From The Greats
Sam Altman
CEO, OpenAI; former head, Y Combinator
6 matching recs across 6 booksBooks recommended by AI founders and researchers
A focused path through documented recommendations from AI builders and researchers. Rows appear here only when the underlying catalog already has source evidence.
AI catalog laneExisting source rows onlyCitations labeled
9Matching recs
3Featured people
8Featured books
People in this collection
People are selected by existing catalog categories and shown only when they have matching source-backed recommendation rows.
Books to inspect first
Book cards link to canonical profiles. Counts and labels still come from the underlying recommendation records.
Dealers of Lightning
Recommended by Sam Altman.
Game Changer
Recommended by Demis Hassabis.
Godel, Escher, Bach
Recommended by Demis Hassabis.
Hold 'em Poker
Recommended by Sam Altman.
Only the Paranoid Survive
Recommended by Jensen Huang.
Superintelligence
Recommended by Sam Altman.
The Principia
Recommended by Sam Altman.
The Supermen
Recommended by Sam Altman.
Source-backed recommendation rows
These are direct recommendation-strength rows. Mentions and citation-only signals stay out of the collection count.
Only the Paranoid Survive
Documented citation: Fortune reports that Huang told Acquired he really enjoyed Andrew Grove's business books and that they were all really good; Fortune identifies Only the Paranoid Survive among those Grove books.
Documented citation
Recommended
article
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says his AI powerhouse is 'always in peril' despite a $1.1 trillion market cap
Open source
This source documents the book relationship, but the displayed text is a catalog summary rather than a verbatim quote.
Fortune · 2023-11-11 · accessed 2026-06-22
Fortune reports that Huang told Acquired he had read Andrew Grove's business books, called them really good, and identifies Only the Paranoid Survive among those Grove books. The Acquired transcript supplies the favorite-business-books prompt and Grove-books praise.
Jensen Huang
AmazonBookshop.orgAudibleAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
Superintelligence
Incidentally, Nick Bostrom's excellent book "Superintelligence" is the best thing I've seen on this topic. It is well worth a read.
Exact quote verified
Recommended
article
Machine intelligence, part 1
Open source
We captured the recommendation language from the source.
Sam Altman · undated · accessed 2026-06-21
Altman's own blog post calls Bostrom's Superintelligence excellent, the best thing he has seen on the topic, and well worth a read.
Sam Altman
AmazonBookshop.orgAudibleAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
Dealers of Lightning
Documented citation: A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed Dealers of Lightning.
Documented citation
Recommended
comment
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup founders
Open source
This source documents the book relationship, but the displayed text is a catalog summary rather than a verbatim quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
Sam Altman
AmazonBookshop.orgAudibleAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
Hold 'em Poker
Documented citation: A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed Hold 'em Poker.
Documented citation
Recommended
comment
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup founders
Open source
This source documents the book relationship, but the displayed text is a catalog summary rather than a verbatim quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
Sam Altman
AmazonBookshop.orgAudibleAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
The Principia
Documented citation: A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed The Principia.
Documented citation
Recommended
comment
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup founders
Open source
This source documents the book relationship, but the displayed text is a catalog summary rather than a verbatim quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
Sam Altman
AmazonBookshop.orgAudibleAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
The Supermen
Documented citation: A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed The Supermen.
Documented citation
Recommended
comment
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup founders
Open source
This source documents the book relationship, but the displayed text is a catalog summary rather than a verbatim quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
Sam Altman
AmazonBookshop.orgAudibleAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
Zero to One
Documented citation: A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed Zero to One.
Documented citation
Recommended
comment
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup founders
Open source
This source documents the book relationship, but the displayed text is a catalog summary rather than a verbatim quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
Sam Altman
AmazonBookshop.orgAudibleAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
Game Changer
If you want to find out more #AlphaZero, I recommend checking out the great Game Changer book.
Exact quote verified
Recommended
social
Demis Hassabis post about Game Changer
Open source
We captured the recommendation language from the source.
X · 2020-02-02 · accessed 2026-06-22
The original X post was fetched through the public fxtwitter mirror during batch 57. Hassabis directly recommends checking out the Game Changer book for readers who want to learn more about AlphaZero.
Demis Hassabis
AmazonBookshop.orgAffiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details