DP
Daniel Pink

American non-fiction writer

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, they’re probably books that you’ve – I mean, it might have been books that you’ve covered in your show here. So, one of them is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, one of the greatest things ever. I come back to that advice so many different times, it’s the same even in the Pink household, where we’ll just say – like one member of my family would say to the other who’s struggling, “Okay, bird by bird. Bird by bird.” And so, I am a huge – and I stumbled into this book – I remember where I got this next book, I got it in the airport in San Francisco, in the bookstore in the SFO. And for some reason, I picked it up because it had this really weird cover. But one of the first editions of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield had this kind of silvery cover to it. And I bought that book in – I think it was a campus bookstore in SFO, just because it’s – I went, “Oh, it’s silver cover, and it’s really short.” I got it and it was like, “Oh, my god. I can’t believe how good this book is.” And so, I have even have a little sign on my desk here that says, “Beat the resistance.” So, I’ve given that book a out a lot too. So Pressfield and Lamott. And then – man, I have to say, Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is up there too. Less – I’ve given that out less, but that’s a hugely important book for me.

Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 26 June 2018 source ↗

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Martin Gibala Exercise physiologist; professor at McMaster University
This question, I’m going to sound like a scientist here but one of the books that I’ve given out a lot is called The Craft of Scientific Writing . It’s certainly something that I’m working on but when I’ve gifted books, it’s often been either to a colleague or definitely new, up and coming people in the discipline of science. The way you write scientifically is obviously different from other writing. If you want to write scientifically but in a compelling way for individuals to try and translate the science into the lay public, for example, that’s really what I try to do with The One Minute Workout is boil the science down, write it in a compelling and accessible manner. Certainly I’ve had tremendous assistance from a colleague, Christopher Shogen who is just a tremendous writer. And we know we are on the right spot where I was happy from the scientific message, and Chris was happy with the writing, or at least the readability or the accessibility of the writing style. That’s a real challenge, of course. It’s an art as much as it is a science. So, a book like The Craft of Scientific Writing helps provide some tips there because if you’re a scientist coming up, you’re constantly writing. You’re writing grants, you’re writing papers and you want to convince people with the point that you’re making. You don’t want to bore them and you want to do it in a compelling manner. Tim Ferriss:
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 21 June 2018 source ↗
Malcolm Gladwell Staff writer at The New Yorker; author of The Tipping Point and Outliers
There’s one book I’ve given the most in my life, which is a book called – well, there are several now that I think about it. There’s a book by Timothy Wilson called Strangers to Ourselves , which is one of the loveliest, most insightful books about social psychology that I ever read. And I give that a lot to people. And every time I meet, and really, I’m always meeting people who work in retail, particularly I always send them, particularly if they’re Jewish, I send them a book called The Merchant Princes . It’s a book about the great Jewish retail families of America. So in the 19th century, all of these people come over from Europe who have experience in the garment trade or retailing. And an extraordinary number of the early 20th century/late 19th century department stores pop up around America are founded by Jewish immigrants from Europe from, literally, you go to any town in America, the traditional department store is from one of those families. Well, a guy, and I’ve forgotten his name, wrote a book about those families, and it’s called The Merchant Princes , and it’s fantastic.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 1 June 2018 source ↗
Susan Cain American writer
Oh, I mean, there’s one that I actually gifted to you that I especially love.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 2 April 2022 source ↗
Dustin Moskovitz American internet entrepreneur
I’m an Audible guy, so I never give a physical book to people, but something that’s come up a lot lately is this book, The Road Back to You , which is about the Enneagram. And I’ll just say up front, it’s written by a former preacher, and he’s got some religious tones. And that doesn’t really appeal to me, but I just found the descriptions of the Enneagram types to be just really spot on, especially the one of my type, type five. And yeah, it felt like reading my diary. And I’ve recommended it to a few other people who had similar experiences. And I had read a bunch about Enneagram before, and it was like, “Oh, this sort of fits. It sort of doesn’t.” And then, this one really spoke to me,
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 10 August 2023 source ↗

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