Books Inspiring Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Other Tech EntrepreneursThese books helped shape tech's most influential leaders.
This story originally appeared onBusiness Insider
What are the books that influenced Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates?
The following books shaped tech's most influential people and helped them become the CEOs and global leaders they are today.
Gigaom
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos enjoys business book "Built to Last" and a fictional novel, "The Remains of the Day."
Given that Jeff Bezos founded Amazon as a marketplace for books, it's not surprising he reads a lot. He once toldtold Fast Companyhe buys 10 books per month.
His favorites?Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
He toldNewsweek: "If you readThe Remains of the Day,which is one of my favorite books, you can't help but come away and think, I just spent 10 hours living an alternate life and I learned something about life and about regret."
Related:10 Huge Breakthroughs That Came From All-Nighters
Google Ventures
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is a fan of "Tribal Leadership" by Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright.
Tony Hsieh is building up downtown Las Vegas as a hot new tech hub, and he's also the CEO of Amazon-owned shoe company, Zappos.
He enjoys the bookTribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
"Tribal Leadershipcodifies a lot of what we've been doing instinctually and provides a great framework for all companies to bring company culture to the next level," he says.
Nyon Tech
Microsoft's Bill Gates recently told the Reddit community that his favorite book of the last decade is Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined."
In arecent Reddit Ask Me Anything, Microsoft founder Bill Gates named his favorite book of the last decade: Steven Pinker'sThe Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.
"It's a long but profound look at the reduction in violence and discrimination over time," Gates explained.
Other favorites include J.D. Salinger'sThe Catcher in the Rye.
"It's very clever. It acknowledges that young people are a little confused, but can be smart about things and see things that adults don't really see. So I've always loved it," he toldthe Academy of Achievement.
Agape Do Brazil
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg only lists one book on his Facebook profile: Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game." But that's not his favorite book.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, lists a lot of interests on his Facebook profile. But the only book listed is Orson Scott Card's science fiction novel,Ender's Game.
Strangely, that's not his favorite book. He toldThe New Yorker in 2010that his favorite is actuallyThe Aeneid
UPI
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg enjoys John le Carre spy novels.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P., lists John le Carre spy novels as some of his favorite literature.
Hedescribesone in particular,The Honourable Schoolboy, as "600 pages, mostly description, [and] there is almost nothing that happens. But it's fascinating."
kaohana.windward.hawaii.edu
Oracle's Larry Ellison enjoys "Napoleon" by Vincent Cronin
Ellison reads a lot of literature but one of his more recent favorites is Napoleon by Vincent Cronin.
"It's interesting to read about him for a couple of reasons: to see what one man of modest birth can do with his life, and to see how history can distort the truth entirely," he tells Achievement.
Digital Trends
Apple CEO Tim Cook likes "Competing Against Time"
Tim Cook likesCompeting Against Time
ted.anderson.ucla.edu
Elon Musk says he's read thousands of books, but he really likes Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Elon Musk told NPRthat he's read "thousands and thousands" of books. The Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder enjoys the Lord of the Rings series and he's read the work of many philosophers.
But one of his all-time favorites is Douglas Adams'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Glaxay, which he read while growing up and trying to figure out his place in the universe.
One of the biggest takeaways Musk got from reading Adams was, "The question is harder than the answer."
"When we ask questions they come along with our biases. You should really ask, 'Is this the right question?' And that's hard to figure out," says Musk.
Related:The 13 Books That Every Young Conservative Must Read
net4surf.com
Jack Dorsey gives every new Square employee a welcome kit containing one of his favorite books, "The Checklist Manifesto."
When Jack Dorsey hires a new employee at his company Square, he gives them a welcome kit. In it is a big red book,The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Rightby Atul Gawande.
Gawande is a doctor and writer for the New Yorker. Its premise: A simple checklist can help people manage complex situations. Gawande uses a number of examples across a variety of industries, from medicine, technology and even disaster relief to illustrate his point.
"Success metric for my work@Twitter: these books disappear from my desk. (you should read it too)," Dorsey tweeted in April.
He particularly likes this passage aboutventure capitalists choosing which startups to invest in. He quotes it on his Tumblr:
聪明的专门研究如何使这些人their most difficult decision in judging whether to give money to an entrepreneur or not. You would think that this would be whether the entrepreneur's idea is actually a good one. But finding an idea is apparently not all that hard. Finding an entrepreneur who can execute a good idea is a different matter entirely. One needs a person who can take an idea from proposal to reality, work the long hours, build a team, handle the pressures and setbacks, manage technical and people problems alike, and stick with the effort for years on end without getting distracted or going insane. Such people are rare and extremely hard to spot.
- Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto
www.pcpro.co.uk
Steve Jobs was influenced by many books, most notably "Innovator's Dilemma," Shakespeare, Plato and "Moby Dick."
InWalter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, he listed a number ofbooks that influencedthe co-founder of Apple.
Among them: William Shakespeare's King Lear, Plato, Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma, Shunryu Suzuki'sZen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Chogyam Trungpa'sCutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Paramahansa Yogananda'sAutobiography of a Yogi, and Herman Melville'sMoby Dick.
One article particularly influenced him to collaborate with Steve Wozniak, "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" by Ron Rosenbaum and published in a 1971 issue of Esquire.
