Books like The Sovereign Individual

01

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Nassim Nicholas Taleb · Philosophy

Antifragile is Nassim Nicholas Taleb's argument that the opposite of fragile is not robust or resilient — it is antifragile.

A kindred economics read.

02

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

Shoshana Zuboff · History

Shoshana Zuboff spent years researching what she calls surveillance capitalism — a new economic logic in which human experience is turned into raw material for prediction products that are sold to businesses wanting to influence behavior.

Both dig into technology and power.

03

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel · Business

Zero to One began as notes from a Stanford course Thiel taught on startups in 2012, assembled into a book with co-author Blake Masters.

A kindred economics read.

04

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · History

Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.

A kindred economics read.

05

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

Walter Isaacson · Science

The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's history of the digital revolution, tracing the development of computers and the internet from Ada Lovelace's conceptualization of programming in the 1840s through the emergence of the modern internet, personal computer, and smartphone.

A kindred economics read.

06

The Number

Lee Eisenberg · Economics

The Number is Lee Eisenberg's exploration of the question that haunts many Americans in midlife: how much money do I actually need to retire?

Both dig into wealth.

07

Never Enough: From Barista to Billionaire

Andrew Wilkinson · Memoir

Never Enough is Andrew Wilkinson's memoir about building a small empire of internet companies — Tiny, the holding company he co-founded, has acquired dozens of businesses — and discovering that accumulating wealth at a level he'd once have considered unimaginable didn't resolve the anxiety that had driven him to pursue it.

Both dig into wealth.

08

The 5 Types of Wealth

Sahil Bloom · Self-help

The 5 Types of Wealth is Sahil Bloom's argument that financial wealth is one of five forms of wealth that actually matter, and that pursuing financial wealth at the expense of the other four produces a life that looks successful from the outside but feels hollow from the inside.

Both dig into wealth.

09

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

Simon Singh · Science

Simon Singh's The Code Book traces the history of cryptography from Caesar's cipher through the breaking of Enigma to the mathematics of public-key encryption and the looming possibility of quantum cryptography.

Both dig into cryptography.

10

The House of Getty

Russell Miller · Biography

The House of Getty is Russell Miller's investigative biography of J.

Both dig into wealth.

11

The Man Who Solved the Market

Gregory Zuckerman · Biography

The Man Who Solved the Market is Gregory Zuckerman's account of Jim Simons, the mathematician who founded Renaissance Technologies and built the most successful investment firm in history.

Both dig into wealth.

12

The Network State

Balaji Srinivasan · Politics

The Network State is Balaji Srinivasan's manifesto for a new kind of political entity: a community that begins as an online network with shared values, grows into a physical presence distributed across multiple countries, and eventually accumulates enough land, population, and international recognition to be treated as a state.

Both dig into nation-states.