Reading list · 14 books
Balaji Srinivasan's reading list
Former CTO of Coinbase, former a16z general partner, founder of Counsyl and Earn.com, and author of "The Network State." Balaji is a prolific public intellectual whose book recommendations on Twitter span crypto, history, mathematics, governance, and biotech.
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01
James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg
Balaji says flatly, "If you want startup ideas, here's the book" — a foundational text for his network-state thinking.
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02
Balaji Srinivasan
His own book laying out how to start a new country; the centerpiece of his current intellectual project.
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03
Andrew S. Grove
"We've all read Grove" — he treats Grove's strategic-inflection-point thinking as canon for founders.
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04
Andrew S. Grove
Recommended in the Almanack as a core operating manual for running teams and companies.
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05
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
Timothy Gowers
He calls it "the desert island book. So good," reflecting his first-principles technical bent.
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06
Kai-Fu Lee
He recommends it not as a pop-AI overview but as a real history of the Chinese tech ecosystem.
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07
Andreas Antonopoulos
He calls it one of the best books on Bitcoin for a broad audience.
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08
Matt Mochary
Balaji says they used parts of it at Coinbase as an operational playbook.
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09
J. Storrs Hall
"Don't judge this self-published book by its cover, just read it" — a favorite on stalled technological progress.
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10
James C. Scott
He cites its thesis on legibility and central planning as essential for understanding states vs. networks.
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11
Ray Dalio
He recommends Dalio's framework on empires' monetary overextension as a lens on America's trajectory.
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12
William Strauss & Neil Howe
He invokes its cyclical-history theory forecasting serious US conflict in the 2020s.
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13
Nadia Eghbal
"Very smart… worth reading anything she writes on open source," on the economics of maintaining open-source software.
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14
Ashley Rindsberg
He puts it "up there with the top five books I recommend," on errors in New York Times history.
More on Balaji Srinivasan's picks
Balaji recommends books constantly on Twitter and in long-form interviews, often with a one-line rationale; many are compiled in "The Almanack of Balaji Srinivasan." His picks skew toward first-principles technical works, economic and political history, and crypto. He's known for unusual, high-conviction recommendations (e.g. self-published or out-of-mainstream titles).
