Person
Every book Tobi Lütke recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Tobi Lütke has recommended or discussed 18 books on podcasts, as of October 28, 2026.
- Tobi Lütke has talked about books on 6 podcasts, as of October 28, 2026.
- Those books came up in 6 episodes, as of October 28, 2026.
- The 3 books Tobi Lütke has mentioned in the most episodes, as of October 28, 2026: The Managerial Revolution, The Lessons of History and A Conflict of Visions.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Tobi Lütke aired on October 28, 2026.
Updated
Across 6 podcasts. Every show Tobi Lütke appears on, in one place — not just one.
Tobi Lütke’s most recommended books
- The Managerial Revolution by Unknown
- The Lessons of History by Will Durant
- A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
- Cable Cowboy by Mark Robichaux
- Foundation by Isaac Asimov
- Meditations by Aurelius Marcus
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charles T. Munger
- Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott
- Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal
- The Machiavellians by James Burnham
Tobias Lütke is a German Canadian entrepreneur and racing driver who is the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, an e-commerce company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He competes in the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship driving in LMP2 for Era Motorsport. Throughout various podcast appearances, including The Knowledge Project, The Shawn Ryan Show, and Cheeky Pint, Lütke shared several book recommendations and discussed works that influenced his thinking. On The Knowledge Project, he praised Will and Ariel Durant's The Lessons of History for its density and high token quality relative to its length. He also recommended James Burnham's The Machiavellians, calling it unbelievably good, and noted that Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations had been a lifelong interest for him, with copies kept in most rooms where he spent time. Furthermore, he highlighted science fiction works, praising Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series and describing Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem as an exceptionally good recent sci-fi read. On The Shawn Ryan Show, Lütke discussed General Stanley McChrystal’s Team of Teams, explaining how it inspired Shopify's internal asynchronous communication system. Finally, on Cheeky Pint, he praised Mark Robichaux’s Cable Cowboy as one of the best books on John Malone and Liberty Media.
Books recommended by Tobi Lütke
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The Managerial Revolution
The Managerial Revolution by James Burnham is a political and economic analysis arguing that modern societies are shifting away from traditional capitalism toward a technocratic system dominated by managers and administrators.
Discussed“what did he write he wrote um the managerial revolution first and then a book called the machiavellians which is unbelievably good i mean obviously i am a meditations fan”
Where to get it
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The Lessons of History
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant is a concise 104-page summary distilling five thousand years of historical patterns, human behavior, and the rise and fall of civilizations.
Recommended“i almost always will mention the lessons of history which is i just think the densest like the highest token quality book in existence like given for the length james burnham's books are fantastic”
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“I think the best book I've read um was a conflict of Visions um recently by um Thomas sa I I just find that is an incredibly um insightful book by creating a prior to a lot of sort of political conversations”
Where to get it
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Cable Cowboy
Cable Cowboy by Mark Robichaux is a biographical account detailing the life and career of industry titan John Malone and his monumental impact on the telecommunications and cable television landscape.
Recommended“Like, I mean, "Cable Cowboy" is already one of the best. It was a great book. It's such a great book, and then, like—”
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.
Recommended“but um his longer book is good fiction and foundation series is so good you read the three body parlance too right i guess that's sort of tripping into older book now too but like um that's a recent sci-fi which is incredibly good”
Where to get it
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Meditations
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a collection of personal journals and philosophical notes written by the Roman emperor during his military campaigns, offering profound insights into Stoic philosophy, self-discipline, and personal endurance.
Recommended“i mean obviously i am a meditations fan i know stoicism is falling out of favor a little bit right now but like it's been um a lifelong thing for me and um i have a copy of uh meditations in most rooms i spend time in”
Where to get it
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Poor Charlie’s Almanack
Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charles T.
Recommended“books i come back to is like i often talk about pakistan's law which i love um it's such a quick read”
Where to get it
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Seeing Like a State
Seeing Like a State by James C.
Recommended“I think as um most interes see seeing like a state is just a fantastically book I I he just passed away you probably saw that on Twitter it's yes yesterday or so a couple days ago um yeah what a fantastic mind and like a I I know no um it is one of those books you read which”
Where to get it
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Team of Teams
Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal, David Silverman, Tantum Collins, and Chris Fussell is a management and leadership book that advocates for decentralized organizational structures capable of responding to rapidly changing environments.
Recommended“in fact, that was largely inspired by um military actually. um a book called um team of teams by uh General Mcrist um excellent excellent read anyway so we built a internal system that's s of asynchronous distributed”
Where to get it
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The Machiavellians
The Machiavellians by James Burnham is a work of political philosophy that examines how power operates in reality rather than how people ideally imagine it should function, focusing heavily on the Italian elite theorists and the iron law of oligarchy.
Recommended“what did he write he wrote um the managerial revolution first and then a book called the machiavellians which is unbelievably good i mean obviously i am a meditations fan”
Where to get it
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The Three-Body Problem
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu is a sweeping science fiction novel exploring humanity's first contact with an alien civilization against the backdrop of China's cultural revolution.
Recommended“you read the three body parlance too right i guess that's sort of tripping into older book now too but like um that's a recent sci-fi which is incredibly good”
Where to get it
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Cryptonomicon
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is an epic novel blending historical fiction and cyber-thriller elements to trace two interconnected storylines involving codebreaking in World War II and the modern development of cryptography and digital currency.
Discussed“I recently reread Cryptonomicon from Neil Stevenson and which I loved reading when I was like early 20s and my god like my son just read it and we were talking about so I picked it up again”
Where to get it
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Lean In
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg is a prominent corporate manifesto that examines the structural barriers women face in the workplace and encourages female leaders to pursue professional ambition assertively.
Discussed“They are like I think Sheryl in her book called it sort of a jungle gym. Like that's much more much better metaphor for what a really career looks like.”
Where to get it
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Spider-Man
Discussed“you can even look at the Spider-Man comics it's like during the nuclear age it was an atomic spider right like it's like just like it's like it's always like these are things are representations by the time they come from”
Where to get it
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The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a dystopian young adult novel set in a ruined nation where children are forced to compete in a televised death match.
Discussed“there was probably a 50 maybe 20 year period where I don't think people wrote a lot of sci-fi that was like like it was very much when it was sci-fi it was Hunger Games it was very dystopian”
Where to get it
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The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries is a foundational business guide that advocates for validated learning, rapid experimentation, and minimum viable products to help entrepreneurs build successful companies without wasting time or resources.
Critiqued“so this is I'm a little bit like there was some cross pollination from The Lean Startup book to um the retail world and I think that's especially in retail this has been bad I'm actually wondering if that was such a good um uh set of ideas”
Where to get it
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The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R.
Discussed“I mean obviously a lot of rings is an amazing management book if you will like like the way gun the way gun shows up in just the right time um in in in in in has the exact right combination of words is certainly something that's um uh extremely valuable”
Where to get it
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The Rational Optimist
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley is a bold exploration of human history that argues prosperity and rising living standards are driven by trade, innovation, and the free exchange of ideas.
Discussed“Matt Ridley, I wrote great book called Rational Optimist. And um he uh like he sort of made a study”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“well because the simple answer wouldn't make an interesting story like this is why uh you know frodo doesn't take the eagles to mount doom right like it's like you kind of need to go through all of lord of rings to to to for it become a masterpiece”