Person
Every book Chamath Palihapitiya recommended on podcasts
Across 4 podcasts. Every show Chamath Palihapitiya appears on, in one place — not just one.
Chamath Palihapitiya’s most recommended books
- Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio
- Principles by Ray Dalio
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- Life Ascending by Nick Lane
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump
- Wanting by Luke Burgis
- 2001, a Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
- Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez
- Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Chamath Palihapitiya is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and American venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He founded and leads Social Capital, which he launched in 2011 after serving as a senior executive at Facebook from 2007 to 2011. Palihapitiya has used Social Capital to invest in technology and healthcare companies, championed high-profile special-purpose acquisition company deals, held a minority stake in the Golden State Warriors, and co-hosts All-In, a weekly business and technology podcast launched in 2021 with co-hosts Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg, which focuses on startup investing and technology policy. Across podcast appearances on platforms like The Tucker Carlson Show and How I Write, Palihapitiya recommended Donald J. Trump's Trump: The Art of the Deal, Jim Collins's Good to Great as a master class in structural writing, Nick Lane's Life Ascending, Ray Dalio's Principles, Luke Burgis's Wanting for its insights on mimetic theory, and Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. Additionally, he discussed René Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy to analyze AI research perspectives and quoted William Shakespeare's Macbeth while speaking about spirituality.
Books recommended by Chamath Palihapitiya
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Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio is an economic and historical analysis that examines the rise and fall of major empires through long-term cycles of debt, economic shifts, and geopolitical power.
Critiqued“I just think that everybody tries to take one random data point and conflate it all together to reinforce a ray dalio point from a book three years ago”
Where to get it
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Principles
Principles by Ray Dalio is a practical guide to decision-making, life management, and systematic economics based on the author's decades of experience running Bridgewater Associates.
Discussed“This is a really important point: if you guys read Ray Dalio’s book, which we've talked about many times, he highlights that a growing economy and a successful country improves by improving education and having more people obtain higher education in general.”
Where to get it
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Good to Great
Good to Great by Jim Collins is a popular business book exploring how companies transition from being mediocre to achieving sustained greatness.
Recommended“or go back and read good to great too these are master classes in that structure they are master classes”
Where to get it
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Life Ascending
Life Ascending by Nick Lane is an exploration of the ten greatest evolutionary inventions that shaped the history of life on Earth, ranging from DNA and photosynthesis to complex cells and consciousness.
Recommended“the other one that he wrote which is called life ascending those two books you must read”
Where to get it
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Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a gripping science fiction novel that chronicles a lone astronaut's desperate mission to save humanity from an extinction-level threat.
Recommended“anybody read Andy Weir's Hail Mary yet the guy who did the Martian he's a science fiction author it's really great”
Where to get it
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Trump: The Art of the Deal
Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J.
Recommended“one is there's an incredible picture in uh Donald Trump's book which is a picture of Zuck sitting in the oval and by the way this is the same book which you have to get”
Where to get it
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Wanting
Wanting by Luke Burgis explores the concept of mimetic desire, explaining how human beings unconsciously copy the desires, ambitions, and envies of the people around them.
Recommended“And so there was a book called wanting w-a-n-t-i-n-g by this author named Luke burgess. Superb book very easy to read very accessible”
Where to get it
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2001, a Space Odyssey
2001, a Space Odyssey by Arthur C.
Discussed“I think the whole premise of like UFOs moving bodies around is rooted in the current state of Technology of humanity which is the basis of Arthur Clark's treatment of 2001 A Space Odyssey not which was done before the screenplay which was done before the book”
Where to get it
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Chaos Monkeys
Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez is a revealing and energetic memoir detailing the author's turbulent time working inside Silicon Valley tech giants like Facebook.
Discussed“And Apple acquiesced, right? They're like, we don't like, you know, Antonio's book Chaos Monkeys and he said these three things in an award-winning book that we find are we're going to fire him.”
Where to get it
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Gender Queer
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe is an autobiographical graphic novel that details the author's journey of gender identity and self-discovery.
Discussed“if people want to look up this issue there's a book called genderqueer and there's a story about it in the New York Times and it's um you know it's a graphic novel about coming of age for a non-binary person which is fine”
Where to get it
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Macbeth
Macbeth by William Shakespeare is one of the playwright's darkest and most famous tragedies, exploring the destructive psychological and political ambitions of a Scottish lord who seizes the throne.
Discussed“and at some point they may never say it out loud They think I am living in a tale told by an idiot Right that's that famous quote about why spirituality is important”
Where to get it
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Meditations on First Philosophy
Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes is a foundational philosophical text exploring radical skepticism, the nature of reality, and the existence of God.
Discussed“Yeah, there's an incredibly important mathematician Renee Daycart and he offered two proofs on God's existence. He wrote this book Meditations on First Philosophy in the 1600s.”
Where to get it
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The Hidden History of the Vietnam War
The Hidden History of the Vietnam War by John Prados is a detailed historical examination of military strategy and political decisions during the Vietnam conflict.
Discussed“my friend John nor he wrote a book called The Hidden war and he was a fish and game officer”
Where to get it
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The intelligent investor
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a foundational guide to value investing that emphasizes long-term strategy, market analysis, and emotional discipline over speculation.
Discussed“If you listen to Buffett, Buffett's teacher, this guy Ben Graham, in Ben Graham's book, the way that he would look at a stock”
Where to get it
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The Ride of a Lifetime
The Ride of a Lifetime is a business memoir by Robert Iger detailing his leadership experiences and career at Disney.
Discussed“did you guys read the book he wrote uh that right of our lifetime what is it”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (5: passing, ad reads, own books)
“And then these language models, because of the copyright issues, they're not able to upload Blade Runner and then say, "Hey, make me something."”
“I thought the last time was when you published the book Angel”
“Like, I've told this story many times, and I have put, again, my own narrative fallacy on top of this, but you know Steve Jobs's sister wrote this obit in the New York Times when he died, and she ends it by saying his last words were, ‘Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow,’ that seems like an awesome way to”
“It's like, you know, war and peace and then you read like one half of the final chapter and you're like, oh yeah, okay. Like there's a lot to the story that's going to be really hard for us to unpack.”
“There are decades and layers to this story, like 'War and Peace'; if you only read one half of the final chapter, you might think you understand, but in reality, there's a lot to unpack.”