More Than A Dozen Fintech Execs and Investors Share the Best Books of 2020
Hi all, Julie here. Well, one good thing about 2020 is that we all got more time to read this year. And with the vaccine just starting to roll out, I supposed we'll have more time to read in the first few months of 2021 as well. So, if you've made it through your book list and are looking for some more recs, look no further than this edition of FTT.
Fiction or Non-Fiction, from how to be actively anti-racist to biographies to internet culture, there's something for everyone in here. I even learned something new while diving in: Laura Spiekerman's husband recently wrote a book! It's called How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius, and in it he interviews tons of experts in other fields (magicians, ballet choreographers, etc.) which makes it fun and super educational even for total non-sports-fans like his lovely wife. Laura felt weird picking it as her favorite, but it sounds like a great read so I'm mentioning it anyways and adding it to my own reading list :)
When I wrote similar pieces for Bloomberg over the last few years, I was never able to pick my own book to mention. However, Ian is a super cool boss so I'm adding one in. I'd highly recommend Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. I laughed, I cried, I learned a TON about both myself and others. It was nearly impossible to ever put this book down.
Alexa von Tobel, Founder of Inspired Capital I think Why We Sleep is a must-read. I found it incredibly helpful to understand the science of sleep (as someone who never seems to get enough!). And in 2020, when our days are all a blur, getting better sleep is one of the best tools for optimizing performance.
Amanda Peyton, Founder of Braid Trick Mirror is an excellent essay collection from Jia Tolentino. She successfully weaves together her story alongside one of the entire generation who grew up at the dawn of the social web, adding commentary about internet culture and modern capitalism along the way. I especially enjoyed The Story of a Generation in Seven Scams and Always Be Optimizing. If you're not familiar with Tolentino's writing, I'd also recommend her essay Why I have to be so 'Rude', a personal favorite.
Amrita Ahuja, CFO of Square The Color of Money is about the history of systemic block-stacking against Blacks in America from the end of slavery to the present, particularly from the lens of financial institutions. What really hit home for me was that a store of wealth is self-reinforcing. That is a simple and powerful statement that permeates the whole book. Wealth builds on itself -- in terms of the opportunities you have, the opportunities and risks you are willing to take on, and the life choices available -- and that point cannot be discounted when we think about the wealth gap that has persisted and been perpetuated. At Square, our purpose is economic empowerment, and the learnings from this book emboldened us to invest $100M of our treasuries into underserved communities and black financial institutions.
Ashley Paston, Principal at Bain Capital Ventures I really liked The Fish that Ate the Whale. It is about Samuel Zemurray, the man who built United Fruit. The story tracks Samuel’s life from a penniless roadside banana peddler to one of the most important figures of the 20th century. The story truly encapsulates the idea of the America Dream, and is overall an incredibly entertaining story.
Cherry Miao, Partner at Accel Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow’s telling of his quest to research and publicly disclose Harvey Weinstein’s disturbing history of sexual abuse, reads like a thriller but unfortunately it’s all too true. While Weinstein is at the center of the narrative, Farrow makes it clear that his case is a symptom of some deeply sick systems. Farrow carefully documents how the protection racket run by power brokers of Hollywood and the news media very nearly killed his story, just as it had suffocated many more before it. As #metoo, Black Lives Matter, and other vital social movements have ricocheted around the globe during 2020, Catch and Kill reminds us of the incredible bravery and resolve it takes to speak truth to institutional power -- and how important that truth is.
Dan Kimerling, Co-Founder of Deciens and StandardAPI I loved Sontag-Her Life and Work because Susan Sontag is one of the most creative and important thinkers to have lived post-war. An amazing biography.
Gil Akos, Founder of Astra No Rules Rules is a great read for both content and format. Co-authors Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings share detailed processes for building a culture of innovation, including the behavioral and incentive outcomes for leadership approaches and company policies. Anecdotes and evidence abound beyond the standard business axioms, with the format itself reinforcing the recommendations-Hastings writes and Meyer responds with her perspective from researching the organization from within.
Jackie Reses, Investor and Former Head of Square Capital I loved Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind. It was fascinating to learn the history of psychedelic drugs in the US. The book “changed my mind”. I now appreciate that psychedelics can benefit many mental health disorders such as depression or PTSD. While filled with scientific studies, medical research and insights, the book is also so engaging that it’s an easy read.
Justin Overdorff, Investments and M&A at Stripe Deaths of Despair by Anne Case/Angus Deaton is my pick. The book looks at the worrying trend of US life expectancy falling for 3-4 years in row now (which hasn't really happened to a western economic super power since before WWI) and how this trend is tied to the worsening quality of life for the american middle class. I'm a huge proponent of capitalism, so reading this book, which questions if the current flavor of US capitalism is really working, was an interesting perspective to view.
Laura Spiekerman, Co-Founder of Alloy For Non-fiction, I really enjoyed How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. Hopefully we're all paying more attention to racism and how pervasive it is this year. This book helps frame up not just types of racism (particularly towards Black people) but also how to be more proactively anti-racist, looking both at chapters in America's racist history and Kendi's own life. For Fiction, I'd have to pick My Year of Rest & Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh. This book came out in 2018 but feels like a 2020 book. Moshfegh's protagonist basically decides to skip out on a year, drugging herself to effectively place herself in a coma. It's a lot richer than it sounds and is relatable to me for how I'd like to have spent 2020!
Mark Goldberg, Partner at Index Ventures I'd choose The End of October. I'm not sure what it says about my personality that my favorite book of the year was about a fictional pandemic that wrought devastating consequences on the globe, but there's some perverse joy in seeing a more dystopian world than our own in 2020. In any case, it's a page turner that takes you around the globe and behind the scenes of imagined but well-researched halls of power. Not for the faint of heart, it's a fun and informative read for those who can stomach it - especially now that a vaccine appears within reach for ourselves.
Matt Harris, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures The Overstory by Richard Powers is a beautifully written novel, with unusually finely drawn characters. It’s also a story about the relationship between humans and the environment that serves as a reminder of what we can and should do to be good stewards, in a way that doesn’t feel like scolding. I will be thinking about this book for years.
Megan Kelly, Associate at First Round Capital Atomic Habits by James Clear is my recommendation. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. A great book for understanding habit formation and learning about systems & frameworks to create change. I also highly endorse his newsletter.
Ryan Williams, Founder of Cadre One of the most powerful books I have read over the past year is Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. Caste provides unique insights into much of underlying infrastructure in society that is often not visible, but underlying much of the inequality, injustices and disparities that have been top of mind now more than ever, and that so many live within America. Wilkerson provides a deeply personal overview of how caste has impacted her own life, and connects a number of different caste systems throughout the world to show how deep-seated, and long-standing caste systems have been within society.
Saira Rahman, VP of Finance at HMBradley My favorite book of 2020 was Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty. It's a dissection of the widening gap in income inequality throughout history, and how we've arrived where we are today. The first few chapters reflect on the path to income inequalities, and the book finishes by discussing political policies and how it affected/accelerated the divide. If you like financially-minded books that incorporate historical education, this is a great find.
Stephany Kirkpatrick, Founder of Orum My pick is Recursion by Blake Crouch. I devoured all three of his Wayward Pines trilogy in a day and a half so I had to read more from Blake Crouch when this came out. After spending 60-80 hours a week working on payments infrastructure at Orum my escape is always a good book. Woven into this complex twist of science, medicine, mystery and love is a fascinating take on all the what-if moments in our lives and the branches of memories created. It was an addictive read and like all amazing books, I was left with a sense of longing for more when the story was over.
Stuart Sopp, Founder of Current I really enjoyed The Fourth Turning because it gives a long term structure to cycles and is somewhat predictive of this era we live in!
Zach Perret, Co-Founder of Plaid The Ascent of Money or Debt: The first 5000 years. For those in fintech, both are good to understand the history of the financial system.