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Recommends The Selfish Gene.

23 Oct 2025 Lenny's Podcast Al Engineering 101 with Chip Huyen (Nvidia, Stanford, Netflix)

“I'm really terrified of book recommendations because I feel like what books [inaudible 01:12:15] you should read really depends on what they want and where they're in life and where they want to get to. But just several books that I do think's have really changed the way I think and see the world. So one thing is The Selfish Gene, that's to understand, it actually helped me with the question whether I want to have kids or not because it's understanding more of a lot of our functions, the way we operate is the functions of our genes and genes want to do one thing, to procreate. So yes, in a way, the book also proposed another thing is so everyone wants to live forever and maybe it's not consciously, but subconsciously, we do want that. And there are two ways. One is via genes. Genes [inaudible 01:13:00] want to continue forever, but [inaudible 01:13:03] two ideas. I think there's something [inaudible 01:13:05]. It's just like being able, if you have some ideas out there and then it's last for a long time, it's going to live on. I know it's a little bit abstract, but I thought it's very interesting. The other books I really, really like is from the book from Singaporean previous, I think he is [inaudible 01:13:24] as a Father of Singapore, I don't know, Lee Kuan Yew. I'm not sure what's the title is, but he was the one who led Singapore from, he's changed Singapore from a Third World country to a first world country within 25 years. And I have never seen any country leaders spent so much effort into putting down his thought of how to build a country like that. And as I talk a lot about public policy, how to create policies that encourage people to do the right things that is good for the nations and also talking about foreign affairs, foreign policies, the liberation of the country, but other. So it's a really good book to think about. For me, it's a system thinking, but it's a different kind of system which a country, which a lot of us don't get a chance to ever experiment in our life. So it's good to learn about that.”

— Chip Huyen

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Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
Chip Huyen
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
recommendation
Recorded
23 Oct 2025
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

Transcript context

…They're very consistent across every guest. So I imagine you've heard them before. First question, what are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people? I'm really terrified of book recommendations because I feel like what books [inaudible 01:12:15] you should read really depends on what they want and where they're in life and where they want to get to. But just several books that I do think's have really changed the way I think and see the world. So one thing is The Selfish Gene, that's to understand, it actually helped me with the question whether I want to have kids or not because it's understanding more of a lot of our functions, the way we operate is the functions of our genes and genes want to do one thing, to procreate. So yes, in a way, the book also proposed another thing is so everyone wants to live forever and maybe it's not consciously, but subconsciously, we do want that. And there are two ways. One is via genes. Genes [inaudible 01:13:00] want to continue forever, but [inaudible 01:13:03] two ideas. I think there's something [inaudible 01:13:05]. It's just like being able, if you have some ideas out there and then it's last for a long time, it's going to live on. I know it's a little bit abstract, but I thought it's very interesting. The other books I really, really like is from the book from Singaporean previous, I think he is [inaudible 01:13:24] as a Father of Singapore, I don't know, Lee Kuan Yew. I'm not sure what's the title is, but he was the one who led Singapore from, he's changed Singapore from a Third World country to a first world country within 25 years. And I have never seen any country leaders spent so much effort into putting down his thought of how to build a country like that. And as I talk a lot about public policy, how to create policies that encourage people to do the right things that is good for the nations and also talking about foreign affairs, foreign policies, the liberation of the country, but other. So it's a really good book to think about. For me, it's a system thinking, but it's a different kind of system which a country, which a lot of us don't get a chance to ever experiment in our life. So it's good to learn about that. What was the name of that second book?…

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