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Every book Stewart Butterfield recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Stewart Butterfield has recommended or discussed 7 books on podcasts, as of November 20, 2025.
- Stewart Butterfield has talked about books on 2 podcasts, as of November 20, 2025.
- Those books came up in 2 episodes, as of November 20, 2025.
- The 3 books Stewart Butterfield has mentioned in the most episodes, as of November 20, 2025: Eunoia, Positioning and The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza Translated from the Latin with an Introduction, by R. H. M. Ehves. Vol. I. Introduction, Tractatus Theologico-politicus, Tractatus Politicus.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Stewart Butterfield aired on November 20, 2025.
Updated
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Stewart Butterfield appears on, in one place, not just one.
Stewart Butterfield’s most recommended books
Stewart Butterfield appeared on the Invest Like the Best podcast to discuss his entrepreneurial philosophy and leadership experiences. During the conversation, he recommended and discussed several works of philosophy, innovation, and literature. When asked to assign a single philosophy book for everyone in the world to read, Butterfield suggested Baruch Spinoza's Tractatus, noting it would be valuable for those with sufficient support. He also discussed Michael Schrage's short book Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?, explaining that it provided an eye-opening conceptual framework defining innovation as a fundamental shift in human behavior. Finally, he described Christian Bök's book Eunoia as a brilliant example of creative writing shaped by extreme constraints, noting how each chapter restricted the author to words starting with a single vowel.
Books Stewart Butterfield recommended or discussed
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Eunoia
Recommended“There's a great book. It's by Christian Bach, B-O-K. And it's five chapters. And in each chapter, you're only allowed words that start with one of the vowels. So the E chapter is definitely the best.”
Where to get it
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Positioning
Recommended“This is book positioning um which is an absolute classic. It's very short. I would recommend everyone read it. Where the the point of it is from my perspective it's almost impossible to create a net new idea in someone's head.”
Where to get it
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The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza Translated from the Latin with an Introduction, by R. H. M. Ehves. Vol. I. Introduction, Tractatus Theologico-politicus, Tractatus Politicus
Recommended“If you had to assign one philosophy book for everyone in the world to read, what would it be? It depends how much support they had, because I think Spinoza's tractatus would be a great thing for everyone to read.”
Where to get it
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Don't Make Me Think!
Discussed“And if there is one mantra that I would use to replace that, it's don't make me think. I don't know if you remember that that book. Absolutely.”
Where to get it
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Thinking in Bets
Discussed“I think you have to really be coldly rational and Now you know, some of this shows up in the book um thinking about Some of it's in Andy second book. The title of which I'm forgetting right now, but I'm someone will will know it.”
Where to get it
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Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?
Discussed“And I got this from an extended essay or very short book called Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become? And that concept of the innovation being, in a very literal definitional sense, the change in human behavior was eye-opening for me”
Where to get it
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Why Nothing Works
Critiqued“There's a book called Why Nothing Works recently, which is like It's not an I'm sorry to the author if they They doubt they're listening, but just give It's not like an amazingly written book.”
Where to get it
