Founders & technologists
Books recommended by Patrick Collison
Co-founder and CEO of Stripe
Irish entrepreneur who co-founded the payments company Stripe and co-founded the Arc Institute. Writes about progress, science funding and economic history on his personal site.
On lists:Billionaires
HistoryComputing & softwareSciencePolitics & societyPsychology & decisions
Photo: JD Lasica, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This is a selection of sourced recommendations, not a complete list of everything Patrick Collison has read or praised. How we choose.
Recommendations
Books Patrick Collison recommends
18 books from 1 source. Each one links to the place where Patrick recommended it.
Bookshelf
Undated catalogue of books he owns. He marks books he found particularly great in green; only green-flagged books are recorded here. The page now says it has not been updated in about ten years.
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The Rise and Fall of American Growth
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged on his bookshelf — an economic history of U.S. living standards since the Civil War, a theme he returns to in his writing on progress.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
+1 other recommender: Martin Wolf
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Poor Charlie's Almanack
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. The collected talks and thinking of Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
+7 other recommenders: Shane Parrish, Naval Ravikant, Eric Jorgenson, Codie Sanchez, Daniel Ek, Matt Mullenweg, Drew Houston
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The Dream Machine
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. A history of J.C.R. Licklider and the people who built interactive computing and the ARPANET.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Age of Ambition
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. A reporter's portrait of individual ambition in reform-era China.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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The Beginning of Infinity
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. David Deutsch's argument that good explanations drive unbounded progress.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
+1 other recommender: Naval Ravikant
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Mindstorms
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Seymour Papert's case for children learning by programming computers.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Democracy in America
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged (the abridged edition). Tocqueville's 1830s study of American society and institutions.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
+4 other recommenders: Francis Fukuyama, Karl Rove, Robert Reich, Mark Manson
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Metamagical Themas
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Hofstadter's collected Scientific American columns on minds, patterns and puzzles.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Richard Hamming's lectures on how to do significant technical work.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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A Pattern Language
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Christopher Alexander's catalogue of design patterns for towns, buildings and rooms.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
+2 other recommenders: Stewart Brand, Brian Eno
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Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Peter Norvig's classic text on AI programming in Common Lisp.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Anthropic Bias
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Nick Bostrom on observation selection effects in science and philosophy.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Hard Landing
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. A business history of the turbulent U.S. airline industry after deregulation.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. A history of the Congo wars and the collapse of the state in central Africa.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. A biography of physicist Frank Oppenheimer, founder of San Francisco's Exploratorium.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... Where Is Everybody?
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. A tour of proposed solutions to the Fermi paradox.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Nixon Agonistes
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Garry Wills's study of Richard Nixon and American political culture.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
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Out of Mao's Shadow
Explicit recommendationGreen-flagged. Reporting on individuals pushing against the limits of the Chinese state.
Bookshelf Personal websitepatrickcollison.com
Cross-recommendations
Picks others agree on
5 books Patrick recommends that at least one other person in the directory also recommends, each from their own source.
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8recommendersPoor Charlie's Almanack 8 recommendersPatrick Collison, Shane Parrish, Naval Ravikant, Eric Jorgenson, Codie Sanchez, Daniel Ek, Matt Mullenweg, Drew Houston
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5recommendersDemocracy in America 5 recommendersPatrick Collison, Francis Fukuyama, Karl Rove, Robert Reich, Mark Manson
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3recommendersA Pattern Language 3 recommendersPatrick Collison, Stewart Brand, Brian Eno
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2recommendersThe Beginning of Infinity 2 recommendersPatrick Collison, Naval Ravikant
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2recommendersThe Rise and Fall of American Growth 2 recommendersPatrick Collison, Martin Wolf
Cross-recommendations
Who agrees with Patrick
People in the directory who recommended at least one of the same books.
Naval Ravikant2 books in commonPoor Charlie's Almanack · The Beginning of Infinity
Martin Wolf1 book in commonThe Rise and Fall of American Growth- SPShane Parrish1 book in commonPoor Charlie's Almanack
- EJEric Jorgenson1 book in commonPoor Charlie's Almanack
- CSCodie Sanchez1 book in commonPoor Charlie's Almanack
Daniel Ek1 book in commonPoor Charlie's Almanack
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