Episode · This Week in Startups · 2023-12-20
Books mentioned on AI-Powered "Tools for Thought": Exploring NotebookLM with Steven Berlin Johnson | E1869
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Jason Calacanis recommended Where good ideas come from by Steven Johnson, and discussed On Writing by Stephen King and Grinding it Out by Ray Kroc and others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Where good ideas come from
Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson is an insightful non-fiction book that explores the historical and environmental patterns that foster innovation, such as the concept of the slow hunch and serendipitous collisions.
Recommended“uh Stephen went on to write 13 books uh where where good ideas come from actually I read that one really good and I think he reads his own books on Audible so you get to hear his voice”
Where to get it
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On Writing
Stephen King’s On Writing is part memoir and part masterclass on the craft of storytelling.
Discussed“and Stephen King wrote this you ever read on writing his book his autobiography did yeah it's incredible I mean there's many reasons it's incredible perhaps one of the best is that he wrote Kujo while doing copious amounts of cocaine with his nose bleeding”
Where to get it
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Grinding it Out
Grinding it Out by Ray Kroc and Robert Anderson is the candid autobiography of the man who built McDonald's into a global fast-food empire through relentless persistence and operational discipline.
Discussed“so Ray Croc who created McDonald's wrote a great book called the founder and he was an insane founder like pretty sharp elbowed insane and I know about this because I'm a big fan of Mark knofler the lead singer of Dire Straits and when he went into his solo career he wrote a great song called boom like that”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“I wrote this book called The Ghost map and so I would often start off just to figure out where Bard was today I be like hey let's talk about Stephen Johnson's book The Ghost map”
“and it reminds me of something um you know Thiago Forte the second brain wrote how to build a second brain really interesting guy we've been talking to him about notebook because it's right in his alley”
“so in the early days when Bard first came out um internally i w i i was kind of at home my rest of my family was skiing this was like a year ago yeah and I was just like okay this is our new model I got to test it I figure out everything and so one things I”
“I'm curious you know knowing what you know and I know you've studied all the all these different technology changes I remember listening to your audio book we talking about the Michi and glass which book was that yeah how we got to know yeah how we got to know yeah was really good”