5 Books Elon musk thinks you should read

Zero to One by Peter Thiel

One of the books that Elon Musk recommends is Zero to One by one of his fellow Paypal founders Peter Thiel. This is one of the hottest books in silicon valley circles, and it goes to show. The founder Peter Thiel had founded several unicorn companies Paypal, Palantir and invested in many more top tier companies such as SpaceX and Tesla.

This book gives many lessons on how to build a great product. It is one of my favourite books that I have personally read and could recommend to nearly anyone trying to develop a product that lasts for a long time and makes a real difference in people’s lives.

Our Final Invention by James Barrat

It’s well documented that Elon has relatively strong opinions on matters when it comes to AI. This book goes into a bit more depth in terms of how things can pan out in the next 50 years for humanity when it comes to AI. It explains it in such a high-level overview that close to anyone would be able to pick up and read it to understand its core concepts and how AI could personally impact their lives. Reading this gave me a new perspective on the future and how things would change, and I would recommend other people reading this to get an insight into how things could be changing in the future for better or worse.

Lying by Sam Harris

A book about lying and how one should always opt to tell the truth even when in trying circumstances. This is a relatively short book that goes into how lying can degrade the personality and core value systems and how they operate as a whole which can have far-reaching consequences. This book should be specially picked up by those who abide by the ethos of the silicon valley mantra, where a lot is tried to be figured out in the latter stages of the business. There are ofter perverse incentives at this point. This is probably best illustrated by the current case of Elizabeth Holmes, a previous silicon valley darling.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

The magnanimous man and the media darling before Elon Musk. Steve Jobs is one of the originators of building amazing products. This book goes into the depth of the man with accounts from various people across his life, and the impact that they had on him and the lasting impact that he left on them the world as a whole. It is great to get an insider’s perspective, even just a glimpse at how the man thought and how this can be translated into your own life.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The original economics book. This is what kicked off the field. I will be a bit harsh because this is a bit of a difficult book to read. I think it is an interesting book; however, it is rather lengthy as it was written at a different time, so it can be relatively dry. It goes into the different prices of corn and other various commodities across different provinces and countries. The book also goes into intricate detail about manufacturing different products and specialising specific skills. This is undoubtedly a book that I would only recommend if you already have in-depth knowledge and interest in economics. As it is where you can see where a lot of our economic concepts and beliefs have been derived from but if you are not that interested in the subject, I honestly cannot recommend this book too much.

If you want to see a collection of all the books that Elon musk recommends check out this link.