The question

Which book do you recommend most often to others, and what makes you pass it on?
Jacqueline Novogratz

Founder and chief executive of Acumen

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I have reasons for each of those books and certainly The Invisible Man in this moment of the Black Lives Matter protests and the continuing racial reckoning. Invisible Man really taught me to not see through anybody ever. But the book I give right now in this time of so much despair is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning , where he really looks at people in the Holocaust and asks himself, why did some just sort of crumple up and die and others stayed resilient and strong? And that at the end of the day, no one can take our dignity away from us. And so I think that we have to be reminded right now that, between stimulus and response, there is a choice. And we’re in that moment. And I have seen myself personally so often that in the darkest times we can find our best selves and that’s our opportunity right now. And so I think for this moment, Tim, Man’s Search for Meaning should be required reading for all of us.

Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 6 May 2021 source ↗

Mentioned in this answer

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  1. Version 1 superseded 8 Sep 2026
    But the book I give right now in this time of so much despair is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, where he really looks at people in the Holocaust and asks himself, why did some just sort of crumple up and die and others stayed resilient and strong? And that at the end of the day, no one can take our dignity away from us.
  2. Version 2 Current

    Corrected against the source.

    I have reasons for each of those books and certainly The Invisible Man in this moment of the Black Lives Matter protests and the continuing racial reckoning. Invisible Man really taught me to not see through anybody ever. But the book I give right now in this time of so much despair is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning , where he really looks at people in the Holocaust and asks himself, why did some just sort of crumple up and die and others stayed resilient and strong? And that at the end of the day, no one can take our dignity away from us. And so I think that we have to be reminded right now that, between stimulus and response, there is a choice. And we’re in that moment. And I have seen myself personally so often that in the darkest times we can find our best selves and that’s our opportunity right now. And so I think for this moment, Tim, Man’s Search for Meaning should be required reading for all of us.

Others on this question

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Jason Portnoy Investor; early finance executive at PayPal and Palantir
That’s Love Warrior , the one I talked about earlier by
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 16 June 2022 source ↗
Eric Cressey Strength and conditioning coach; co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance
All right, I'm going to give you two, because they're kind of categories to it. I'd say the first one underneath this health and human performance realm, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes. It's a Shirley Sahrmann book that I think is landmark. I mean it's decades old, super impactful. Kind of reads like stereo instructions, so you're going to go through a page at a time. But Sahrmann is still a practicing physical therapist at Wash U in St. Louis.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 3 June 2023 source ↗
John Crowley Chairman and chief executive of Amicus Therapeutics
I’m a big fan of history, Tim. American history, revolutionary history. Living now for almost 20 years in Princeton, surrounded by revolutionary history. Even as a kid I was. There’s a great book by an author named Benson Bobrick called Angel in the Whirlwind . It’s a history of the American Revolution. Obviously, countless histories of the American Revolution have been written. This one’s pretty special in that he’s a great storyteller. There is a great hero in the book. Do you want to guess who the hero of the American Revolution is? It’s not a trick question. Tim Ferriss: I don’t even want to – I’m afraid to embarrass myself. John Crowley: George Washington. Tim Ferriss: There we go, okay. John Crowley: So, easy answer, George Washington. Tim Ferriss: I was going to go for the layup, but I was like, I might flub it. John Crowley: He picks a villain and it’s Benedict Arnold.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 5 June 2018 source ↗

More from Jacqueline Novogratz

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Question What does everyone in your world seem to agree on that you think is wrong? Values & belief
On the one hand, we have people that say the aid system is so broken we need to throw it out. And on the other we have people who say the problem is that we need more aid. ... Both sides are right. And the problem is that neither side is listening to the other. Even more problematic, they're not listening to poor people themselves.
Recorded TED, 3 June 2009 source ↗

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