Rand Fishkin – Lost and Founder
Juicy slightly contrarian view written with sufficient self-deprication in order not to offend anyone in the vally.
Venture Capital has been of major importance in the making of the tech industry in general, and Silicon Valley in particular.
Sebastian Mallaby – The Power Law
Nice as a description of the historical evolution of the VC phenomenon, but rather condoning in its evaluation.
Following the rise of Jim Simons’ Renaissance, quants have become a major force in US politics
Gregory Zuckerman – the man who solved the market
The book would have been a better read if it had focused on one of its two narratives: the rise of algorithmic trading and the forays of hedge fund executives into US politics.
Markets are not efficient, but shaped by the evolution of actors such as hedge funds and electronic traders
Elegant mix of historic analysis of market dynamics and experiments with natural selection in non-biological context.
Only bet (in the casino or on Wallstreet) when you have an edge.
Edward Thorp – A man for all markets
Sage advise from the man who beat the dealer at blackjack and outperformed the market as one of the world’s first quants (but feel free to skip the chapters about Edward’s youth as a prodigy).
Thomas Piketty – Capital in the 21st century
The best part is the comparative historical analysis of sources of wealth in different countries, all the way back to the 1800s.
Paul Carroll and Chunka Mui – Billion dollar lessons
Read it for the style more than the depth of insight: too few business books quote Shakespeare and Lord Tennyson.