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Reid Hoffman's book recommendations
Across 4 podcasts. Every show Reid Hoffman appears on, in one place — not just one.
Reid Garrett Hoffman is an American Internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author who co-founded LinkedIn and serves in leadership roles across various technology and venture capital firms. Throughout multiple podcast interviews, Hoffman recommended and discussed several works of science fiction and political philosophy. On Conversations with Tyler, he recommended Martha Wells's 'The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1' when asked for underrated science fiction, praising its fun format and the thoughtful questions it raises, and he discussed rereading David Brin's 'Uplift' series to explore theories surrounding the creation and shepherding of new intelligences. On the a16z Podcast, Hoffman mentioned Roger Penrose's 'The Emperor's New Mind', recalling a past interview with the author while discussing consciousness and mathematics. On The Diary Of A CEO, he brought up Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' to explain how reading science fiction in his youth influenced his worldview regarding the scope of humanity. Finally, on The Jordan Harbinger Show, he referenced Niccolò Machiavelli's 'Discourses on Livy', contrasting it with 'The Prince' to explore political and social structures. Through these discussions, Hoffman highlighted how speculative literature and historical philosophy inform his perspectives on technology, artificial intelligence, and human organization.
Books recommended by Reid Hoffman
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The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1
Martha Wells's acclaimed science fiction series follows the inner life and adventures of an autonomous, cynical security android that would rather watch soap operas than deal with humans.
Recommended“another one that I've been rereading recently because I think it's it's it's good fun but also raises good questions in a simple uh fun format is Martha Wells murderbot series”
Where to get it
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Discourses on Livy
Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli is a foundational work of political philosophy that examines the mechanics of republican government, institutional stability, and the historical lessons of the Roman Empire.
Discussed“now part of my interest in doing that is to not just take like Machiavelli's The Prince the discourses are kind of the textbook of sociopathic no morals matter part of my interests in rewriting”
Where to get it
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Foundation
Foundation by Isaac Asimov is a groundbreaking science fiction series chronicling the collapse and rebirth of a galactic empire through the predictive science of psychohistory.
Discussed“like you know how do you know what is the scope of humanity like you know Isaac asimov's foundation and you know this kind of stuff”
Where to get it
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The Emperor's New Mind
Roger Penrose's influential work explores the intersections of physics, consciousness, and the philosophy of mind, famously challenging the notion that human brains operate merely like computers.
Discussed“Now, um now consciousness is an interesting question because you got some very smart people, Roger Penrose, um who I actually interviewed way back when on Emperor's New Mind, speaking of mathematicians.”
Where to get it
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Uplift
Discussed“I've been re-reading David brin's uplift series very carefully because the theory of um how should we create other kinds of intelligences”
Where to get it
Books by Reid Hoffman
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Angel Investing
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Blitzscaling
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The Start-up of You
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Masters of Scale
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Impromptu
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Superagency
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THE ALLIANCE
Appearances
Other mentions (25: passing, ad reads, own books)
“part of what I encourage people part of the reason why you know wrote super agency is anyone who's not actually engaged in using AI today and not just for hey I open my refrigerator I got set ingredients what should I make for dinner”
“and I think part of what uh open AI also led the field in was doing this thing that I call in my book super agency iterative deployment which is make it available to you know hundreds of millions of people around the world so they can play with it”
“so part of the reason why I you know know kind of wrote super agency was to say by the way this pattern has gone back to the history of the written word and the printing press and has done everything from like the power loom and the Industrial Revolution cars planes”
“part of the reason why to re write super agency to kind of say Hey how do we navigate these transitions as we say well what are the issues we're going to have and what are the positive Futures we want to get to”
“but if you know as I go into some depth in the in in the book If the the Lites had successfully destroyed all the power looms and said well no we want to have independent weaving then that would have meant the that that that the their children their grandchildren Etc would have been kind of doomed to uh”
“and that will you know kind of speed up the level of of informational intelligence part of the reason why in the book we call it an informational GPS in terms of how you operate and so I think yes AI is great”
“so for example when when you're building things in the future and we have this chapter in super agency saying Innovation is safety you can actually build a bunch of things that in the future that are part of that that that safety and that future safety and it's important to get to”
“and obviously the book before super agency was impromptu um which is trying to show people you know not just show like tell how it's amplification intelligence but show and through kind of some examples of the Chrome of prompting”
“well so I'm writing a book on super agency I'm writing a book on you know kind of like what does the like technology mean for the kind of the ution of humanity and human agency um so here is my arguments”
“and you know there's also the earlier book impromptu which is a show that it's amplification intelligence and you know writing a book very quickly on education journalism and all the rest of that is to say it's”
“um my very first book the startup review um which um came from the commencement speech I gave at my high school the Putney School in Vermont”
“this is why I think I have a very unique Edge and you know in blit scaling which I think is another book on your thing uh most consumer internet plays are”
“so last year I published a book called impromptu which is the first book on AI co-written with AI”
“it's part of the reason I wrote impromptu Etc which is um what what is ai ai is great at adopting a role that you tell it to adopt”
“so for example in impromptu I have things that are poems I have light bulb jokes I have a whole bunch of stuff”
“a book is made a book is made about AI with AI hence impromptu”
“like I'm doing a chapter in impromptu which is like a Star Trek plot involving the person”
“as you know, I you know, published a book with it, you know, six weeks ago or something.”
“You know, like it's again to 0%, but you know, it's kind of what I see actually happening with these AIs and this is part of the reason why, you know, I wrote this book in promptu is is it's amazingly better and better savants”
“so my very first book was called the start-up of you and part of what I was trying to do is to give people how to say yes your passion is important but you should be paying attention to market realities”
“so my very first book was called the start-up of you and part of what I was trying to do is to give people how to say yes”
“and this is again from like my book startup view I have this framework called abz planning which is your plan a your plans B which is how to think about like well if a is not working out maybe B will work”
“I think it's good to always like in the starter view we have this concept permanent beta which is you're always learning you're always changing”
“second book is the Alliance as part of what I was writing about in the Alliance and part of it was it's no longer career ladder”
“the important thing and this is part of the Alliance in the book was to say actually in fact staying synched and being being forthright and being well allied with the companies you're at with the managers you're working with”