Updates

  1. Person pages list letters, writing, profiles and links as sortable tables with filters, and show each person's companies as links; Fund letters show each letter's description in its own column.
  2. Experts show a checked job title and a short description of each person; 30 more people have photographs.
  3. Every company, fund, university and publication the experts work for has a page listing the people there.
  4. Fund letters show each letter's thesis and filter by it; 225 person pages list the essays, columns and newsletter issues the person wrote.
  5. Person pages list every essay and newsletter issue a person wrote, and their own books as a table in List view.
  6. Recommends shows the five largest kinds of book and the rest under More; browse pictures load sooner.
  7. Podcasts and talks link the original episode, filter by Audio and video or Press, and list each publisher once.
  8. Pages are wider, Recommends has List and Grid, and a filter clicked again turns off.
  9. Book cards sit in a ruled grid with Open Library and Goodreads links and each book's one-line note.
  10. Funds is now Investors; each investor's styles are buttons that filter the table.
  11. Podcasts and talks on a person's page filter by year and publisher and show as a list or a grid of pictures.
  12. Quotes show only people's own words: 472 summaries written by list sites are gone.
  13. Country pages open from Browse again, and every link on the shelf lands on a page.
  14. Subject and person pages show their sections as tabs, and each book appears once on a person's page.
  15. Book cards show the quote, who said it and the source; grids show five cards to a row.
  16. On a phone, a menu holds the sections, search, Updates, Feedback and dark mode.
  17. Feedback takes a screenshot of the page with no browser prompt, opens a screenshot full size when you click it, and clears itself once sent.
  18. Book cards are centred, search names the topic each book sits in, and any text cut short shows whole on hover.
  19. Search groups its results by kind: people, companies, geographies, subjects, topics, books, funds, fund letters and papers.
  20. The Books table lists who recommended each book by name, and the browser tab names the section you are in.
  21. Feedback can take a screenshot of the page, or one you paste or choose, and opens in the corner beside Updates.
  22. Each rail button reopens its section where you left it, and Browse, Table and People show on every book and subject page.
  23. Filters grey out choices that hold nothing instead of hiding them, and Books › People filters by authors or recommenders.
  24. Feedback takes a subject line and up to three screenshots.
  25. Biographies are grouped by the person they are about: 41 new pages, from Abraham Lincoln to Lee Kuan Yew.
  26. Sport splits into 23 sports, and Religion into one topic per faith.
  27. Book lists show as cards: the cover, one recommendation quote and every recommender by name.
  28. Seventeen subjects that had two or three pages under different names now have one page each.
  29. Every page lists its Experts as authors and recommenders, with a link to them on the Experts tab.
  30. Economics, Financial history, Financial panics and Accounting are subjects of their own, with one page per financial crisis.
  31. Book, person and subject pages open inside the app, so the tabs stay in view.
  32. 996 more book covers, and photographs or logos for 227 more people and companies.
  33. Books › Browse shows every subject as cards, and the rail holds Fund letters, Papers, Experts, Books and Funds.
  34. Every topic over 150 books splits into narrower topics, each with a page of its own.

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MW

Modern Western philosophy

Philosophy

Holds philosophers from Montaigne and Descartes to Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, Camus and Sartre, plus Emerson, Thoreau and Girard.

Books 41Experts 1Recommenders 35

Start here

  1. The Complete EssaysMichel de Montaigne, 1958
  2. Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusLudwig Wittgenstein, 1921
  3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceRobert M. Pirsig, 1974
  4. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the WorldRene Girard, 1978
  5. The New AtlantisFrancis Bacon, 1627
The Complete Essays
T1 The Complete Essays
Michel de Montaigne · 1958
Open LibraryGoodreads

Essays on self-knowledge and how unreliable one's own judgement is.

Recommended by: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusTractatus Logico-Philosophicus
T2 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Ludwig Wittgenstein · 1921
Open LibraryGoodreads

Language, logic and the limits of what can be said about the world.

Recommended by: Reid Hoffman

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
T2 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert M. Pirsig · 1974
Open LibraryGoodreads

A father and son's motorcycle trip framing an inquiry into what Quality means.

“If you pick it up and read it, I suspect most of you will give up before you get to the end—but please try.” — Mohnish Pabrai

Source: Mental Models for Running Startups and Businesses, SXSW 2026, March 16, 2026

Recommended by: Brad Feld, Mohnish Pabrai, Nick Sleep and 8 others

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the WoThings Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
T2 Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
Rene Girard · 1978
Open LibraryGoodreads

Mimetic rivalry, where rivals grow alike, and the violence it unleashes in societies.

Recommended by: Patrick Collison, Eric Weinstein and 1 other

The New AtlantisThe New Atlantis
T3 The New Atlantis
Francis Bacon · 1627
Open LibraryGoodreads

Bacon's utopia of organised research; science as an institution

Recommended by: Patrick Collison, Peter Thiel

Resurrection from the UndergroundResurrection from the Underground
T3 Resurrection from the Underground
Rene Girard · 1963
Open LibraryGoodreads

Girard reading Dostoevsky; mimetic rivalry and resentment

Recommended by: Peter Thiel

Counsels and MaximsCounsels and Maxims
T4 Counsels and Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer · 1851
Open LibraryGoodreads

“I mean, there's ancient wisdom in Schopenhauer, read Counsels and Maxims.” — Naval Ravikant

Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 — Naval Ravikant, full transcript

Recommended by: Naval Ravikant

Self RelianceSelf Reliance
T4 Self Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1900
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Nat Eliason, Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Process and RealityProcess and Reality
T4 Process and Reality
Alfred North Whitehead · 1929
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

In Praise of IdlenessIn Praise of Idleness
T4 In Praise of Idleness
Bertrand Russell · 1935
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Nat Eliason, Patrick Collison, Ed Cooke

The Myth of Sisyphus
T4 The Myth of Sisyphus
Albert Camus · 1955
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Nat Eliason

The World as Will and Representation
T4 The World as Will and Representation
Arthur Schopenhauer · 1966
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Sheryl Sandberg

Essays and AphorismsEssays and Aphorisms
T4 Essays and Aphorisms
Arthur Schopenhauer · 1970
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Ryan Holiday, Patrick O'Shaughnessy

To Have or to Be?To Have or to Be?
T4 To Have or to Be?
Erich Fromm · 1976
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

The GrasshopperThe Grasshopper
T4 The Grasshopper
Bernard Suits · 1978
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Jane McGonigal

The Timeless Way of BuildingThe Timeless Way of Building
T4 The Timeless Way of Building
Christopher Alexander · 1979
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Daniel Burka, David Perell

When Nietzsche WeptWhen Nietzsche Wept
T4 When Nietzsche Wept
Irvin D. Yalom · 1992
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Tim O’Reilly

The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo EmersoThe Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
T4 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson · 2000
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Tony Robbins

Straw DogsStraw Dogs
T4 Straw Dogs
John Gray · 2003
Open LibraryGoodreads

An attack on Western beliefs, from Plato to Marxism, about humanity's place.

Recommended by: Patrick Collison, Antonio García Martínez

The Complete Works (Everyman's Library)The Complete Works (Everyman's Library)
T4 The Complete Works (Everyman's Library)
Michel de Montaigne · 2003
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of HistoAlexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History
T4 Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History
James Nichols · 2007
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Marc Andreessen

On UglinessOn Ugliness
T4 On Ugliness
Umberto Eco, Alastair McEwen · 2007
Open LibraryGoodreads

The idea of ugliness through history, as shown in art, literature and architecture.

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

An Enquiry concerning Human UnderstandingAn Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
T4 An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
Peter Millican · 2008
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

How to LiveHow to Live
T4 How to Live
Sarah Bakewell · 2010
Open LibraryGoodreads

Montaigne's life and essays, read as answers to the question of how to live.

“I also recommend Derek's other books (How To Live is especially good).” — Andrew Wilkinson

Source: Newsletter

Recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Patrick Collison and 2 others

René Girard's Mimetic Theory
T4 René Girard's Mimetic Theory
Wolfgang Palaver · 2013
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Naval Ravikant

Maxims and ReflectionsMaxims and Reflections
T4 Maxims and Reflections
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 2019
Open LibraryGoodreads

Recommended by: Nat Eliason, Ed Cooke

The Entrepreneur's Weekly NietzscheThe Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche
T4 The Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche
Brad Feld, Dave Jilk · 2021
Open LibraryGoodreads
WantingWanting
T4 Wanting
Luke Burgis · 2021
Open LibraryGoodreads

Rene Girard's theory that people imitate each other's desires, applied to business.

Recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Chamath Palihapitiya and 3 others

Beyond Good & Evil
T4 Beyond Good & Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
Goodreads

Recommended by: Marc Andreessen

Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
T4 Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Michael Foucault
Goodreads

Recommended by: Nat Eliason

Escape From FreedomEscape From Freedom
T4 Escape From Freedom
Erich Fromm
Goodreads

Recommended by: Nat Eliason

Essays: A Selection
T4 Essays: A Selection
Michel de Montaigne
Goodreads

Recommended by: Ryan Holiday

Montaigne: Complete EssaysMontaigne: Complete Essays
T4 Montaigne: Complete Essays
Goodreads

Essays on every kind of subject that, above all, examine human nature honestly.

Recommended by: Patrick Collison

SchopenhauerSchopenhauer
T4 Schopenhauer
Goodreads

Recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy

The Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau
T4 The Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Goodreads

Recommended by: Ricardo Semler

The Confessions
T4 The Confessions
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Goodreads

Recommended by: Paul Graham

The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; The Art o
T4 The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; The Art of Literature
Arthur
Goodreads

Recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy

The Gay Science
T4 The Gay Science
Friedrich Nietzsche
Goodreads

Recommended by: Naval Ravikant

The Second Sex
T4 The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir
Goodreads

Recommended by: Arianna Huffington, Laura R Walker

The Wisdom of LifeThe Wisdom of Life
T4 The Wisdom of Life
Arthur Schopenhauer
Goodreads

Recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Walking (Annotated Edition)Walking (Annotated Edition)
T4 Walking (Annotated Edition)
Henry David Thoreau
Goodreads

Recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy

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