Books for crypto builders and beyond
In the spirit of sharing what we’re reading — a regular tradition around here; see our just-published winter reads (+games) as crowdsourced from team a16z crypto — below are some of the books we curated for the giveaway library at our recent inaugural a16z crypto Founder Summit.
But… the books in this list are not just for founders, nor are they only about crypto; the list also includes works covering tech history, company building, and the recurring theme of innovation past/ present/ future. Whether science or science fiction, memoir or organizational history, or textbook, there’s something here for everyone interested in crypto and beyond.listed alphabetically by author:The Nature of Technology: What it Is and How it Evolves
by W. Brian Arthur
The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya
A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography by Dan Boneh and Victor Shoup
Proof of Stake: The making of ethereum and the philosophy of blockchains by Vitalik Buterin
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths
Designing an Internet by David Clark
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
Selected Short Stories by Philip Dick
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner
Alan Turing: Enigma by Andrew Hodges
The Hard Thing about the Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Pentagon’s Brain: An uncensored history of DARPA, America’s top-secret military research agency by Annie Jacobsen
Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer by Steven Johnson
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes
Masters of Doom by David Kushner
The Company: A short history of a revolutionary idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Woolridge
Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience by Herman Narula
Algorithmic Game Theory edited by Noam Nisan, Tim Roughgarden, Eva Tardos, Vijay Vazirani
The Infinite Machine: How an army of crypto-hackers is building the next internet with Ethereum by Camila Russo
Coding democracy: How hackers are disrupting power, surveillance, and authoritarianism by Maureen Webb
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
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