Recommended Reading
A list of Books that I would recommend for reading. I update this list monthly
Business Biographies
Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution - Gain an understanding of the history of innovation and how Silicon Valley came to be.
Get an unfiltered look at the struggles Phil Knight faced while building Nike with Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike.
Read Robert Iger’s story of how he rose from a junior position to become CEO of the Walt Disney Company in The Ride of a Lifetime.
Learn from the story of India’s first e-commerce company that failure can be just as instructive as success with Failing to Succeed: The Story of India’s First E-Commerce Company.
Find out what happens when the Silicon Valley mantra of “fake it till you make it” is taken to the extreme with Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.
Read Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed to discover how it is possible to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Learn a key business lesson from each of the 12 stories in Business Adventures
Discover how Pixar has consistently produced hit after hit, and learn how to create and maintain a creative work environment with Creativity, Inc.
Find out what it took for Intel to become the chip giant it is today with Only the Paranoid Survive
Business Management & Leadership
On Grand Strategy is a book that provides lessons from history that can shape one’s thinking.
How to Win Friends and Influence People is a book that can help improve one’s emotional intelligence in work, personal relationships, and daily life.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a book that can help one understand which skills to develop and improve as they move up the corporate ladder or grow their business.
Decision Making
The Art of Thinking Clearly - A must-read for anyone keen to understand how to improve their decision-making process, this book helps you grasp all the flaws in our thinking process.
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction - Understand how Probabilistic Thinking can aid you in thinking about decisions in a more holistic manner than the usual binary form we use daily.
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions - This book introduced me to Behavioural Economics, a topic everyone should be well aware of. It’s a highly engaging read that opens your mind to new thinking.
Startup
Art of the Start 2.0 - The go-to book for those keen to start a business and need simple, actionable advice.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Understand what it takes to keep a business running, the challenges one faces, and what one can do to keep moving forward.
ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever - One of my personal favourites. A book that teaches you how to build various facets of a business rather than worrying about funding.
Zero to One - Though this book is highly recommended by many, I don’t share the same enthusiasm. However, the book is still a great read to get an understanding of what it takes to build a good company while providing a good discussion on how to achieve product-market fit
Finance & Investment
The Intelligent Investor is a book that will help you build the mindset to be an investor for the long term.
The Psychology of Money teaches the various aspects of financial management while paving your mindset to develop healthy financial habits.
Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy helps you understand why GDP is not the holy grail to determine growth and what is driving today’s economic growth.
Productivity
Love it or hate it, Software is indeed eating the world. Rather than worrying about philosophical aspects, pick up tips and habits from the book Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions that can help you improve your life.
The Book of Beautiful Questions helps you realise that asking the proper inquiries is just as vital as locating solutions since it enables you to figure out if you’re truly addressing the real issue in question. Posing the right questions early on can guide you towards more effective solutions.
Biographies
Einstein: His Life and Universe - Understand the marvels and flaws of one of the greatest minds in science.
The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life & Times Of Enrico Fermi - The Manhattan Project paved the way for Nuclear energy. Get a better understanding of this key figure by reading about his life and times.
Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character - A collection of stories and letters, revealing Richard Feynman, who I became a big fan of after reading his lectures.
History
Guns, Germs, and Steel is a highly insightful book that helps one understand how societies have evolved to their current structures and why many ideas that celebrate the intelligence of one society over another need to be re-examined.
Origin Story: A Big History of Everything is a book I’m a huge fan of, as it helps one understand the journey from what science refers to as “t = 0”.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is one of the few books that makes readers challenge many notions they may have considered as facts. It lays out how we got here and what it took for us to arrive.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a book to understand almost everything under the sun. It’s a highly engaging read that can be read multiple times.
Chip War by Weinersmith offers an insightful look into the evolution of computer chips. It examines the chip industry’s past and present, plus what the future holds. It’s a must-read for those wanting to understand the chip industry and the tech driving it.
Science
Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life - A delightful book that explains everyday occurrences from a Physics viewpoint in simple terms. It’s a light-hearted read that makes concepts easy to understand.
How God Works - Understand why religion holds sway over most people. This book explores how religious rituals benefit people and what one can learn from them, even if they don’t believe in them.
WHAT IF? - Clear, logical answers to some of the most absurd questions people can come up with on the internet. The author doesn’t just provide a simple answer but expands on it far beyond what is expected. His webcomics are a real treasure trove
Fiction
The Three-Body Problem: 1 (The Three-Body Problem Series, 1) - A science fiction novel that begins with the Cultural Revolution in China. It slowly reveals how this sets the stage for the events that unfold in the story. The first book has been serialised on Netflix
Ready Player One - This book presents a dystopian world where augmented and virtual reality are part of everyday life. It contains multiple references to 1980s pop culture, making it an engaging read that captures your attention with a storyline that depicts a new class divide and explores what life could be like when AR/VR becomes mainstream. A movie has been made on the book but personally, reading the book is a better experience
The Broken Earth Trilogy - This rare series was awarded the Hugo Award for each book. It is set in a world of volcanoes and earthquakes, presenting a unique world that takes some time to decipher, but once you do, there is no turning back.