02 / The personal library
UK localCurrent UK local time:Good books.Better questions.
A thinking space, not a bookstore. The useful bit is the pattern each book leaves behind.
Find something that stays with youThe point isn’t to agree with every page.37 books
It’s to leave with a better question.
One curious reader
The reading index.
37 entries / 4 lensesFinancial durability is driven by behavioral psychology over technical forecasting. Managing margin of safety matters far more than maximizing theoretical efficiency.
On the record
The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Single-threaded ownership: every initiative must have one accountable decision-maker. Unambiguous runbooks and feedback cadences convert executive intent into operational throughput.
On the record
The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
Defensible monopolies arise from proprietary technology and proprietary distribution. Mimicking consensus is an expensive hedge against having an independent operational thesis.
On the record
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
Enterprise creation is a relentless liquidity and supply-chain battle. Tidy strategic narratives are almost always retrospective rationalizations of chaotic physical survival.
On the record
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
High-value cognitive output requires uninterrupted, single-task deep focus. Operational architectures must ruthlessly protect cognitive bandwidth from shallow communication loops.
On the record
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
A question to take back to work
What would you stop doing this week to make room for the work that matters?
Tactical empathy: uncover hidden constraints and unvoiced fears rather than arguing logic. Negotiation is information discovery disguised as compromise.
On the record
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Epistemic divergence: stepping outside an insular operating model requires dismantling foundational assumptions. Cognitive restructuring carries immense personal switching costs.
On the record
Educated
A question to take back to work
What would you stop doing this week to make room for the work that matters?
Customer behavior change is the only honest metric of success. Measuring feature output rather than operational outcome is a vanity exercise that masks systemic stagnation.
On the record
Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
Pay yourself first: capital reserves precede operational leverage. In business as in personal finance, cash-flow discipline is the prerequisite for surviving unexpected systemic shocks.
On the record
The Richest Man in Babylon
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
First things first: reactive firefighting cannot be scheduled away. True operational velocity requires establishing non-negotiable boundaries between what is urgent and what is critical.
On the record
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
A question to take back to work
What would you stop doing this week to make room for the work that matters?
Unglamorous organizational mechanics dictate delivery performance. Culture is an emergent property of grievance pathways, job leveling, and transparent accountability structures.
On the record
A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th Edition)
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Belief sets the ceiling on operational ambition. Setting higher baseline standards changes how engineering teams resource, architect, and execute complex infrastructure programmes.
On the record
The Magic of Thinking Big
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
First-principles engineering extracts extreme speed at tremendous human friction. Radical vertical integration beats supplier paralysis if you can withstand the operational drag.
On the record
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
A question to take back to work
Which incentive, dependency or feedback loop is shaping the result?
Validate emotional reality before attempting technical correction. Whether with children or engineering stakeholders, unacknowledged resistance derails operational change.
On the record
How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Crisis leadership demands emotional regulation and transparent operational cadence. High-stakes turbulence tests whether leadership credibility is structural or theatrical.
On the record
Leadership: In Turbulent Times
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Information asymmetry is actively defended by institutional self-preservation. When truth threatens authority, administrative systems default to silence and intimidation.
On the record
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
A question to take back to work
Which incentive, dependency or feedback loop is shaping the result?
Creative alignment requires psychological safety combined with rigorous editorial restraint. High-functioning teams thrive when directors protect creative variance from corporate meddling.
On the record
The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Structural incentives dictate human behavior. Misalignment between stated corporate values and actual compensation metrics will always break operational compliance.
On the record
Organizational Behaviour
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Team alignment requires explicit operational contracts. Shared enthusiasm without documented roles, resource commitments, and risk protocols guarantees delivery failure.
On the record
High-Impact Tools for Teams: 5 Tools to Align Team Members, Build Trust, and Get Results Fast
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Charismatic storytelling without verifiable physical telemetry is fraud. Technical governance requires forensic validation independent of executive authority.
On the record
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
A question to take back to work
Which incentive, dependency or feedback loop is shaping the result?
Technological innovation is an evolutionary, combinatorial process. Breakthroughs emerge from practical tinkering, trial and error, and affordable energy, rarely central planning.
On the record
How Innovation Works: Serendipity, Energy and the Saving of Time
A question to take back to work
Which incentive, dependency or feedback loop is shaping the result?
An innovation stack is an interdependent cluster of non-standard operational solutions. Replicating one feature fails because the defensibility lies in how the entire stack interconnects.
On the record
The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
Disrupting legacy regulated markets requires rebuilding core infrastructure from scratch. Overcoming compliance friction demands technological superiority and extreme operational tenacity.
On the record
Banking On It
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
External acclaim has zero correlation with internal psychological equilibrium. Operational high-performance often obscures acute personal vulnerability.
On the record
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Tax codes and regulatory loopholes reflect legislative capture. Follow structural incentives to see how administrative complexity is weaponized for systemic wealth preservation.
On the record
Taxtopia: How I Discovered the Injustices, Scams and Guilty Secrets of the Tax Evasion Game
A question to take back to work
Which incentive, dependency or feedback loop is shaping the result?
Triangulate the conversational mode—practical, emotional, or social—before proposing solutions. Mismatched conversational objectives guarantee operational friction.
On the record
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Protocol architectures determine economic power. Digital networks either mature into closed extractive monopolies or remain open, owner-governed public utilities.
On the record
Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet
A question to take back to work
Which incentive, dependency or feedback loop is shaping the result?
Sticky ideas combine concrete sensory hooks with emotional resonance. Complex technical concepts must be anchored in visceral physical realities to survive institutional retelling.
On the record
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Micro-habits compound geometrically over time. Operational excellence is not an event, but the unglamorous accumulation of disciplined daily routines.
On the record
The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success
A question to take back to work
What would you stop doing this week to make room for the work that matters?
The craftsman mindset: rare and valuable career capital precedes professional autonomy. Passion is the trailing consequence of hard-won domain mastery, not its catalyst.
On the record
So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
A question to take back to work
What would you stop doing this week to make room for the work that matters?
Validate hopes, justify failures, and alleviate fears. Persuasive influence operates on deep human vulnerabilities rather than rational data presentation.
On the record
The One Sentence Persuasion Course: 27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Latency arbitrage: millisecond speed advantages exploit market fragmentation. When infrastructure latency becomes financial leverage, systemic fairness is compromised.
On the record
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
A question to take back to work
Which incentive, dependency or feedback loop is shaping the result?
Initial business concepts are almost always flawed. Relentless empirical testing and operational iteration eliminate assumptions far faster than boardroom debate.
On the record
That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?
Cognitive diversity prevents collective blindness. In complex, high-risk systems, homogeneous teams amplify shared blind spots and produce catastrophic blind alleys.
On the record
Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
Decouple self-worth from external milestones. Achieving high-status business metrics without internal emotional grounding produces existential disillusionment.
On the record
Happy Sexy Millionaire: Unexpected Truths about Fulfillment, Love, and Success
A question to take back to work
What does the other person need you to understand before anything can change?
High performance is defined by non-negotiable operational baselines. Controlling the controllable and maintaining disciplined process integrity produces sustained competitive edge.
On the record
High Performance: Lessons from the Best on Becoming Your Best
A question to take back to work
What would you stop doing this week to make room for the work that matters?
Execution velocity demands psychological resilience and rapid feedback integration. Challenge conventional dogmas before embedding operational habits into organizational culture.
On the record
The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life
A question to take back to work
What are you choosing to do, and what does that choice rule out?