Elon's Recommended Reading
I've been hard at work on my third book, collecting Elon Musk’s most useful ideas. Research for the book led me to discover many books recommended by Elon across hundreds of sources over decades.
I’ve compiled a few in this post, including blurbs about why Elon recommended them. The more complete list is on elonmuskbook.org.
The quotes below are directly from Elon, about the books.
Fiction
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
"Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" by Douglas Adams is in fact a book of philosophy, disguised as a silly humor book. If you read it from the standpoint of "wow, this is an interesting book of philosophy,” it is quite insightful. It really hits this point: the answer is easy once you can properly formulate the question.
Foundation Series by Isaac Azimov
I recommend reading the Foundation series. It's about another Dark Ages, which my guess is there will be at some point. (I'm not predicting that we're about to enter a Dark Ages, but that there's some probability we will particularly if there's a third world war.) We want to make sure that there's enough of us of a seed of human civilization somewhere else to bring civilization back and perhaps shorten the length of the dark ages.
It's unlikely we'll never have another world war. There probably will be at some point. I'm not predicting this, but given enough time will it be likely because this has been our pattern in the past.
Reading The Culture series by Banks. Compelling picture of a grand, semi-utopian galactic future. Hopefully not too optimistic about AI.
Science
If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... Where is Everybody? by Stephen Webb
Great book. Read it when it came out.
The Big Picture by Sean Carroll
Highly recommend anything by Sean Carroll
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe by Steven Novella
The @SkepticsGuide book is 👍
What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill
Worth reading. This is a close match for my philosophy.
Rocket Science and Engineering
Liftoff: Early Days of SpaceX
This book is accurate.
Ignition! by John Drury Clark
One of my favorite books for learning space travel. Ignition by John Clarke, Huzel & Wang book on propulsion.
A good book on structural design. It is really, really good if you want a primer on structural design.
History
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Gibbon’s famous book about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and how they had advanced technology in terms of roads, aqueducts plumbing and so forth and then they basically forgot about it.
Catherine The Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie
Just finished Massie's book on Catherine. An amazingly expansive and compelling portrait of an incredible woman. Highly recommend. Yeah, I know what you're probably thinking... did she really f* a horse?
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger
I was fascinated by Junger's famous book Storm of Steel, which was published roughly a hundred years ago about Junger's experiences in the first world war. For some reason I'm fascinated by war and history in general. I thought Junger’s book was an excellent first-hand account of world war one. A lesson taken from this book is we don't ever want to do that again.
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Edward Shepherd Creasy
Insightful analysis, ensconced in eloquent prose
Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson
Great biography of Ben Franklin by Isaacson. Highly recommended.
Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
“Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar” was one of the few books that was so dark I had to stop reading. If only they’d listened to Lenin’s last wish, much tragedy may have been averted.
Explore/Create by Richard Garriott
Explore/Create is a chronicle of wonder, and the many wondrous things the future may hold. Richard and I have long shared a passion for space. Perhaps one day our kids will create and play games on a new world!
AI & Machine Learning
A compelling guide to the challenges and choices in our quest for a great future of life, intelligence, and consciousness—on Earth and beyond.
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.
Human Compatible by Stuart Russell
Worth reading “Human Compatible” by Stuart Russell (he’s great!) about future AI risks & solutions
Business & Politics
Screw Business As Usual by Richard Branson
Liked "Screw Business as Usual" a lot. This approach should be taken to heart by all, as it really is the smart move.
Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.
Read "Lying", the new book by my friend Sam Harris. Excellent cover art and lots of good reasons not to lie!
There are plenty more books that Elon has recommended. To find out more (and to get more updates on the book), check out the elonmuskbook.org.
We’ll be sharing a publishing timeline in the coming weeks! I will send you updates as we get closer to publishing.
Thank you for being a part of this project!
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