Books

Peter Thiel with Blake Masters

• Made me more skeptical of ideas that sound good but are really just polished copies of things people already understand.
• The monopoly framing stuck with me: build something specific enough that being clearly best is actually possible.

Marty Cagan

• Made product work feel less like collecting feature requests and more like figuring out which problems actually matter.
• Useful for thinking about engineering decisions through customer value, risk, and whether a team is building with real conviction.

Rob Fitzpatrick

• Changed how I ask people about ideas: avoid compliments, stop pitching, and listen for what they already do.
• Useful because it makes customer discovery feel practical instead of awkward, especially before building too much.

Brianna Wiest

• Helped me notice when I am the one making something harder than it needs to be, usually by avoiding the obvious next step.
• Less of a tactics book and more of a mirror for patterns I would normally explain away, rush past, or call discipline.

Shunryu Suzuki

• A reminder that simple things are usually only simple after I stop trying to force them into something more impressive.
• Useful for work because it pushes me to approach problems without pretending I already know where the answer is.

David Goggins

• The takeaway was not to live like Goggins, but to stop treating every bit of tiredness or discomfort as a real vote.
• Useful when I catch myself lowering the bar quietly and need a blunt reminder that accountability is not complicated.

Bruce C. N. Greenwald, Judd Kahn, Paul D. Sonkin, and Michael van Biema

• Helped make investing feel less like guessing and more like understanding a business piece by piece until the story holds up.
• The intrinsic value idea is useful outside markets too: what is this actually worth when noise and momentum are removed?

Chris Voss with Tahl Raz

• Changed how I think about hard conversations: slow down, listen better, and stop rushing to fill every silence.
• Calibrated questions are useful at work because they keep things collaborative without making you passive or vague.

Michael Easter

• Made me more aware of how easy it is to optimize every bit of friction out of a day and then wonder why I feel dull.
• Useful reminder to choose harder things on purpose sometimes, not for drama, but because discomfort resets perspective.