The best book I've ever read.

Maybe it's because he belonged to a different generation of Computer Scientists, but Hamming had a perspective on science, engineering, and computing that I've never seen anywhere else. Lots of gems in this compilation of lectures, including his most well-known "You and Your Research".

Ignore the scammyness of the title. This book is one of the best things I've read on entrepreneurship and Dennis (RIP) is a phenomenally honest & entertaining guide to the ins and outs of starting your own company.

Holy crap, where has this sci-fi book been my entire life? Sentient AI, society on the moon (with its own uniquely charming and unorthodox culture), anarchy, political coups, and revolution. Mike the supercomputer might be my favorite character from any book ever. I finished the first 100 pages in my first sitting... If anyone knows of more books like this, PLEASE let me know!

Does this count as a biography? If so, the best one I've ever read. A first-person look into one of the 20th century's best thinkers' mind. Plus, his stories are hilarious and entertaining.

Written in the 90s, but predicts Google, Twitter, AR, widespread LTE, AR, and pretty much everything we use today. Beyond that, super entertaining and suggests quite a few things (e.g city-state franchises) that don't exist (yet).

Whenever I think about complaining how hard my life is, I think about this book and those complaints are replaced with gratitude. Also introduced the fascinating idea of paradoxical intention to me, which seems to come up every day in my life.

One of the few popular business books that really lives up to the hype. Say what you want about Thiel, the man understands startups incredibly deeply.

Harry Potter retold as if Harry was a very intelligent rationalist, facing the mysteries of the wizarding world with nothing but the power of science and rational thinking. Manages to be furiously entertaining (though suuuper nerdy) while simultaneously inducting you into Eliezer's school of rationality.

Somehow, along the ~120 chapters, it changed the way I think permanently (and for the better). You will either love this (as I did) or hate it. I recommend listening to it in podcast/audiobook form at hpmorpodcast.com

Followup to HPMoR -- different, but amazing in its own way. http://www.anarchyishyperbole.com/p/significant-digits.html

Explores the hidden role of randomness in life -- especially focused on Taleb's (long and fascinating) profession as a trader.

Couldn't get into Vinge's other books, but damn this amazing. Strong reco for sci-fi lovers...

Best Culture novel I've read

A collection of Paul Graham's older essays -- what's not to love? Wish he'd publish a book of the ones after 2004 :P

WFIO, and what to do about it.

The bible on human memory -- one of the inspiratory forces behind Readwise.

Super entertaining overview of John Romero and John Carmack's wild ride, wherein they largely created the PC game market.

Also goes to show just how much an inexperienced startup team can get wrong (but get away with!) as long as they have a product that their users truly love.

If you work on a product that has recurring users, this book will almost certainly help you make it better.

How procrastination actually works

Heinlein is WEIRD man, but overall quite entertaining, and plenty of chunks of wisdom thrown in your face.

Great -- I've never read a book like this. Very long. Each chapter almost felt like an episode in a TV show, in the best sense possible.

Good, brief case against ever lying

Derek is a great writer and gets his ideas about entrepreneurship across fabulously.

A bit too zero-sum in many respects, but nonetheless a riveting look at power and its lessons throughout history.

Candid (at least candid-sounding) overview of Nike and Phil's history. My biggest take away: for the first decade, Nike was never not near the brink of failure! 

I thought the core principles of the book were great, but likely better suited for a long blog post than an entire book. Because of this, there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary fluff around mobile (just do what's obvious) and the specifics of UI patterns that you're probably not interested in.

The above being said, I don't regret reading this as some of the core tenants influence my everyday product thinking. I've heard the 2nd edition (non-revisited) is much less verbose, so maybe try that?

How procrastination actually works part 2