Evidence receipt / recommendation
Published · transcript-backedRecommends Sapiens. Recommends The Design of Everyday Things. Recommends The Silk Roads.
22 Jun 2025 Lenny's Podcast From ChatGPT to Instagram to Uber: The quiet architect behind the world’s most popular products | Peter Deng
“This is easy for me. Number one is Sapiens. If you're a product person, you have to understand our own humanity if you want to build products for people, straight up. That's a beautiful book. I read it before it was called Sapiens, it was called From Animals to Gods, and it was just republished in a different name, but it has really stuck with me and I remember, it's a very short, easy read, so I'd recommend that. The second book I think for product folks is a classic one, which is The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. This may seem outdated and old, but I promise you it's not. It really helps you understand physical product design, which is again, things that mold and shape to humanity. I think it gives you a good sense of that. Third book is something I'm reading right now it was recommended by a friend of mine and I can't put it down. It's called The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. And basically this is a recounting of history through the lens of The Silk Road and the Middle East and how that's evolved. It's so fascinating because one of the things I love, Lenny, is seeing things from different perspectives. This is why travel's fun, this is why user research is fun for me, and it really helps you see the events of world history that we've all been experiencing through a very western viewpoint in a different way. And it kind of connects a bunch of things that are like, there's Western thought, there's Eastern thought, but if you see the connection between them, it's super fascinating. I'm only two, three or maybe four chapters in, but definitely something I would recommend off the bat.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Peter Deng
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- recommendation
- Recorded
- 22 Jun 2025
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
Transcript context
…Question one. What are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people? This is easy for me. Number one is Sapiens. If you're a product person, you have to understand our own humanity if you want to build products for people, straight up. That's a beautiful book. I read it before it was called Sapiens, it was called From Animals to Gods, and it was just republished in a different name, but it has really stuck with me and I remember, it's a very short, easy read, so I'd recommend that. The second book I think for product folks is a classic one, which is The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. This may seem outdated and old, but I promise you it's not. It really helps you understand physical product design, which is again, things that mold and shape to humanity. I think it gives you a good sense of that. Third book is something I'm reading right now it was recommended by a friend of mine and I can't put it down. It's called The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. And basically this is a recounting of history through the lens of The Silk Road and the Middle East and how that's evolved. It's so fascinating because one of the things I love, Lenny, is seeing things from different perspectives. This is why travel's fun, this is why user research is fun for me, and it really helps you see the events of world history that we've all been experiencing through a very western viewpoint in a different way. And it kind of connects a bunch of things that are like, there's Western thought, there's Eastern thought, but if you see the connection between them, it's super fascinating. I'm only two, three or maybe four chapters in, but definitely something I would recommend off the bat. What is a favorite recent movie or TV show that you've really enjoyed?…
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