Library
Books and thinkers that shaped my practice across the four registers. This is not a reading list — these are the texts I return to.
Last updated: May 2026
Recently finished
A rolling list of the most recent books I closed. The curated categories below are the deeper set — the texts I return to.
- The Diamond Approach —
- Nonviolent Communication —
- Die With Zero —
- Never Split the Difference —
- Odyssey: Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths, Book 4 —
- The Anatomy of the State —
- Living from a Place of Surrender —
- The Untethered Soul —
- Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence —
- Algorithms to Live By —
- The Way of the Superior Man —
- The Pragmatic Programmer (20th Anniversary Edition) —
- The Price of Tomorrow —
- Principles: Life and Work —
- Homo Deus —
- The Gulag Archipelago —
Engineering
The Pragmatic Programmer
Craft over shortcuts. Systems thinking begins at the code level.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Distributed systems require designing for failure, not just success.
The Mythical Man-Month
Adding people to a late project makes it later. Complexity compounds non-linearly.
Sovereignty & Economics
The Bitcoin Standard
Sound money is the foundation of individual sovereignty. Time preference shapes civilization.
Principles
Radical truth and radical transparency. Systems for decision-making compound over decades.
The Fiat Standard
Fiat money distorts time preference and concentrates power. Sovereignty requires exit.
The Sovereign Individual
Technology erodes nation-state power. The individual becomes the unit of sovereignty.
Inner work
12 Rules for Life
Responsibility precedes meaning. Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
Waking Up
Consciousness can be explored scientifically. Meditation is a technology, not a belief system.
Nonviolent Communication
Feelings are data, needs are universal. Requests replace demands.
The Way of Zen
The menu is not the meal. Direct experience transcends conceptual understanding.
Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World
Fungi are nature's recyclers. Consciousness exploration requires botanical precision.
Music & Culture
Food of the Gods
Psychedelics shaped human consciousness evolution. Culture is downstream of neurochemistry.
The Artist's Way
Creativity is a spiritual practice. Morning pages unblock the channel.
This Is Your Brain on Music
Music is pattern recognition. Emotion emerges from expectation violation.
Storytelling
The 4-Hour Work Week
Deferred life plans are broken. Design your lifestyle first, career second.
Tools of Titans
World-class performance has patterns. Morning routines and journaling compound.
Story
Structure creates emotion. Every story is about a protagonist confronting obstacles to reach desire.
Philosophy
Man's Search for Meaning
Between stimulus and response lies freedom. Meaning is chosen, not given.
Meditations
Control what you can control. Everything else is noise.
The Republic
Justice is harmony. The ideal state mirrors the ideal soul.