Bookshelf
Books and influences
The books I hand to other founders, and the ones that quietly shaped how I think about building and writing.
Why a bookshelf
The ones I keep returning to
I trust a person's bookshelf more than their bio. This is a working list, not a canon. It changes as I read, and a few of these I have read more than once.
If you and I would get on, it probably shows up somewhere below.
On building companies
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The honest version of running a company when the easy answers have run out.
Rework
Permission to build a smaller, calmer, more owned kind of company.
The Great CEO Within
The boring operational habits that quietly decide whether a company holds together.
On the web and the long term
Working in Public
How the infrastructure of the web actually gets built and maintained, and by whom.
The Innovator's Dilemma
Why good, well run companies get overtaken, and what that means for anyone selling infrastructure.
On writing and thinking
On Writing Well
The case for plain sentences. I reread the chapter on clutter every year.
Bird by Bird
On sitting down and doing the work, one small piece at a time.