Person
Every book Ben Horowitz recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Ben Horowitz has recommended or discussed 15 books on podcasts, as of August 28, 2026.
- Ben Horowitz has talked about books on 2 podcasts, as of August 28, 2026.
- Those books came up in 16 episodes, as of August 28, 2026.
- The 3 books Ben Horowitz has mentioned in the most episodes, as of August 28, 2026: The Mythical Man-Month, Writing my wrongs and Elon Musk.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Ben Horowitz aired on August 28, 2026.
Updated
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Ben Horowitz appears on, in one place — not just one.
Ben Horowitz’s most recommended books
- The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
- Writing my wrongs by Shaka Senghor
- Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
- Radical Son by David Horowitz
- The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich
- When Reason Goes on Holiday by Neven Sesardic
- Fordlandia by Greg Grandin
- Freedom's Forge by Arthur Herman
- God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
- Life Force by Tony Robbins
Benjamin Abraham Horowitz is an American businessman, investor, blogger, and author. He is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz along with Marc Andreessen. Horowitz recommended David Horowitz's book Radical Son to highlight the story of political and media cover-ups surrounding the AIDS epidemic. He brought up The Weirdest People in the World by Joseph Henrich to further discuss societal and psychological differences between Western cultures and tribal kin-based cultures, and recommended Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk to illustrate the crises and fundraising challenges hardware startup CEOs face. Additionally, Horowitz mentioned Neven Sesardic's When Reason Goes on Holiday to illustrate how high-IQ intellectuals and scientists can become radicalized or misguided when venturing into politics. He praised Shaka Senghor's Writing My Wrongs for its honesty and poetic writing, and referenced Greg Grandin's Fordlandia and Frederick P. Brooks Jr.'s The Mythical Man-Month to discuss historical vertical integration and software development constraints.
Books recommended by Ben Horowitz
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The Mythical Man-Month
The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P.
Discussed“So for example if I had a product and I was two years behind I could not hire a thousand engineers and catch my competitor like it's a mythical man-month. Nine women can't have a baby in a month. Everybody knows that.”
Where to get it
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Writing my wrongs
Writing My Wrongs by Shaka Senghor is a powerful memoir detailing the author's journey through the prison system, redemption, and personal transformation after committing a murder.
Discussed“Oprah said well van I had read his book and I knew there was a part in the book that I wanted to ask him about because I didn't think that was right”
Where to get it
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson is a comprehensive biography detailing the life, ventures, and management methods of the billionaire entrepreneur.
Recommended“If you're not familiar with this, you can read like Elon's the the the the book that Walter Isaacson wrote on Elon cuz it kind of goes through a lot of the crises he ran into in both SpaceX and Tesla.”
Where to get it
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Radical Son
Radical Son by David Horowitz is a sprawling autobiographical account detailing the author's dramatic political transformation from a radical 1960s leftist activist into a prominent conservative commentator.
Recommended“That whole story by the way is in David's David Horwitz's book called Radical Sun. Um which is one of the most it's one of the most shattering and preient books by the way.”
Where to get it
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The WEIRDest People in the World
The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich is an anthropological and psychological exploration of how Western populations became psychologically unique compared to the rest of the world.
Recommended“there's this am outstanding book called the weirdest people in the world that actually goes through and studies the differences between this am monogamous marriage am you know God family work Protestant ethic sort of society that grew up in the west”
Where to get it
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When Reason Goes on Holiday
When Reason Goes on Holiday by Neven Sesardic is a nonfiction book exploring how brilliant scientists and high-IQ individuals can hold radical, misguided, or seemingly irrational political and social views.
Recommended“I'll give a plug for great book that you recommended when reason goes on holiday which is sort of the story of how the great physicists and inventors did on politics and policy and Game Theory you take super high IQ people and you put them in a research or university setting”
Where to get it
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Fordlandia
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin chronicles the ambitious and ultimately ill-fated attempt by Henry Ford to establish a rubber plantation and company town in the Amazon rainforest.
Discussed“And there's a great book called Ford Landia where so because he wanted to like own like the complete vertical thing where he created this city called Ford Landia in the Amazon jungle”
Where to get it
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Freedom's Forge
Freedom's Forge by Arthur Herman is a historical account of American industrial mobilization during World War II, detailing how industrialists rapidly retooled commercial manufacturing to build the Allied war machine.
Discussed“So a question, you guys alluded to this, but you know, there's this famous book Freedoms Forge, you know, talking about the ramp up of US industrial production during World War II”
Where to get it
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God Is Not Great
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens is a prominent polemical manifesto of the New Atheism movement that argues organized religion poisons everything, undermines moral responsibility, and distorts human understanding.
Discussed“my friend Christopher Hitchens wrote a book called God Is Not Great and my father's criticism of that he's like look you have two choices”
Where to get it
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Life Force
Life Force by Tony Robbins, Peter H.
Discussed“as Tony's last book is a book called life force which is h a book all about regenerative medicine and um how to basically live your best healthiest life with the uh best health span possible”
Where to get it
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No Rules Rules: Netflix and the culture of reinvention
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer details the radical management philosophy and unconventional corporate culture behind Netflix.
Discussed“you know Reed Hastings in his book which I argued with him about um after he wrote it said like they sent an email at Netflix saying like we fired this guy”
Where to get it
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Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer by Jacques Lob is a dystopian graphic novel depicting the last remnants of humanity surviving aboard a perpetually moving train circling a frozen, post-apocalyptic Earth.
Discussed“and then with AI helping us design these systems and understanding you know like there's all kinds of things in the atmospherics like we it scared me a little but I just got a a a pitch on um the thing that can control how much heat comes in from the sun which is you know there's a great dystopia”
Where to get it
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Tempest
Tempest by William Shakespeare is one of the celebrated playwright's final masterworks, exploring themes of magic, betrayal, illusion, and reconciliation on a remote island.
Discussed“Whitaker Chambers tells this amazing story in his book about how he tried to out himself to the U.S. government as a Soviet military intelligence recruiter and it took him six years to be taken seriously by the FBI and the Justice Department.”
Where to get it
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The Art of War
The Art of War by Sun Tzu is an ancient military treatise offering timeless strategic principles on leadership, outmaneuvering adversaries, and conflict resolution.
Discussed“there are times when you need so much precision that like if you're gonna lose somebody in whatever a war for talent because they got their feelings hurt well that's just gonna be how it's got to be because you need to teach that sunsoo object lesson like somebody's getting their head chopped off”
Where to get it
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The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz is a candid, highly practical guide to navigating the severe emotional and logistical challenges of running a startup when conventional rules do not apply.
Discussed“I mean I think that to your point though it was my story and the reason for that I mean there was a really specific reason for that which is building these companies tends to be very dynamic and very situational”
Where to get it
Books Ben Horowitz wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (9: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I actually think that's the best thing I ever wrote was a forward to High Output Management. The reason I wrote that forward was, it was my favorite book, and I wrote the hard thing about hard things was basically intended to be the updated version of it.”
“And one of the ones I actually put in the hard thing about hard things, but I had three kids.”
“When I talk to like Ted Sarandos or somebody like that, they're like, "Oh yeah, that's a book I like." But you have to run a very large organization and you you have to have gotten beyond the things hard thing about hard things to start to think about okay how do you program the culture of the whole organization”
“and one of the albums he listened to was Pink Floyd's The Wall”
“and then one of the films he saw was Rainman”
“so I think you have to do the hard thing about hard things and there I think there's really no option but to have the conversation and they know people don't say look man you're checked out”
“I once had an executive who came and he had read like The Stephen Covey seven habits Highly Effective People he's like well what I'm gonna do is uh first I'm going to seek to understand and then be understood”
“well I hope so because like all my favorite management books are military books so it's like the art of war there's the colon Powell book my American Journey”
“there's the colon Powell book my American Journey there's the black jacobins so that to sound lo vetere book”