
Marketer who popularised Stoicism as a modern way of life; wrote Trust Me, I'm Lying (2012), The Obstacle Is the Way (2014) and Ego Is the Enemy (2016), and hosts The Daily Stoic Podcast.
The Daily StoicPainted Porch
American Apparel
The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy convert Stoic practice - separating what is controllable from what is not, treating recognition as a threat to judgment - into working habits for people running companies, which is why the books circulate so widely among founders. Trust Me, I'm Lying and Growth Hacker Marketing document how online media incentives can be manipulated, written by someone who did it professionally.
8 books of their own · 300 articles · 122 books they recommend · 28 appearances
Recommended by: Ryan Holiday, James Altucher, Jordan Hughes and 3 others
Recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, David Cancel, Nat Eliason and 4 others
Recommended by: Ryan Holiday, Chase Jarvis, Raoul Pal
Recommended by: Alex Lieberman, Matej Latin
Recommended by: Cal Newport, Jordan Hughes
The secretly funded litigation that destroyed Gawker.
Recommended by: Brian Koppelman, Jeff Jordan, Joel Connolly and 2 others
Recommended by: Nat Eliason, Andrew Chen, Andy Budd
The Obstacle Is the Way | – | 2013 | T3 | Ryan Holiday, James Altucher, Jordan Hughes and 3 others |
Ego Is the Enemy | – | 2016 | T3 | Andrew Wilkinson, David Cancel, Nat Eliason and 4 others |
Trust Me, I'm Lying | – | 2012 | T3 | Ryan Holiday, Chase Jarvis, Raoul Pal |
The Daily Stoic | – | 2016 | T3 | Alex Lieberman, Matej Latin |
Stillness is the Key | – | 2019 | T3 | Cal Newport, Jordan Hughes |
Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue | The secretly funded litigation that destroyed Gawker. | 2018 | T3 | Brian Koppelman, Jeff Jordan, Joel Connolly and 2 others |
Growth Hacker Marketing | – | 2013 | T3 | Nat Eliason, Andrew Chen, Andy Budd |
Perennial Seller | – | T3 | Nat Eliason |
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Nir Eyal
A novel of an insomniac who starts a secret fighting club with a wild extremist.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Ev Williams, Nat Eliason, Tucker Max
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Patrick Collison, Naval Ravikant
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Jacqueline Novogratz
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Patrick Collison, Mark Zuckerberg and 1 other
A novel of a sixteen-year-old's days alone in New York after his school expels him.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Bill Gates, Ev Williams and 1 other
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Stewart Brand, Eric Weinstein
The Greek epic of Odysseus's ten-year journey home from Troy to Ithaca.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, Patrick Collison, Stewart Brand and 2 others
Also recommended by: Patrick Collison, Oprah Winfrey
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Ed Cooke
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason
The definitive account of John Boyd and the OODA loop. Boyd's contribution was to show that strategy is fundamentally about time and adaptation: the side that observes, orients, decides, and acts faster keeps the opponent reacting rather than acting. His ideas crossed into business, software, and lean manufacturing.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Morgan Housel, Patrick O'Shaughnessy and 1 other
Montaigne's life and essays, read as answers to the question of how to live.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Patrick Collison and 1 other
An abolitionist's life in slavery and his fight for the full freedom of Black people.
Confessions of an American writer who travelled widely and lived unconventionally.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Susan J. Fowler
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Casey Neistat, Jason Calacanis, Tucker Max
Samuel Zemurray rose from selling ripe bananas to taking over United Fruit.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, Andrew Wilkinson and 3 others
How an unelected official amassed power and used it to rebuild New York.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Balaji S. Srinivasan, Jim Collins and 7 others
Theodore Roosevelt's life from his birth in 1858 to the presidency in 1901.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Jamie Dimon, Sophie Bakalar
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Shane Parrish, Zoë Foster Blake
How Rockefeller built Standard Oil, faced its breakup and gave his fortune away.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Charlie Munger and 11 others
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Also recommended by: Patrick Bet-David
Letters on how to live, a course in Stoic philosophy written to a friend.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Nat Eliason, David Kadavy and 2 others
A Roman emperor's private notes reminding himself to live by Stoic principles.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Nat Eliason, Naval Ravikant and 16 others
Life is not short; people waste most of it, and how to use it well.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Patrick Collison, Eric Jorgenson and 2 others
Spiritual exercises in philosophy from Socrates to the early Christians.
Aphorisms stating Taleb's ideas on randomness, knowledge and modern life.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, Matt Mullenweg and 2 others
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, Naval Ravikant, Tim Ferriss
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, Naval Ravikant, Susan J. Fowler
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: James Altucher, Jordan Hughes and 3 others
A father and son's motorcycle trip framing an inquiry into what Quality means.
Also recommended by: Brad Feld, Mohnish Pabrai, Nick Sleep and 7 others
Life in Nazi concentration camps, and logotherapy: finding meaning to survive.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Frank Martin, Mohnish Pabrai, Nat Eliason and 23 others
Early specialisation works only where rules are stable; elsewhere breadth wins.
Also recommended by: Bill Gates, Abi Tyas Tunggal, Alex Lieberman and 10 others
Forty-eight rules for gaining and keeping power, each shown by historical episodes.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, Iman Gadzhi, Library Mindset and 2 others
366 daily lessons on power, seduction, mastery, strategy and human nature.
Inside a community of men perfecting seduction techniques, and one man's doubts.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson
Also recommended by: Balaji S. Srinivasan
Spartans' everyday lives and customs: constant training, self-denial and hardship.
A contemporary's account of the long war between Athens and Sparta.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Matt Mullenweg, Ray Dalio, Satya Nadella
Subtitled 'Big Ideas from the Computer Age'; collects early essays
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Brian Armstrong, Ev Williams, Keith Rabois and 2 others
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Jack Ma, John Maeda
Essays on open-source software and its model of collaborative development.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Paul Graham
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Ev Williams
Shackleton's men survive after the ice crushes their ship Endurance in Antarctica.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Morgan Housel, Nat Eliason and 6 others
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Ryan Peterson
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Bryant Chou, Jordan Hughes and 1 other
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Oprah Winfrey, Shane Parrish, Tim Ferriss
Pressfield's book on resistance applies with particular force to musicians, where the gap between technical facility and creative output is often enormous. The concept of 'turning pro' — treating creative work as a practice with professional discipline regardless of whether it pays — is the mental shift that separates hobbyists from people who actually finish records.
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Nat Eliason, Alex and Books and 10 others
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Balaji S. Srinivasan
Machiavelli's handbook on political strategy remains disturbing because it separates effectiveness from morality — a distinction every strategic thinker eventually has to confront. His analysis of how new rulers consolidate power is still the sharpest treatment of legitimacy under conditions of uncertainty.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Stewart Brand, Fred Wilson, Garry Tan and 1 other
Evolutionary psychology explained through Darwin's own life and behaviour.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Morgan Housel, Reid Hoffman and 1 other
How cooperation and morality evolved from self-interest, via the prisoner's dilemma.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Naval Ravikant
Clausewitz introduces friction, fog, and the political nature of conflict as irreducible elements of strategy. His insistence that war is a continuation of politics by other means is the foundational challenge to anyone who wants a purely technical theory of winning.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman
Thirty-three strategies of conflict drawn from Napoleon, Hannibal, Thatcher and more.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Why people mistake luck for skill, above all in markets.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Barton Biggs, Michael Mauboussin and 10 others
Rare, unforeseen, high-impact events drive history, explained only after the fact.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Howard Marks, Marc Andreessen, Nat Eliason and 17 others
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Alexis Ohanian, Andrew Chen, Brad Feld and 5 others
Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape, starts a third company in 1999.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Andrew Chen, Austen Allred, Keith Rabois
How a coach took the 49ers from 2 and 14 to three Super Bowls with set standards.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, David Cancel, Drew Houston and 7 others
The first Black heavyweight champion on his boxing career and race in the 1900s.
Bill Belichick's life and career coaching the New England Patriots.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nick Crocker
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Guy Spier
Work is splitting between those who work well with smart machines and the rest.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Michael Mauboussin
How masters from Leonardo to Faraday found a life's task and served apprenticeships.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, Anthony Pompliano, Iman Gadzhi and 4 others
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Brian Armstrong, Mohnish Pabrai
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Chase Jarvis, Raoul Pal
Writing advice focused on the fears and habits that stop people writing.
Source: Books To Base Your Life On (The Reading List) — ryanholiday.net
Also recommended by: Balaji S. Srinivasan, Maria Popova and 7 others
| The stoicism secret: how Ryan Holiday became a Silicon Valley guru | The Guardian | 2024 |
| Ryan Holiday Sells Stoicism as a Life Hack, Without Apology Paywall | The New York Times | 2016 |