OVERLAP · 7 SHARED BOOKs
Books both Naval Ravikant and Sam Altman recommend
Naval Ravikant and Sam Altman both positively recommend these books.
Shared positive books
7 BOOKs-
[001]
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Psychology
Sam AltmanNamed in Altman's 2015 Twitter AMA reading list for young startup founders, alongside Plato's Republic and Newton's Principia.
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[002]
Foundation
Sci-Fi
Sam Altmanweb.archive.org · 24 good books to read heres what sam altman of y combinator is reading
The page cites an archived Shelfie article listing Altman's bookshelf.
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[003]
The Beginning of Infinity
Popular Science
Naval Ravikantnavalmanack.com · navals recommended reading
“Not the easiest read, but it made me smarter.”
Naval recommends it as the deepest available account of why good explanations—not data—are the engine of all human progress.
Sam Altman“[David Deutsch's] books have inspired me more than anyone else's, and i think hold a big clue about how we get from here to agi.”
December 2022 tweet from @sama. Altman has repeatedly named The Beginning of Infinity as his favorite book in interviews, most prominently in a 2025 conversation with Mathias Doepfner.
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[004]
A Pattern Language
Fiction
Sam Altmanweb.archive.org · 24 good books to read heres what sam altman of y combinator is reading
The page cites an archived Shelfie article listing Altman's bookshelf.
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[005]
Man's Search for Meaning
Psychology
Sam Altmanweb.archive.org · 24 good books to read heres what sam altman of y combinator is reading
The page cites an archived Shelfie article listing Altman's bookshelf.
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[007]
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
Popular Science
Naval Ravikanttim.blog · naval ravikant on the tim ferriss show transcript
Mentioned on Tim Ferriss Show.
Sam Altmanweb.archive.org · 24 good books to read heres what sam altman of y combinator is reading
The page cites an archived Shelfie article listing Altman's bookshelf.