Reading List
A list of 20+ Book Recommendations from Pasha Rayan - Co-Founder of Forage and education technology startup founder.
Top Recommendations
- Plato and A Platypus Walk into A Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
I read this book in high school and, in conjunction with Catcher in the Rye, got me reading and thinking for the first time in my life! - My Life & Work - An Autobiography of Henry Ford
The story of Ford is similar to the story of the top founders today but in a time period that's different enough to make you realise some problems are universal.
It's also good to read about business in a time when business and a deep sense of morality were more connected than it is today. - Y Combinator Resources & Paul Graham Essays
@amasad said it best: "On YouTube: - hustle porn, selling nothing but empty dreams & ebooks, 10m views - Y Combinator video, actually teaches how to become a billionaire, 10k views".
Business Books
- Good Strategy, Bad Strategy - Richard Rumelt
- The Mind Of The Strategist - Kenichi Ohmae
- Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Great CEO within - Matt Mochary
Startup and Product Books
- Designing Products People Love: How Great Designers Create Successful Products - Scott Hurff
- Hackers & Painters - Paul Graham
- Zero to One - Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
Education & Pedagogy Books
- Bloom's 2 Sigma problem (paper link, wiki link)
- The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn - Richard W. Hamming
History Books
- The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris
- Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris
- Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China - Erza F Vogel
- Lives (Roman and Greek) - Plutarch
Philosophy Books
- Truth & Truthmakers - D.M. Armstrong
- Being & Time - Martin Heidegger
- War from the ground up - Emile Simpson
- On War - Carl von Clausewitz
- Confessions - Leo Tolstoy
Productivity Books
- The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal - Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz
Software Engineering Books
- Clean Code - Robert Cecil Martin
- The Mythical Man-Month - Fred Brooks
- Pragmatic Programmer - Andrew Hunt
Poetry
- Rudyard Kipling - If
- Rudyard Kipling - Collected Works
- The Laboratory by Robert Browning
- Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Lord Byron - Collected Works
Fiction
- The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
- Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Request For Books
Even with the internet being so comprehensive - I'm still not able to find the best books on some of these topics. If you know any, please message us! Topics are:
- Manufacturing (ideally from the ground up)
- Leatherworking
- Existential confidence
Closing Thoughts
Some books reach a truth, share an experience, or teach a unique thought better than others. This is a list of those books to me.
While I recommend these books - I may not endorse any, or all, of the ideas contained in them. Some ideas in these books are valuable as a point of contrast to what I've already known or believed. Other ideas have added a pinch of colour, context, or flavour to thoughts already stewing in my mind.
Every book listed though has been an exciting ingredient towards the knowledge soup of how I view the world.