The Investor's Shelf — one person
Paul Graham
Co-founder of Viaweb and Y Combinator; essayist and Lisp programmer
His essay archive is the primary source that the modern startup canon quotes, argues with and reuses; the essays matter more than the books.
3 books of their own · 232 articles · 170 books they recommend
Books they wrote 3
· 2004 · Subtitled 'Big Ideas from the Computer Age'; collects early essays
Letters
Paul Graham writes essays, not letters, and no letter series exists. His complete essay index is at paulgraham.com/articles.html, and the 232 essays it covers, 1998-2026, are listed under articles.
Blog posts 232
- How Universities Should Prepare Founderspaulgraham.com, 2026
- How to Earn a Billion Dollarspaulgraham.com, 2026
- How to Convert Between Wealth and Income Taxpaulgraham.com, 2026
- The Brand Agepaulgraham.com, 2026
- The Shape of the Essay Fieldpaulgraham.com, 2025
- Good Writingpaulgraham.com, 2025
- What to Dopaulgraham.com, 2025
- The Origins of Wokenesspaulgraham.com, 2025
- Writes and Write-Notspaulgraham.com, 2024
- When To Do What You Lovepaulgraham.com, 2024
- Founder Modepaulgraham.com, 2024
- The Right Kind of Stubbornpaulgraham.com, 2024
- The Redditspaulgraham.com, 2024
- How to Start Googlepaulgraham.com, 2024
- The Best Essaypaulgraham.com, 2024
- How to Do Great Workpaulgraham.com, 2023
- Superlinear Returnspaulgraham.com, 2023
- How to Get New Ideaspaulgraham.com, 2023
- The Need to Readpaulgraham.com, 2022
- What You (Want to)\* Wantpaulgraham.com, 2022
- Alien Truthpaulgraham.com, 2022
- What I've Learned from Userspaulgraham.com, 2022
- Heresypaulgraham.com, 2022
- Putting Ideas into Wordspaulgraham.com, 2022
- Is There Such a Thing as Good Taste?paulgraham.com, 2021
- Beyond Smartpaulgraham.com, 2021
- Weird Languagespaulgraham.com, 2021
- How to Work Hardpaulgraham.com, 2021
- A Project of One's Ownpaulgraham.com, 2021
- Fierce Nerdspaulgraham.com, 2021
- Crazy New Ideaspaulgraham.com, 2021
- An NFT That Saves Livespaulgraham.com, 2021
- The Real Reason to End the Death Penaltypaulgraham.com, 2021
- How People Get Rich Nowpaulgraham.com, 2021
- Write Simplypaulgraham.com, 2021
- Donate Unrestrictedpaulgraham.com, 2021
- What I Worked Onpaulgraham.com, 2021
- Earnestnesspaulgraham.com, 2020
- Billionaires Buildpaulgraham.com, 2020
- The Airbnbspaulgraham.com, 2020
- How to Think for Yourselfpaulgraham.com, 2020
- Early Workpaulgraham.com, 2020
- Modeling a Wealth Taxpaulgraham.com, 2020
- The Four Quadrants of Conformismpaulgraham.com, 2020
- Orthodox Privilegepaulgraham.com, 2020
- Coronavirus and Credibilitypaulgraham.com, 2020
- How to Write Usefullypaulgraham.com, 2020
- Being a Noobpaulgraham.com, 2020
- Haterspaulgraham.com, 2020
- Having Kidspaulgraham.com, 2019
- The Two Kinds of Moderatepaulgraham.com, 2019
- Fashionable Problemspaulgraham.com, 2019
- The Lesson to Unlearnpaulgraham.com, 2019
- Novelty and Heresypaulgraham.com, 2019
- The Bus Ticket Theory of Geniuspaulgraham.com, 2019
- General and Surprisingpaulgraham.com, 2017
- Charisma / Powerpaulgraham.com, 2017
- The Risk of Discoverypaulgraham.com, 2017
- How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hubpaulgraham.com, 2016
- Life is Shortpaulgraham.com, 2016
- Economic Inequalitypaulgraham.com, 2016
- The Refragmentationpaulgraham.com, 2016
- This Year We Can End the Death Penalty in Californiapaulgraham.com, 2016
- Default Alive or Default Dead?paulgraham.com, 2015
- Jessica Livingstonpaulgraham.com, 2015
- A Way to Detect Biaspaulgraham.com, 2015
- Write Like You Talkpaulgraham.com, 2015
- Why It's Safe for Founders to Be Nicepaulgraham.com, 2015
- Change Your Namepaulgraham.com, 2015
- What Microsoft Is this the Altair Basic of?paulgraham.com, 2015
- The Ronco Principlepaulgraham.com, 2015
- What Doesn't Seem Like Work?paulgraham.com, 2015
- Don't Talk to Corp Devpaulgraham.com, 2015
- Let the Other 95% of Great Programmers Inpaulgraham.com, 2014
- How to Be an Expert in a Changing Worldpaulgraham.com, 2014
- How You Knowpaulgraham.com, 2014
- The Fatal Pinchpaulgraham.com, 2014
- Mean People Failpaulgraham.com, 2014
- Before the Startuppaulgraham.com, 2014
- Do Things That Don't Scalepaulgraham.com, 2013
- How to Raise Moneypaulgraham.com, 2013
- Investor Herd Dynamicspaulgraham.com, 2013
- How to Convince Investorspaulgraham.com, 2013
- Startup Investing Trendspaulgraham.com, 2013
- How to Get Startup Ideaspaulgraham.com, 2012
- The Hardware Renaissancepaulgraham.com, 2012
- Startup = Growthpaulgraham.com, 2012
- Black Swan Farmingpaulgraham.com, 2012
- The Top of My Todo Listpaulgraham.com, 2012
- Writing and Speakingpaulgraham.com, 2012
- How Y Combinator Startedpaulgraham.com, 2012
- Defining Propertypaulgraham.com, 2012
- Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideaspaulgraham.com, 2012
- A Word to the Resourcefulpaulgraham.com, 2012
- Schlep Blindnesspaulgraham.com, 2012
- Why Startup Hubs Workpaulgraham.com, 2011
- The Patent Pledgepaulgraham.com, 2011
- Subject: Airbnbpaulgraham.com, 2011
- How to Lose Time and Moneypaulgraham.com, 2010
- Founder Controlpaulgraham.com, 2010
- Tabletspaulgraham.com, 2010
- What We Look for in Founderspaulgraham.com, 2010
- The New Funding Landscapepaulgraham.com, 2010
- Where to See Silicon Valleypaulgraham.com, 2010
- High Resolution Fundraisingpaulgraham.com, 2010
- What Happened to Yahoopaulgraham.com, 2010
- The Future of Startup Fundingpaulgraham.com, 2010
- The Acceleration of Addictivenesspaulgraham.com, 2010
- The Top Idea in Your Mindpaulgraham.com, 2010
- Organic Startup Ideaspaulgraham.com, 2010
- Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedulepaulgraham.com, 2009
- Keep Your Identity Smallpaulgraham.com, 2009
- Apple's Mistakepaulgraham.com, 2009
- What Startups Are Really Likepaulgraham.com, 2009
- Persuade xor Discoverpaulgraham.com, 2009
- Post-Medium Publishingpaulgraham.com, 2009
- The List of N Thingspaulgraham.com, 2009
- The Anatomy of Determinationpaulgraham.com, 2009
- What Kate Saw in Silicon Valleypaulgraham.com, 2009
- The Trouble with the Segwaypaulgraham.com, 2009
- Ramen Profitablepaulgraham.com, 2009
- A Local Revolution?paulgraham.com, 2009
- Why Twitter is a Big Dealpaulgraham.com, 2009
- The Founder Visapaulgraham.com, 2009
- Five Founderspaulgraham.com, 2009
- Relentlessly Resourcefulpaulgraham.com, 2009
- How to Be an Angel Investorpaulgraham.com, 2009
- Why TV Lostpaulgraham.com, 2009
- Can You Buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe.paulgraham.com, 2009
- What I've Learned from Hacker Newspaulgraham.com, 2009
- Startups in 13 Sentencespaulgraham.com, 2009
- After Credentialspaulgraham.com, 2008
- Could VC be a Casualty of the Recession?paulgraham.com, 2008
- The High-Res Societypaulgraham.com, 2008
- The Other Half of "Artists Ship"paulgraham.com, 2008
- Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economypaulgraham.com, 2008
- A Fundraising Survival Guidepaulgraham.com, 2008
- The Pooled-Risk Company Management Companypaulgraham.com, 2008
- Cities and Ambitionpaulgraham.com, 2008
- Disconnecting Distractionpaulgraham.com, 2008
- Lies We Tell Kidspaulgraham.com, 2008
- Be Goodpaulgraham.com, 2008
- Why There Aren't More Googlespaulgraham.com, 2008
- Some Heroespaulgraham.com, 2008
- How to Disagreepaulgraham.com, 2008
- You Weren't Meant to Have a Bosspaulgraham.com, 2008
- A New Venture Animalpaulgraham.com, 2008
- Trollspaulgraham.com, 2008
- Six Principles for Making New Thingspaulgraham.com, 2008
- Why to Move to a Startup Hubpaulgraham.com, 2007
- The Future of Web Startupspaulgraham.com, 2007
- How to Do Philosophypaulgraham.com, 2007
- News from the Frontpaulgraham.com, 2007
- How Not to Diepaulgraham.com, 2007
- Holding a Program in One's Headpaulgraham.com, 2007
- Stuffpaulgraham.com, 2007
- The Equity Equationpaulgraham.com, 2007
- An Alternative Theory of Unionspaulgraham.com, 2007
- The Hacker's Guide to Investorspaulgraham.com, 2007
- Two Kinds of Judgementpaulgraham.com, 2007
- Microsoft is Deadpaulgraham.com, 2007
- Why to Not Not Start a Startuppaulgraham.com, 2007
- Is It Worth Being Wise?paulgraham.com, 2007
- Learning from Founderspaulgraham.com, 2007
- How Art Can Be Goodpaulgraham.com, 2006
- The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startupspaulgraham.com, 2006
- A Student's Guide to Startupspaulgraham.com, 2006
- How to Present to Investorspaulgraham.com, 2006
- Copy What You Likepaulgraham.com, 2006
- The Island Testpaulgraham.com, 2006
- The Power of the Marginalpaulgraham.com, 2006
- Why Startups Condense in Americapaulgraham.com, 2006
- How to Be Silicon Valleypaulgraham.com, 2006
- The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learnpaulgraham.com, 2006
- See Randomnesspaulgraham.com, 2006
- Are Software Patents Evil?paulgraham.com, 2006
- 6,631,372paulgraham.com, 2006
- Why YCpaulgraham.com, 2006
- How to Do What You Lovepaulgraham.com, 2006
- How to Start a Startuppaulgraham.com, 2005
- Good and Bad Procrastinationpaulgraham.com, 2005
- Web 2.0paulgraham.com, 2005
- How to Fund a Startuppaulgraham.com, 2005
- The Venture Capital Squeezepaulgraham.com, 2005
- Ideas for Startupspaulgraham.com, 2005
- What I Did this Summerpaulgraham.com, 2005
- Inequality and Riskpaulgraham.com, 2005
- After the Ladderpaulgraham.com, 2005
- What Business Can Learn from Open Sourcepaulgraham.com, 2005
- Hiring is Obsoletepaulgraham.com, 2005
- The Submarinepaulgraham.com, 2005
- Why Smart People Have Bad Ideaspaulgraham.com, 2005
- Return of the Macpaulgraham.com, 2005
- Writing, Brieflypaulgraham.com, 2005
- Undergraduationpaulgraham.com, 2005
- A Unified Theory of VC Suckagepaulgraham.com, 2005
- What You'll Wish You'd Knownpaulgraham.com, 2005
- How to Make Wealthpaulgraham.com, 2004
- The Age of the Essaypaulgraham.com, 2004
- Made in USApaulgraham.com, 2004
- It's Charisma, Stupidpaulgraham.com, 2004
- Bradley's Ghostpaulgraham.com, 2004
- A Version 1.0paulgraham.com, 2004
- What the Bubble Got Rightpaulgraham.com, 2004
- The Python Paradoxpaulgraham.com, 2004
- Great Hackerspaulgraham.com, 2004
- Mind the Gappaulgraham.com, 2004
- The Word "Hacker"paulgraham.com, 2004
- What You Can't Saypaulgraham.com, 2004
- Hackers and Painterspaulgraham.com, 2003
- Why Nerds Are Unpopularpaulgraham.com, 2003
- Filters that Fight Backpaulgraham.com, 2003
- If Lisp is So Greatpaulgraham.com, 2003
- The Hundred-Year Languagepaulgraham.com, 2003
- Better Bayesian Filteringpaulgraham.com, 2003
- Design and Researchpaulgraham.com, 2003
- A Plan for Spampaulgraham.com, 2002
- Revenge of the Nerdspaulgraham.com, 2002
- Succinctness is Powerpaulgraham.com, 2002
- Taste for Makerspaulgraham.com, 2002
- Beating the Averagespaulgraham.com, 2001
- What Made Lisp Differentpaulgraham.com, 2001
- The Other Road Aheadpaulgraham.com, 2001
- The Roots of Lisppaulgraham.com, 2001
- Five Questions about Language Designpaulgraham.com, 2001
- Being Popularpaulgraham.com, 2001
- Java's Coverpaulgraham.com, 2001
- Lisp for Web-Based Applicationspaulgraham.com, 2001
- Snapshot: Viaweb, June 1998paulgraham.com, 1998
- What Languages Fixpaulgraham.com
- Why Arc Isn't Especially Object-Orientedpaulgraham.com
- Programming Bottom-Uppaulgraham.com
Blog
Books they recommend 170
Graham's book recommendations surface mainly through his essays — he cites titles to make a point, not to make a list, so the signal tends to be strong. The through-line across his choices is a preference for primary sources and case studies over abstraction: biographies over management theory, source code over textbooks, history over philosophy of history. The programming books are ones he has written about at length; the startup books cluster around founders who figured things out empirically rather than following frameworks; the writing books are the ones he has cited as models. What these books share is a refusal to smooth over difficulty or pretend that outcomes were inevitable.
Book recommendations listed on their Good Books profile 105
General History 26
Francoise Audouze · not in an entry yet aggregator only
Geoffrey de Villehardouin · not in an entry yet aggregator only
Fiction 18
Biography and Memoir 14
Economics 6
John F. Witte · not in an entry yet aggregator only
Financial History 5
Science 4
Biography of Scientists 4
Philosophy 4
War and Strategy 3
Entrepreneurship and Startups 3
Sebastian Mallaby aggregator only
Sociology and Culture 3
Mathematics and Statistics 3
Jakow Trachtenberg · not in an entry yet aggregator only
Technology and Computing 2
Business and Management 2
Art and Design 2
Michael Baxandall · not in an entry yet aggregator only
Parenting and Family 2
Sport 1
Writing and Communication 1
Environment and Energy 1
Company Histories 1
Books Graham has recommended in essays and posts 25
Biography and Memoir 4
Science 3
Fiction 3
Biography of Scientists 3
Entrepreneurship and Startups 2
Company Histories 2
General History 2
Negotiation and Persuasion 1
Philosophy 1
War and Strategy 1
Sport 1
Medicine and Biology 1
Mathematics and Statistics 1
Lisp Links: Books — paulgraham.com 17
Technology and Computing 15
Neil D. Jones, Carsten K. Gomard, Peter Sestoft · not in an entry yet
Not yet given a topic 1
Artificial Intelligence 1
Superbook reading list 12
Not yet given a topic 6
Steven Levy · not in an entry yet
“Graham has cited Levy's account of the original hacker culture as one of the most accurate descriptions of what it feels like to be obsessed with programming. The ethic Levy documents — following curiosity wherever it leads, sharing code freely, resisting hierarchy — maps closely onto what Graham has said he looks for in founders.”
Richard P. Feynman · not in an entry yet
“Graham has cited Feynman's memoir as a model of the voice he admires in nonfiction: direct, curious, self-deprecating, and free of jargon. He also values the underlying attitude — that understanding something deeply matters more than signaling credentials.”
Stephen King · not in an entry yet
“King's account of how he developed as a writer — the reading, the practice, the editing — is one Graham has cited in essays about writing clearly. He values King's insistence that good writing is mostly about removing what doesn't need to be there.”
Jessica Livingston · not in an entry yet
“Jessica Livingston's interviews with early-stage founders — conducted before the companies became famous — are a direct product of the YC community Graham helped build. He has described the book as unusual because it captures what actually happened in the early days rather than the retrospective mythology.”
Aristotle · not in an entry yet
“Graham has written about Aristotle on virtue as one of the few ancient texts that addresses practical questions about how to live without sliding into abstraction. He is drawn to the idea that character is built through repeated action — consistent with his views on how founders develop judgment.”
Roger Crowley · not in an entry yet
“Graham has cited Crowley's histories of the Mediterranean — particularly the struggle between Venice, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire — as vivid accounts of how trade routes, technology, and contingency determine which powers survive. He reads history for the same reason he reads startup stories: to see what actually happened, not the cleaned-up version.”
Business and Management 2
Clayton M. Christensen
“Christensen's disruption framework is one of the few business-school ideas Graham has engaged with seriously in his essays, because it describes a real mechanism rather than a collection of anecdotes. He has cited it as the clearest account of why established companies consistently miss technological transitions.”
Andrew S. Grove
“Andy Grove wrote the closest thing to a manual for running a technology organization that Graham considers worth reading. He has recommended it to YC founders as the operational counterpart to the more philosophical questions about what to build and why.”
Biography and Memoir 1
Benjamin Franklin
“Graham returns to Franklin repeatedly in his essays as an example of someone who combined intellectual breadth, practical experimentation, and the ability to write clearly for a general audience. He has described Franklin as the most useful model for how to run a life organized around ideas.”
Writing and Communication 1
Anne Lamott · not in an entry yet
“Lamott's approach to writing in small, specific pieces rather than trying to get everything right at once aligns with how Graham has described his own essay process. He has mentioned it in the context of advice on how to start writing when the task feels overwhelming.”
Entrepreneurship and Startups 1
Peter Thiel
“Thiel's argument that the most valuable companies create something genuinely new rather than iterating on existing markets is one Graham has cited approvingly, even where he disagrees with specific claims. He values it because Thiel is making a real argument rather than offering tactical advice.”
Technology and Computing 1
Eric S. Raymond
“Raymond's analysis of why decentralized open-source development outperformed commercial software development is, for Graham, both historically important and a live description of how good technical work happens. He has cited it in essays about what makes hackers productive.”
Rarely-Asked Questions — paulgraham.com 9
General History 4
Mark Girouard · not in an entry yet
“Girouard, Life in the English Country House”
Steven Runciman · not in an entry yet
“Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople”
Art and Design 2
Kenneth Clark · not in an entry yet
“Here are the most exciting ones I can think of: Clark, Civilisation”
Science 2
War and Strategy 1
Charles Oman · not in an entry yet
“Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages”
Paul Graham on X (Apr 8, 2021) 1
Financial History 1
Sebastian Mallaby
“It's hard to imagine anyone will ever write a better book on the subject.”
What I Worked On — paulgraham.com (February 2021) 1
Fiction 1
Robert A. Heinlein · not in an entry yet
“a novel by Heinlein called The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which featured an intelligent computer called Mike”
Where they publish 9
- Lisp Links: Books — paulgraham.com
- Books recommended by Paul Graham
- Paul Graham's essays
- Rarely-Asked Questions
- Superbook reading list
- Paul Graham on How to Start a Startup (Stanford CS183B)
- Paul Graham on Twitter / X
- Founders at Work (Jessica Livingston, foreword by PG)
- Books (books Paul Graham wrote)