Books

In addition to writing books, I love supporting books written by friends. Amir Hagazi has published his newest book, Scaleup Arabia: Journeys & Lessons from Top Founders & Leaders Driving Growth in MENA & Beyond . The image above shows some of the founders highlighted in the book, and the image below shows some of the companies discussed in the book. While I don’t do book blurbs anymore , I have written forewords for Amir in the past on two of his prior books, Ecosystem Arabia: The Making of a New Economy and Venture Adventure: Startup Fundraising Advice from Top Global Investors, both of which I recommend. ...

Dan Caruso’s new book Bandwidth: The Untold Story of Ambition, Deception, and Innovation that Shaped the Internet Age and Dot-Com Boom is available for pre-order, to be released on February 4, 2025. Order your copy today on Amazon or Barnes & Noble . You can also subscribe to Dan’s Bandwidth newsletter to receive updates on the book release and launch events. Dan asked me to write the foreword, which I happily did. See an excerpt explaining why I loved reading this book. ...

Are you interested in AI? Do you enjoy science fiction? Do you have an opinion about how AI will impact the human species? Are you enthusiastic about it or worried about it? Or do you think you know the answer? Dave Jilk (my first business partner and one of my closest friends) recently published EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga . When Dave described the idea for the book he was working on during a long hike four years ago up and around Green Mountain in Boulder, I was fascinated with what he had decided to take on. AI wasn’t front of mind in the same way as today, but Dave had been doing research in that arena for around a decade. When we talked about AI, our discussions usually revolved around aspects of AGI. I was mainly in listening and questioning mode since Dave’s knowledge and thoughts quickly went beyond my understanding of – well – all of it. ...

I recently wrote the Foreword for Unshackled , a new book co-authored by Soundarya Basubramani , a writer from India, and Sameer Khedekar , a veteran immigration lawyer. Unshackled breaks down how legal immigration works in America in a way that is friendly, accessible, and human*.* It’s filled with raw stories of high-skilled immigrants who walked unconventional paths and actionable guidance to navigate those paths. Last August, Rajesh Setty sent me an email request from Soundarya when the book was just an idea. Soundarya shared her vision for the book and why she wanted to write it. Unsurprisingly, the motivation stemmed from personal frustrations with the immigration system in the U.S. ...

John McPhee’s Levels of the Game was published when I was three. I’ve read many books about tennis, but it’s still my favorite, with String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis coming in a close second. Both books share extraordinary writers and a topic I can relate to, given my short but profane junior tennis career. I’ve become annoyed by the writing that ChatGPT produces. At first, I was fascinated. As I saw more of it, I began seeing patterns. After reading Stephen Wolfram’s article What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? my observation shifted to impatience. Most of my ChatGPT efforts now are making it hallucinate. ...

Chris Heivly released Build the Fort: The Startup Community Builder’s Field Guide . I encourage you to get Chris’s book if you are a startup community builder or are interested in startup communities. When Ian Hathaway and I started working on The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem , we initially talked to Chris about writing a few chapters. Chris became an extensive thought partner with Ian, and we eventually decided to write two books. The Startup Community Way would be conceptual but filled with examples to make our points, and then a second book would be a practitioner guide. ...

Some day there will be a genre called “startup fiction .” I mean, if science fiction, which is a sub-genre of fiction, can have libertarian science fiction and recursive science fiction , surely startup fiction belongs in a sub-genre of a sub-genre of a sub-genre. Please Report Your Bug Here by Josh Reidel is an excellent example of startup fiction. I began reading it at the end of the day Saturday after finishing The Age of A.I. and Our Human Future . I enjoyed Reidel much more than Kissinger, Schmidt, and Huttenlocher (even though I greatly respect them.) ...

I read two books by Ted Conover over the weekend. Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America’s Edge (2022) Whiteout: Lost In Aspen (1991) Amy gave me the first one as a present. A few years ago, we bought a bunch of land about an hour’s drive away from Aspen. I’ve been spending a lot more time in the middle of nowhere Colorado, especially now that I have a trailer on the land and Starlink. My hikes and trail runs (without Starlink, but with a Garmin inReach for safety), which are still in the day hike category, take me deeper into the middle of nowhere. ...

I’m a fan of David Walton and his near-term sci-fi books. In 2015, I read a few of his books, wrote a post titled Awesome Near Term Sci-Fi – David Walton , and promptly forgot about him. Eleven days ago, I got the following email from David. Mr. Feld: Since you’ve enjoyed my books in the past (e.g. Superposition), I’m letting you know I have a new one out. No worries if you’re not interested; just letting you know. Hope all is well with you and yours. ...

Since Matt Levine is so effectively covering anything interesting in the world of the Twitter deal (and all kinds of bizarre, random, and complicated crypto, fraud, debt, and other financial stuff), I think I’ll stick with book reviews for the time being. Andy Dunn , who I only know indirectly, wrote an important book titled Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind . While it covers the story of Andy’s company, Bonobos, it’s really about mental health and entrepreneurship. ...