Person
Every book David Senra recommended on podcasts
Across 6 podcasts. Every show David Senra appears on, in one place — not just one.
David Senra’s most recommended books
- Zero to One by Peter A. Thiel, Blake Masters
- How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis
- Hard Drive by James Wallace
- Michael Jordan by Roland Lazenby
- Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
- Against the Odds by James Dyson
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
- Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda
- Endurance; Shackleton's incredible voyage by Alfred Lansing
- Beat the Dealer by Edward O. Thorp
David Senra has discussed and recommended numerous books across multiple podcast appearances. On his Founders podcast, he introduced Ari Emanuel's autobiography Roll the Calls, praising it as one of the most entertaining and craziest memoirs he had ever read. During an episode of Modern Wisdom, Senra highly recommended the biography Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby, sharing that reading it twice fundamentally changed his life and highlighted Jordan's intense dedication to continuous learning. In the same conversation, he strongly endorsed James Dyson's first autobiography, Against the Odds, to illustrate the immense value of persistence through years of professional failure. While appearing on My First Million, he brought up How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis to highlight the author's brutal honesty regarding his life and the accumulation of wealth. On The Tim Ferriss Show, Senra reiterated his strong recommendation for Jocko Willink and Leif Babin's Extreme Ownership. During the same interview, he recommended comprehensive biographical works about Edwin Land, specifically highlighting Insisting on the Impossible by Victor K. McElheny as well as Land's Polaroid by Peter C. Wensberg, which was written by a former colleague. Finally, he praised Morgan Housel's enduringly popular financial book, The Psychology of Money.
Books recommended by David Senra
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Zero to One
Zero to One by Peter A.
Discussed“i found one of my all-time favorite quotes when i was reading the book zero to one the quote says the single most powerful pattern i have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas”
Where to get it
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How to Get Rich
How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis is a frank and practical exploration of wealth accumulation written by a successful magazine publishing mogul.
Recommended“There's this great book called How to Get Rich. Have you read that one? Felix Dennis, episode 129.”
Where to get it
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Hard Drive
Hard Drive by James Wallace and Jim Erickson is an intensive biography that details the early career of Bill Gates and the dramatic rise of the Microsoft empire.
Discussed“I reread Hard Drive, Overdrive, which is also written by the same guys that wrote Hard Drive.”
Where to get it
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Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan by Roland Lazenby is an extensive, multi-hundred-page biography that chronicles the life, career, psychology, and competitive drive of the legendary basketball player.
Recommended“And uh there's this great book called Michael Jordan: The Life. It's like 700 pages long. Uh it's by this guy named Roland Lazenby. And I read that book twice. It it fundamentally changed my life.”
Where to get it
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Scientific Advertising
Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins is a classic business text that treats advertising as an exact, measurable science rooted in consumer behavior and empirical testing.
Discussed“I read scientific advertising. Yes. In the very beginning.”
Where to get it
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Against the Odds
Against the Odds by James Dyson is the first autobiography of the British inventor and industrial designer, chronicling his relentless struggles, financial pressures, and eventual triumph in creating the dual-cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner.
Recommended“If I If you only read one book, it'd be his first autobiography, which is called Against the Odds, an autobiography by James Dyson. Cuz it's not about today, you fast forward he's 78 years old, he owns 100% of one of the most successful private companies in the world, he wouldn't sell it.”
Where to get it
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Extreme Ownership
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin is a prominent leadership and self-improvement book written by former Navy SEAL officers that translates military combat experiences into actionable business and personal principles.
Recommended“You can just get I'm like extreme ownership still highly highly highly recommend to everyone.”
Where to get it
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Creative Selection
Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda is an insider's account of working as a software engineer at Apple, detailing the iterative design processes and relentless product quality obsession that defined the company's culture under Steve Jobs.
Recommended“There's this great book that I I'd I've read three times. I think every single entrepreneur on the planet should read it. It's called Creative Selection. It is written by Ken Kocienda.”
Where to get it
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Endurance; Shackleton's incredible voyage
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing is a gripping historical account documenting Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition.
Recommended“that's the best book I've read in probably three years endurance yeah yeah it's excellent”
Where to get it
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Beat the Dealer
Beat the Dealer by Edward O.
Discussed“He wrote a book called beat the dealer which tells you how to count cards like the 1960s sold millions of copies.”
Where to get it
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Outsiders, The
The Outsiders by William N.
Discussed“there's this book called The Outsiders and I pick it up I start reading about it I'm like oh my God the ideas that I thought were Buffet Anders were Singleton”
Where to get it
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The Lessons of History
The Lessons of History by Will Durant and Ariel Durant is a concise volume that distills major patterns from five millennia of human civilization into roughly one hundred pages.
Discussed“Me and you both love Will and Ariel Durant, right? Read the history of human civilization. read their 100page book, Lessons of History.”
Where to get it
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The Snowball
The Snowball by Alice Schroeder is widely recognized as the definitive, highly detailed biography of legendary investor Warren Buffett.
Discussed“You read Snowball after his wife leaves him and he says the biggest mistake if I could go back and live life again.”
Where to get it
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Driven
Driven by Larry H.
Recommended“Let me go back to Edward and I want to tell you about this guy Larry Miller who wrote a book that I think everybody should read it's called driven an autobiography by Larry Miller right”
Where to get it
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The River of Doubt
The River of Doubt by Candice Millard is a riveting historical narrative detailing former U.S.
Recommended“um there's a fantastic book called The River of Doubt which is a biography on Teddy Roosevelt but it it focuses on him his life after he lost the last presidential election”
Where to get it
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Play Nice but Win
Play Nice but Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader by Michael Dell and James Kaplan is an autobiographical account detailing the technology pioneer's rise from a dorm-room startup founder to the head of a global computer empire.
Discussed“Michael Dell could be on this list, too. I'm reading his autobiography like and I got to the point where they're like he's he's taking the company private.”
Where to get it
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The Creative Act
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin is a renowned exploration of the artistic process and a spiritual approach to cultivating a creative lifestyle.
Discussed“So, I write biographies about him. I read his book Creative Act. You read Creative Act? Yes. Okay.”
Where to get it
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A Man for All Markets
A Man for All Markets by Edward O.
Recommended“it's called a man for all markets um the saint celeb wrote the forward and you can actually read the forward for free on nasim's website which is fantastic”
Where to get it
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Accidental Empires
Accidental Empires by Robert X.
Recommended“so one of the craziest books I ever read um was this book called hard drive uh Bill Gates in the building of the Microsoft Empire right”
Where to get it
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Almanac and Weather Forecaster
Almanac and Weather Forecaster by Eric Sloane is a reference work focused on meteorology and nature observation.
Recommended“I give uh Eric jorgensen's the almanac and of all a lot away a lot”
Where to get it
The other 39 books David Senra recommended or discussed, ranked
- Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender, Rick Tetzeli
- Endurance by Alfred Lansing
- Estee by Estee Lauder
- Frames of Reference by Eric Jorgensen
- Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham
- Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham
- Insisting On The Impossible by Victor K. McElheny
- Invent and Wander by Walter Isaacson
- Land's Polaroid by Peter C. Wensberg
- Liftoff by Eric Berger
- Make Something Wonderful by Steve Jobs
- Roll the Calls by Ari Emanuel
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, Philip H. Knight
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
- The Dream of Solomeo by Brunello Cucinelli
- The Invisible Billionaire, Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields
- The Outsiders by William N. Thorndike Jr.
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Tycoon's War by Stephen Dando-Collins
- All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There by Peter Bevelin
- Am I Being Too Subtle? by Sam Zell
- Arnold and Me by Barbara, Outland Baker
- Cable Cowboy by Mark Robichaux
- Driven from within by Michael Jordan
- Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
- Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Young Readers' Edition by Ashlee Vance
- How to Make a Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs
- How to Make a Few More Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs
- No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- The Everything Store by Brad Stone
- The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen
- The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
- The Mind of Napoleon by Napoleon I (Emperor of the French)
- The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
- The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant
- The tao of Charlie Munger by David Clark
- Titan by Ron Chernow
- Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Appearances
Other mentions (8: passing, ad reads, own books)
“One of my all-time favorite quotes is from the book Zero to One. In that book, Peter Thiel writes, he says, The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.”
“i found one of my all-time favorite quotes when i was reading the book zero to one the quote says the single most powerful pattern i have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas”
“And he wrote this book called How to Make a Few Billion Dollars.”
“The Road, Blood, Meridian. I mean, there are many other examples.”
“The Road, Blood, Meridian. I mean, there are many other examples.”
“All the Pretty Horses, the the Border Trilogy, just everything.”
“Well, people would list like their favorite movies and favorite books and I think I was like looking at a girl's profile and under favorite books it said 4-hour work week.”
“and it's like how to win friends and influence and like all these like businessy self-helpy books”