15.5 · Lives Actually Lived
Story, Literature & Lives · 15.5
Shoe Dog
The most honest founder memoir written: Nike as eighteen years of near-bankruptcy and self-doubt rather than a triumph montage. The correct antidote to startup mythology and to the highlight reels I’ll compare myself against.
Deepen
Section titled “Deepen”Educated
Self-education as escape, and as cost. What learning does to a person’s relationship with their family.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
The original self-improvement system: thirteen virtues, tracked daily on a chart, by a man who cheerfully admits he never mastered them. Note how lightly he holds his own failures. That, not the chart, is the lesson.
Reference
Section titled “Reference”The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Self-discipline, diet, celibacy, honesty — pursued to an extreme and reported without flattery. A South Asian model of self-improvement that predates the entire Western genre, including its excesses.
Long Walk to Freedom
Twenty-seven years, and what survived them.
Steve Jobs
Read for the product judgement. Not as a model for how to treat people — the book is quite clear about that, even when its readers aren’t.