Books that have shaped how I think.

Not ordered by liking

Bhagavad Gita (Gita Press, Gorakhpur edition) Ancient wisdom on duty, action, and detachment. I return to it when I need clarity on hard decisions.

The Three-Body Problem Trilogy by Liu Cixin Hard sci-fi that makes you feel small in the best way. The Dark Forest theory will change how you see the universe.

Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson The anti-business book. Skip the business plan, ignore investors, build less. Proven by the Basecamp founders.

The Book of Mirdad by Mikhail Naimy A spiritual allegory by Khalil Gibran’s close friend. Poetic, profound, and quietly life-changing.

The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz Math made accessible and fun. Strogatz is the teacher you wish you had in school.

Radical Candor by Kim Scott Challenge directly, care personally. The framework I use for giving feedback and building trust with teams.

Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin The bible for writing readable, maintainable code. If you write software, you should read this once a year.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups by Peter Thiel Contrarian thinking on building monopolies, not competing. Every startup should create something new, not copy what exists.

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer How Netflix built a culture of radical candor, talent density, and freedom with responsibility. Changed how I think about scaling teams.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl A Holocaust survivor’s case for finding purpose in suffering. Short, devastating, essential.

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore The Nobel Prize-winning collection of prose poems. Devotional, meditative, timelessly beautiful.