Episode · Lenny's Podcast · 2026-04-12
Lenny Rachitsky & Keith Rabois: books mentioned on Lenny's Podcast
Hard truths about building in the AI era | Keith Rabois (Khosla Ventures)
Keith Rabois was an early executive at PayPal (part of the famous PayPal Mafia), COO at Square, VP of Corporate Development at LinkedIn, and an early investor in Stripe, DoorDash, Airbnb, YouTube, Ramp, and Palantir. Currently he’s managing director at Khosla Ventures.
Lenny Rachitsky discussed Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and others. Keith Rabois recommended The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith and The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You (and How to Get Good at it) by Kelly McGonigal.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Creativity, Inc.
Discussed“There's also this concept of the ugly baby in creativity. Ain't kind of enough you read that book at Catmull about every idea at Pixar, like every great idea starts as this ugly baby that no one wants to like help and pay attention to”
Where to get it
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The Jordan Rules
Recommended“Like it for those who want to you know, a good book that solves central casting for you is read Jordan Rules or watch The Last Dance if you like, but like fundamentally, read Jordan Rules.”
Where to get it
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The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You (and How to Get Good at it)
Recommended“So, the number one one is called The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal, she's a professor at Stanford. And basically it argues in an incredibly compelling way that if you want to be happy, healthy, or wealthy, you need more stress in your life, not less.”
Where to get it
