Things I’ve recommended to friends.
Books
Romances/Sci-Fi
- Bobiverse books 1, 2 and 3 - Great sci-fi.
- The Three-Body Problem books 1, 2 and 3 - Amazing sci-fi. Contains one of the best (space) battle written scenes.
- Flowers for Algernon - Beautiful book about a guy that has his intelligence raised due to a procedure but finds out the procedure might not last.
- Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions - A book where the protagonist is a square. He is originally from a 2D world and visits other dimensions.
- Einstein’s Dreams - Short stories that play with the concepts of time and space.
Product Development and Tech
- Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love - Influenced my earlier beliefs on digital products development.
- Shape Up - Product development mental models and methodologies that focus on value creation.
- The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win - This will feel very real if you’ve worked on bigger organizations (+100/200 people)
Other
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster - An amazing lesson on breaking down complex problems.
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Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder - The book is terribly written and I didn’t like the author’s tone. But the contents of this book lingered in my mind for longer than I thought and made me update some mental models I had regarding how to invest my time professionally (no more startup equity focus as I can’t do like a VC that bets on 10+ startups at the same time)
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Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders - 47 years of letters and not a single year you see Warren focusing on what the media was focusing at that time. Made me learn to ignore headlines talking about Warren/Berkshire, as they are usually just click baits.
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How to Win Friends & Influence People - I read this a long time ago and I think it made a huge impact on how I communicate with people.
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Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story - Taught me the importance of supporting and promoting the projects you’re part of beyond what you are expected (their success is your success).
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The Way of the Superior Man - Lots of weird woo woo stuff in here, but gave me a good mental model for balancing periods of intense goal pursuit with periods of uncertainty on what to do next.
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Autobiography of a Yogi - if you’re looking for some spirituality stuff to read, I’d recommend this book.
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Made me realize that my current spiritual beliefs are a product of the current economic/political system. (and that’s ok, but it’s good to know so you can decide for yourself)
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The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships - super fun read and made me do good reflections on my own baggage/traumas.
Podcasts
- 13 minutes to the moon - The story of the people who made Apollo 11 happen. A really good podcast if you love engineering.
- Peak Salvation - High achiever software engineer (ex-Microsoft and ex-Meta, millionaire) works at an Amazon warehouse during Peak (the company’s busiest season from Black Friday to Christmas) and documents his journey. Super interesting to see him using his software engineer and managing experience to over-analyze (in a good way) every step of the process, also comparing the huge differences between his previous high paid/high status work life and now.
Newsletter
- Farnam Street - The only newsletter I subscribe to. Weekly dose of useful mental models and insights. (hint: you will be constantly reminded on the importance of focusing on positioning yourself so that what you want to happen, happens anyway)
Courses
- The Science of Well-Being - Up to date and concise information on happiness.
