The Man Who Solved the Market: What Jim Simons Actually Built
Jim Simons returned 66% annually for 30 years by removing human emotion from trading. A working options trader's take on what he actually built.
The Library
Everything worth a proper write-up, read or listened to. Not summaries, not star ratings: an honest account of what changed when I finished the last page, what the author was doing beneath the surface argument, and what it might mean for someone building things in the real world.
29 reviews, 5 on audio. Shelved by theme.
Money & Markets
Risk, trading, and the people who turned markets into machines.
Technology & Builders
How the machines, and the people obsessed with them, actually got built.
Masters of Doom by David Kushner: How Two Johns Built id Software Audiobook
I finished the Masters of Doom audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton and it was marvelous. The two-founders, build-from-nothing, ship-relentlessly story of id Software stuck with me. I miss it already, the same way I miss Shoe Dog.
Genius Makers: The Inside Story of the AI Race That Built ChatGPT
The inside story of how ChatGPT happened. Genius Makers traces the researchers and rivalries at Google, OpenAI, and Meta that built modern AI.
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
A flashlight. Morse code. Two friends signaling across the dark. From these humble origins, Petzold builds the entire architecture of modern computing. This book strips away the mysticism and reveals what computers truly are: layers of simple ideas, stacked with care.
The DevOps Handbook: Why Elite Teams Ship Fast Without Breaking
The DevOps Handbook isn't just another tech methodology book. It's the definitive guide to why some engineering teams ship fast without breaking everything, while others are stuck in deployment hell. If you've ever wondered how companies like Netflix and Amazon deploy thousands of times per day without catastrophic failures, this book reveals the playbook.
Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything by Steven Levy
A Deep Dive into Apple's Revolution. Few products have reshaped the world quite like Apple's Macintosh. In Insanely Great, Steven Levy takes readers inside the creation, culture, and impact of the Mac.
Hackers: The Heroes of the Computer Revolution, A Historical Perspective
Steven Levy’s Hackers: The Heroes of the Computer Revolution is a foundational text in the history of computing, chronicling the evolution of hacke...
Grit & Ambition
Founders, athletes, and operators who kept going past the sensible point.
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall: The Book That Changed How We Think About Running
McDougall went to Mexico's Copper Canyons looking for the secret to running without injury. What he found was a hidden tribe of superathletes, an argument that humans evolved to run, and a story so good it launched an entire movement. Born to Run is part investigation, part adventure, and part love letter to the oldest human activity.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
Murakami writes about running the way runners think about running: not as exercise, not as training, but as the thing itself. The rhythm of feet on pavement becomes a metaphor for the rhythm of writing, and both become metaphors for the rhythm of a life lived with intention.
Who Was Steve Prefontaine? Tom Jordan's Biography, Reviewed
Pre ran every race from the front. Tom Jordan's definitive biography captures the philosophy of the most intense competitor in American distance running.
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight Audiobook
I'm listening to the audiobook edition while working, and Phil Knight's voice (through the narrator) feels like sitting with someone who built something extraordinary but hasn't quite processed how extraordinary it was. Shoe Dog isn't a typical business memoir full of manufactured wisdom and cleaned-up origin stories. It's messy, honest, and human; exactly what you need when you're in the grind yourself.
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World by Admiral William H. McRaven
I listen to Admiral McRaven's commencement speech every week. Not every day. Not randomly. Every week. The book expands on that famous University of Texas address, but the speech is what hooks you. Ten lessons from Navy SEAL training distilled into something almost too simple to be wisdom: start your day by making your bed, and you have already won. That simplicity is precisely why it works.
Science & the Cosmos
Astronomy, evolution, and the long view of where we sit.
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan: Why It Reads Differently in the AI Era Audiobook
Sagan asked what makes us significant before AI forced the question. Written in 1994, Pale Blue Dot reads differently now, and more urgently.
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan’s The Dragons of Eden isn’t just another book on human intelligence, it’s an interdisciplinary fusion of science, philosophy, and speculative inquiry.
Craft & Writing
Books about the work of putting words down honestly.
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Some writing books feel like technical manuals, others like stern lectures. Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is so...
On Writing by Stephen King
Some books about writing are technical manuals, others are deeply personal. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King is a rare fusion of b...
Fiction & Story
Novels that left a mark, from the absurd to the epic.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Few books have inspired as many readers worldwide as The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. First published in 1988, this novel blends philosophy, mysticis...
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Few novels capture the complexity of human ambition, social class, and personal redemption like Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Originally pub...
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Some war novels focus on battles; others focus on the people caught in between. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr does both while weavin...
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom Audiobook
This was such a precious audiobook and so well made. I can still hear the readers voice in my head and listened to this book on a recent flight and...
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The controversy about this book and Mineko Iwasaki the geisha whom the author had interviewed intrigued me to want to read her autobiography Geisha...
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Albert Camus’ The Stranger (L’Étranger, 1942) is one of the most iconic works of existentialism and absurdist literature. This novel, which follows...
Philosophy & the Examined Life
Stoicism, taoism, mindfulness, and arguments about how to live.
The Tao of Pooh & The Te of Piglet: Eastern Wisdom Through the Hundred Acre Wood
Benjamin Hoff uses Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet to explain Taoism in a way that actually sticks. The Tao of Pooh introduces wu wei (effortless action) and pu (the uncarved block), while The Te of Piglet explores inner virtue and the power of the small. Together in one volume, these books offer an accessible, charming introduction to Eastern philosophy that has stayed with me for years.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Taleb's Antifragile isn't just another self-help book about resilience. It's a paradigm shift that challenges everything you think you know about risk, randomness, and thriving in chaos. Some things break under stress. Others survive. But antifragile things actually get stronger.
Gertrude Stein’s Essay on Writing Masterpieces: A Revolutionary Perspective
Introduction: The Art of Breaking Literary Conventions
Peace in Every Breath by Thich Nhat Hanh
I recently reread this book on a flight during a family trip. It allowed me to see things from a different perspective and was just the wisdom I wa...
Life & Reflection
Memoir and the rest of the shelf that resists a tidy label.
Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer
A Wild Ride Through Travel, Rebellion, and Self-Discovery. Some travel books are about the places, others about the people.
Adultery by Paulo Coelho Audiobook
A Deep Dive into Passion, Monotony, and Self-Discovery
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