Skip to content
RF
Ryan Flaherty

American baseball player & coach

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Good question. I’ve heard you ask this before, and I didn’t think you were going to ask me, and I should have been prepared for this. I’m a huge, avid reader. I truly believe – and I tell every person I train – is that one of the biggest reasons – the difference between where you are and where you want to go is knowledge. Read as much as you can. So, that’s a tough question. I think The Alchemist is a big one. I’ve loved that book for a very long time. The Bible is a big one, but I’ll give you an off-the-wall one, which is called The Slight Edge . Have you ever heard of that one?

Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 1 June 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 82 →
Lisa Ling American journalist
The book that I have gifted the most often, you would not expect this of me, but it’s called Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World .
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 6 October 2019 source ↗
Nick Kokonas American restaurant executive and author
I named one of them already. Fooled by Randomness . Almost everyone in my office is forced to read that. I’ve definitely given that away. Boy, that’s a tricky one because just like I said, I can’t remember books very well. But certainly probably No. 1 on a business side of things. On the other side, I tend to give away what I would call vintage art books. So, it’s not a book people can buy, I’m sorry to say, but occasionally I’ll be at a used book store and I’ll find some of these great old art books. I buy a few of them and then when I want to thank someone for something, I send them that.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 22 October 2018 source ↗
Tony Fadell Engineer and designer; led the iPod and iPhone teams at Apple, founder of Nest Labs
I regularly gift the book called In Praise of Shadows .
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 27 January 2020 source ↗
Danny Meyer American restaurateur and writer
Well, outside of our cookbooks and Setting the Table , which is the most gift I give because someone’s got to give it, I love marketing. I just love marketing because marketing is understanding the other person. Marketing is a dialogue. It’s a lot like hospitality. And I love Seth Godin’s books. And I would say that I’ve given many of his books, but probably the one that I’ve given the most is This Is Marketing . And it comes down to one simple express — He’s just so brilliant at getting to the essence of what something really is. And he thinks marketing is when you can convey that people like us do things like this. And that sounds so simple, and yet it’s so deep actually. He understands that people want to feel — I believe that the biggest longing people have is to belong. And so great marketing actually doesn’t just sell you something. It makes you feel like you belong to a tribe. So anyway, long answer to your question, but that would be the one.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 10 April 2023 source ↗

More on taste & recommendation

Also answered this

Eric Garcia, Kevin Systrom, Jacqueline Novogratz, Murray Carter, Bob Metcalfe, Shinya Yamanaka

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer