The Cathedral and the Bazaar
The seminal essay on open source software development that influenced Mozilla's creation.
Hackers and Painters
Paul Graham argues that hackers are makers, like painters or architects.
How to Do What You Love
An exploration of the relationship between work and happiness.
The Tyranny of Structurelessness
The absence of formal structure doesn't prevent hierarchy—it just makes it invisible.
I Can Tolerate Anything Except the Outgroup
An examination of tribalism, tolerance, and why we forgive distant enemies more than nearby rivals.
A Big Little Idea Called Legibility
How states simplify complex realities to make them 'legible' and controllable.
Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years
Google's Director of Research on why there are no shortcuts to expertise.
The Egg
A short story about the meaning of life, death, and existence. Brief but profound.
The Last Question
Asimov's favorite of his own stories. Can entropy be reversed?
The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant
A philosophical fable about death, aging, and accepting preventable suffering.
What You'll Wish You'd Known
Advice Paul Graham wishes he'd been given in high school.
Walking
Thoreau's meditation on the art of walking. 'In wildness is the preservation of the world.'
As We May Think
The visionary 1945 essay that predicted hypertext, personal computers, and the internet.
Cargo Cult Science
Feynman on scientific integrity and the difference between real science and its imitation.
The Myth of Sisyphus
Camus' philosophical essay on the absurd. 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.'
The Hedgehog and the Fox
Thinkers divided into hedgehogs (one big thing) and foxes (many things).
Consider the Lobster
Wallace asks uncomfortable questions about suffering, ethics, and what we choose not to think about.
The Relativity of Wrong
Why 'all theories are wrong' is a misleading oversimplification.
Solitude and Leadership
A lecture to West Point plebes on why true leadership requires solitude.
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
A haunting short story about a utopia with a terrible secret.
The Lottery
One of the most famous short stories ever written. A small town's annual tradition.
Why Software Is Eating the World
Andreessen's influential 2011 essay predicting software companies would dominate every industry.
How to Be Successful
13 thoughts on how to achieve outlier success.
The Pmarca Guide to Startups
A comprehensive guide to building startups from one of Silicon Valley's most successful entrepreneurs.
You and Your Research
Hamming's famous talk on how to do Nobel-Prize-level research.
The Bitter Lesson
The biggest lesson from 70 years of AI research: general methods that leverage computation win.
Taste for Makers
How do you make good stuff? Good taste is a prerequisite.
Great Hackers
What makes a great programmer? It's not what you might think.
How to Do Great Work
The most important thing is to do great work, and the way to do great work is to find what you love.
The Top Idea in Your Mind
The most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend it doing fake work.
Why Nerds are Unpopular
Why nerds are unpopular in American schools.
The Submarine
The submarine: how PR firms manipulate the press.
What Startups Are Really Like
What startups are really like, based on founder surveys.
The Black Swan (Summary)
How to live in a world we don't understand.
In Praise of Idleness
Russell's essay on the value of leisure and why we work too much.
The Use of Knowledge in Society
Why central planning cannot work due to the knowledge problem.
I, Pencil
The classic example of market coordination using a simple pencil.
That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen
The parable of the broken window and unseen economic consequences.
Looking Back on the Spanish War
Orwell's reflections on his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.
Notes on Nationalism
Orwell's essay on nationalism and its psychological roots.
A Room of One's Own
Woolf's meditation on women and fiction, and the need for independence.
The Death of the Moth
Woolf's essay on the death of a moth and the meaning of life.
On the Pleasure of Hating
Hazlitt's essay on the pleasures of hating.
A Dissertation upon Roast Pig
Lamb's humorous essay on the origins of roast pork.
Habit
James on the importance of forming good habits early in life.
On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings
James's lecture on the value of a certain blindness in human beings.
On Liberty
Mill's classic defense of individual liberty against social tyranny.
Meditations
The Stoic emperor's private journal of self-improvement.
The Enchiridion
The Stoic philosopher's handbook for living a good life.
Apology
Socrates' defense speech at his trial for corrupting the youth.
The Republic (Book VII)
The famous allegory of the cave and the nature of reality.
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle's treatise on the nature of happiness and virtue.
The Prince
The infamous treatise on political power and statecraft.
Leviathan (Chapters 13-14)
Hobbes on the state of nature and the social contract.
Second Treatise of Government
Locke's foundational work on natural rights and government.
The Social Contract
Rousseau's influential work on the social contract and general will.
What Is Enlightenment?
Kant's essay on the meaning and importance of Enlightenment.
Beyond Good and Evil
Nietzsche's critique of conventional morality.
The Second Sex (Introduction)
De Beauvoir's groundbreaking analysis of women's oppression.
The Screwtape Letters
Lewis's satirical letters from a senior demon to a junior tempter.
The Library of Babel
Borges's story of an infinite library containing every possible book.
The Garden of Forking Paths
Borges's meditation on time and the nature of infinity.
Before the Law
Kafka's parable about a man who waits his whole life at the gate of the Law.
A Confession
Tolstoy's autobiographical account of his spiritual crisis.
What Is Art?
Tolstoy's essay on the meaning and purpose of art.
The Grand Inquisitor
The Grand Inquisitor's monologue on freedom and faith.
De Profundis
Wilde's letter written from prison, a meditation on suffering and art.
The Damned Human Race
Twain's satirical essay on the damned human race.
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses
Twain's advice on the craft of writing.
Notes on Democracy
Mencken's satirical essay on democracy and its discontents.