Elon Musk Recommended Books

Favorite nonfiction read of 2018.

"The book made such a significant impact on Satya Nadella that he hired co-author Yoshua Bengio." - ThingsCyber.com

"For a slightly more technical read [on AI]." - Vinod Khosla

"Very clear exposition, does the math without getting lost in the details." - Nassim Taleb

"A great book." - Tim Ferriss

"One of my favorite one hour reads about intellectual honesty. I wish more people were this honest!" - Vinod Khosla

"How [to live] life with radical honesty." - Brian Armstrong

"A great book." - A.J. Jacobs

"I wouldn’t just read [this book] breathless and wide-eyed and believe everything." - Naval Ravikant

"Made me worry that machine knowledge could ruin everything." - Sam Harris

"Best thing I’ve seen on this topic." - Sam Altman

"Very important book." - Will MacAskill

One of Marc Goodman's most-gifted or recommended books.

Eric Weinstein tweet about books that mattered enough to him.

"Got a ton of these for the Initialized office." - Alexis Ohanian

"One of the most remarkably researched books I’ve ever read." - Ross Kaminsky

"[The author's] invaluable wisdom and insight come to life on each page." - Karlie Kloss

Naval Ravikant's answer to "any good book about economy for a beginner?"

"To learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

"[One] of the most important books I’ve read." - Nick Szabo

On the "Top 100 Books Referenced by Noam Chomsky" list.

Brandon Stanton mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

"[The author]'s magnum opus." - Bill Gurley

Patrick Collison labeled this book "particularly great."

"Made me want to work on AI, which led to Lisp." - Paul Graham

John Carmack mentioned this book on Twitter.

"Probably the [science fiction book] I read the most when I was younger." - Bill Gates

"I’m a big fan of [the author]." - Christopher Sommer

Ryan Shea recommended this book on his website.

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

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

On the "Top 100 Books Referenced by Noam Chomsky" list.

"Good." - Sam Harris

"I think is the best overall resource on AI." - Tim Urban

"I’ve recommended [this book] to thousands and thousands of people." - Tim Ferriss

"I read [this book and "Einstein"] and probed [Walter Isaacson] about them to try to glean what characteristics they had in common." - Ray Dalio

"[I read this book and] I am blown away and a little sad because I feel like, 'God damn, I went through all this education. No one ever taught me any of this stuff.'" - George Raveling

Scott Belsky mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

"The [biography of Benjamin Franklin] I read." - Brandon Stanton

Ed Zschau mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

"I looked forward to books by [this author] when he was alive." - Shah Rukh Khan

"Classic. I love [this book]." - Naval Ravikant

"I love [this book]." - Seth Rogen

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

"If 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' and 'Star Wars' had a love-child, it would read something like this." - Tim Ferriss

Evan Goldberg mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

"I’m fascinated by the discussion of how Jobs developed what became known as the Reality Distortion Field. Apparently Jobs had a lifelong battle with reality and won." - Scott Adams

"I noticed a number of similarities between [Steve Jobs and I], especially when [the author] quoted Jobs’s own words. [...] but to be clear, I didn’t think that Bridgewater or I held a candle to Apple and Jobs." - Ray Dalio

List of books Bill Gates read in 2012.

"I've read 3 business books in my life. If you call [this book] a business book." - Gary Vaynerchuk

"[When I read this book] I was so blown away. I had underlined about three-quarters of the book." - George Raveling

"Really did a good job of capturing the way that an innovation leader’s mind works." - Chris Fussell

"My. Favorite. Author." - Taylor Swift

"I stayed up til 4 finishing [this book]." - Emma Watson

"Doesn't cover Starlink, but I enjoyed [this book] on the swashbuckling early days of SpaceX" - John Collison

Charlie Munger recommended this book in the "Poor Charlie's Almanack" book.

"A great book, probably in my all time top 100." - Paul Graham

"Cast as a letter to his son. It’s not some deep ruminations and things. It’s about how you make your way through this world." - Walter Isaacson

"[The author] didn’t mean to write his autobiography. He wanted to write a note to his family about what he’d learned in his experiments." - Cory Booker

"One of the very first books that I read." - Brandon Stanton

"[This] is I think the most compelling of books." - Vince Vaughn

"Incredible." - Tim Ferriss

Sahil Lavingia recommended this book on Notion.

"One of my favorite sci-fi novels of all time." - Bill Gates

Barack Obama's favorite books of 2018 list.

"Anyone who wants to discuss how artificial intelligence is shaping the world should read this book." - Bill Gates

"Best introduction to AI, accessible to sophisticated. Enjoyable to read." - Keith Rabois

"I recommend people read [this book]." - Lex Fridman

"It felt almost like reading a scifi." - PewDiePie

"Gives an overview of entrepreneurship and innovation." - Andrew Ng

"I learned a lot reading it." - Ben Horowitz

"A must read." - Bryan Johnson

Chris Dixon recommended this book on Twitter.

Dustin Moskovitz recommended this book during a Stanford lecture in 2014.

"If you really understand something that the rest of the world is confused about, and it’s an important truth, [this book] says here are all the ways you might want to make that work." - Eric Weinstein

"I had to read [this book] twice before I fully understood it." - Charlie Munger

"Turned evolutionary biology on its head and was written like a great detective story." - Matt Ridley

"Famous book about how our bodies are vehicles to replicate our genes (even though we occasionally defy them)." - Brian Armstrong

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

"Explains more about life (including human behavior and myself) than anything else I’ve read. " - Nick Szabo

"Had a profound influence on me pretty early on." - Phil Libin

Jocko Willink covered this book in "Jocko Podcast" Ep. 14

"Larry’s favorite history book [...], which he had read several times." - Julian Guthrie

Jocko Willink covered this book in "Jocko Podcast" Ep. 23

"To learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

"Served me well. [...] Advocates keeping one’s cool at all times." - Marc Benioff

"After meeting Mark Zuckerberg, [Evan Spiegel] immediately bought every [Snapchat] employee a copy of 'The Art Of War'." - Business Insider

"Another [book] I have to mention." - Dave Camarillo

Ryan Petersen mentioned this book on Twitter.

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog.

Dave Camarillo left this book at Tim Ferriss' house.

"[The author's] central thesis, that war was a continuation of diplomacy by other means, dovetailed with my own instincts." - Nelson Mandela

"If this book does not become required reading for us all, we may well see modern civilization unravel before our eyes." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

"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

"Amazing book." - Austen Allred

"About the PC Gaming industry." - Trung Phan

"Portrays a mass of facts in his own imitable style." - Mahatma Gandhi

Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.

"Peter [Thiel] would, at one point, pass me a copy of [this book], the book he had read as he’d mulled his options over." - Ryan Holiday

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday

"So good and so important." - A.J. Jacobs

"Will change your sense of how grand the sweep of human history could be, where you fit into it, and how much you could do to change it for the better." - Ezra Klein

"Both terrifying and uplifting." - Joseph Gordon-Levitt

"A fascinating, profound read." - Julia Galef

"Our guidebook to navigating this critical moment." - Liv Boeree

"Altogether thrilling and necessary." - Sam Harris

"Best book of 2023. Funny, informative, and authentic." - Joe Gebbia

"It’s an extremely important read, so pls get it." - Liv Boeree

"This book is truly remarkable. [The author] has spent 6 years on this. You must read it." - Tobi Lütke

Paul Graham's (funny) answer to "what are your favourite books with a politics very different to your own?"

"I was thinking of [this book] when Harry saved Cedric’s body." - J.K. Rowling

Stewart Brand recommended this book on his "Selected Books for the Manual for Civilization" blog post.

"Reminds us that over the last 500 years there have been 16 times in which there has been [...] an empire challenging another. In 12 of those cases there have been wars." - Ray Dalio

"A very smart and important book." - Fareed Zakaria

"When a new power arises in the world, it results in a clash with the dominant power. This important and fascinating book extracts lessons for how we can avoid such a confrontation." - Walter Isaacson

"Read every page… Twice." - Anthony Scaramucci

"The most timely and important book I read [in 2018]." - David Sacks

"Informs the moment like Guns of August did for Kennedy in [the] Cuban Missile Crisis." - Lloyd Blankfein