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Daniel Pink American non-fiction writer
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, they’re probably books that you’ve – I mean, it might have been books that you’ve covered in your show here. So, one of them is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, one of the greatest things ever. I come back to that advice so many different times, it’s the same even in the Pink household, where we’ll just say – like one member of my family would say to the other who’s struggling, “Okay, bird by bird. Bird by bird.” And so, I am a huge – and I stumbled into this book – I remember where I got this next book, I got it in the airport in San Francisco, in the bookstore in the SFO. And for some reason, I picked it up because it had this really weird cover. But one of the first editions of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield had this kind of silvery cover to it. And I bought that book in – I think it was a campus bookstore in SFO, just because it’s – I went, “Oh, it’s silver cover, and it’s really short.” I got it and it was like, “Oh, my god. I can’t believe how good this book is.” And so, I have even have a little sign on my desk here that says, “Beat the resistance.” So, I’ve given that book a out a lot too. So Pressfield and Lamott. And then – man, I have to say, Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is up there too. Less – I’ve given that out less, but that’s a hugely important book for me.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 26 June 2018 source ↗
The people I most often give books to are children, and the book I love giving is Rivka Galchen’s Rat Rule 79. Technically a book written for children, but a book that will delight readers of all ages.
Recorded Lit Hub Questionnaire, Literary Hub, 27 March 2025 source ↗
Chip Wilson Canadian businessman
For me, Atlas Shrugged was massive for me, to read that again when I was 18, I mean, I know nothing about US politics and I [couldn’t] care less about the Tea Party and all the way that people — because I had no context that it was a philosophy, I just thought it was a book. When I read through the book and I really got about how to make a quality product, how to treat people really well, how not to let the naysayers say you can’t do it, or that if you do make your money, “Give me part of that money because why should you have it all?” type of thing. I didn’t really get it until I was about 52 or 53 and I read the book again and I recognized what an incredible impact that it had on my life. And I think it falls part and parcel with that good to great. What is good and what is great? And do you want to do — did I possibly want to live a life of being good at something? No, I want to be great, because on my deathbed, why would I want to know what good looks like? I want to know what great looks like.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 21 May 2021 source ↗
Navdeep Chandel Professor of medicine and cell biology at Northwestern University
I usually like to give, at least younger people, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Tim Ferriss: Why is that? Navdeep Chandel: It’s a nice book about a journey of an evolution of a young man into an adult. That transition, I still struggle with, so it’s a good read all the time. Tim Ferriss: It’s a short book, too. Navdeep Chandel: That’s the real key. It could use a few more pictures, but generally it’s – Tim Ferriss: For those people listening, Siddhartha is probably in the top five or six most frequently given answers to this question. Josh Waitzkin, Naval Ravikant – there is a pretty long list. For those who haven’t read it, I think that is a – David Sabatini: So it’s not original, then. Tim Ferriss: It’s a classic. Navdeep Chandel: I’ve actually read it maybe 25 years ago and it struck – but I come from that world anyway. So maybe I was programmed a little bit. For me, the experience is more important than the end goal and I think that’s one of the messages of that book. You collect experiences rather than objects and other things. It’s about the journey and the experience rather than plowing through it and getting to the end. Tim Ferriss: The so-called objective
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 5 June 2018 source ↗

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