Tim Ferriss is a force to be reckoned with. He’s created an incredible
network, brand and set of experiences for himself. And he’s done it in a
way that is excitingly accessible (Four Hour Body? I have four hours!).
I’m not a devoted follower of him or his podcast like I am with the Twenty Minute VC, but it’s impossible to ignore the platform Tim’s built.
Thought Leaders* Love Stoicism
Stoicism seems to be the latest in-vogue philosophy. From the little I know of it, it emphasizes only worrying about things you can control, and learning to stay balanced in what is certain to be a turbulent life. They seem like good ideas to me, and I was inspired to order Letters from a Stoic after seeing how profoundly stoicism has influenced Ferriss’ guests.
Ferriss also published Ryan Holiday’s excellent book Ego is the Enemy, which was super impactful to me in my personal life as well as professionally; and I know Holiday is heavily influenced by the stoics. I highly recommend checking that one out.
Most of the Books Focus on Big Ideas, Not Specific Problems
The majority of the books in this list deal with broad concepts and frameworks of thinking, and don’t get very detailed in their application. These books are the ones that generally change people’s way of thinking and make a huge impact on their lives, so it makes sense that they dominate the list. Black Swan did it for me, and many people have been similarly affected by Atlas Shrugged, Man’s Search for Meaning, The Alchemist etc.
It’s the rare book that can be both instructive on a granular level and life-altering on a profound level. I’d like to highlight those books, because I think they can be especially helpful to people who are just starting out, and I know from experience that it can be frustrating to read lots of big ideas without any idea how to immediately apply them.
I think that’s part of the brilliance of Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things, the favorite book of Twenty Minute VC guests— it manages to be both a broad manifesto for startup founders while still addressing the nitty-gritty of specific problems (exactly how to fire an executive, when and why to raise money, how to build out a sales team).
A huge part of Tim Ferriss’ own success, I think, is his ability to provide both concrete instruction and conceptual inspiration. His own 4 Hour Workweek is featured in the list, and it certainly does this: the broad concept is “you can design your life in a way such that you don’t need to work a full-time job rooted in one place until you retire, and it can lead to a better life to do so.” But he also addresses the details: exactly how to ask your boss for a remote work setup, exactly how to set up a dropshipping setup so that you can run an e-commerce company from anywhere, exactly how to use geo-arbitrage to live well on little money.
I’ve read the following books from the list and they are both conceptually inspirational and detailed in their instruction:
Brad Feld’s excellent Venture Deals which gives incredible advice on startup fundraising
The classic How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, which deconstructs how to make and break habits and is one of my favorite books of all time
Let me know what you think of the books/ what should be on the list!
