The book was interesting for a variety of reason. It talks about the core philosophy behind Anthropic, and how the company was formed. However, I must admit, there is a mystery about @DarioAmodei in that he does really seem to care about AI safety, but is keen on pushing hard for AI regulation. Personally, am not big into involving strict policy into a new technology as it can create monopolies. At times, the book gives too much credit to Dario & Anthropic to a point where it almost villainize other AI labs. Stars becoming too obvious towards the end of the book.

Overall great company, and what a journey. Book does cover in great detail the Anthropic founding moments; the departure from OpenAI and the difference in core philosophy between the two AI labs.

The book talks about the origin and history of the main key players in AI; Sam Altman (OpenAI), Demis Hassabis (Deepmind), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Ilya Sutskever (OpenAI co-founder), Elon Musk (xAI), Satya Nadella (Microsoft). Overall, for someone who is looking to get some knowledge on the origin of how the biggest AI companies came to be, this book will definately give an broad perspective. PSA audio is free for Spotify Premium users. Worth if you are into understanding AI landscape from the origin.

"I want people to know we made them dance" - Satya Nadella

"I would love to do a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft’s own models and our models any day, any time. They’re using someone else’s models" - Sundar Pichai

Battle of the nerds.

Had been following @bgurley for quite some time. I knew going forward I was not the target audience for this book but thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I'm glad I did. I'm glad that Bill did not simply take stories of Silicon Valley tech people or folks in his circle . I'm definately recommending this book to folks who are still looking for their purpose.

Core Takeway - There are key indicators to know what you're really into and what you should explore. Its a numbers game. Go and shoot your shot.

Thought I give this a shot because I'm dabbling into learning how to market and promote brands. Have seen a ton of @AlexHormozi videos in youtube and he always seemed like a genuine guy who knows his shit.

Core takeway - Its in the title

One of my favorite books I read in 2025. It went againt everything "corporate culture" stands for. Paused multiple times while reading this to reflect on how I can implement this to build engineering teams/culture.

The idea is that you want to trust talented people with decision making skills, and let them loose a bit. Value comes from trust and not being a micro manager to 10x employees.

Definately worth a re-read.

Went through this book on audiobook during a Mt Rainer trip. The book goes into the early days of Amazon. Had some cool insightful stories about how ruthless mentality Jeff Bezos had.

Book speeds up the timeline a bit towards the later half of the book, so it can feel a bit disconnected. Decent book but 1 time read is fine.

Core Takeway - Only showing up, following instruction and trading time for a paycheck is obsolete. You have to be a "linchpin" at anything you do. Don't just be a "do what you are told" employee or employer. Are you easily replaceable? Are you someone continously honing your skills.

Love reading tech books based on real life and anecdotes. Was able to zip through this book super fast. SBF came out of nowhere to be so prominent and powerful. Ofcourse something was off.

Core takeway - Don't always believe what is infront of a camera. Do your diligence.

This book is a case-study driven book with structured A vs B theme. Series of non-related chapters includes Paypal mafia origin, Venmo vs Cash App, Alibaba vs Tencent, SVB collapse, Retail trader vs Wall street, Robinhood.

The base thesis is that innovation does not always happen from already established business but can occur from outsiders who are quick to react to new opportunities and quicker iteration cycles.

Really liked this book. A first person narration of someone diving into the crypto world during the NFT craze period. Author wasn't really a tech guy or entrepreneur but simply a needed the means to make as much money as possible to support his family. The book had really good first person stories that talked through his real experience of just seeing his portoflio keep climbing after launching a successful NFT collection.

Core takeaway - If everyone is getting rich via magic money, something will eventually go very wrong.

Great read. Talks about Coinbase and the journey of Brian Armstrong into founding and running Coinbase. One thing I admired about Brian and Coinbase journey was that they were always authentic and understood from the early days that crypto was here to stay but would face immence regulatory and get-rich-quick scheme threats. During the immense crackdown of crypto after the fall of SBF, Coinbase was under immense scrutiny. Nothing worse for a CEO having to deal with lawyers everyday instead of product engineers.

One of most interesting stories that stuck to me was how in the early days of Coinbase, Brian was travelling with a hardware wallet consisting of pretty much all customer funds (under Coinbase custody). The early days of Coinbase just goes on to show no matter how big a company gets, they will always have fun hacky stories in the early days.

Fascinating book. There is a real mystery on how 1 guy can run 3+ multi-billion company at once. This book dives into Elon's history, his personality and his deep desire to win. A close look into how he prioterizes his day, runs meetings and what he expects from people who work for him. One of the key takeaway from him is how is absolutely rejects mediocrity, and not shy to piss people off.

I found this book to be better than the other Elon by Ashlee Vance. Overall, a must-read book for anyone who wants to start a company.

One of the best books I've read. Love reading and watching @bhorowitz.

Core Takeaway - Executing hard things is tough & painful. That is what separates you. Its gonna get tough. Deal with it.