Miguel’s library

The name drew my attention. I picked it up at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, my favourite bookstore, or at least in my top three.

Harry G. Frankfurt, a Princeton philosopher, first published this short essay in 1986; it came out as a small book in 2005. It separates the liar, who still has to care about what is true, from the bullshitter, who does not care at all.

The idea that stuck with me: bullshitters are worse than liars, and there is no worse person than a bullshitter.

I would give it to anyone interested in learning more about such a popular term that gets very little philosophical treatment.

Miguel Torrez

I picked this up because I missed learning about physics.

Carlo Rovelli, a theoretical physicist, wrote it in Italian in 2014; the English edition followed in 2015. It moves through relativity, quantum theory, particles, gravity and our place in the universe in seven short lessons.

Relativity changes how we understand space and time, and quantum theory unsettles familiar ideas about matter; the small format gives each lesson the concentration of an essay.

They are seven very easy lessons for beginners. Nothing stood out to me as new, but it is a good popular-science book, the kind the French call vulgarisation.

It is for people getting started with physics.

Miguel Torrez

I picked it up because I read the author's tweets.

Jay Yang wrote it about initiative, learning through action and creating opportunities yourself instead of waiting for permission.

It connects the author's own experience with stories of people who built prototypes, made contact and learned by doing. Its recurring question is practical: what useful action is already available, before the ideal role, credentials or circumstances arrive?

The one idea is the title: you can just do things.

It is for young people who need to switch from thinking mode into action mode.

Miguel Torrez

This one was written by one of my professors, François Drillon.

It is a practical French book about the conversations and meetings where your ideas need to be heard: expressing a position clearly, inspiring confidence and leaving an impression.

It treats preparation, clarity and confidence as skills that can be practised, so that you can bring a clear idea into a room and make the exchange memorable for the right reasons.

For me it is amazing for sales posture. It shows how to ground your sales in your convictions.

I would give it to anyone who sells.

Miguel Torrez

I wanted to learn more about branding.

Hugh Wilson is a brand strategist with a background in luxury, including Clarins. The book treats brand building as a layered practice that joins strategy, culture and the details people remember.

The onion is the image for a brand's identity: distinct layers held together by a coherent centre. Wilson moves among anecdotes, photographs and working observations, and gives culture, chance and timing a place alongside strategy.

It gives a complete view of storytelling and of the emotions behind branding.

I would give it to anyone learning branding.

Miguel Torrez

I read Naval's tweets and got curious.

Eric Jorgenson gathered Naval Ravikant's public reflections into this book, published in 2020. It is organised around two subjects: wealth and happiness, with a lot about judgement and thinking for yourself.

The first part looks at how judgement, specific knowledge and ownership contribute to wealth. The second turns to happiness, desire, health and the quality of attention. It is arranged so you can open it anywhere and come back to single ideas.

It saved me during a hard time.

Miguel Torrez

I wanted to know what is behind the guy's head.

Eric Jorgenson, who also compiled The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, assembled Elon Musk's ideas on work, invention and ambitious projects from public interviews and appearances.

The chapters collect ideas about learning, engineering, work and projects pursued over long periods, so that single observations build into a broader account of ambition and problem-solving.

What stuck with me: he is very good at breaking things down from first principles. It is truly scientific thinking applied to everything.

Miguel Torrez

I picked it up for its extremely good title.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, published it in 2013. It is a personal account of failure, of combining useful skills, and of the daily systems that make progress possible.

Rather than treating success as a straight path, Adams looks at what can be learned from projects that go wrong, and connects systems, energy and combinations of ordinary skills to examples from his own life.

What stayed with me is the writing itself: Scott Adams is one hell of a storyteller and writer.

Miguel Torrez

I didn't really like it.

Peter B. Kyne first published The Go-Getter in 1921. It is a short story about Bill Peck, a go-getter who never gives up and is eventually rewarded, built around an impossible assignment and a blue vase.

The English is very old, and the story did not do much for me. It stays on the shelf because it is part of what I read, not because I recommend it.

Miguel Torrez

One of my favourite books.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French writer and aviator, published it in 1943 with his own drawings. A pilot stranded in the desert meets a traveller from a tiny planet.

The little traveller's encounters with adults reveal the strange importance people attach to ownership, authority and counting. Against those habits, the story offers the patient work of getting to know another being.

It is a philosophy book in disguise.

Miguel Torrez

It was the first book I ever read.

Gabriel García Márquez published it in 1967. It follows seven generations of the Buendía family in the imaginary town of Macondo, and it is one of the reasons he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.

Generation after generation returns to the same names, desires and mistakes, and the history of one family becomes the history of a town, moving between invention, conflict, memory and forgetting.

It helped me see the talent we have in Latin America. It is a classic, even though some of its themes can be touchy.

Miguel Torrez

Alex Hormozi published $100M Offers in 2021. It is about how value, pricing, guarantees and a clear promise turn a business proposition into an offer people want.

An offer is more than a price and a list of features: the book looks at the result a customer wants, the obstacles they expect, and how a business can make its promise more credible.

Hormozi does a few things very well. One is breaking things down extremely simply, like explaining to a five-year-old, with very concrete examples.

It is actionable and reads like a kids' book.

Miguel Torrez

Alex Hormozi published $100M Leads in 2023 as the follow-up to $100M Offers. It covers the ways to find the people who could become your customers, from outreach and content to advertising and referrals.

A strong offer still has to reach the right people. Each approach in the book asks how a business can create a reliable flow of new conversations.

The idea that works: the 100-day challenge of reaching 100 people a day. Get the work done. There is no magic.

Miguel Torrez