"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully."
— Steve Jobs
"I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it’s like what other people are doing... [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths… and then reason up from there."
— Elon Musk
Walter Isaacson’s intimate biography of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. The book chronicles his tempestuous childhood in South Africa, his intense drive, and his hands-on leadership style at SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and Starlink.
Edward Snowden’s memoir, Permanent Record. The book details his upbringing, his role as a systems administrator and engineer for the CIA and NSA, and the series of technological developments and policies that led to his whistleblowing decision in 2013. It is a crucial, first-hand account of the creation of the system of global mass surveillance and the personal cost of exposing it.
"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
— Steve Jobs (Apple, 1997)
Walter Isaacson’s riveting, detailed biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with family, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—it offers a raw, unfiltered look at the creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
A counterintuitive guide to living a good life. Instead of promoting relentless positive thinking, Manson argues that the path to resilience and happiness lies in learning to better handle adversity, accepting our limitations, and choosing to care only about what is truly meaningful.
The legendary "Think Different" commercial narrated by Steve Jobs himself. While the aired version of the campaign was voiced by Richard Dreyfuss, this version—narrated by Jobs—was released later and serves as an intimate, powerful statement of Apple's core philosophy and respect for the crazy ones who change the world.
Grant Sanderson’s brilliant visual introduction to the mathematics of deep learning. Using intuitive animations, the series breaks down what a neural network actually is, how gradient descent works, and the core calculus behind backpropagation.
Stephen Hawking’s visually rich sequel to A Brief History of Time, delving into the cutting-edge developments in theoretical physics. The book guides readers through supergravity, M-theory, hologram cosmology, and the search for a unified theory of everything. Hawking illustrates these mind-bending concepts with clarity, revealing the universe's astonishing architecture.