Sam Altman

Entrepreneur, Executive, Investor

Samuel H. Altman is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator.

Sam Altman's 50 Book Recommendations

• The legend of Henry Ford
• Pandaemonium 1660-1886: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers
• The Transit of Venus
• Guns, Sails and Empires
• Medieval Technology and Social Change
• Meditations
• Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
• Blitzscaling
• The Republic
• Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets
• The Score Takes Care of Itself
• Thinking, Fast and Slow
• The Supermen
• The Beak of the Finch
• Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players
• Superintelligence
• Dealers of Lightning
• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
• The Trial of Socrates
• The Kite Runner
• Zero to One
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities
• Hunger of Memory
• Man's Search For Meaning
• Skunk Works
• Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
• Fundamentals of Plasma Physics
• Plentiful Energy
• Call Me by Your Name
• Brave New World
• Anna Karenina
• A Life Decoded
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
• A Pattern Language
• The Principia
• The Constitutional Convention
• The Mind of Napoleon: “An incredible primary-source portrait on a brilliant (but obviously deeply flawed) individual. Broadly applicable thoughts.”
• The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
• Molecular Biology of the Cell
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• The Old Way
• The Beginning of Infinity: “If I had to pick one favorite book, I would pick that. Even if you don't read the whole thing, the first like 40-50 pages are, I think, the most wonderfully optimistic take on why, even in a world with AI, we're never going to run out of things to do.”
• The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914: “This is a really good book, and has been on my mind watching the Ukraine situation develop”
• The Way to Love: “It's called 'The Way to Love' by Anthony DeMello... I recommend it a lot... I just finished it, and I really enjoyed it”
• Blitzed: “I just read Blitzed... It was really good.”
• The Fabric of Reality: “your books have inspired me more than anyone else's”
• Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible
• The Art of War in the Middle Ages: A.D. 378-1515: “This is correct--art of war in the Middle Ages.”
• Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It: “It's a valuable resource for any founder who wants to work with VCs.”
• The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You: “Julie Zhuo gives new managers the tools they need to help their people and company win.”