford The first one on the list will take a while to get through, but is very much worthwhile. Admittedly, this is a list that appeals to those who think about Rome every day. I hope someone makes an audiobook of The Encyclopedia of Military History by Dupuy and The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Creasy.”

“Some audiobook recommendations: The Story of Civilization by Durant Iliad (Penguin Edition) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek American Caesar by Manchester Masters of Doom by Kushner The Wages of Destruction by Tooze The Storm of Steel by Junger The Guns of August by Tuchman The Gallic Wars by Caesar Twelve Against the Gods by Bolitho Genghis Khan by Weatherford The first one on the list will take a while to get through, but is very much worthwhile. Admittedly, this is a list that appeals to those who think about Rome every day. I hope someone makes an audiobook of The Encyclopedia of Military History by Dupuy and The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Creasy.”

“Some audiobook recommendations: The Story of Civilization by Durant Iliad (Penguin Edition) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek American Caesar by Manchester Masters of Doom by Kushner The Wages of Destruction by Tooze The Storm of Steel by Junger The Guns of August by Tuchman The Gallic Wars by Caesar Twelve Against the Gods by Bolitho Genghis Khan by Weatherford The first one on the list will take a while to get through, but is very much worthwhile. Admittedly, this is a list that appeals to those who think about Rome every day. I hope someone makes an audiobook of The Encyclopedia of Military History by Dupuy and The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Creasy.”

“Marx was a capitalist. He even wrote a book about it.”

“Some audiobook recommendations: The Story of Civilization by Durant Iliad (Penguin Edition) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek American Caesar by Manchester Masters of Doom by Kushner The Wages of Destruction by Tooze The Storm of Steel by Junger The Guns of August by Tuchman The Gallic Wars by Caesar Twelve Against the Gods by Bolitho Genghis Khan by Weatherford The first one on the list will take a while to get through, but is very much worthwhile. Admittedly, this is a list that appeals to those who think about Rome every day. I hope someone makes an audiobook of The Encyclopedia of Military History by Dupuy and The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Creasy.”

““We are choked with news and starved of history” – Durant”

“Worth reading Life 3.0 by @Tegmark. AI will be the best or worst thing ever for humanity, so let’s get it right.”

“Must admit to liking "The Fault in Our Stars" too. Sad, romantic and beautifully named”

“I actually asked Ashlee Vance not to write the book several times. Inevitably, some things are wrong and then those errors are repeated for years.”

“Worth reading “Human Compatible” by Stuart Russell (he’s great!) about future AI risks & solutions”

“Written by three experts in the field, Deep Learning is the only comprehensive book on the subject. It provides much-needed broad perspective and mathematical preliminaries for software engineers and students entering the field, and serves as a reference for authorities.”

“Daemon is a great read”