Books both Elon Musk and Paul Graham recommend

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Tweet from December 2020 simply naming 'The Selfish Gene' in answer to a question about what he was reading.

Source note

Frequently named as the single most influential book on his thinking about civilizational longevity.

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“I wish I could get as excited about anything I read now as I used to get about science fiction novels when I was 15.”

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“His non-physics books, like 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman' are great.”

Page cites a tweet by Elon Musk.

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From PG's October 2020 tweet listing his favorite autobiographies.

Source note

Said in interviews he read it repeatedly as a child.

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“Any book recommendations for young adults?”

Recommended as a young adult book.

paulgraham.com

“What I was actually trying to do was teach myself how to do that. I happened upon a novel by Heinlein called The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which featured an intelligent computer called Mike.”

From his essay 'What I Worked On' — Heinlein's Mike is what pointed him at AI and, by way of that, at Lisp.

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Recommended in the cited tweet.

paulgraham.com

Recommended in the cited source.

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“[Benjamin Franklin] was an entrepreneur. He started from nothing.”

Page cites a YouTube video where Elon Musk discusses the book.

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From PG's October 2020 tweet listing his favorite autobiographies.