Seven areas I want to get better at this year. Not a curriculum. Not a schedule. Just a honest accounting of where the gaps are — in how I think about my body, how I think about the world being reshaped, and how I think about the universe itself. Twenty-six books. Organized by theme, not sequence.
"The best reading lists are really confessions. Here's where I'm weak. Here's what I'm ignoring. Here's what the world is doing that I haven't caught up to yet."
AI in Medicine & Cancer
01
A personal account of navigating late-stage cancer through research and AI collaboration with doctors. A real-world example of what AI plus human agency can do when the stakes are highest.
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02
A comprehensive technical guide to AI analyzing tumor genetics, medical imaging, predicting patient outcomes, and personalizing cancer treatment. The frontier of AI changing medicine.
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03
Machine learning, digital twins, and AI-accelerated drug discovery for cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment. The bridge between longevity science and the AI revolution.
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AI — World Change
04
The definitive biography of the man building xAI, Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink simultaneously. How one person at the intersection of AI and manufacturing is already bending the arc of history.
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05
The most practical book on collaborating with AI as a genuine thinking partner. Required reading for anyone building with these tools daily.
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06
An insider account of the AI race — the power dynamics, the ethics, and what's actually happening inside the organizations building these systems.
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07
On information networks evolving into AI and reshaping human civilization — how the systems we build to process information end up processing us.
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08
A forward-looking examination of AI's impact on creativity, meaning, and what it means to be human after this transition.
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09
On AI's unstoppable momentum and the containment problem — written by someone building it who is also genuinely worried about it.
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10
Ethical frameworks and the gap between what we say we want AI to do and the governance structures we're actually building.
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11
A provocative, uncompromising case on superintelligence risk. Read it to understand the strongest version of the argument against fast AI development.
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12
The story of Nvidia and the hardware revolution underpinning everything in AI. The picks, shovels, and the people who built them.
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Understanding the Universe
13
JWST's revolutionary images and discoveries about the early universe, exoplanets, and star formation. The universe through the sharpest eyes we've ever built.
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14
Cosmic origins, quantum realms, and the precise conditions that make life — and us — possible. The question underneath all the other questions.
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15
How radio astronomy reveals the invisible cosmos — the signals no human eye has seen and the new frontiers of observation they're opening up.
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Quantum Physics & Computing
16
The most accessible account of the quantum revolution — how a 23-year-old Heisenberg rewrote physics on a windy island, and what it still means a hundred years later.
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17
A non-technical guide to how quantum computing is already reshaping finance, medicine, and cryptography — for people who build things, not just study them.
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18
The comprehensive reference on where quantum hardware, software, and applications actually stand versus the hype.
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19
The clearest entry point into quantum mechanics and computation for anyone without a physics background. Still the best starting point.
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Peptides & Longevity
20
A clear, up-to-the-minute guide to peptide science, GLP-1, safety, and longevity applications.
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21
Therapeutic peptides for healing, neuroregeneration, immunity, and longevity from a clinician's perspective.
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22
Still the definitive framework on preventing chronic disease through exercise, nutrition, sleep, and emotional health.
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Business, Energy & Global Trade
23
The definitive history of oil, money, and power. Essential for understanding how energy has shaped the modern world — and how AI's massive energy demands will reshape it again.
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24
The hidden world of commodity traders who control the oil, metals, and grain that run the global economy. Eye-opening on how power actually flows in the world.
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Holistic & Mindset
25
The systems book I keep coming back to. Not about motivation. About architecture — how to make the right behavior the path of least resistance.
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26
On boundaries, letting go, and conserving energy for what actually matters. The mental complement to everything else on this list.
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