Reading List
In mid 2023, I began keeping track of my reading, and compiled the list here in order.
Each book includes its description and reason it was recommended.
2026 25 books10,805 pg3.1M words
A couple in love miscommunicates for 4 years.
Watched the miniseries and wanted to see how the book was.
Thoughts
I think the show was a very faithful and great adaptation. I couldn't find any really meaningful things I got out of the book that I didn't get out of the show. I like being able to know exactly what's going on in the characters' heads, but not enough to recommend reading this one over watching the show.
If you want to be sad for a couple days, binge-watch it. Does the job.
A very concise biography with eleven talks by Charlie Munger attached, covering the general mental framework he uses to judge opportunities. Notably, his use of psychology as the central node in this framework, which he argues is not currently studied in a way that reflects real human nature correctly.
Recommended by Bartek. I've also been interested to hear more about Berkshire's investment strategy.
Thoughts
I think for the most part his framework is one of the coolest I've seen. I usually dislike broad self-help books that encourage people to think in a certain way without rooting it in a first-hand narrative that provides full context to that person's life (why I prefer biographies). Even though he doesn't tell the story of his life in parallel to his approach to life, I think his thoughts are very insightful on their own. If I were to condense all he wrote into one thing, it would be:
When predicting the future or analyzing the past, work under the assumptions that the average individual is generally self-interested, stubborn, and prideful, but also wants to be trusted, useful, fair, and doesn't want to be disliked.
I also love his notes about making systems that are not gameable; there's a special "rung of hell" for people who design systems that are. If you give people incentives to have bad behavior, they will. It hadn't occurred to me before that most failed programs and organizations, like welfare, workers' comp, or the mortgage lending behind 2008, could've been avoided by simply designing them so they couldn't be easily gamed.
There's one talk I really disliked: "Talk Four: Practical Thought About Practical Thought?". In this talk he applies his list of human tendencies to explain the success of Coca-Cola as a case study. It bothered me because he was explaining something that already happened, then connecting the dots using his framework, which in my view is a bit of a cop-out because there's no chance he's wrong. Instead, I would have appreciated him using the framework on three random companies now and predicting their future and what actions they should take. This would do three things better:
- It would let us see how he actually approaches the unknown, because approaching the known is easy. We never got to hear him make any future predictions, merely calls to action, which aren't the same.
- It would show us how real events affect his initial prediction, and how it would change as the times changed. If something is wrong, we can see why and see where the faults were with his approach, then adapt his approach.
- It creates risk from his side. In his full book, he almost never made forward-looking statements that could later be wrong, but investing by nature is purely forward-looking, and wrong predictions are not only okay but valuable, as long as the reasoning was explained. It's an inversion case study we can all learn from.
I loved the other 10 talks though, and it's very clear to me that Charlie's mental model of psychology is generally correct and a version of it should be taught to students who will work in organizations later (all of them). Psychology just needs a unifying mind to wrap everything up in a bow, but I suppose he's right that the field isn't black and white and thus doesn't attract our best minds. In physics you can say, "do this experiment, I'm right, I'll take my Nobel now". In psychology you can just say, "Yeah, so, this thing probably might happen, but there's a million other factors I can't predict." Easy choice.
A student from Chicago wanders into the projects (the now-demolished Robert Taylor Homes) out of curiosity, and ends up spending years with the different people of the community: gang leaders, building presidents, police officers, and the common residents.
Mentioned in Freakonomics, and I was interested to learn more about what poverty actually looked like day to day at a human level.
The history of computing, all the way to current day, and Taiwan's stranglehold on chip production, with a big emphasis on the use of computing in wars.
Recommended by Tevon.
About Donald Trump's return to office, and drastic changing of America's institutions.
Liked Confidence Man, decided to read the next book too.
About the early life and first presidency of Donald Trump.
Wanted to learn more about the current administration and how it really functioned internally.
The leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco and, more fascinating, a clear study of corporate corruption and the use of company resources to dispense favors.
Recommended as a classic Wall St book.
The systematic destruction of Gawker Media by Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, and a team led by Aron D'Souza.
Heard about the takedown of Gawker in a YouTube video, and decided to learn more about it.
Amy Poehler's autobiography, on her life and her time in comedy.
Liked Bossypants, and it mentioned Amy Poehler. I really liked Parks and Rec so figured I'd read this too!
Tina Fey's autobiography, on her life and her time in comedy.
Watched 30 Rock and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to read more about Tina Fey.
The story of Amazon's founding and rapid growth, and multiple total transformations.
Always curious about the story of Amazon.
Steve Jobs's full biography, from the perspective of a journalist who knew him.
After I read Steve Jobs in Exile, this was recommended.
On Steve Jobs's time founding and running NeXT.
Recently came out.
The story of Sam Walton and how he built Walmart.
Amazon took a lot of inspiration from Walmart's supply chain.
Story of the founding and rapid expansion of Uber.
Saw mini-series and wanted to learn more about the undramatized events.
A british guy begins a journey through space he is very underqualified for.
Recommended many times, a classic.
The origin story of Nike, up to its IPO.
Known as one of the best founder autobiographies ever.
Outlines the world of venture capital deals & term sheets.
Wanted to learn how VC deals are structured.
Guide on managing a startup by a16z co-founder.
Gifted to me by a mentor.
Danny Meyer's journey in becoming a leading figure in the restaurant business.
Beginning to read books on restaurant and food management.
A short collection of stories of Caro's experiences writing The Power Broker and LBJ volumes.
Have to read something by Caro before LBJ 5 comes out.
Biography of Jensen Huang and the rise of NVIDIA.
Curious about the story of how NVIDIA was created.
How social media has affected the world in the 2010s and later.
My mom recommended it.
The life of one of the single best orators of the 20th century.
Was suggested to me after Napoleon.
Covers the life of Napoleon Bonaparte from his birth, rapid rise to general, time as consul, emperor, downfall, comeback, then death.
Watched the Napoleon movie and felt it was a bit rushed, so I decided to get the whole story.
2025 9 books6,013 pg2.1M words
Stalin's rule, covering his first years of power, his wife's suicide, and his transformation into dictator.
Animal Farm was interesting and I wanted to know what real life parallel.
A farm run by humans is overthrown by the animals and quickly devolves. Metaphor to Stalin's rise to power and rule over the Soviet Union.
I liked 1984 by Orwell, and this book was very short.
When a sun-eating microorganism is discovered, earth pools its resources to send a single mission to discover a solution.
Recommended by Brooke, and I also previous read the Martian and liked that too.
A 4-in-1 biography of Lincoln, Chase, Bates, and Seward, the four most prominent members and rivals of the Republic Party during the Civil War.
Recommended by my mom.
Covering the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his four term presidency from the Great Depression to WWII.
FDR centralized and actively used more power than any other president, wanted to contrast that with present day politics. Also wanted the political WWII perspective in the United States.
Prequel to Hunger Games.
Recommended by a friend, and heard they were making a movie about it as well.
Covers the rise and fall of the dictatorship in Germany that led to WWII. Written by an American journalist stationed in Germany until 1941.
Wanted to see what a transition from democracy to dictatorship really looked like in history.
Covering the work of Jony Ive, who led the design team of the iMac, iPod, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, and much more.
Developed many of my favorite products growing up.
Covering the life of the United States's first Treasury Secretary
Liked the Hamilton musical for a while, and thought I'd learn more about him.
2024 18 books9,624 pg3.2M words
LBJ's transition to the presidency after JFK's assassination.
4th of 4 books in the series, waiting for the 5th to come out!
LBJ's time ruling the senate, covering his rise to power and use of it.
3rd of 4 books in the series.
Second book about LBJ, covering 8 years, including his controversial senate election.
Enjoyed the first book.
Fictional story of 3 friends who start a video game company, which comes with a big cost.
Recommended by the same Google Intern who recommended Howard Schultz's book.
The story of Lyndon B. Johnson, from his childhood, to his first failed Senate campaign.
I loved The Power Broker, so I decided to read Caro's work about LBJ.
The very surprising history of how Starbucks was founded and changed in the early days.
Recommended by a fellow Google/YouTube Intern.
Second book in Harry Potter series.
Found some extra time to read the second book.
A vivid authoritarian world from the view point of lonely man who has lost faith.
This book is referenced in so many different ways, thought it would be good to read.
Book about leading organizations, from the perspective of Industrial Engineering.
Recommended by Dr. Van Aken (Head of Virginia Tech's ISE Dept).
Self-help book about energy and the effect is has on the people around you.
Recommended by former boss at AT&T.
The biography of Robert Moses, about his life and impact on New York City.
Greene's book mentioned this book as the inspiration of Mike Schur's "Parks and Recreation."
Behind the scenes look of the show "The Office"... Carell didn't want to leave after Season 7!
Always liked the show and wanted to learn how it was produced.
Story of the one of the largest frauds in history: Elizabeth Holmes & Theranos.
Recommended by friend, also the Mini Series "The Dropout" made me want to read it.
Biography of Elon Musk, from his very difficult childhood to his business career.
Was a big fan of how the Steve Jobs book was written by Isaacson.
Story driven introduction to industrial engineering.
Required Reading for ISE class.
I don't think I need to explain this one.
Recommended by every person I know, finally got around to it.
Memoir about living with mental illness, which manages to be very funny at the same time.
Found it in book store.
The story of Apple's transformation after Jobs's death, focusing on Tim Cook and Jony Ive.
Recommended by Soham Mehra, classmate at Virginia Tech.
2023 6 books2,426 pg742K words
The story of Pixar, from founding to its systemization of the creative process.
Important part of the stories of both The Ride of Lifetime and Steve Jobs.
The autobiography of the co-founder of Blackstone.
Recommended by former boss at AT&T.
Prequel to Hunger Games.
Wanted to read the book before the movie came out.
Story driven book about team building.
Recommended by a Virginia Tech professor.
Steve Jobs's biography written by former head of CNN, Walter Isaacson.
Since Jobs was mentioned a lot in The Ride of a Lifetime, I decided to read this next.
Great autobiography of Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney.
Recommended by former classmate, and Imagineer for Disney.