Shane Parrish

“A must read for anyone who wants to turn history's hindsight into their current foresight.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street, 2023

“A concise book of lessons drawn from the survey of history. The book comes highly recommended by someone I met at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting last weekend. I can't believe I haven't read this before. I'll be re-reading this a few times and I've started listening to the audio version in the car as well.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street, 2017

“Reading [this book], along with Seneca, has really helped foster my interest in philosophy. So much of what they say speaks to me that I'm often left with entire pages underlined and margins filled with thoughts.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“Because I have an MBA a lot of people inevitably ask me if they should pursue one. If it's knowledge and not credentials you're after, save your money and read [this book].”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“Caro is probably the most talented biographer of our age; he writes like a brilliant novelist and has the reporting skills of Bob Woodward. The Power Broker is assigned reading at quite a few American universities and it should be. It's amazing. But it's not a light read.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“Peter Bevelin is one smart dude. Inspired by Munger, he's put together a book of the big ideas that carry a lot of weight in life.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“This is a great follow up to Sit Like A Buddha. This book deepens our understanding of the nuts-and-bolts of meditation including the how, what, where, when and why but also how to deal with distractions and common challenges people face along the way.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“Like Charlie Munger or Nassim Taleb, you need to read the source material over and over in order to soak up the available wisdom.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“I loved her analysis on how when the number of products in a category expands, the differences – or competition – between them become increasingly trivial.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“As hard as you think your life is, it pales in comparison to Auschwitz. I took two big things away from this book: (1) the ultimate freedom is the ability to choose your attitude in the face of any circumstance and (2) the more you target success, the more you will miss it.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Bookmarked Club

“This is such an important book. Indistractable is the best guide I've read for reclaiming our attention, our focus, and our lives.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Indistractable book blurb

“I really enjoyed Brad Stone’s The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Anyone who wants to better understand the dynamics of disruption or just gain a better understanding of the website we’ve come to love, must read this book.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / Syrus Partners

“An intellectual playground that will have your brain doing mental reps and seeing the world differently.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street / The CEO Library

“A powerful book that's influenced how I think about sleep and my routines. Consider it a compelling case for the superpower that's within reach: sleep. More than other books on the subject that simply focus on the 'what to do', this one gives you why you need to do it.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street

“This book will make you view human history in a different light, while reinforcing the importance of learning from one another.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2020

“Roger Martin talks about the value of integrative thinking and keeping the entire problem in your mind.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2020

“Perez examines how male bias often unintentionally creeps into the studies, systems, and algorithms used to collect data. She demonstrates how not factoring in women's needs, their different bodies, and social roles leads to not only negative outcomes for women, but negative second-order effects that impact the environment and economic development.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2020

“Irvine's guide is easy and enjoyable to read. It provides a solid introduction to the philosophy and then breaks down each of the tenets and explains how they can be applied in our daily lives.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2020

“In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself. And the limit of your self-abuse is exactly the limit that you will tolerate from someone else.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2020

“Archeologist Patrick Hunt walks us through ten archeological discoveries that redefined how we view human history. For each, Hunt succinctly explains the circumstances of its discovery, the process to study or decode it, and how it changed our view of the past.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2019

“Millard is a fantastic historical non-fiction writer, who is able to describe the arduous journey with a level of detail that makes you think she was there herself.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2019

“This book explores the history of mental health treatment, from the institutions and the doctors who helped shape our current sensibilities, to the wider social and economic implications of treatment.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2019

“A deeply insightful book about how to create what you want in life by exploring the hidden structures. Once a structure exists in our lives, energy moves through that structure where there is less resistance.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2019

“A well-reasoned case that computer intelligence will always fall short of human intelligence. The most interesting part is the preface, which neatly sums up how human associative pattern matching works.”

— Shane Parrish

Source: Farnam Street RECOMMENDED READING 2019