Reading list · 15 books
Vinod Khosla's reading list
Founder of Khosla Ventures and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, a leading deep-tech and climate investor. Famously contrarian and science-driven, he maintains and shares an extensive personal reading list.
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01
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
Robert M. Sapolsky
He calls it "among the best insights into our brain and behavior" and rates it top of the charts.
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02
Geoffrey West
He recommends it as "the physics behind biology, cities, economics and companies."
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03
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
David Epstein
He highlights its thesis that "generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel in most fields."
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04
Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To
David A. Sinclair
He recommends it for revealing "incredible scientific breakthroughs about aging processes."
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05
Safi Bahcall
He calls it "a key to understanding why Silicon Valley culture is changing the world."
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06
Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh
"An insightful book on how to scale at a very fast pace and more importantly WHEN."
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07
Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
He says he likes Taleb's ideas "a lot, especially in Antifragile and the first half" of Skin in the Game.
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08
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
He says he likes Taleb's ideas "a lot, especially in Antifragile and the first half" of Skin in the Game.
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10
Matt Richtel
He praises how it "explains for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system."
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11
Graham Moore
He notes "almost historical fiction is fun especially for Silicon Valley types."
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12
From Bacteria to Bach and Back
Daniel C. Dennett
"Long but worth every page," on the evolution of minds.
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13
Ben Horowitz
He recommends it for showing "the value of having principles organizations believe in."
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14
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
He lists it as "a previous favorite" on the sweep of human history.
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15
Philip Tetlock
He praises its rigorous finding that pundit "experts have the accuracy of dart-throwing monkeys."
More on Vinod Khosla's picks
Khosla publishes book recommendations with one-line takes (widely aggregated and traceable to his lists and tweets), favoring hard science, biology of the brain and aging, probabilistic thinking, and big-picture economics. He often flags what a book taught him about uncertainty or human behavior, reflecting his bet-driven investing style. Picks lean unusually toward science over standard business fare.
