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Brian Armstrong's Top Book Recommendations

Co-founder & CEO/Coinbase

Want to know what books Brian Armstrong recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Brian Armstrong's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

High Growth Handbook book cover1

High Growth Handbook

Elad Gil

4.4
Well-known technology executive and angel investor Elad Gil has worked with high growth tech companies like Airbnb, Twitter, Google, Instacart, Coinbase, Stripe, and Square as they've grown from small companies into global brands. Across all of these break-out companies, a set of common patterns has evolved into a repeatable playbook that Gil has codified in High Growth Handbook.

Covering key topi
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't book cover2

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Jim Collins

4.3
To find the keys to greatness, Collins's 21-person research team read and coded 6,000 articles, generated more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts and created 384 megabytes of computer data in a five-year project. The findings will surprise many readers and, quite frankly, upset others.

The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies trium
3

What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture

Ben Horowitz

4.3
Ben Horowitz, a leading venture capitalist, modern management expert, and New York Times bestselling author, combines lessons both from history and from modern organizational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help executives build cultures that can weather both good and bad times.

Ben Horowitz has long been fascinated by history, and particularly by how people behave different
The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity book cover4

The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

Alan Cooper

4.2
High Output Management book cover5

High Output Management

Andrew S. Grove

4.5
The essential skill of creating and maintaining new businesses—the art of the entrepreneur—can be summed up in a single word: managing. In High Output Management, Andrew S. Grove, former chairman and CEO (and employee number three) of Intel, shares his perspective on how to build and run a company. Born of Grove’s experiences at one of America’s leading technology companies, this legendary managem
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability book cover6

Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Steve Krug

4.4
Since Don’t Make Me Think was first published in 2000, over 400,000 Web designers and developers have relied on Steve Krug’s guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information design.

In this 3rd edition, Steve returns with fresh perspective to reexamine the principles that made Don’t Make Me Think a classic-–with updated examples and a new chapter on mobile usabil
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology book cover7

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Ray Kurzweil

4.2
The great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil is one of the best-known and controversial advocates for the role of machines in the future of humanity. In his latest, thrilling foray into the future, he envisions an event--thesingularity--in which technological change becomes so rapid and so profound that our bodies and brains will merge with our machines.

The Singularity Is Near portrays what life w
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success book cover8

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

William Thorndike

4.4
”It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different.” — John Templeton

What makes a successful CEO? Most people call to mind a familiar definition: a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise. Others might point to the qualities of today’s so-called celebrity CEOs—charisma, virtuoso communication skills, and a confident management style. But what really matters w
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success book cover9

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success

Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, et al.

4.4
You’ll never see leadership the same way again after reading this book.

These fifteen commitments are a distillation of decades of work with CEOs and other leaders. They are radical or provocative for many. They have been game changers for us and for our clients. We trust that they will be for you too.

Our experience is that unconscious leadership is not sustainable. It won’t work for you, your te
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE book cover10

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE

Phil Knight

4.6
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.

In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-q
The Selfish Gene book cover11

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins

4.4
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and mainta
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die book cover12

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Chip Heath, Dan Heath

4.3
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The instant classic about why some ideas thrive, why others die, and how to improve your idea's chances--essential reading in the "fake news" era.

Mark Twain once observed, "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus news stories circulate effortlessly. Mean
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk book cover13

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk

Al Ries

4.3
World-renowned marketing consultants and bestselling authors Al Ries and Jack Trout reveal 22 laws of marketing, with hundreds of examples that illustrate their success, in this innovative and sensible guide to marketing. Each law is described in detail and backed up by numerous examples of what worked and what didn't in the international marketplace.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character book cover14

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character

Richard P. Feynman

4.4
A series of anecdotes, such as are included in Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman, shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in this engagingly eccentric book. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of st
The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works Of Richard Feynman book cover15

The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works Of Richard Feynman

Richard P. Feynman

4.4
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard Feynman—from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles. A sweeping, wide-ranging collection, it presents an intimate and fascinating view of a life in science—a life like no other.From his ruminations on science in our culture and descriptions of the fantastic properties of quantum physic
Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders book cover16

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

L. David Marquet

4.5
"Leadership should mean giving control rather than taking control and creating leaders rather than forging followers." David Marquet, an experienced Navy officer, was used to giving orders. As newly appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, he was responsible for more than a hundred sailors, deep in the sea. In this high-stress environment, where there is no margin for er
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk book cover17

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish

4.5
The ultimate “parenting bible” (The Boston Globe) with a new Foreword—and available as an eBook for the first time—a timeless, beloved book on how to effectively communicate with your child from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors.

Internationally acclaimed experts on communication between parents and children, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish “are doing for parenting today what Dr. Spock did f
Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age book cover18

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age

Paul Graham

4.3
“The computer world is like an intellectual Wild West, in which you can shoot anyone you wish with your ideas, if you’re willing to risk the consequences.” —from Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham

We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. W
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) book cover19

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

Seth Godin

4.1
A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller

In this iconic bestseller, popular business blogger and bestselling author Seth Godin proves that winners are really just the best quitters. Godin shows that winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt--until they commit to beating the right Dip.

Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out fun...then gets rea
Atlas Shrugged book cover20

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

4.0
This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor — and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when
The God Delusion book cover21

The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins

4.2
In his sensational international bestseller, the preeminent scientist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins delivers a hard-hitting, impassioned, but humorous, rebuttal of religious belief. With rigor and wit, Dawkins eviscerates the arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of the existence of a supreme being. He makes a compelling case that faith is not just irrational bu
Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models book cover22

Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

Gabriel Weinberg, Lauren McCann

4.3
A Wall Street Journal Bestseller!

"You can't really know anything if you just remember isolated facts. If the facts don't hang together on a latticework of theory, you don't have them in a usable form. You've got to have models in your head."
- Charlie Munger, investor, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

The world's greatest problem-solvers, forecasters, and decision-makers all rely on a set of fram
Lying book cover23

Lying

Sam Harris

4.1
As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie.
Ready Player One book cover24

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline

4.4
The bestselling cult classic--soon to be a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.



At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut--part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are in
The New One Minute Manager book cover25

The New One Minute Manager

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

4.3
For decades, The One Minute Manager® has helped millions achieve more successful professional and personal lives. While the principles it lays out are timeless, our world has changed drastically since the book’s publication. The exponential rise of technology, global flattening of markets, instant communication, and pressures on corporate workforces to do more with less—including resources, fundin
Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader book cover26

Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader

Brent Schlender

4.4
#1 New York Times Bestseller There have been many books—on a large and small scale—about Steve Jobs, one of the most famous CEOs in history. But this book is different from all the others.

Becoming Steve Jobs takes on and breaks down the existing myth and stereotypes about Steve Jobs. The conventional, one-dimensional view of Jobs is that he was half-genius, half-jerk from youth, an irascible and s
Eisenhower in War and Peace book cover27

Eisenhower in War and Peace

Jean Edward Smith

4.4
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Christian Science Monitor • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Magisterial.”—The New York Times


In this extraordinary volume, Jean Edward Smith presents a portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower that is as full, rich, and revealing as anything ever written about America’s thirty-fourth president. Here is Eisenhower the young dreamer, charting a course from Abilene, Kan
28

The Economics of Microfinance

Beatriz Armendáriz, Jonathan Morduch

4.0
An accessible analysis of the global expansion of financial markets in poor communities, incorporating the latest thinking and evidence.

The microfinance revolution has allowed more than 150 million poor people around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy insurance. The idea that providing access to reliable and affordable financial services can have powerful
Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence book cover29

Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Jerry Kaplan

3.9
An insightful, engaging tour by a noted Silicon Valley insider of how accelerating developments in Artificial Intelligence will transform the way we live and work

Selected as one of the 10 best science and technology books of 2015 by The Economist

After billions of dollars and fifty years of effort, researchers are finally cracking the code on artificial intelligence. As society stands on the cusp
30

Learning To Love Yourself

Gay Hendricks Ph.D.

4.2
An Invitation From Gay Hendricks I am thrilled and delighted to offer to you the new edition of Learning To Love Yourself. Revisiting and rewriting the book has been a pleasure from beginning to end. With its new elements, the book comes alive in a whole new way. Looking back over more than three decades to the moment of its conception, I can now see how writing this book changed my life in every
Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (Federal Aviation Administration): FAA-H-8083-25B book cover31

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (Federal Aviation Administration): FAA-H-8083-25B

Federal Aviation Administration

4.0
This official Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) handbook provides basic knowledge essential for pilots on topics like decision making, aerodynamics, flight controls, weather theory, airport operations, and more.

This updated handbook introduces pilots to the broad spectrum of knowledge that will be needed as they progress in their pilot training. Written for the pilot preparing for a Remote, Sp
Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles book cover32

Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles

Robin Baker

4.2
33

Analysis of U.S. Army Enlisted Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) for Rapid Train-up Program (RTUP) Application

Ronald E. Kraemer

4.5
Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow: A Landmark Study of Great Leaders, Teams, and the Reasons Why We Follow book cover34

Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow: A Landmark Study of Great Leaders, Teams, and the Reasons Why We Follow

Gallup

4.3
In recent years, while continuing to learn more about strengths, Gallup scientists have also been ex....
The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age book cover35

The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age

Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, Chris Yeh

4.1
A New York Times Bestseller

Introducing the new, realistic loyalty pact between employer and employee.

The employer-employee relationship is broken, and managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: the old model of guaranteed long-term employment no longer works in a business environment defined by continuous change, but neither does a system in which every employee acts like a free agent.

The solut
The Female Brain book cover36

The Female Brain

Louann Brizendine M.D.

4.2
This comprehensive new look at the hormonal roller coaster that rules women's lives down to the cellular level, "a user's guide to new research about the female brain and the neurobehavioral systems that make us women," offers a trove of information, as well as some stunning insights. Though referenced like a work of research, Brizedine's writing style is fully accessible. Brizendine provides a fa
37

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: The Four Disciplines at the Heart of Making Any Organization World Class

Patrick Lencioni

4.4
In this stunning follow-up to his best-selling book, The Five Temptations of a CEO, Patrick Lencioni offers up another leadership fable that's every bit as compelling and illuminating as its predecessor. This time, Lencioni's focus is on a leader's crucial role in building a healthy organization--an often overlooked but essential element of business life that is the linchpin of sustained success.
38

The Psychology of Achievement

Brian Tracy

4.3
Success can be yours with Brian Tracy's
The Psychology of Achievement
Develop the top achiever's mindset
The world's foremost producer of personal development and motivational audio programs offers an inside look at the thinking that leads to great achievement. Drawing on the work of leading psychologists and behavioral researchers, Brian Tracy -- America's "success mentor" -- demonstrates the atti
The Wright Brothers book cover39

The Wright Brothers

David McCullough

4.3
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with t
When I Say No, I Feel Guilty: How to Cope - Using the Skills of Systematic Assertive Therapy book cover40

When I Say No, I Feel Guilty: How to Cope - Using the Skills of Systematic Assertive Therapy

Manuel J. Smith

4.2
The best-seller that helps you say: "I just said 'no' and I don't feel guilty!" Are you letting your kids get away with murder? Are you allowing your mother-in-law to impose her will on you? Are you embarrassed by praise or crushed by criticism? Are you having trouble coping with people? Learn the answers in "When I Say No, I Feel Guilty," the best-seller with revolutionary new techniques for gett