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What books would you suggest as Must read?

Hi everyone, Hope you are doing great.

So, recently I joined twitter and saw a lot of posts about a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. People claimed that this book is life changing. So after seeing a lot of such tweets, I decided to bite. I started reading the book and I was hooked, from the very first chapter itself. It treats habits in a very scientific and convincing manner.

I would 10/10 recommend everyone reading this book.

Now the question is, I want to diversify my reading habits. I was thinking to start with From zero to one by Peter Theil. Not sure right now.

That brings me to this post:

What book would you suggest as a must read?

I would love, if it revolves around the IndieHacker Culture, product growth, or entrepreneurship.

Here is my twitter if you want to connect.

  1. 5

    Zero to One is a great book. A few other recommendations I'd check out (related to products / entrepreneurship) - Crossing the Chasm, Deep Work, Traction, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

  2. 4

    1.The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger
    2. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight
    3. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
    4. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
    5. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
    6. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull
    7. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
    8. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey Moore
    9. Unleashing the Ideavirus: Stop Marketing AT People! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by Helping Your Customers Do the Marketing thing for You. by Seth Godin
    10. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
    Thanks

    1. 1

      I've read almost all on this list and can second almost all the recommendations. I'll add the following:

      1. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
      2. Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson
      3. My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla
      4. Quirky: The Remarkable Story of the Traits, Foibles, and Genius of Breakthrough Innovators Who Changed the World
      5. The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

      A side note, I recently launched a newsletter thewrapup.substack.com that features summaries of books recommended by the best in the world delivered straight to your inbox, every Sunday. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this if you could spare a minute!

    2. 1

      Read a few of these and the rest are nearly all on my To Read list - some fantastic reads; Talking to Strangers has some sections that really stuck with me!

      1. 1

        Talking to Strangers was extremely eye opening. Also, added to that list is What you do is who you are by Ben Horowitz. That will be followed by Nudge by Cass R. Sunstein and Trillion Dolar Coach by various writers.

  3. 4

    ### Absolutely required reading

    • Just Fucking Ship, by Amy Hoy
    • The Mom Test

    Many of my favorite creators swear by this but I haven't had time to crack it open :/

    • Badass: Making Users Awesome

    ### Have an unhealthy relationship with "work hustle"?

    This is a breath of fresh air: an alternative paradigm for doing work that matters that laughs in the face of toxic hustle culture. We need tomorrow's business leaders embracing these ideas.

    • It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work, by Jason Fried

    I'd buy anything he publishes & he personally recommends "Revising Prose" for improving your writing.

    ### Never gotten a psychological grip on your personal finances?

    • I Will Teach You To Be Rich, by Ramit Sethi

    ### Final note

    Take all advice you get with an intense grain of salt. I'm sick of Business™ books that take too general of a view when, just starting out, you need very tangible/tactical advice. I love the classics and appreciate a good mindset ...but you'll benefit WAY more from reading/observing people that are just N+1, N+2, and N+5 years further along than you. Stop reading from the "business leaders" that are operating in such a fundamentally different reality from you.

    1. 2

      Stop reading from the "business leaders" that are operating in such a fundamentally different reality from you.

      This is a very important point, and beautifully put. Also, if you are reading books (or articles) from venture capitalists, always remember that they are self-serving. Always assume they say and write what is best for them, not for you, the world, or the society around you.

    2. 1

      @theshteves thanks for a detailed answer. Also, now I know comments on IH don't support Markdown XD.

  4. 3

    Atomic Habits is good. If you enjoyed it I'd highly suggest reading Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Zero to One is on my startup must read list. Here are some other good reads:

    • The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
    • Rework by DHH and Jason Fried
    • Great at Work by Morten Hansen
    • Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
    • The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking by Christopher Hansen
    • Grit by Angela Duckworth
    • The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
    • Anything by Malcom Gladwell....

    This might be a bit off topic but a couple good autobiographies:

    • Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
    • Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
  5. 3

    How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes
    Book by Peter Schiff

  6. 3

    Not in the line of business and entrepreneurship, but The Bhagavad Gita is a must @toughyear

    1. 2

      @gordon well I took a whole course on that book as Humanity Elective course in my University Junior year. So yeah, it is a pretty good book if read with the right mindset and in right context.

  7. 2

    Thanks, everyone for your awesome response. I will be having a hard time deciding my new read.

    @Pedro_M @gordon @viggy28 @itsbalal @Laur @m121 @theshteves @aqui_c @rglover
    @krcnow @Alanng @genemachine @Imshashank @dave_cervi @nasermirzaei89 @indiepanda @yapartase
    I was thinking of creating a twitter thread with this result. If you are ok with it, I would like to mention your handles. Let me know your twitter handles in that case.

    1. 1

      Sure. It’s the same. Viggy28.

    2. 1

      Always nice to get some mentions!

      @aquicarattino

    3. 1

      Same as IH handle, go for it :)

    4. 1

      I am fine with that, Twitter handle same as IH username

    5. 1

      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  8. 2

    It really depends on your job at the moment. I assume you're a founder, so you should head for The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli.

    It isn't written in the start-up era, but it has completely changed my mindset when working and leading people.

    Couldn't really remember how many people I have recommended this book to ;)

  9. 2

    The Mom Test is good

  10. 2

    "Fastlane Millionaire" <-- READ THIS BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE
    "Find your why"
    "When"

    Also, check out productled.com and all articles on startups.com

  11. 2

    I loved "Bored and Brilliant" by Manoush Zomorodi and "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown. My full list of recommended books -> https://share.link/dario/books

  12. 2

    The mom test is definitely a good one! It's about asking the right questions when you talk to potential customers. A lot of people here on IH ask "Would you pay X for Y?" for example. Rob Fitzpatrick states in his book that this is the wrong question because people never are truly honest to you. People tell you what you want to hear. So unless you send an actual invoice they are probably lying, even though they might unaware themselves.

  13. 2

    Some excellent books were already mentioned, but I would add

    "When to rob a bank" or "Freakonomics" by Dubner and Levitt.

    I think they are great examples of how the american liberal capitalism works, and really sets you up on the path of understanding how, potentially, the biggest markets in the world think. Plus, they are very fun to read.

  14. 2

    My recommendations:

    Give and Take by Adam Grant
    Atomic Habits by James Clear
    A random walk down wall street
    Designing Data-Intensive Application
    surely you’re joking mr. Feynman
    How To Win Friends and Influence People
    Make your bed
    Indistractable
    Thinking fast and slow (I couldn’t complete this book. Its too much content)
    Hooked

    You can also mind the summary of most of those books here https://viggy28.dev/book/

    1. 1

      surely you’re joking mr. Feynman

      This is a very interesting suggestion. Why did you choose this book?

      1. 1

        Yes it is (especially in IH)

        I felt it’s a classic book. Growing up that was the first book that I read and it left a great impact on “how I see science”.

  15. 2

    I would say there are two books that are outstanding, Monk and the Riddle and Zero to One.

    I think reading is a skill of a good founder and there should be lots of literature in his library (read or to be read), but if there is something I would suggest as a must before starting building anything, would be this two books.

  16. 2

    For wannabe entrepreneurs: Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup"
    For wannabe marketers: Gabriel Weinberg's "Traction"

  17. 2

    Zero to one is a must read, you will love it. Deep work is algo a good one. Shoe Dog(Nike bio) is really a good one, I loved it. About marketing I recommend Contagious by Jonah Berger.

  18. 2

    My go to's:

    • The Courage to Be Disliked
    • Seeking Wisdom (by Peter Bevelin)
    • All of the Robert Greene books

    The reason why is that these are big on psychology and getting your mind right. Once that's set, it becomes far easier to build things.

    1. 2

      Curious,

      1. How do you discover new books (in general)
      2. Also, how do you decide which books to read?
      1. 1

        A few different ways...usually listening to interviews with folks who's work I admire and they mention something, mentions in bibliographies, or personal recommendations.

        When it comes to books to read I just pick up whatever sounds interesting and read the intro/first chapter. If it gets my attention, I'll keep going, and if not I'll put it on the shelf for later or sell it.

  19. 1

    Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman - The best copywriting book ever written.

    Read the summary here:
    https://www.indiehackers.com/post/notes-summary-on-the-best-copywriting-book-advertising-secrets-of-the-written-word-16879a9034

  20. 1

    I'll recommend just one: Letters from a Stoic by Seneca. Reading often gives the illusion that you've made meaningful progress. The real work lies within. Mastery of self is far more important than anything else you'll ever do. It's an exceedingly painful process that you must undertake yourself by taking responsibility for everything.

    You won't get very far through introspection alone though, feedback is essential. I can give you a one line summary of most books on entrepreneurship: You need to show up, do the work, engage with your community to garner feedback, iterate and improve. Your main goal should be achieving consistency across all life's domains.

    It's hard as fuck.

    Now, get to work, and share what you've built.

  21. 2

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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