Ryan Hoover

Ryan Hoover

Founder of @ProductHunt. Investor at @WeekendFund. Writing about fun(d) stuff at https://t.co/tsunRiiECA with @vedikaja_in. Say hi! 👋🏼

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10+ Book Recommendations by Ryan Hoover

  • Wanting

    Luke Burgis

    Started reading a book about NFTs today: 'Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life’

  • A venture capitalist draws on expertise developed at the premier venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, and as an executive at Uber to address how tech's most successful products have solved the dreaded "cold start problem"--by leveraging networks effects to launch and scale towards billions of users. Although software has become easier to build, launching and scaling new products and services remains difficult. Startups face daunting challenges entering the technology ecosystem, including stiff competition, copycats, and ineffective marketing channels. Teams launching new products must consider the advantages of "the network effect," where a product or service's value increases as more users engage with it. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants utilize network effects, and most tech products incorporate them, whether they're messaging apps, workplace collaboration tools, or marketplaces. Network effects provide a path for fledgling products to break through, attracting new users through viral growth and word of mouth. Yet most entrepreneurs lack the vocabulary and context to describe them--much less understand the fundamental principles that drive the effect. What exactly are network effects? How do teams create and build them into their products? How do products compete in a market where every player has them? Andrew Chen draws on his experience and on interviews with the CEOs and founding teams of LinkedIn, Twitch, Zoom, Dropbox, Tinder, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest -- to provide unique insights in answering these questions. Chen also provides practical frameworks and principles that can be applied across products and industries. The Cold Start Problem reveals what makes winning networks successful, why some startups fail to successfully scale, and most crucially, why products that create and compete using the network effect are vitally important today.

    New book! https://t.co/abgFY0g0kf

  • A new roadmap for building sustainable startups that last beyond the hype. As more and more cracks form in the myth of the VC-funded, IPO-driven billion-dollar company--they're not profitable, and are unethically run to boot--entrepreneurs are seeking an alternative path to building useful, sustainable, and sane businesses. The Minimalist Startup is the manifesto for a new generation of entrepreneurs who would rather build great companies than big ones. In 2011, Sahil Lavingia left his position as the second hire at Pinterest to chase his own dream of founding a billion-dollar company. His startup, Gumroad, was growing quickly and raising venture capital easily. Gumroad, a platform connecting creators with sellers, seemed like it was on the road to unicorn status, with the fancy offices and rapid hiring to match. Until one quarter, when growth faltered, and everything crumbled. But Lavingia rebuilt Gumroad from the ground up. In contrast to the waste and hypergrowth-for-growth's sake mentality that characterized his first attempt, he became a minimalist entrepreneur. Weaving together his own experience at Gumroad with stories of other likeminded companies, he offers a new roadmap for entrepreneurs choosing to grow meaningfully over growing unsustainably. Unicorns are not the best or only path for a startup. The Minimalist Entrepreneur teaches founders how to resist investments that set you up to fail, run a tight ship amid the rise of the gig economy and remote work, develop and release products without failing fast or often, and how to get to profitability and stay there.

    Snagged @shl’s book. I spy Product Hunt in here. https://t.co/VUzzR8bsYb

  • @MichaelGolpe @brian_armstrong Highly recommend reading the book. It touches on this.

  • Bending Reality

    Victoria Song

    Bending Reality is the innovative process used by billionaires, tech leaders, and the world’s most successful people to make the impossible . . . probable. Victoria Song teaches readers how to unlock the hidden power within their bodies to get what they want. After achieving success but lacking fulfillment as a student at Yale University and Harvard Business School, and then as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Venture Capitalist, Victoria set off on an unusual quest to study, train, and work with more than 24 of the best coaches, therapists, and healers in the world. She then deployed the skills and tools she’d learned with a diverse group of the world’s highest performers. Through it all, she’s discovered the codes that enable her clients to bend reality toward the directions they want. By accessing this extraordinary ability, Victoria’s clients have sold a company for 4 billion dollars, grown revenue 1,000% during a pandemic, and pivoted to design a more effective COVID-19 vaccine. Victoria reveals the meta-framework behind peak performance, self-development, therapy, and meditation that is accessible for all. Whether you’ve studied these areas closely or this is the first book you’ve read on this topic, you’ll have a front row seat to how the world’s elite use this knowledge to achieve more while doing less. In this fast-paced guide to success, you will learn how to: Bend reality by mastering two states of being that most people aren’t even aware of. Navigate change and face the unknown like the greatest leaders. Access creative downloads that artists, musicians, and geniuses receive. Make your own luck—there’s literally a recipe! Find your unique “zone of genius” and live from it every day. Packed with powerful tools and exercises, Bending Reality will move you beyond intellectual understanding to embodiment. This is not another mindset book. You’re ready for Bending Reality if you realize it’s time to go beyond the mind and harness the full capacity of your consciousness to make quantum leaps in every area of your life. After learning how to bend reality, you will no longer need to memorize rules, tips, or tricks, but you will embody the essence of a remarkable leader who can make the impossible—probable.

    Writing a book is so hard. My friend, @VICTORIAeSONG, manifested the first draft of her new book, Bending Reality, in less than a week. Founders, take a look: https://t.co/PKdWTXXH6g https://t.co/dIzsvpwLgZ

  • “Marie Kondo, but for your brain.” —HelloGiggles “Compelling from front to back. Highly recommend.” —Marc Andreessen Reading this book could change your life. The Courage to Be Disliked, already an enormous bestseller in Asia with more than 3.5 million copies sold, demonstrates how to unlock the power within yourself to be the person you truly want to be. Is happiness something you choose for yourself? The Courage to Be Disliked presents a simple and straightforward answer. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of nineteenth-century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, this book follows an illuminating dialogue between a philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five conversations, the philosopher helps his student to understand how each of us is able to determine the direction of our own life, free from the shackles of past traumas and the expectations of others. Rich in wisdom, The Courage to Be Disliked will guide you through the concepts of self-forgiveness, self-care, and mind decluttering. It is a deeply liberating way of thinking, allowing you to develop the courage to change and ignore the limitations that you might be placing on yourself. This plainspoken and profoundly moving book unlocks the power within you to find lasting happiness and be the person you truly want to be. Millions have already benefited from its teachings, now you can too.

    @SarahADowney Great book

  • “Marie Kondo, but for your brain.” —HelloGiggles “Compelling from front to back. Highly recommend.” —Marc Andreessen Reading this book could change your life. The Courage to Be Disliked, already an enormous bestseller in Asia with more than 3.5 million copies sold, demonstrates how to unlock the power within yourself to be the person you truly want to be. Is happiness something you choose for yourself? The Courage to Be Disliked presents a simple and straightforward answer. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of nineteenth-century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, this book follows an illuminating dialogue between a philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five conversations, the philosopher helps his student to understand how each of us is able to determine the direction of our own life, free from the shackles of past traumas and the expectations of others. Rich in wisdom, The Courage to Be Disliked will guide you through the concepts of self-forgiveness, self-care, and mind decluttering. It is a deeply liberating way of thinking, allowing you to develop the courage to change and ignore the limitations that you might be placing on yourself. This plainspoken and profoundly moving book unlocks the power within you to find lasting happiness and be the person you truly want to be. Millions have already benefited from its teachings, now you can too.

    @DrewDouglass Yes! Great book.

  • White Fragility

    Robin DiAngelo

    Explores counterproductive reactions white people have when discussing racism that serve to protect their positions and maintain racial inequality.

    I’ve never read a book about racism or social injustice. Today I purchased White Fragility. If you want to read about this topic and money’s tight, please allow me and @suzywillow to buy you a book. Reply to this tweet with your receipt and Venmo username. 🖤 https://t.co/6qG6jXlcqF

  • “Marie Kondo, but for your brain.” —HelloGiggles “Compelling from front to back. Highly recommend.” —Marc Andreessen Reading this book could change your life. The Courage to Be Disliked, already an enormous bestseller in Asia with more than 3.5 million copies sold, demonstrates how to unlock the power within yourself to be the person you truly want to be. Is happiness something you choose for yourself? The Courage to Be Disliked presents a simple and straightforward answer. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of nineteenth-century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, this book follows an illuminating dialogue between a philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five conversations, the philosopher helps his student to understand how each of us is able to determine the direction of our own life, free from the shackles of past traumas and the expectations of others. Rich in wisdom, The Courage to Be Disliked will guide you through the concepts of self-forgiveness, self-care, and mind decluttering. It is a deeply liberating way of thinking, allowing you to develop the courage to change and ignore the limitations that you might be placing on yourself. This plainspoken and profoundly moving book unlocks the power within you to find lasting happiness and be the person you truly want to be. Millions have already benefited from its teachings, now you can too.

    @DrewDouglass @yourstacks Best book I’ve read in years

  • Now’s a good time to pickup a book. https://t.co/BgWR2VCUym I’m currently reading The Courage to be Happy.

  • The Untethered Soul

    Michael A. Singer

    Just finished reading The Untethered Soul. This quote resonated with me the most: “You cannot spend your life avoiding things that are not actually happening, or everything will become negative” https://t.co/se95jTCEZC

  • The Japanese phenomenon that teaches us the simple yet profound lessons required to liberate our real selves and find lasting happiness. The Courage to be Disliked shows you how to unlock the power within yourself to become your best and truest self, change your future and find lasting happiness. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of 19th century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, the authors explain how we are all free to determine our own future free of the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. It's a philosophy that's profoundly liberating, allowing us to develop the courage to change, and to ignore the limitations that we and those around us can place on ourselves. The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance. Millions have already read and benefited from its wisdom. Now that The Courage to be Disliked has been published for the first time in English, so can you.

    Just finished The Courage to be Disliked, a thought-provoking read and challenge to some of my world views. 🤔

  • With groundbreaking research and exclusive interviews, Nir Eyal, author of the bestselling Hooked, lays bare the processes of distractions and how we can finally get them under control to give people the ultimate superpower of the 21st century: being indistractable.

    It arrived https://t.co/tKhWEBwNig