Things /
Favourite books
Books on business, self-improvement and the things in between that have stuck with me. Amazon links are affiliate: costs you nothing extra, kicks me a coffee.
01 · Eric Jorgenson
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Jorgenson’s compiled archive of Naval’s tweets, podcasts and essays. The clearest distillation I’ve found of how to think about wealth, leverage and time.
Buy The Almanack of Naval Ravikant on Amazon →
02 · Paul Jarvis
Company of One
The argument for staying small on purpose. Jarvis’s case is the reason I stopped optimising for headcount and started optimising for margin.
Buy Company of One on Amazon →
03 · James Clear
Atomic Habits
Habits compound; willpower doesn’t. Clear’s framing of identity-based change is the part that actually stuck.
Buy Atomic Habits on Amazon →
04 · Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
A Roman emperor’s private notebook, two thousand years old, still the best stoicism primer I’ve read. Worth a re-read every year or two.
Buy Meditations on Amazon →
05 · Timothy Ferriss
The 4-Hour Workweek
The four-hour part is bait; the real argument is automate, delegate, eliminate. Half the playbook for my consulting years came from this book.
Buy The 4-Hour Workweek on Amazon →
06 · Jason Fried
Rework
Short chapters, sharp opinions, no MBA filler. The Basecamp founders' contrarian take on running a business: meetings are toxic, planning is guessing, scaling is overrated.
Buy Rework on Amazon →
07 · Matthew Walker
Why We Sleep
The single most productive change I’ve made in the last decade was sleeping more. Walker’s case is uncomfortable to read at 1am and that’s the point.
Buy Why We Sleep on Amazon →
08 · Steve Krug
Don’t Make Me Think
Krug’s first rule of usability is the title; the rest of the book is enforcement. Every UX heuristic I use traces back here.
Buy Don’t Make Me Think on Amazon →
09 · Peter Drucker
Managing Oneself
Twenty-something pages, a career’s worth of questions. Drucker’s framework for knowing your strengths is the one I come back to whenever a decision feels off.
Buy Managing Oneself on Amazon →
10 · Dale Carnegie
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Almost a hundred years old and still the sharpest book on dealing with people I’ve read. Read it once for the lessons; re-read it once a year for the reminders.
Buy How to Win Friends and Influence People on Amazon →
11 · Susan Cain
Quiet
The case for introverts in a culture that defaults to extroversion. Cain explains why the loudest person in the room usually isn’t the right one to listen to.
Buy Quiet on Amazon →
12 · Meik Wiking
The Little Book of Hygge
The Danish manual for slowing down. Picked it up during a stressful patch and it earned its keep: half permission slip, half practical guide to making evenings feel like evenings.
Buy The Little Book of Hygge on Amazon →