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I listed here only the best books I know, those I want to read many times. I'd love to hear from you if you have any recommendations.


"Read the best 100 books over and over again" – Naval (nav.al/read)


"Don't read what you wouldn't re-read" – Nassim Taleb

Best readings I know of

Biography

Software

Python

Theoretical Computer Science

Machine Learning

General Science

Math

Philosophy

History

  • The History of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edward Gibbon) (6 volumes)

    Arguably the most honored history book ever written.

  • The Lessons of History (Will & Ariel Durant). 1968

    A short distillation on which lessons the authors gather from their five decades work on The Story of Civilization series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Civilization)

    • In the end superior ability has its way.

    • History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.

    • Every advance in the complexity of the economy puts an added premium upon superior ability.

    • All technological advances are merely new means of achieving old ends.

    • The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows.

    • Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group.

    • In every age men have been dishonest and governments have been corrupt.

    • Competition is not only the life of trade, it is the trade of life.

    • We cooperate in our group in order to strengthen our group in its competition with other groups.

    • War is a nation's way of eating.

    • War is the ultimate form of competition.

    • Leave men free and their natural inequalities will multiply.

    • History shows little alteration in the conduct of mankind.

    • The initiative individual—the "great man," the "hero," the "genius"—regains his place as a formative force in history.

    • At times his eloquence, like Churchill's, may be worth a thousand regiments; his foresight in strategy and tactics, like Napoleon's, may win battles and campaigns and establish states.

    • These initiative individuals are effects of numberless causes, and causes of endless effects.

    • The imitative majority follows the innovating minority and this follows the originative individual.

    • Even the skeptical historian develops a humble respect for religion, since he sees it functioning, and seemingly indispensable, in every land and age.

    • History remains, at bottom, a natural selection of the fittest individuals and groups.

    • Our capacity for fretting is endless.

    • If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children.

    • The final test is the ability to survive.

Unclassified

  • Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity

    • Creativity works like natural selection, where many diverse ideas are generated, and only the best ones survive (retained)"

    • Breakthroughs comes from sheer volume of output. Odds are similar at each try. More tries, more likely to arrive at great ideas.

    • Many major creative advances occur through trial and error rather than deliberate planning

    • Creativity is shaped by intelligence, personality, persistence, and sometimes even mental instability

  • Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert B. Cialdini)

    Endorsed by Charlie Munger, and Naval Ravikant. Seven principles of influence: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity, unity.

  • Almanack of Naval Ravikant

    Life wisdom in very concise form

  • Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days Jessica Livingston

    Paul Graham: "It is probably the single most valuable book a startup founder could read." https://www.paulgraham.com/foundersatwork.html

  • The Elements of Style (Strunk)

    Brian Kernighan. "You should learn how to write well. The best small book on the topic is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, well worth the minuscule price." https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring19/cos333/bib.html

Second-rate books (other books I like that didn't make the this top list)

Great reading lists from others

"The opportunity cost of consuming second-rate writing is higher than ever. In a world where more great writing is available than any human could read in a lifetime, it pays to be ruthless in filtering what you won't read. Your attention is a precious resource; invest it wisely." – ref


"If you want a new idea, read an old book." – Pavlov


""The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."" – Schopenhauer

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