Zero to One is about the future of technology and a guide for startup business founders.
Peter Thiel is a billionaire entrepreneur and investor that shares many unconventional ideas.
He says entrepreneurs should avoid competition.
Instead build a (legal) monopoly selling something completely new and incomparable.
"The perfect target market for a startup is a small group of particular people concentrated together and served by few or no competitors." —Peter Thiel
Why should you read it?
If you're trying to come up with an innovative new business idea, or if you're struggling to stay afloat in an overcrowded market, Peter Thiel's "Zero to One" may be your life jacket.
Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur and investor behind major names like PayPal, Facebook and Palantir — challenges us to think about creating something so unique it goes from zero (nonexistent) to one (the first of its kind).
This isn't about following trends; it's about setting them.
This book urges you to look where others don't and think differently. 🏆
Thinking, Fast and Slow explains how people make decisions using two mental systems: "fast" thinking is instinctive and emotional, while "slow" thinking is deliberate and logical.
Daniel Kahneman helps us understand our when our mind fall into common biases and irrational shortcuts, so we can make better decisions in the future.
"A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth." —Daniel Kahneman
Digital Gold tells the story of the rise of Bitcoin, giving us a close look at the programmers and investors who contributed to the technology and movement.
Nathaniel Popper also explores fascinating questions like: how can a money made up of digital bits have any value at all?
"The essential quality of successful money, through time, was not who issued it—or even how portable or durable it was—but rather the number of people willing to use it." —Nathaniel Popper
Sapiens is about how we went from being simple primates 2.5 million years ago... to walking on the moon.
Yuval Noah Harari explores the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions, which made us who we are today.
He says common myths like money, laws and nations hold human societies together.
"Just 6 million years ago, a single female ape had two daughters. One became the ancestor of all chimpanzees, the other is our own grandmother." —Yuval Noah Harari
Fooled by Randomness is full of ideas for finance and investing that go against what most people practice.
Taleb says randomness controls our lives more than we think, but we can learn tools to protect against life's uncertainty.
"Remember that nobody accepts randomness in his own success, only his failure." —Nassim Taleb
The Black Swan is about understanding unpredictable extreme events like the 9/11 attacks, rise of the internet, and stock market crashes.
Nassim Taleb says we are unprepared for the next big event like this because we rely too much on incomplete theories, limited models and flimsy historical narratives.
"Years ago, I noticed one thing about economics, and that is that economists didn't get anything right." —Nassim Taleb