Person
Ali Abdaal's book recommendations
Across 5 podcasts. Every show Ali Abdaal appears on, in one place — not just one.
Ali Abdaal’s most recommended books
- Make Time by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
- The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
- Traction by Gino Wickman
- Copywriting Secrets: How Everyone Can Use the Power of Words to Get More Clicks, Sales, and Profits...No Matter What You Sell Or Who You Se by Jim Edwards
- Drive by Daniel H. Pink
- Range by David J. Epstein
- $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi
Ali Abdaal appears on podcasts such as The Daily Stoic, How I Write, and My First Million to discuss productivity, business strategies, and personal growth. Drawing from his own experiences as a creator, Abdaal recommended several foundational books that shaped his approach to work and business. He discussed Daniel H. Pink's Drive to illustrate principles of motivation and highlighted Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is the Way as a major influence on his entrepreneurial goals. To help creators overcome impostor syndrome and rethink content creation, Abdaal recommended Austin Kleon's Show Your Work!. For personal planning and life design, he endorsed Bill Burnett and Dave Evans's Designing Your Life along with its companion workbook, pointing specifically to the Odyssey Plan exercise for envisioning future paths. Additionally, Abdaal recommended business and copywriting resources to help entrepreneurs understand fundamental principles, suggesting Michael E. Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited, Gino Wickman's Traction, and Jim Edwards's Copywriting Secrets as practical guides for applying business structures, standard operating procedures, and effective copywriting techniques.
Books recommended by Ali Abdaal
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Make Time
Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky is a practical productivity guide designed to help readers focus on what truly matters each day by stepping away from endless content consumption and intentionally reclaiming their schedules.
Recommended“In in terms of specific tools for for for for for getting more done, single biggest step I found is something I came across in a book called Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. They call it the daily highlight.”
Where to get it
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The 4-Hour Workweek
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss is a lifestyle design manual that encourages readers to rethink traditional employment, automate income streams, and reclaim ownership of their time.
Discussed“But then I miss that Thursday and think, Tim Ferriss says batching is good, so why don't I batch a whole week? I film 15 videos in that week, allowing me to chill for six weeks but then find that this week in Austin, I didn’t feel like filming anything at all.”
Where to get it
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Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits by James Clear is a widely acclaimed guide on habit formation, personal development, and how minor incremental adjustments yield substantial long-term results.
Discussed“the reason Atomic habits was so successful is because it was picked up by the demographic of women in their 30s in the midwest apparently which is like by far the biggest demographic of people who buy books and especially people who buy self-help books”
Where to get it
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The E-Myth Revisited
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E.
Recommended“if someone's listening to this and they're a Creator if you learn like the basics of business like what is an sop and reading books like the emth and traction and things like that you end up with like oh [ __ ] I can apply all of these principles of business okrs and kpis and I can like oh”
Where to get it
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The Obstacle Is the Way
The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday is a popular modern guide to applying ancient Stoic philosophy to overcome adversity, drawing inspiration from historical figures who turned trials into triumphs.
Recommended“ever since I discovered the obstacle the way and I realized that my 10year goal for the business is to be profitable while helping people”
Where to get it
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Traction
Traction by Gino Wickman is a foundational business book that introduces the Entrepreneurial Operating System, known as EOS, to help organizations streamline their operations and clarify their goals.
Recommended“if someone's listening to this and they're a Creator if you learn like the basics of business like what is an sop and reading books like the emth and traction and things like that you end up with like oh [ __ ] I can apply all of these principles of business okrs and kpis and I can like oh”
Where to get it
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Copywriting Secrets: How Everyone Can Use the Power of Words to Get More Clicks, Sales, and Profits...No Matter What You Sell Or Who You Se
Copywriting Secrets by Jim Edwards is a practical manual designed to help individuals craft effective marketing copy to drive online sales, clicks, and business growth.
Discussed“after I'd read $100 million offers Doom secrets copywriting secrets and we revamped the entire landing page the entire off of the entire product purely based on the advice of what Russell Brunson and Alex hosi have written in their books and just literally following the step-by-step method and that was when a single launch of the course did like”
Where to get it
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Drive
Drive by Daniel H.
Discussed“and then I would read like I don't know one of your like your newsletter or one of your books or like drive by Dan pink and I'm like oh it's so good this stuff is so good”
Where to get it
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Range
Range by David J.
Discussed“There's another book called uh range by david epstein where he talks about this basically in those exact terms he says testing spacing and interleaving are like the three sort of primary things for learning any skill whether whether it's like knowledge for a university subject or whether it's like tennis or golf or anything like that”
Where to get it
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$100M Offers
$100M Offers by Alex Hormozi is a business and marketing guide focused on creating and pricing irresistible offers.
Discussed“after I'd read $100 million offers Doom secrets copywriting secrets and we revamped the entire landing page the entire off of the entire product purely based on the advice of what Russell Brunson and Alex hosi have written in their books and just literally following the step-by-step method and that was when a single launch of the course did like”
Where to get it
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Die with Zero
Die with Zero by Bill Perkins is a financial and lifestyle book that advocates for using one's wealth to enjoy life and support family while still alive rather than hoarding money for the distant future.
Discussed“so um our mutual friend Bill Perkins when we were hung up with him in y in Austin when I when we tried to teach you to wake s yeah that that was a real fail uh I don't know I think if I do it the second time around the muscle memory will Ki will in but I I”
Where to get it
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Dotcom Secrets
Discussed“after I'd read $100 million offers Doom secrets copywriting secrets and we revamped the entire landing page the entire off of the entire product purely based on the advice of what Russell Brunson and Alex hosi have written in their books and just literally following the step-by-step method and that was when a single launch of the course did like”
Where to get it
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Four Thousand Weeks
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman is a time management book that reframes productivity around the fundamental finitude of human existence.
Discussed“one of the things I love about Oliver burkman's Philosophy from 4,000 weeks is there is simply too much [ __ ] to do and you will never have enough time for any of it for for all of it”
Where to get it
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How to Take Smart Notes
Why people recommend it: This foundational guide by Sönke Ahrens outlines the Zettelkasten method, offering a systematic approach to effective note-taking, lifelong learning, and knowledge management.
Discussed“uh oh i was actually taking notes from this book how to take smart notes uh which was actually about all of this like recall stuff uh and the power of testing and spacing when when it came to the con the context of understanding information from from notes”
Where to get it
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A Minute to Think
A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt is a productivity and business guide focused on reclaiming cognitive space and escaping the trap of constant busyness in the modern workplace.
Recommended“There's a great book I was reading. It's called A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt. Very recent book.”
Where to get it
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Designing Your Life
Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans is a practical guide written by two Stanford professors who apply design thinking principles to the challenge of career navigation and personal fulfillment.
Recommended“The most helpful exercise I've ever found for this is something called The Odyssey Plan from the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and another guy who are Stanford professors. Basically, the idea is that you imagine your life three to five years in the future if you continued down your current path, and you write out what that”
Where to get it
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Happy Sexy Millionaire
Happy Sexy Millionaire by Steven Bartlett is a memoir and self-reflection that challenges conventional definitions of success, wealth, and happiness, encouraging readers to reevaluate what truly brings fulfillment in life.
Recommended“If anyone's listening to this who hasn't read the book, would recommend. Or the audiobook in particular, which is narrated by you.”
Where to get it
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Make It Stick
Make It Stick by Peter C.
Recommended“and there's a really good book called make it stick which is all about the science of successful learning and the authors basically say right up front in in the introduction that look if you're a student or any kind of learner and you're not happy with the way your results are going chances are you're just not testing yourself”
Where to get it
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Show Your Work!
Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon is a practical guide that encourages creators to share their daily processes, ideas, and unfinished projects rather than waiting for perfection.
Recommended“but then what show your work taught me is that basically that you don't have to be a genius you don't have to be the guru”
Where to get it
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The Designing Your Life Workbook
The Designing Your Life Workbook by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans is a practical guide that applies design thinking to personal development and career planning.
Recommended“the most helpful exercise I've ever found for this is uh something called The Odyssey plan from the book designing your life by Bill Bernett is”
Where to get it
The other 12 books Ali Abdaal recommended or discussed, ranked
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Discipline Is Destiny by Ryan Holiday
- Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King
- In praise of idleness by Bertrand Russell
- Jab, jab, jab, right hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Law of Attraction by Michael J. Losier
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall
- Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon
- The elephant in the brain by Kevin Simler
- The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Books by Ali Abdaal
Appearances
Other mentions (6: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I come up with the concept, like, hey, I'd love to do a video about, I don't know, Ryan's new book. And we're like, okay cool, we can't call it 'Discipline is Destiny' because that would be a bit weird.”
“Maybe I could have been selling 'Justice' for more, but all of that was irrelevant because I was just in the middle of writing the book.”
“I was saying to you in that interview that, hey Ryan, you know I've just started writing my first book, any tips? You gave some really good advice.”
“Feelgood productivity it's coming out in January or December 26 right yeah December 26th feel good productivity it's about how to do more of a to you in a way that's right enjoyable meaningful sustainable”
“Obviously, I know about it, but I'm sure listeners would be interested in knowing what you're working on and tell us how the process has been because, to me, that's the most interesting part. Yeah. Um, so the book currently does not have a title; the working title is 'The Productivity Game,' which I'm not a huge fan of.”
“and at the time my specialist subject would have been the harry potter books and i still think it”