reading

It seems like a lot of the people I respect a lot read a lot. I’ve recently found more motivation to work towards startups and learn about interesting things, so this past week I’ve been actively trying to force myself to read more, between my new morning routine as well as finding interesting articles to read online while procrastinating on more important tasks.

This is a list of things I’ve read recently.

  • The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

I found this book in the Amazon bookstore. I respect Ben Horowitz a lot, and the book seemed like it would talk a lot about startup stories, which I always enjoy reading. I started out really enjoying the book for this reason, and I think the book really put into perspective just how stressful/hard of an experience a startup is. It is quite shocking to me, but the fact that the book didn’t scare me off of startups is a good sign. There were some parts of the book that I didn’t really enjoy reading—namely sections like “how to hire/fire executives” which are not applicable to me at my current stage of life.

I blogged earlier this summer about wishing I could have more conviction. Between this article and the above book, I think I’ve realized that a lot of conviction is just being comfortable with coinflipping in situations where you have little information. Conviction will come after coinflipping enough.

Friend recommended this to me. It talks about how it was hard for the author to give up working on hard technical problems because that’s all he’s done his whole life, which is relatable, especially when I was younger. In the past year, however, I think it’s less of a thing I’m concerned about (it does pop into my mind however when I’m debating quant vs startups). I think it’d be fun to work on less technically hard problems—I’d learn a ton.

I actually haven’t read this yet, but it’s one of the first things I plan on reading in order to learn about crypto (I know nothing about it, but I feel like it’s one of those things that I should probably learn about).

This and the next couple of links are just me trying to educate myself on startup related knowledge.

Super awesome book, I highly recommend to anyone who’s interested in startups. Probably one of the most important books to read if you’re seriously considering startups.

Directly/indirectly thinking about startup ideas is probably what I spend the most time on.

If you’re indecisive on doing startups, I recommend this essay.

I also recommend reading this one.