From Quora
There are many responses to this question, but I find James Altucher's the most intriguing.
What are the top 10 economic must-reads that are fun to read, and not academic?
James Altucher, "I've written ten books.I've sold a couple of companies. I make angel investme..."
When I started a business, by definition, I knew nothing about business.
I had just started! I was the worst.
Here's what I knew. This was the 90s. I knew how to make a website. Nobody else knew.
So American Express came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"
That started my business. HBO came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"
Miramax came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"
I'm going to admit to you what I did not know: I did not know the business world values products (scalable) more than services (unscalable).
The reason I did not know this is because services are profitable (You can always fire people when business is slow)
Here's also what I did not know: how to hire people and fire people. Or how to manage people. I didn't know anything.
Business is like "micro-economics". Supply and demand, etc.
Macro-economics is like: what happens if there's a draught and we grow less corn. What happens?
So here's what I don't know now:
I don't know how to really read a "P&L" sheet. Just tell me your revenues and profits and let me ask some questions and I can figure out what's working and what's not.
And here's also what I don't know now: what happens if there is a draught and there's no corn. Because it seems like that has nothing to do with real prices.
The price of oil has nothing to do with the supply and demand for oil right now, for instance.
So anyone who writes a book on "Macro-economics" is lying to you. Because it's a made up science.
And Micro-economics they are lying to you also. Because what you need to know there is how to sell, how to come up with an idea, how to manage, how to build product, and how to be a leader.
You can't learn that from a teacher. You can learn a tiny bit from books.
What do you do if economics is BS and you are answering a question about "What are the 10 best Economics books?"
I don't want to lie to you. I'm going to give you the 10 best books that inspired me to make more money.
That's, pure and simple, what I hear when I hear the world "economics".
These books won't make you more money. But they will inspire you and point you in the right directions for making money.
I'm not going to give you books I read in college. Those are all BS books.
For me, if I am honest, reading these books has caused me to have more money in my bank account.
A) Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Changed my mind about the nature of competition, monopolies and the role of employees. Also check out my podcast with him.
B) Abundance by Peter Diamandis. If someone ever "dooms and glooms" you, this is the book to read. The rest of the people are trying to scare you.
C) The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Not because he teaches you how to be "powerful". That word means nothing. It's just...he's smart. Read him.
D) Mindset by Carol Dweck. Are you fixed, or growth. When and why?
E) The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson. A book about our current world situation is just a photograph. One moment from now it will change. One moment ago it was different.
This book by Taylor is about this moment. And it's important to read. (Or check out my podcast with him)
F) Tomorrowland by Steven Kotler
Might as well know what trends are happening and the state of where they are now.
G) Are You Fully Charged? This book will make you a better person, leader, businessman. At least...it did for me. Plus I have a man-crush on Tom Rath.
H) Sapiens by Blah Blah Blah. I hate always looking up his name. My wife and I always just call him, "Israeli guy".
This book is the most important economics book ever. If there were such a thing as economics. Who cares. Read it. The 80,000 year overview of where we've been and where we are going.
At the very least you will be smart at cocktail parties after you read this book.
I like reading books where I feel like my IQ is going up while I am reading it.
I) The Rational Optimist. Again an anti-doom and gloom book by the astonishing Matt Ridley. This is another one of those books where your IQ is higher after you read it.
J) History of the World is Six Glasses. My kid had to read this for school. And then I read it.
It's great to take a well-trodden topic (history) and re-formulate it in terms of what we drank and how the answer to that question is totally what changed history.
Practicing having a mindset like that, where you turn the common into the fantastic, is what makes one a good economist.
Again, I can list a lot more. I don't want to limit myself to ten. I have book club where I list many more but you don't need it.
[Oh, I'm editing this post. One more CRITICAL ONE: "Antifragile" by Nassim Taleb. But with a caveat. As you read it, try to determine how it personally can change your life as opposed to reading it as an economics book.]
Do this:
- start with these ten.
- don't listen to anyone who uses the word "economics" (after this post of course)
- make a lot of money using what you learned in these ten books.
There are many responses to this question, but I find James Altucher's the most intriguing.
What are the top 10 economic must-reads that are fun to read, and not academic?
James Altucher, "I've written ten books.I've sold a couple of companies. I make angel investme..."
When I started a business, by definition, I knew nothing about business.
I had just started! I was the worst.
Here's what I knew. This was the 90s. I knew how to make a website. Nobody else knew.
So American Express came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"
That started my business. HBO came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"
Miramax came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"
I'm going to admit to you what I did not know: I did not know the business world values products (scalable) more than services (unscalable).
The reason I did not know this is because services are profitable (You can always fire people when business is slow)
Here's also what I did not know: how to hire people and fire people. Or how to manage people. I didn't know anything.
Business is like "micro-economics". Supply and demand, etc.
Macro-economics is like: what happens if there's a draught and we grow less corn. What happens?
So here's what I don't know now:
I don't know how to really read a "P&L" sheet. Just tell me your revenues and profits and let me ask some questions and I can figure out what's working and what's not.
And here's also what I don't know now: what happens if there is a draught and there's no corn. Because it seems like that has nothing to do with real prices.
The price of oil has nothing to do with the supply and demand for oil right now, for instance.
So anyone who writes a book on "Macro-economics" is lying to you. Because it's a made up science.
And Micro-economics they are lying to you also. Because what you need to know there is how to sell, how to come up with an idea, how to manage, how to build product, and how to be a leader.
You can't learn that from a teacher. You can learn a tiny bit from books.
What do you do if economics is BS and you are answering a question about "What are the 10 best Economics books?"
I don't want to lie to you. I'm going to give you the 10 best books that inspired me to make more money.
That's, pure and simple, what I hear when I hear the world "economics".
These books won't make you more money. But they will inspire you and point you in the right directions for making money.
I'm not going to give you books I read in college. Those are all BS books.
For me, if I am honest, reading these books has caused me to have more money in my bank account.
A) Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Changed my mind about the nature of competition, monopolies and the role of employees. Also check out my podcast with him.
B) Abundance by Peter Diamandis. If someone ever "dooms and glooms" you, this is the book to read. The rest of the people are trying to scare you.
C) The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Not because he teaches you how to be "powerful". That word means nothing. It's just...he's smart. Read him.
D) Mindset by Carol Dweck. Are you fixed, or growth. When and why?
E) The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson. A book about our current world situation is just a photograph. One moment from now it will change. One moment ago it was different.
This book by Taylor is about this moment. And it's important to read. (Or check out my podcast with him)
F) Tomorrowland by Steven Kotler
Might as well know what trends are happening and the state of where they are now.
G) Are You Fully Charged? This book will make you a better person, leader, businessman. At least...it did for me. Plus I have a man-crush on Tom Rath.
H) Sapiens by Blah Blah Blah. I hate always looking up his name. My wife and I always just call him, "Israeli guy".
This book is the most important economics book ever. If there were such a thing as economics. Who cares. Read it. The 80,000 year overview of where we've been and where we are going.
At the very least you will be smart at cocktail parties after you read this book.
I like reading books where I feel like my IQ is going up while I am reading it.
I) The Rational Optimist. Again an anti-doom and gloom book by the astonishing Matt Ridley. This is another one of those books where your IQ is higher after you read it.
J) History of the World is Six Glasses. My kid had to read this for school. And then I read it.
It's great to take a well-trodden topic (history) and re-formulate it in terms of what we drank and how the answer to that question is totally what changed history.
Practicing having a mindset like that, where you turn the common into the fantastic, is what makes one a good economist.
Again, I can list a lot more. I don't want to limit myself to ten. I have book club where I list many more but you don't need it.
[Oh, I'm editing this post. One more CRITICAL ONE: "Antifragile" by Nassim Taleb. But with a caveat. As you read it, try to determine how it personally can change your life as opposed to reading it as an economics book.]
Do this:
- start with these ten.
- don't listen to anyone who uses the word "economics" (after this post of course)
- make a lot of money using what you learned in these ten books.
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