Austen Allred Recommended Books

"Beautifully written and filled with such wisdom." - Arianna Huffington

"Ray Dalio has provided me with invaluable guidance and insights that are now available to you in Principles." - Bill Gates

"[The author] open sourced Bridgewater’s methods in [this book] and the results were good evidence that collectives can operate at higher levels when they are open and honest about and can see past their cognitive flaws." - Bryan Johnson

"[Ray Dalio]'s a great guy and has a great book out you all need to get called Principles. It’s a major key!!" - Diddy

"Greg Penner, our chairman, asked me to read it." - Doug McMillon

"Sketched really concise and good thoughts for [how to approach life]." - Drew Houston

"Loved it." - Tobi Lütke

Entrepreneur.com article.

"Best cyberpunk novel ever written. Slightly dated but very prescient." - Naval Ravikant

"Ten years ahead of the time anticipated what's going to happen." - Sergey Brin

On the "books read" section of Ev Williams' GoodReads profile.

"Such a good book but you can’t give it to someone now. I've tried; it doesn’t work. You have to read it before you’ve been on the internet." - Seth Godin

"One of my favorite books of all time." - Naval Ravikant

"My most read book." - Tobi Lütke

"Finished reading." - Jack Dorsey

"I kind of thrive on stress, so I’m almost embarrassed by how comforting I find this book." - Anna Kendrick

"Great read." - Sam Altman

Neil Strauss recommended this book in the "Tools of Titans" book.

"This book will change your fucking life." - Joe Rogan

"Anytime anybody feels mopey about what's happening in their startup or in their life, this is the book to read to reset all the expectations." - Marc Andreessen

"Have been [this author's] fan for awhile. The book didn't disappoint." - Anthony Pompliano

Tom Bilyeu recommended this book on his website.

"If David Goggins can run a hundred miles on broken legs, what’s possible for you?!" - Jodie Cook

"My favorite book of 2018." - Justin Kan

"One of the best business biographies I have ever read." - Charlie Munger

"I found Rockefeller to be strangely stoic, incredibly resilient, and, despite his reputation as a robber baron, humble and compassionate." - Ryan Holiday

"[One of the] best books I read in 2017." - Anthony Pompliano

"Just hearing the story of the railroads and standard oil and what took place in this country, it's incredible." - David Friedberg

"I got about 500 pages in. It is detailed." - Jason Calacanis

"Fabolous." - Ray Dalio

Bob Iger told Variety this book was on his Reading List.

"A worthwhile read for all builders." - Brian Armstrong

"A fabulous book." - Ed Zschau

Lloyd Blankfein recommended this book on the "Exchanges at Goldman Sachs" podcast.

"Contains timeless themes relevant to any and all forms of human endeavour." - Ali Abdaal

"One of the best books I’ve ever read." - Tobi Lütke

"I love [this book]." - Jason Fried

"Best (?) walk through the ancient/current philosophy of Stoicism. You can't control other people but you can control yourself, so do that." - Marc Andreessen

"I immediately checked out of the library and read completely." - MMM

"An easy way to learn about [Stoicism] and recognize why this resonates." - DHH

"I found when reading it that the quirky philosophy I've been living my life by since 17 matches up exactly with a 2000-year-old philosophy called Stoicism." - Derek Sivers

"Has been recommended to me by several billionaires." - Tim Ferriss

"Unexpectedly the most interesting book on the topic of how you think about inclusion." - Ben Horowitz

"Genghis Khan was a great democratizer. His Mongol Empire conquered more territory in 25 years than the Romans did in 200." - Lisa Ling

One of Daymond John's answers to "most-gifted or recommeded books?"

"One of my favorite books about building software." - Patrick Collison

"[This book] convinced me to start a company. Thanks for helping create Reddit." - Alexis Ohanian

"Please read [this book]. It's such a great book." - Jeff Atwood

"Wonderful." - Tobi Lütke

"A great book." - Elon Musk

"About the PC Gaming industry." - Trung Phan

Recommended on Jordan Peterson's website.

Paul Graham mentioned this book on Twitter.

"[There are] engineers who [dismiss] all these things that can’t be fit into an algorithm, or that don’t have some kind of mathematical rigor underpinning them, [this book] is about that question." - Drew Houston

"Inspired my cultivation of dynamic quality as a way of life." - Josh Waitzkin

Bryan Johnson recommended this book on Twitter.

"One of the few novels I’ve ever read twice." - Ev Williams

"A gift to all of my Apple II programming buddies from high school and Dungeons & Dragons comrades." - Steve Jurvetson

"A compelling picture of how VR might play out." - Brian Armstrong

"So much fun." - Astro Teller

"Spectacular." - Bill Gurley

"One of my favorites now." - Jenn Im

"A tremendous amount of fun." - George R. R. Martin

Richard Branson recommended this book on his "70 must-read books" blog post.

"Beautifully written, simply written, and hilarious." - Tim Ferriss

Keith Rabois recommended this book on a Medium blog post.

"Tells the story of the world I have always lived, loved and believed in, despite the recent techlash." - Vinod Khosla

Patrick Collison labeled this book "substantially above average."

One of Sam Altman's answers to "What are some of the best books you recommend for a young startup founder?"

Ryan Shea recommended this book on his website.

"One of my favorite history books." - Chris Dixon

"About the Electricity industry." - Trung Phan

Noah Kagan recommended this book in the "Tools of Titans" book.

"Really resonated with me, and I will certainly incorporate many of these principles into my work and personal life." - Kevin Rose

"Offers concise and eloquent advice on how to determine what you care about most, and how to apply your energies in ways that ultimately bring you the greatest rewards." - Reid Hoffman

"This book changed my life." - Steve Harvey

"Do less but do it better. Wise words with application across life and business." - Jodie Cook

Michael Hyatt recommended this book on his website.

Keith Rabois recommended this book on a Medium blog post.

"The reason you don't read [this book] in highschool is because [the author] made the critical mistake, from a literary standpoint, of feeling like he got something out of [World War I]." - Dan Carlin

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog.

"[One of three] classic books to read, albeit perhaps with less immediate/practical relevance today." - Keith Rabois

"I read [this book] and I said to myself this feels like an area of the world I can come to and be myself.'" - Kevin Systrom

"Incredibly well written tale of our times." - Donald Knuth

On the "books read" section of Ev Williams' GoodReads profile.

"This book changed my life when it came out. [...] It made me want to be a hacker. But not a criminal — a hero of the computer revolution." - Zooko Wilcox

"A really formative book for me as a teenager." - John Carmack

"The complete story of Warren Buffett’s life. (He’s old, so there are over 700 pages)." - MMM

"If I had to pick one book that changed the way I look at investing, this would be it." - DJ Vlad

"I am reading this great book [...]. He is my favorite author." - Mukesh Ambani

"Sheds light on every facet of [Leonardo da Vinci]’s life." - Bill Gates

"[The author] weaves an extravagant web." - Oprah Winfrey

Recommended on Jordan Peterson's website.

"I don't know if I have to expound on why I love this book, but everyone should read [this author], and this was the first one of his works I read. So, it's like a first boyfriend. Or my first Cabbage Patch Kid." - Chelsea Handler

"I thought I wouldn't want to finish an 800-page book, but then I started slowing down and reading the same chapters over and over." - Jennifer Lawrence

This book was on Sam Altman's bookshelf.

"A great novel that I have read three times." - Laura R Walker

"A great one -- had no idea Nike had such a long history." - Alexis Ohanian

"[One of the] best books I read in 2017." - Anthony Pompliano

"A refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like." - Bill Gates

"All entrepreneurs should read." - Bill Gurley

"Memoir by the Nike founder and CEO." - Brian Armstrong

"Great inspirational [book]." - Jason Calacanis

"Found it even better than I anticipated." - Anthony Pompliano

"I’m a big fan [of this book]." - MMM

"A great biography on Musk." - Tim Urban

"One of the people that I find most interesting. I'm fascinated by Elon Musk." - Casey Neistat

"A good read." - John Collison

Patrick Bet-David recommended this book on his website.

"[The authors] dive deep into how Amazon has become the company to study if you want to succeed in 21st-century business." - Tim O’Reilly

"One of the very best management books of recent times." - Tyler Cowen

Marty Cagan recommended this book on Twitter.

"A counterpoint to communism and useful as such, but should be tempered with kindness." - Elon Musk

Steve Wozniak said he thinks Steve Jobs mentioned this book and it really was a guide in his life.

"When I first read [Ayn Rand's books] in the late 80s, it felt pretty crazy. And in the last decades, it's in many ways felt much more correct." - Peter Thiel

One of Shah Rukh Khan's favorite novels.

"Loved [this book]. Read often." - Joe De Sena

"Something I’ve read multiple times to get me in the mindset of not letting anything stand in my way" - Peter Diamandis