Episode · Invest Like the Best · 2017-01-24
Patrick O'Shaughnessy & Brian Koppelman: books mentioned on Invest Like the Best #21
Brian Koppelman – Chasing Curiosity - [Invest Like the Best, EP.21]
My guest this week is writer, director, producer, and podcast host Brian Koppelman, who’s film credits include ‘Rounders’, ‘Oceans 13’, and ‘Solitary Man’. More recently he co-created the Showtime show, ‘Billions’, which allowed us to have some fun talking about the world of hedge funds and investing.
Brian Koppelman recommended Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch, The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, Let my people go surfing by Yvon Chouinard, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, and The Financier by Theodore Dreiser, and discussed What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, The Anxiety of Influence by Harold Bloom, and Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins. Patrick O'Shaughnessy recommended Dear Chairman by Jeff Gramm.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Discussed“I went through a period of doing a lot of jogging about 10 years ago and maybe seven years ago, uh, after reading Murakami's book, uh, what I talk about when I talk about running”
Where to get it
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Catching the Big Fish
Recommended“That book is incredible. Catching the big fish. I mean, I, reading that book was one of the big things that made me want to figure out how to meditate and why I picked TM.”
Where to get it
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The Anxiety of Influence
Discussed“Harold Bloom, the most famous lit critic ever wrote this book called The Anxiety of Influence and he, and, uh, he's been sort of the cornerstone of Yale's English department for a very long time, like 50 years.”
Where to get it
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The Artist's Way
Recommended“And The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron was enormous for me. In doing Morning Pages, I freed myself from all this other stuff. I freed myself from the curse of perfectionism”
Where to get it
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Awaken The Giant Within
Discussed“I had given him Tony Robbins' book, Awaken the Giant Within. And I had read Tony's book. And Tony's book, and I did all those exercises, is one of the things that made me realize specifically, oh, I'm scared to be an artist.”
Where to get it
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Dear Chairman
Recommended“His name was Jeff Graham. He wrote a book. Actually, if you're looking for great source material, it's a book called Dear Chairman about the history of Dan Loeb's featured pretty prominently in it. Right, the letters? Yeah, the activist letters to- Right, I'll read it. To CEOs. It's a fantastic book. He's a great writer.”
Where to get it
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Let my people go surfing
Recommended“And then his book, which I've written – I'm about as much of an outdoorsman as Woody Allen, but I somehow love – I just love watching that stuff. He wrote a book called Let My People Go Surfing about creating Patagonia, and it's the best”
Where to get it
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Shoe Dog
Recommended“He wrote a book called Let My People Go Surfing about creating Patagonia, and it's the best, along with Phil Knight's book on Nike, which is awesome too. Those are the two best books I've ever read about basically doing everything we've described today in the business setting”
Where to get it
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The Financier
Recommended“I know if 1% of the people in your audience get this book and read it, it would be more than I expect because it is work, but it's worth it, is the Theodore Dreiser's book, The Financier, which David Mamet would say is, like, the best book about American businessman ever written.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“I saw, you know, I told Tim Ferriss about it and, and Tim talks about that. I did in tools of Titans and on the podcast and, you know, now Tim has given that to zillion, I mean, just to millions and millions of people.”
“So the last question, which I ask everyone, is kind of a similar look back moment, which is what is the other than giving giving you the artist's way? What is the kindest thing that anyone's done for you in your career?”