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Every book Ben Gilbert recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Ben Gilbert appears on, in one place — not just one.
Ben Gilbert’s most recommended books
- 7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer
- Who is Michael Ovitz? by Michael Ovitz
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- The Everything Store by Brad Stone
- The Luxury Strategy by Jean-Noël Kapferer
- In the Plex by Steven Levy
- Skunk Works by Leo Janos
- Made in Japan by Akio Morita
- Built from Scratch by Bernie Marcus
- God's Secret Formula by Peter Plichta
Ben Gilbert is a co-host of the podcast Acquired, where he frequently references and recommends books used in the research for deep-dive company histories. On an episode about Seinfeld, Ben recommended Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's Seinfeldia, citing it as a great read that details early online fan communities and noting it in the show notes among the episode sources. While covering Home Depot, Ben cited Built from Scratch, calling it the canonical story of the company written by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. During a carveouts segment, he recommended Duff McDonald's Last Man Standing as preparation for an interview about Jamie Diamond. For an episode on Trader Joe's, he introduced background history by mentioning Benjamin Lorr's The Secret Life of Groceries, describing it as an exceptional book. Additionally, across episodes exploring Google and its technological foundations, Ben cited Steven Levy's In the Plex to reference early conversations about data compression and language models, and he pointed to Parmy Olson's Supremacy as a primary source for the history of DeepMind and details regarding acquisition offers.
Books recommended by Ben Gilbert
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7 Powers
7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer is a seminal business strategy book that outlines the foundational economic frameworks companies use to build enduring competitive moats and secure persistent differential returns.
Discussed“So listeners, this is the part where we do the seven powers framework from Hamilton Helmer's book of the same title where we try to figure out what does a company have that enables it to get persistent differential returns”
Where to get it
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Who is Michael Ovitz?
Who is Michael Ovitz? by Michael Ovitz is a compelling memoir by the legendary Hollywood superagent detailing the rise of Creative Artists Agency and the mechanics of the entertainment industry.
Recommended“mine is a book that has been recommended to me for two or three years now and I finally got around to reading and it was awesome it's called who is Michael Ovitz”
Where to get it
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The Psychology of Money
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel is a bestselling finance book that explores how human behavior, history, and personal pride shape financial decisions rather than strict math.
Recommended“i think a huge one for me is psychology of money there's a recency bias on it and we mentioned morgan howel at the top of the show Good Friend of the show great great human i truly i massively change the way that i personally invest”
Where to get it
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The Everything Store
The Everything Store by Brad Stone is a definitive corporate history chronicling the turbulent rise of Amazon and the relentless business philosophy of its founder, Jeff Bezos.
Discussed“you know of course david and i read both of bradstone's excellent books”
Where to get it
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The Luxury Strategy
The Luxury Strategy by Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien is a comprehensive business and marketing book that outlines the distinct principles and anti-laws required to build and sustain ultra-luxury brands.
Discussed“well if you read the luxury strategy which is great book that we've referenced many times on acquired they start back 50,000 years ago”
Where to get it
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In the Plex
In the Plex by Steven Levy is a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes account of Google's origins, corporate culture, and meteoric rise to technological dominance.
Recommended“This is like a small little passage in Steven Levy's great book that's been a source for all of our Google episodes, In the Plex.”
Where to get it
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Skunk Works
Skunk Works by Leo Janos and Ben R.
Recommended“there is a wonderful book there are a bunch of wonderful books around Lockheed but a book titled Skunk Works that was written by Ben Rich who was Kelly's second in command for a long time at Skunk Works”
Where to get it
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Made in Japan
Made in Japan by Akio Morita, Edwin M.
Recommended“yeah listeners david and i both read a couple books to prep for this but one of them is the excellent made in japan co-written by akio morita himself who we're about to introduce here”
Where to get it
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Built from Scratch
Built from Scratch by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Bob Andelman tells the canonical entrepreneurial story of how Home Depot grew from a modest concept into a retail giant.
Recommended“All right. So, I I looked this up, David, in the book Built from Scratch, which is the awesome book that uh is kind of the canonical Home Depot story written by Bernie and Arthur.”
Where to get it
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God's Secret Formula
Discussed“The book I was reading, which is called Secret Formula, a great book on the history of Coca-Cola that had access to all the corporate archives, really describes Peton in this phase as finding his capitalist streak”
Where to get it
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The Animated Man
Discussed“There's a great quote in the book Walt Disney and American Original by Bob Thomas that says, "Before Disney, cartoons were slapdash. Two-dimensional characters in bizarre movement before elemental backgrounds. Disney insisted on rounded humanized figures."”
Where to get it
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Seinfeldia
Seinfeldia by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is a cultural history and deep dive into the creation, evolution, and lasting legacy of the hit television sitcom Seinfeld.
Recommended“According to the book Seinfeldia, which is a great read, there were a bunch of early online communities about Seinfeld, analyzing each episode the week it comes out.”
Where to get it
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Supremacy
Supremacy by Parmy Olson is an investigative journalism book that chronicles the intense corporate race for artificial intelligence dominance, focusing heavily on developments at DeepMind.
Recommended“Shane has a quote in Parm Olsen's great book Supremacy that we used as a source for a lot of this deep mind story.”
Where to get it
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Super Pumped
Super Pumped by Mike Isaac is a journalistic account detailing the meteoric rise and chaotic implosion of Uber.
Discussed“Well, for listeners who don't know the events of, you know, Uber leading all the way up through their IPO and the implosion around that and the just insane story that all of that was is coming out as a Showtime series on February 27th called Super Pumped.”
Where to get it
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The Ride of a Lifetime
The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger is a business memoir by the former Disney CEO detailing his professional journey, leadership philosophies, and strategies for navigating massive corporate transformations and creative challenges.
Discussed“Bob, and he recounts all of this in Ride of a Lifetime, comes out with, I think, one of the most brilliant campaign framings that I have ever heard.”
Where to get it
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AI Superpowers
AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee examines the dramatic rise of artificial intelligence in China and Silicon Valley, comparing the distinct technological ecosystems and future economic trajectories of both superpowers.
Recommended“So if you go to blinkist.com/Nvidia you can find books by Gary Kasparov, Kai-Fu Lee, and Cade Metz, who we already mentioned earlier on the show who wrote the amazing Wired article.”
Where to get it
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Beyond the Horizons
Beyond the Horizons by Walter J.
Recommended“I also highly recommend a book called beyond the horizons which is hard to find and most people don't know about by Walter Boyne”
Where to get it
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Deep Thinking Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins
Deep Thinking Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins is a book by Garry Kasparov that examines the historical chess matches between human grandmasters and artificial intelligence, offering insights into the future of human-machine collaboration.
Recommended“So if you go to blinkist.com/Nvidia you can find books by Gary Kasparov, Kai-Fu Lee, and Cade Metz, who we already mentioned earlier on the show who wrote the amazing Wired article.”
Where to get it
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Last Man Standing
Last Man Standing by Duff McDonald is a detailed examination of leadership, corporate strategy, and the financial sector, focusing heavily on prominent figures in modern banking.
Recommended“One great book I read for research was Last Man Standing to prep for the Jamie Diamond interview. That was really good.”
Where to get it
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Memory's Legion
Memory's Legion by James S.
Recommended“and they released a compendium of all the short stories plus a few new ones called memories legion and this is really cool like i mean they're great writers great short stories to read even if you don't know anything about the expanse story”
Where to get it
- Open by Andre Agassi
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Saul by Robert Browning
- Starting strength by Mark Rippetoe
- Strategic Sourcing and Category Management by Magnus Carlsson
- The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
- The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
- The Genius Makers by Cade Metz
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo
- The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby
- The Qualcomm Equation by Dave Mock
- The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh
- The Search by John Battelle
- The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Titan by Ron Chernow
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Gordon Malkiel
- America's Game by Michael MacCambridge
- Breakthrough by Thea Cooper
- Built to Last by Jim Collins
- Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull
- Enzo Ferrari by Luca Dal Monte
- Enzo Ferrari by Brock Yates
- Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies by Douglas R. Hofstadter, Fluid Analogies Research Group
- Go Like Hell by A. J. Baime
- Higher Control in Management by Thomas Gerald Rose
- Onward by Howard Schultz
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- The Enzo Ferrari Memoirs. My Terrible Joys ... Edited by Richard Hough. Translated by Ivan Scott. [With Plates, Including Portraits.]. by Enzo Ferrari
- The High Cost of Low Wages by Jirs Meuris
Ben Gilbert’s latest episodes with books
Ben Gilbert’s book recommendations by year
All 58 books Ben Gilbert recommended or discussed across 47 episodes, filed by the year each episode came out. Each year goes episode by episode, with the minute every book came up.