Episode · a16z Podcast · 2019-01-02
Books mentioned on a16z Podcast | Sports, Tech, and What We Can All Learn from the Latest Performance Science
Erik Torenberg discussed Faster, Higher, Stronger by Mark McClusky. Mark McClusky recommended The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and others, and discussed The Sports Gene by David Epstein.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Faster, Higher, Stronger
Discussed“the premise of the books are that there's been massive improvement in athletic performance due to our better understanding our body and how they can be trained as best I can tell”
Where to get it
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The Secret Race
The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle is a sports non-fiction book that exposes the pervasive culture of doping and the code of silence within professional cycling.
Recommended“I think all the revelations in cycling finally sort of broke that culture of silence and rather Tyler Hamilton books unbelievable talent Hampton book is insane I mean it's if you haven't read it you should care about this stuff”
Where to get it
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The Sports Gene
The Sports Gene by David Epstein is an investigative science book that explores the complex interplay between innate genetic predisposition and rigorous environmental training in shaping elite athletic performance.
Discussed“David Epstein who wrote another great book about sports science last year called the sports gene talked about it as the Big Bang of body types it used to be”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Faster, Higher, Stronger
“he's just written a book faster higher stronger brought people around here like books like this because it looks a little bit like Ben Horowitz his book”
Plugged Faster, Higher, Stronger
“you know I got a chance to meet Ashton Eaton who's the world record holder in the decathlon for this book and we actually went for a run and we ran like two miles”
Plugged Faster, Higher, Stronger
“but one of the people I was talking to for the book his name's Andy Walsh she runs Red Bull actually runs this giant high-performance athletic program”
Plugged Faster, Higher, Stronger
“yeah I don't know I mean it's um so near the end of the book and the last chapter is on the limits of performance and Mark Denny who's another Stanford guy or at this kind of amazing paper”