👋 Howdy to the 1,762 new legends who joined this week! You are now part of a 219,860 strong tribe outperforming the competition together.

LATEST POSTS 📚

If you’re new, not yet a subscriber, or just plain missed it, here are some of our recent editions.

🍟 The Future Of Technology Belongs To One Man, Jensen Huang. Co-Founder, President & CEO of Nvidia, the man holding all the chips.
💘 How Self-Awareness Became The Ultimate Edge. An interview with Jerry Colonna, Co-Founder & CEO at Reboot.
📣 A Guide To Crafting Your Brand Voice. A step-by-step guide on creating a tone & identity your audience will love.

PARTNERS 💫

Great AI starts with great people.

AI isn’t built by tools—it’s built by teams. Athyna finds you the right people to power your roadmap, from frontier model builders to infrastructure engineers.

Our talent is sourced globally and matched with AI-assisted precision, then hand-vetted to ensure technical depth and cultural fit. Most roles are filled in under 5 days.

Whether you’re scaling models, shipping features, or fixing bottlenecks—we’ll help you build the team to get it done.

_{Interested in sponsoring these emails? See our partnership options here.}

HOUSEKEEPING 📨

This New York Times event around new vs legacy media from the recent DealBook Summit might be one of my favorite pieces of content I have consumed in years. First, it was fascinating to see new media combatants from the left (Pod Save’s Jon Favreau), right (Ben Shapiro), and middle (Andrew Schulz) discussing the future of communication with the old guard, none of whom I knew by name.

The highlight, though, was Andrew Schulz, who had me in tears of laughter. He was the naughty kid who just wants to make the class laugh. Not only that, watching Ben Shapiro in tears of laughter at Andrew’s Jewish gags made me smile. Schulz will absolutely never be invited back. But at a time like this, where everything is so politically heated, being able to laugh at ourselves is as important as ever. Enjoy today’s post!

RESOURCE 🧰

How To Read Like The Greats

If you have ever sat by an open fire, telling stories with friends, and felt like there was something extraordinary about it, that’s because it’s deeply human. This is how we shared knowledge for hundreds of thousands of years. And not just to pass the time; the storyteller in the tribe passed history, strategy, and culture to the next generation.

Then the Sumerians invented writing, meaning knowledge could outlive the person who created it. For 5,000 years, though, books were copied by hand. Gutenberg's printing press changed that. One idea could now proliferate to every corner of the Earth. Words are powerful. And a good (or bad) idea can change the course of human history.

Fast forward to 2025, and words are plentiful. Everywhere we look: adverts, tweets, blogs, AI slop. The problem isn't access to information; it's fighting to find signal in the noise. Today, I have the cheat code for you. A database of 100 business books (and more) that earned their acclaim by being actually valuable for people building companies. Below are the books that made the cut, plus recommendations from operators you actually want to learn from.

The Top 10

1. Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari

2. Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl

3. Principles, Ray Dalio

4. Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

5. Zero to One, Peter Thiel

6. The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss

7. Influence, Robert B. Cialdini, PhD

8. The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz

9. Shoe Dog, Phil Knight

10. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Steve Jobs

• The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen

• Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn

Sam Altman

• The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch

• Skunk Works, Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos & Leo Janos

• Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

Melanie Perkins

• The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Robin Sharma

• Designing the Obvious, Robert Hoekman

Palmer Luckey

• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, John C. Bogle

• The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, Christian Brose

Challenge: Can you beat me tally?

Just as Howard Hillman’s Wonders of the World largely shaped my travels through my 20s, this list has guided my learning in my 30s. I am proud to announce that I have now completed 41 of the books on this list. I’d be interested to know who out there has bettered me.

Elon Musk

• A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin

• Catherine the Great, Robert K. Massie

• Howard Hughes, Donald L. Barlett

Brian Armstrong

• Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries

• Eisenhower in War and Peace, Jean Edward Smith

Whitney Wolfe Herd

• Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts

• The Plant Paradox, Steven R. Gundry

• Originals, Adam Grant

Brian Chesky

• High Output Management, Andrew S. Grove

• The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert Iger

• Blitzscaling, Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh

Ben Horowitz

• Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford

• The Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James

• Only the Paranoid Survive, Andrew Grove

Summary

Here's what's true: the operators who consistently win aren't smarter—they're just better learning machines. They've internalized Andy Grove's thoughts about management, Clayton Christensen's approach to disruption, and how Ray Dalio sets company principles.

And that's it! You can find the database here, and if you liked this, you’ll love our Ultimate Investor Letter Database too. We hope you enjoy them!

BRAIN FOOD 🧠 

HIRING ZONE 👀 

Today, we are highlighting AI talent available through Athyna. If you are looking for the best bespoke tech talent, these stars are ready to work with you—today! Reach out here if we can make an introduction to these talents and get $1,000 discount on our behalf.

TWEETS OF THE WEEK 🐣 

TOOLS WE RECOMMEND 🛠️

Every week, we highlight tools we like and those we actually use inside our business and give them an honest review. Today, we are highlighting Vanta*—the security and compliance platform companies rely on to stay audit-ready without losing their sanity.

See the full set of tools we use inside of Athyna & Open Source CEO here.

HOW I CAN HELP 🥳

P.S. Want to work together?

1. Hiring global talent: If you’re hiring tech, business or ops talent and want to do it 80% less, check out my startup, Athyna. 🌏

2. See my tech stack: Find our suite of tools & resources for both this newsletter and Athyna here. 🧰 

3. Reach an audience of tech leaders: Advertise with us if you want to get in front of founders, investors and leaders in tech. 👀