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Chris Young

Cook and inventor; co-author of Modernist Cuisine, co-founder of ChefSteps

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I think a lot of them will probably be in the cooking space. Definitely On Food and Cooking . I’ve gifted that a lot. My career starts with that book in many ways. There wouldn’t be any of this modern cooking movement without Harold’s book, I don’t think. There certainly wouldn’t be modernist cuisine that played a big role in my career without that book. So I’ve gifted that a lot because I think it’s relevant and I think for a certain type of individual, it’s the kind of book that every time you open it up, you see something. You’re like, “I didn’t even know that was there; that’s super cool.” And you read something and go, “The world is way more interesting than I thought.” I think I’ve gifted Michel Bras’s Essential Cuisine quite a bit, although it’s hard to do now because I think it’s out of print in English and quite expensive. The other book I found myself gifting a lot lately is an out-of-print book on thermodynamics called The Second Law . It was written by an Oxford physical chemistry professor named P.W. Atkins. That book is just a phenomenal, casual, infographic-laden read on how the world works from an energy perspective. I found that so incredibly useful in trying to understand how to do something, how to make something work, whether something’s even possible. It’s frequently my bullshit detector. When somebody’s trying to convince me some technology or some idea has merit, I very quickly come back to just sketching out the kind of thing I did for that email, where it’s like, let me just see – with knowing nothing about the subject, if I can just sketch out the basic ideas of how much energy is going to be involved or consumed or if I assume limitless capacities, does this make any sense ever? So many things sound good, but just don’t pass muster as soon as you start looking at the world that way. You’re like, “Well, that’s clearly just a waste of everybody’s time and we should just stop and go do this thing over here,” which at least you’re not having to invent new physics or violate the laws of physics to go do it.

Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 4 June 2018 source ↗

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Diana Chapman Leadership coach; co-author of The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks is probably the book I've gifted the most, and the one I've recommended the most of any other book. And also, Conscious Loving for Couples, because you asked that question earlier. Conscious Loving, I think, is a fantastic book for couples who are wanting to get more connected, is another one I've gifted a lot. And those are the two that come top of mind.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 6 October 2021 source ↗
Susan Cain American writer
Oh, I mean, there’s one that I actually gifted to you that I especially love.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 2 April 2022 source ↗
Marco Canora American chef
Yeah. At work every year, I kind of give my line cooks and my management team books as gifts around the holidays. So This is Water by David Foster Wallace is one I commonly give because it’s so short and the message is so perfect in my opinion. So I’ve given that a lot. And then for cookbooks, I got to say, the Marcella Hazan Essentials is just, I adore that woman. I adore her simple approach. It is like, she’s the OG of Italian grandma cooking. And so those are the two books.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 10 November 2021 source ↗
Andrew Ng Co-founder of Coursera and of Google Brain; founder of DeepLearning.AI
Over the years, I have found a few resources for developing personal productivity that I love. My top picks include Getting Things Done by David Allen, the classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, and Learning How to Learn Barbara Oakley (I recommend the Coursera course). I'm tempted to add Tiny Habits to this list.
Recorded Ng's own newsletter, The Batch, DeepLearning.AI, 2020 source ↗

More from Chris Young

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Question What purchase of $100 or less has most improved your life in the last six months? Money & investment
I’ll give two answers. I bought a new electric teakettle. I used to have all the stovetop kettles. Even though I knew it was vastly better, I underestimated how much better my life would be by having an electric tea kettle so I can have tea actually quickly and more or less on demand with very little fuss.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 4 June 2018 source ↗

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