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Marc Andreessen's books and book recommendations
Across 12 podcasts. Every show Marc Andreessen appears on, in one place — not just one.
Marc Andreessen is an American businessman, venture capitalist, and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, co-founder of Netscape, and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. On various podcasts, Andreessen recommended and discussed several books across different topics. He mentioned David J. Schwartz's Thinking Big to explain the creation and early history of Los Angeles. To illustrate how de-industrialization and financialization have concentrated economic growth in large cities, he brought up Chris Hayes's Twilight of the Elites. He discussed Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance to highlight the perspective that liberals should embrace building things and economic growth, and he recommended J. Rolf Haltza's Job Stacking as a how-to manual for holding down multiple remote jobs. For readers interested in the historical media environment of the American colonial era, he recommended Eric Burns's Infamous Scribblers. Additionally, he discussed Eric Hoffer's The True Believer as the best book on politics written in the 20th century, James Burnham's The Machiavellians to touch upon the Italian realist school of political philosophy and the iron law of oligarchy, and Václav Havel's The Power of the Powerless in relation to preference falsification and anti-communist resistance.
Books by Marc Andreessen
Books recommended by Marc Andreessen
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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.
Discussed“there's a book that goes through this called when reason goes on holiday that came out a few years ago that kind of goes through all of Einstein's writings and speeches and kind of reconstructs this history”
Where to get it
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The Ancient City
Peter Connolly's historical work The Ancient City reconstructs the daily life, architecture, and governance of early civilizations and prehistoric communities.
Recommended“great book called the ancient city that goes back and reconstructs basically like pre basically prehistoric civilization like what it was like”
Where to get it
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The True Believer
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer is a profound psychological study of mass movements, fanaticism, and the motivations that drive individuals to join fanatic causes.
Discussed“No, I was just going to say yeah, I know like what Ben said is yeah, so like this is a I posted a link to a book called The True Believer that kind of talk talks about this is, you know, the the old characterization is elites and masses”
Where to get it
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The Magic of Thinking Big
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J.
Recommended“and literally it's a um there's a great book we can we'll put put in the notes called thinking big where it goes actually the creation of the city of Los Angeles”
Where to get it
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Abundance
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is a widely debated book that outlines a policy manifesto for progressives, arguing that the political left should embrace economic growth and the actual construction of physical infrastructure.
Recommended“there's this new book out called abundance from Ezra Klene who I would say I disagree with on approximately zero of everything”
Where to get it
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Twilight of the Elites
Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes is a critical examination of modern meritocracy, arguing that major institutions failed to hold elites accountable following the 2008 financial crisis and other systemic failures.
Recommended“and who's written a great book on it called Twilight of the Elites.”
Where to get it
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Job Stacking
Job Stacking by J.
Recommended“And then by the way, there's this incredible book called Job Stacking that I always recommend which is sort of this how-to manual to how to hold down two jobs.”
Where to get it
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Infamous Scribblers
Infamous Scribblers by Eric Burns is a historical examination of the partisan journalists, pamphleteers, and print culture of the American colonial era and the founding period of the United States.
Recommended“Um uh and so and just for people want to read about this, there's the best book on this is called in infamous scribblers. Um uh which was sort of the the the the name for for journalists in those days.”
Where to get it
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The Machiavellians
The Machiavellians by James Burnham is a classic political science text that examines the realities of power, elite theory, and the mechanics of governance through the lens of thinkers like Machiavelli, Mosca, Sorel, Michels, and Pareto.
Recommended“called The Machiavellians by this guy James Burnham, who has had a big impact on me.”
Where to get it
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The Power of the Powerless
The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel is a seminal political manifesto examining how totalitarian systems maintain control through collective illusion and how individuals can resist by living in truth.
Recommended“the other good book on this topic, which is The Power of the Powerless, you know, who is an anti-communist resistance fighter”
Where to get it
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Orwell's Revenge
Orwell's Revenge by Peter Huber is a speculative reimagining of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984.
Recommended“there's another book I'd really recommend on this uh the directly directly to your point uh this guy Peter Huber wrote this book called Orwell's Revenge”
Where to get it
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A Conflict of Visions
A Conflict of Visions is a work of political philosophy by Thomas Sowell that examines the underlying assumptions about human nature that shape competing political and social ideologies.
Recommended“um I'm very influenced on this by Thomas Soul wrote this great book called the conflict of visions and he talks about fundamentally there are two two classes of visions of the future”
Where to get it
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Days of rage
Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough is a historical chronicle that documents the widespread wave of ideologically motivated domestic terrorism and underground radical violence carried out by groups like the Weather Underground during the 1970s.
Recommended“book called days of rage that kind of Chronicles basically like very widespread pattern of domestic Terror ideologically motivated domestic Terror in the 70s”
Where to get it
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The Red Decade
The Red Decade by Eugene Lyons is a historical examination documenting the extent of communist enthusiasm and intellectual sympathy among American cultural and political elites during the 1920s and 1930s.
Discussed“you know there was a version of this in the 20s and 30s in the there's this great book called red decade”
Where to get it
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The Reckoning
David Halberstam's acclaimed historical work explores the deep economic and industrial anxieties experienced by the United States during the twentieth century, focusing particularly on the intense competition between American manufacturers and the surging rise of Japanese car exports during the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties.
Recommended“there's a great book actually David helber St wrote a great book called The Reckoning where he he actually told the story which is a really good book”
Where to get it
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Superforecasting
Philip E.
Recommended“Phil Tetlock, a professor studying this topic, wrote a comprehensive study on political predictions, leading to the conclusion that the average credentialed expert is less than random likely to be correct.”
Where to get it
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Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon
Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon by David McGowan is a non-fiction book exploring the dark history and alleged secret intelligence operations within the Laurel Canyon music scene.
Recommended“it's the book called weird scenes in the canyon”
Where to get it
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The WEIRDest People in the World
The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Patrick Henrich, Joseph Henrich, and Korey Jackson is an exploration of how psychology, anthropology, and culture intersect to shape distinct societal structures.
Recommended“kin based culture is you know as it's referred to in the weirdest people in the world which is a great book am which we haven't talked about in a while but am worth reading for everyone am but that that is really a cultural consistency in in in tribalism”
Where to get it
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Read Write Own
Read Write Own by Chris Dixon is an exploration of blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and the decentralized architecture shaping the future of the internet.
Discussed“Chris is there something you wish because you you're the nature of book publishing u wrote the book a while back is there something you wish you could have included in the book and will there be a followup”
Where to get it
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Radical Son
This autobiography details a political journey and critiques modern leftist movements through a personal and historical lens.
Recommended“Oh, his autobiography is called Radical Son, which is a fantastic book, which talks about this whole journey that he went on. That's a, it's a great book.”
Where to get it
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The Man from the Future
The Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya is a biography of the polymath and theoretical physicist John von Neumann, detailing his monumental contributions to science, mathematics, and computing.
Recommended“so so there's this great book that that Ben and I've read this I think it's called The Man from the future the Van Norman book and so I think it does a very good job of telling telling about Norman's side of the story”
Where to get it
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The Man in the High Castle
Philip K.
Recommended“Also, there's this great book that Ben and I have read called The Man from the Future, the Von Neumann book, and it does a very good job of telling Norman's side of the story.”
Where to get it
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The Odyssey
Homer's epic poem The Odyssey recounts the arduous ten-year journey of the Greek hero Odysseus as he strives to return home to Ithaca following the Trojan War, facing mythical monsters, divine wrath, and profound personal trials along the way.
Recommended“There's actually this great book; there's an economist named Alexander Field who's done this; he's done a pair of great books in the 1930s and 1940s, but he talks in great detail about how the American military production machine basically spun up in 18 months.”
Where to get it
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Lenin
Lenin by Victor Sebestyen is a comprehensive historical biography that chronicles the life, ideology, and brutal tactics of the Russian revolutionary leader.
Recommended“The Sebastian biography of Lennon is extraordinary.”
Where to get it
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The Ancient City - Imperium Press
The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges is a historical study examining the foundational institutions, religious beliefs, and social structures of ancient Greece and Rome.
Recommended“the single best book I have found on who we are and how we got here is the Ancient City by Numa Dennis Fustel De Coulanges.”
Where to get it
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Men, Machines, and Modern Times
Recommended“And it's the title of the book is called Man Machines in Modern Times. It's this topic.”
Where to get it
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Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital is an economic history and finance book that explores the recurring cycles of technological surges and market bubbles driven by financial capital.
Recommended“and the book that Dan's referring to is probably my favorite book that I recommend most often and it's got a kind of a not a lot of people read it because it's got one of those titles that kind of scares people off I've read it it's called technological revolutions and financial capital”
Where to get it
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Closing of the American Mind
Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom is a prominent and enduring critique of higher education, moral relativism, and cultural shifts within American universities.
Discussed“and there were these furious de there's a classic book of that era Peter's book is great but actually before that there was a famous book at the time which has been huge headline news all through the country when it came out called the the closing of the American mind”
Where to get it
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The Diversity Myth
The Diversity Myth by David O.
Discussed“or Peter Teal and David Sax wrote about it in their book you know diversity myth in 1995 the diversity myth and it was it was actually it was actually a term that it's called multi multicult multiculti multicultural”
Where to get it
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Me and Ted Against the World
Discussed“and then because I'm an obsessive, I there's this book at one point that nobody's read, but it's the book is called Me and Ted Against the World.”
Where to get it
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Shatter Me
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi is a young adult dystopian romance novel about a teenager with a lethal touch who is imprisoned by a tyrannical organization before discovering her own strength.
Discussed“and then because I'm an obsessive, I there's this book at one point that nobody's read, but it's the book is called Me and Ted Against the World.”
Where to get it
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Kill All Normies
Kill All Normies by Angela Nagle is an insightful non-fiction book that examines the rise of angry internet culture and online political subcultures over the past decade.
Discussed“I couldn't resist. I posted a link to it another book on this topic with it has a great title called Kill All Normies. And it's this this book actually from like a decade ago that talked about like this kind of very angry internet culture”
Where to get it
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The Mythical Man-Month
The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P.
Discussed“The thing that we never thought would ever ever ever go away is a mythical man month. You know nine women can't have a baby in a month. Well with AI you can um you know with software it's a metaphor for software.”
Where to get it
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Rise of the Machines
Discussed“So um if you kind of trace all the way back to the 1930s, there's a great book called Rise of the Machines that kind of goes through this.”
Where to get it
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Real Genius
Discussed“I just happen to watch I'm watching a lot of movies with my my 10-year-old and we've watched the movie Real Genius last night. It's a movie in 1985 actually made by our good friend Brian Graaser.”
Where to get it
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The Half-Life of Facts
Samuel Arbesman's The Half-Life of Facts examines how scientific knowledge, medical guidelines, and human facts decay and change over time, much like radioactive isotopes.
Discussed“There's a great book uh this guy wrote called the half-life of facts.”
Where to get it
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Walden
Walden by Henry David Thoreau is a classic transcendentalist masterwork detailing the author's experiences living in a cabin near Concord, Massachusetts, while reflecting on nature, solitude, and self-reliance.
Discussed“throw was way ahead of his time we really need Walden Pond now”
Where to get it
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MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; or, The Whale explores the obsessive, destructive quest of Captain Ahab to hunt down the white whale that maimed him, weaving a sprawling narrative that blends high-seas adventure, philosophical inquiry, and encyclopedic maritime lore.
Discussed“And a whailing expedition like in Moby Dick, it's like literally a ship and a captain and a crew and they're going to like go out and they're going to try to like go get a whale and bring it back, right?”
Where to get it
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The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
Martin Gurri's The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium examines how digital technology and the democratization of information have fueled public distrust in traditional institutions and political elites.
Discussed“So, you know, a lot of my thinking on this is from from you book from our friend Martin Guri u that he wrote back in 2015 called the I think it's called the revolt the revolt of the public and the crisis of authority um in the new millennium.”
Where to get it
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Private Truths, Public Lies
Private Truths, Public Lies by Timur Kuran is a work of social science examining how individuals conform to public ideas they privately doubt, introducing the concept of preference falsification.
Discussed“So it's called Private Truths, Public Lies. And it's written by a social science professor named Timur Kuran”
Where to get it
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The Birdman of Lauderdale
The Birdman of Lauderdale by Clay Christensen is a prominent business and innovation text that explores how established corporations struggle to adapt to emerging technologies and market shifts because doing so disrupts their existing business models and customer bases.
Discussed“This is sort of the big breakthrough that Clay Christensen had in "The Innovator's Dilemma," which is sometimes when big companies don't do things, it's because they're screwing up.”
Where to get it
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The Federalist papers
The Federalist papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, James Madison, John Jay is a foundational collection of essays advocating for the ratification of the United States Constitution.
Discussed“By the way, you know, these were very, very smart people, right? And so they knew tremendous amounts of like Greek and Roman history. They knew the Renaissance history, you know, "The Federalist Papers," they argue this a great length.”
Where to get it
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The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is a masterwork of high fantasy that launches the epic saga of Middle-earth and the quest to destroy the One Ring.
Discussed“If we can draw parallels to the Hobbit or whatever.”
Where to get it
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The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.
Discussed“And for people who don't catch the reference, that's "Lord of the Rings."”
Where to get it
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1984
George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 presents a chilling vision of a totalitarian society characterized by perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and the systematic manipulation of historical truth and language.
Discussed“and you know famously in 1984 you know as you mentioned there there you know there's this concept of the telescreen which is basically the one-way propaganda broadcast device”
Where to get it
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The Managerial Revolution
The Managerial Revolution by James Burnham is a political and economic work that examines the shift from traditional capitalism to a society governed by an expert technocratic managerial class.
Discussed“one's called the managerial Revolution um and it's basically um you could spend time on it if you want but it's basically it it basically says you know basically these movements that look like they have you know these movements have real differences obviously those three big movements”
Where to get it
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Lean In
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg is a prominent corporate and feminist manifesto that examines women's leadership in the workplace and the systemic barriers they face in achieving professional success.
Discussed“she wrote this book called lean in about 12 years ago um it's this sort of feminist Manifesto”
Where to get it
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Superintelligence
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom is a rigorous philosophical exploration of the potential existential risks, pathways, and ultimate consequences of creating artificial intelligence that vastly surpasses human cognitive capabilities.
Discussed“the book that got the doomers all spun up I love pointing the this out the book that got the doomers all spun up was this uh book uh from 10 years ago by this guy Nick Bostrom is a philosopher um from Oxford um um and uh he wrote this book called Super intelligence”
Where to get it
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams's comedic science fiction masterpiece "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" follows the absurd interstellar travels of Arthur Dent after Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
Discussed“Douglas uh you know the book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”
Where to get it
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Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a classic dystopian novel depicting a totalitarian society characterized by perpetual surveillance, historical negationism, and absolute ideological control.
Discussed“the sort of the orwellian Orwell um you know totalitarian kind of thing that people use as a metaphor”
Where to get it
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The CISG
Discussed“and in that book what he did is he said okay we're going to use that same setup but the telescreen instead of being a one-way system is going to be a two-way system”
Where to get it
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High Output Management
Discussed“This is like I actually think this is a general kind of organizational psychology problem and Andy Grove kind of remarked about it um and I think it was high output management when he talked about well there's you need people with ambition.”
Where to get it
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Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren
Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren by John Maynard Keynes is a famous 1930 essay examining technological progress, productivity, and the future reduction of the workweek.
Discussed“By the way, as ue Keynes famously said, it was his essay, I think, was Economic Prospects for Our Grandchildren, which was basically that.”
Where to get it
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Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
Discussed“So, there's this thing called the GINA law, Genetic Information Non- Non-Discrimination Act of uh 2008, and basically it it base it base bans health insurers in the US from actually using genetic data”
Where to get it
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Too Big to Fail
Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin is a comprehensive journalistic account of the 2008 global financial crisis, detailing the frantic efforts of Wall Street executives and government officials to prevent a complete collapse of the financial system.
Discussed“The whole book on the global financial crisis that Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote was called too big to fail and the whole thing was we wanted to not have the companies, you know, cuz you know, if a bank is if a bank is not systemically important if if a bank goes down the way a normal company goes down”
Where to get it
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Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani is a radical leftist manifesto envisioning a post-scarcity future enabled by automation, renewable energy, and advanced artificial intelligence.
Discussed“in various other communist regimes there was always this kind of idea there's actually a book on this from a from a from a modern communist called fully luxur fully automated luxury communism”
Where to get it
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Public opinion
Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann is a foundational political science text published in 1922 that examines how media, stereotypes, and psychological biases shape the thoughts and actions of the citizenry in a modern industrial democracy.
Discussed“this a wood Wilson idea right wood yeah it's a wi Wilson era thing almost 100 almost exactly 100 years ago is when this started um and in particularly there's there's a book called public opinion written by a guy Nam Walter Litman that sort of Define this at the time what I'm about to describe”
Where to get it
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The Case against Education
The Case against Education by Bryan Caplan is a provocative economic book arguing that the modern education system is largely a waste of time and money because college degrees function primarily as social signaling mechanisms rather than tools for imparting useful skills.
Discussed“um so so this is a very interesting topic and actually a lot of I know on this I learned from there's an economist named Brian Kaplan who's written a book called like the book is he's a he's a 10ar university professor at George Mason University he spent his life in Academia um but he gave his book a”
Where to get it
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The ultimate resource
Discussed“so this was also the argument to connect this back to the idea of human population so this this was the argument for this guy Julian Simon who I admire a lot yeah um who who wrote this book called The Ultimate resource”
Where to get it
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Save the cat!
Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder is a foundational screenwriting guide that breaks down storytelling into clear structural frameworks, beats, and specific page-number milestones.
Discussed“there's this book that has had a big impact on the entertainment industry called save the cat and it's a book on how to raise screenplays”
Where to get it
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How to Write a Thesis
How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco is a classic guide providing practical instructions and systematic methods for conducting academic research and composing scholarly papers.
Discussed“I read that, was it Alberto Echo book at one point about how to write a thesis and he's got the card catalog system. Yeah. Some people use like Evernote.”
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 entrepreneurship and management guide that addresses the brutal realities of running a business, making difficult decisions, and leading through crisis.
Discussed“And Peter's, Peter Thiel's book Zero to One is like that. And Ben's book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is like that thing just like sells and gets translated into, you know, you say they can like 27 languages now or something and sell all over the world.”
Where to get it
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Zero to One
Zero to One by Peter A.
Discussed“And Peter's, Peter Thiel's book Zero to One is like that. And Ben's book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is like that...”
Where to get it
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The Ballad of John Henry
Discussed“do you have you ever heard when you're a kid you ever hear this thing The Ballad of John Henry”
Where to get it
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Men, Machines, and Modern Times, 50th Anniversary Edition
Discussed“And so I finally found this book that I think has a good model for it. A book is called Men, Machines, and Modern Times. And it's written by this MIT professor, like, 60 years ago.”
Where to get it
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The Godfather
The Godfather by Mario Puzo is an iconic crime novel chronicling the Corleone mafia family, examining power, loyalty, and the American criminal underworld.
Discussed“There was this myth that happened around the movie The Godfather, and then there was this character, Meyer Lansky, who's like, ran basically the Mafia 50, 60, 70 years ago.”
Where to get it
Questions about Marc Andreessen’s book recommendations
What book does Marc Andreessen recommend most?
When Reason Goes on Holiday by Neven Sesardic. Marc Andreessen recommended it in 4 episodes, with 2 explicit recommendations.
How many books has Marc Andreessen recommended on podcasts?
We have found 66 books Marc Andreessen recommended or discussed, across 38 episodes of 12 podcasts. Ad reads and passing mentions are not counted.
What books are on Marc Andreessen's reading list?
The books Marc Andreessen has recommended most on podcasts are When Reason Goes on Holiday by Neven Sesardic, The Ancient City by Peter Connolly, The True Believer by Eric Hoffer, The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz and Abundance by Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson. The full book list below has all 66.
What books has Marc Andreessen written?
Techno-Optimist Manifesto (2025).
What did Marc Andreessen recommend on The Ben & Marc Show?
When Reason Goes on Holiday, Abundance and Twilight of the Elites, among 29 books in all.
What is the latest book Marc Andreessen recommended?
The Diversity Myth, discussed on a16z Podcast (2026-05-11).
People who recommend the same books
Appearances
Other mentions (6: passing, ad reads, own books)
“And this is a guy who literally wrote a book called The Diversity Myth.”
“There was a cult science fiction book retailer, a tiny little hole-in-the-wall bookstore on El Camino Real in Mountain View called Future Fantasy Books.”
“You remember in those days the books started to show up; before people had the internet, there were books about it.”
“um you know the Frankenstein's monster”
“And so and this is my argument in the in the in the techno-optimist manifesto, which is these effects of technology driving up the marginal productivity of the worker and therefore driving up income while simultaneously driving down the prices of goods and services is just that these two factors are so massive in increasing quality of life that all”
“Like nature really has it out for you, um, and if you're unprotected in a state of nature like it, you know, the old, the old thing is you know life and state of nature is, is is is what is it nasty, brutish and short, poor, solitary, nasty, brutish and short, Hobbes, yeah, exactly. And so so look technology,”