Podcast
Patrick O'Shaughnessy's book list: the books mentioned on Invest Like the Best
Key facts
- 33 books have been mentioned on Invest Like the Best, as of October 13, 2026.
- 18 episodes of Invest Like the Best mention at least one book, as of October 13, 2026.
- 17 people brought up a book on the show, as of October 13, 2026.
- The 3 books mentioned in the most episodes of Invest Like the Best, as of October 13, 2026: Crossing the Chasm, Breaking History and Ausländer.
- The latest episode of Invest Like the Best with a book mention aired on October 13, 2026.
Updated
Books from the latest episodes
Most recommended on Invest Like the Best
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Crossing the Chasm
Discussed“So anyways, Greg goes into a cave because there's nothing else to do and uh he's reading the book Crossing the Chasm, great book that I think all founders have read. Uh but Greg's output of reading the crossing the chasm was um a 100page slide deck”
Where to get it
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Breaking History
Discussed“I was interested in your book that there's this little butterfly flapping its wings moment when Rick Gerson made an introduction to you”
Where to get it
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Ausländer
Discussed“When I was reading your book, one of the lines or the ideas that has really stuck with me ever since is where does one person end and the next person begin?”
Where to get it
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Breakneck
Discussed“What would be something that you would have put in the book if the book was designed to be a bit more like out there, speculative, unhinged?”
Where to get it
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Leading
On Invest Like the Best on September 16, 2026, Michael Moritz discussed Leading, which he co-authored with Alex Ferguson. Moritz explained that the book stemmed from people asking him to write about Silicon Valley and his interest in enduring organizations, noting that he learned about understanding and motivating people from working with the famous soccer manager.
Discussed“And I learned a lot of that, actually, from the way that I did this book maybe 10 or 11 years ago with a famous soccer manager. I was just going to ask about Alex Ferguson.”
Where to get it
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The Innovator's Dilemma
Discussed“A lot I think a lot of what we read, you know, in in crossing the chasm or or the innovators dilemma, you know, the big companies are supposed to be slow to mobile, slow to the internet”
Where to get it
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The Score Takes Care of Itself
Discussed“It comes from um there's a book that a lot of people in Silicon Valley recommend. the score takes care of itself. Bill Walsh, the coach of the San Francisco 49ers”
Where to get it
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10 to 25
On Invest Like the Best on August 26, 2025, Joe Liemandt recommended 10 to 25 by David Yeager. Liemandt referenced the book while explaining the high-support and high-standards approach that he expected guides at Alpha School to follow when motivating students.
Recommended“Great teachers, right, are high support, high standards, right? There's a great book if if your your readers should um Dr. Joerger has a book called 10 to 25, how to motivate 10. It's a great book, right?”
Where to get it
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House of Huawei
On the October 16, 2025 episode of Invest Like the Best titled Dan Wang - The US vs China In The 21st Century, Dan Wang recommended Eva Dou's House of Huawei. Wang noted that the book was released earlier that year by his friend Eva Dou, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and current Washington Post journalist, and praised it as a great work about the company.
Recommended“There is a great book about Huawei written about um the company by my friend Eva Doe, a former um reporter uh with the Wall Street Journal, now a reporter at the Washington Post called House of Huawei released earlier this year.”
Where to get it
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Setting the Table
On Invest Like the Best, Caryn Seidman-Becker mentioned that she had read Setting the Table by Danny Meyer, calling him one of her heroes. She explained how this inspired her to hire Meyer's hospitality group to train team members at Clear.
Recommended“And we hired I had read setting the table is amazing book. Danny Meyer, one of my great heroes. And he became an investor in Clear. And that was awesome. And uh so we hired Union Square Hospitality um I think it was called Hospitality Quotient to do the training of our team members in Orlando.”
Where to get it
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The Art of Not Being Governed
On Invest Like the Best, Dan Wang recommended The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott as he discussed highland peoples in Southeast Asia who had resisted state control.
Recommended“And um if I can throw in another Scott work for listeners, it is the art of not being governed, which is about highland Southeast Asia.”
Where to get it
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7 Powers
7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer was discussed on Invest Like the Best in January 2026. Gokul Rajaram brought up the book during his conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy while discussing the critical elements of business strategy. Rajaram referenced the seven powers framework to illustrate the structural advantages and durability that should be embedded in a company's business model from its inception.
Discussed“Harrison Helmer has this thing called uh seven powers. And so you got to have a few of those seven powers that that basically are embedded in the business model from day one.”
Where to get it
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Atomic Habits
On Invest Like the Best on August 26, 2025, Joe Liemandt brought up Atomic Habits by James Clear during a discussion about education. Liemandt described how a guide at Alpha School taught second graders to build toward running a 5K through incremental improvement by applying the book's core concept of getting 1% better.
Discussed“She's like, "We're going to teach them atomic habits, right? The book atomic habits, which is 1% better, basically, right? And you know, most adults don't learn that till after college when they read the book."”
Where to get it
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Choose Your Own Adventure - Ghost Hunter
On Invest Like the Best, Reed Hastings brought up Choose Your Own Adventure - Ghost Hunter by Edward Packard while discussing interactive storytelling formats. He suggested that developing an entirely new art form was not as simple as that example implied.
Discussed“But I don't think it's as easy as um you know choose your own adventure.”
Where to get it
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Freedom's Forge
On Invest Like the Best, Darren Farber brought up Freedom's Forge by Arthur Herman as a popular and well-regarded account of America's industrial mobilization during World War II and how companies quickly retooled to arm the nation.
Discussed“A very popular book these days cuz and justifiably so, it's a great book is Freedom's Forge about the mobilization around World War II and the story of how our industrial base moved so fast to arm, you know, companies retooling themselves.”
Where to get it
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Gilgamesh
On Invest Like the Best, Wolfgang Hammer brought up Gilgamesh, edited by John R. Maier, while describing the thousands of years of human storytelling and mythmaking from antiquity to the present.
Discussed“If we believe as I do that that storytelling especially through the course of you know from Gilgamesh all the way to now is thousands of years of storytelling and mythmaking”
Where to get it
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God
On the September 8, 2026 episode of Invest Like the Best titled Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning, Walter Russell Mead brought up his book God and Gold. He explained that the book argues that the past three hundred years of modern history can be summarized across ten letters through the transition of global power from the United Provinces to the United Kingdom and ultimately to the United States.
Discussed“In God and gold, one of my books, I say that you could sum up the last 300 years of modern history in 10 letters, UP, United Provinces, to UK, to US.”
Where to get it
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God and Gold
On the September 8, 2026 episode of Invest Like the Best titled Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning, Walter Russell Mead referenced his book God and Gold. He explained that the text outlines how the last three centuries of modern history can be succinctly summarized through the ten-letter geographic and political progression from the United Provinces to the United Kingdom and then to the United States.
Discussed“In God and gold, one of my books, I say that you could sum up the last 300 years of modern history in 10 letters, UP, United Provinces, to UK, to US.”
Where to get it
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Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine
Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine by Tinsley R. Harrison was mentioned on Invest Like the Best in August 2025. During an interview with Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Mark Bertolini recounted a period of severe personal health challenges, describing how he spent his mornings reviewing the internal medicine textbook and consulting with medical teams using sticky notes and research tools while hospitalized.
Discussed“I'm sleeping in his room. made him bring a bed in. I am meeting with the medical team for an hour every morning going through my Harrison's immer internal medicine text and sticky notes. I've got a PubMed”
Where to get it
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Seeing Like a State
On Invest Like the Best on October 16, 2025, Patrick O'Shaughnessy discussed Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott. O'Shaughnessy mentioned that a friend had introduced him to the book and cited its abstract idea that top-down systems fail over the long term compared to bottom-up ones.
Discussed“I think it was Eugene, our friend Eugene that first gave me the Seeing Like a State book by James C. got of the of just the very abstract idea that uh top- down systems just don't work as well over the very long term as bottom-up ones do.”
Where to get it
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Special Providence
On the September 8, 2026 episode of Invest Like the Best titled Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning, Walter Russell Mead discussed his book Special Providence. He mentioned that the book was published around the time of the September 11 attacks. At that historical moment, he noted, many people were not widely aware of foreign policy traditions beyond the Hamilton and Wilson models, which his work sought to address by mapping out multiple distinct traditions in American foreign policy.
Discussed“Special Providence came out right around the time of 9-1-1. And people at that time weren't really aware that there was anything but Hamilton and Wilson.”
Where to get it
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The Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita was discussed on Invest Like the Best in August 2025. During his conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Mark Bertolini spoke about his personal recovery and exploration of yoga philosophy. He explained that he began reading the Bhagavad Gita and related texts as he discovered that yoga encompasses a rich spiritual tradition far beyond the physical practice commonly seen in the United States.
Discussed“So I started reading the Bhagavad Gita and the opanads and the pratabayam and all these other sorts of things and started to realize this is just rich and that yoga is not in the United States is this physical practice”
Where to get it
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The Checklist Manifesto
On Invest Like the Best in November 2025, Martín Escobari brought up The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande during a discussion with Patrick O'Shaughnessy. Escobari referenced the book while explaining how he reconciled using an investment checklist with relying on intuition, noting how the work built on concepts originally developed for the Israeli Defense Forces to create checklists for elite agents.
Discussed“So Danny Kaliman, thinking fast, think slow checklist manifesto built on work he did for the Israeli Defense Forces to create the checklist for the elite agents.”
Where to get it
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The Dictator's Dilemma
On the October 13, 2026 episode of Invest Like the Best titled David Vélez - Building Nubank and the Future of Global Banking, David Vélez invoked Bruce Dickson's The Dictator's Dilemma. Vélez discussed the underlying concept of the book, observing that as individuals attain greater power at the top of an organization, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to perceive what is genuinely real and true within the company.
Discussed“And that used to be this, I like this idea of the dictator's dilemma, that as someone gets more powerful at the top of an organization, it's harder for them to know what is real and what is true.”
Where to get it
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The Guns of August
Discussed“one of the central lessons I took with me when I went to Washington was I remember I read a book called guns of August about World War I and it talked about how World War I basically started”
Where to get it
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The Heart and Science of Yoga
On the August 19, 2025 episode of Invest Like the Best titled Mark Bertolini - Performance During Pain, Mark Bertolini discussed The Heart and Science of Yoga by Leonard T. Perlmutter and Jenness Cortez Perlmutter. Bertolini explained that after realizing yoga involved much more than just physical practice, he began researching the American Viniyoga Institute and found Perlmutter's book, which successfully connects yoga philosophy to Western medicine.
Discussed“And I said, you know, there's more to this than just the practice, the physical practice. And so I started reading about the American Viney Yoga Institute. And there was this great book by Leonard Pearl Malter called the heart and science of yoga and it relates it to western medicine”
Where to get it
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The Hundred-Year Marathon
On Invest Like the Best on October 16, 2025, Patrick O'Shaughnessy brought up The Hundred-Year Marathon by Michael Pillsbury. O'Shaughnessy cited the book while discussing China's long-term planning to achieve resurgence and dominance, and whether that progress went largely unnoticed by Americans.
Discussed“I remember this idea from the hundred-year marathon on um the book about the you know very long-term planning of China to be resurgent and then be dominant.”
Where to get it
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The Last Lecture
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow was mentioned on Invest Like the Best in July 2025. Caryn Seidman-Becker brought up the book during her conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy, recalling how she used to watch Pausch's lectures. She highlighted his discussion of Tiger and Eeyore, noting that the comparison inspired her personal outlook on energy and positivity.
Discussed“Um, you know, I used to watch the last lecture by Randy Pouch and you know, he talks about Tiger and Eeyore and one of my anniversaries my husband bought me a tiger stuffed animal and it's like energy, positivity, be tiger.”
Where to get it
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The Man Time Forgot
Discussed“it's funny like we were talking about that book was about Brit Haden who was partners with Henry loose it's funny time was created for the person who didn't have time right”
Where to get it
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The prince
On Invest Like the Best on August 19, 2025, Mark Bertolini brought up Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince. Bertolini cited a quote from the book that he kept under his desk, using it to illustrate his fascination with Renaissance Italy and the inherent risks of challenging an established order.
Discussed“And there's a a quote I have have had under my bladder every day of my working career that I I'm I'm a fascinated with um with Renaissance Italy. And it was Nicolo Makavelli when he wrote you know to the pr and the prince”
Where to get it
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The Upanishads
On Invest Like the Best, Mark Bertolini mentioned reading The Upanishads by Swami Paramananda as part of his personal exploration of yoga teachings, philosophy, and spiritual texts.
Discussed“So I started reading the Bhagavad Gita and the opanads and the pratabayam and all these other sorts of things and started to realize this is just rich and that yoga is not in the United States is this physical practice”
Where to get it
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Unknown
On Invest Like the Best in the episode featuring Michael Ovitz, Patrick O'Shaughnessy brought up Steve Schwarzman's book Unknown by Steve Walters Ministries. Patrick asked Ovitz about Schwarzman's forward-looking perspective and the early days of the Blackstone Group. He highlighted Schwarzman's famous mantra about asking what comes next, noting how Schwarzman wrote about this concept in his book and appeared consistently dissatisfied with stasis.
Discussed“He has this very famous mantra which is like what's next? He writes about that in his this in his book and he seems to be one of the like you sort of always dissatisfied with stasis”
Where to get it
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What Technology Wants
Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants was discussed on Invest Like the Best in December 2025. Patrick O'Shaughnessy brought up the book during a conversation with Gavin Baker about Nvidia, Google, and the economics of artificial intelligence. O'Shaughnessy connected Baker's observations regarding technology's relentless drive to grow more powerful with Kelly's conceptual framework of the technium, representing the aggregate mass of technology supplied by humans.
Discussed“You're making me think of of Kevin Kelly's great, uh book, What Technology Wants. He calls it the technium, like the like the overall mass of technology that just like is supplied by humans.”
Where to get it
Guests who recommended books
- Mark Bertolini (5)
- Michael Moritz (4)
- Walter Russell Mead (3)
- Bill Gurley (3)
- Jared Kushner (3)
- Brian Chesky (2)
- Dan Wang (2)
- Joe Liemandt (2)
- Caryn Seidman-Becker (2)
- David Vélez (1)
- Darren Farber (1)
- Gokul Rajaram (1)
- Tom Digan (1)
- Reed Hastings (1)
- Martín Escobari (1)
- Wolfgang Hammer (1)
Latest mentions
“And that used to be this, I like this idea of the dictator's dilemma, that as someone gets more powerful at the top of an organization, it's harder for them to know what is real and what is true.”
“When I was reading your book, one of the lines or the ideas that has really stuck with me ever since is where does one person end and the next person begin?”
“And I learned a lot of that, actually, from the way that I did this book maybe 10 or 11 years ago with a famous soccer manager. I was just going to ask about Alex Ferguson.”
“In God and gold, one of my books, I say that you could sum up the last 300 years of modern history in 10 letters, UP, United Provinces, to UK, to US.”
“In God and gold, one of my books, I say that you could sum up the last 300 years of modern history in 10 letters, UP, United Provinces, to UK, to US.”
“Special Providence came out right around the time of 9-1-1. And people at that time weren't really aware that there was anything but Hamilton and Wilson.”
“A very popular book these days cuz and justifiably so, it's a great book is Freedom's Forge about the mobilization around World War II and the story of how our industrial base moved so fast to arm, you know, companies retooling themselves.”
“It comes from um there's a book that a lot of people in Silicon Valley recommend. the score takes care of itself. Bill Walsh, the coach of the San Francisco 49ers”
“Harrison Helmer has this thing called uh seven powers. And so you got to have a few of those seven powers that that basically are embedded in the business model from day one.”
“So anyways, Greg goes into a cave because there's nothing else to do and uh he's reading the book Crossing the Chasm, great book that I think all founders have read. Uh but Greg's output of reading the crossing the chasm was um a 100page slide deck”
“But I don't think it's as easy as um you know choose your own adventure.”
“You're making me think of of Kevin Kelly's great, uh book, What Technology Wants. He calls it the technium, like the like the overall mass of technology that just like is supplied by humans.”
“So Danny Kaliman, thinking fast, think slow checklist manifesto built on work he did for the Israeli Defense Forces to create the checklist for the elite agents.”
“If we believe as I do that that storytelling especially through the course of you know from Gilgamesh all the way to now is thousands of years of storytelling and mythmaking”
“I remember this idea from the hundred-year marathon on um the book about the you know very long-term planning of China to be resurgent and then be dominant.”
“What would be something that you would have put in the book if the book was designed to be a bit more like out there, speculative, unhinged?”
“I think it was Eugene, our friend Eugene that first gave me the Seeing Like a State book by James C. got of the of just the very abstract idea that uh top- down systems just don't work as well over the very long term as bottom-up ones do.”
“And um if I can throw in another Scott work for listeners, it is the art of not being governed, which is about highland Southeast Asia.”
“There is a great book about Huawei written about um the company by my friend Eva Doe, a former um reporter uh with the Wall Street Journal, now a reporter at the Washington Post called House of Huawei released earlier this year.”
“She's like, "We're going to teach them atomic habits, right? The book atomic habits, which is 1% better, basically, right? And you know, most adults don't learn that till after college when they read the book."”
Episodes
Link to this list from your show notes
Host or produce Invest Like the Best? Give your listeners every book mentioned on the show, with the episode it came up in. New episodes are added as they come out.
