book / recommends
The Rigor of Angels
“Obviously Annie Dillard. Everyone at every has to read The Writing Life. When you join, you get a copy and you have to read it. You only have to read the last chapter though. I think the last chapter is incredible, and it is at the intersection of writing and technology and the future and its relationship to the future and to time. It's everything about every wrapped up into a very tight chapter. It's so good. And I think Annie Dillard just generally is fantastic. What else do I recommend? I'll just tell you a couple things that I've read that I've really liked recently, and whenever I like something, I always just tell everyone about it. So I have recommended these a lot. I've been reading... One of the things I learned, which I didn't know is Churchill is a really good writer and he has a whole history of World War II that he wrote and it's like a combination history and memoir. And I think that's so cool because he was there, he did it. And there's something about what we do at everywhere. I feel some sort of kinship with that of like we're building stuff, we're writing stuff and it's very rare to find people that also do that. And so Churchill History of World War II is fantastic. I just finished the first volume. I'm on the second volume. The Nazis just invaded France. It's very captivating stuff. So that's one. I've been on a little bit of a quantum physics kick recently. AI is actually very good for quantum physics if you get into it. And there's this book called The Rigor of Angels that I just finished, which is, it's a history of ideas that relates Heisenberg, who has his uncertainty principle. Borges, who's an Argentinian fiction writer, wrote a bunch of great short stories. They're actually starting to get a lot of play now because they're very AI related. And Cont and very cool, super mind-blowing. Lots of interesting overlaps with AI stuff and, yeah, highly recommend.”
Lenny's Podcast · 24 May 2026
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book / recommends
The Writing Life
“Obviously Annie Dillard. Everyone at every has to read The Writing Life. When you join, you get a copy and you have to read it. You only have to read the last chapter though. I think the last chapter is incredible, and it is at the intersection of writing and technology and the future and its relationship to the future and to time. It's everything about every wrapped up into a very tight chapter. It's so good. And I think Annie Dillard just generally is fantastic. What else do I recommend? I'll just tell you a couple things that I've read that I've really liked recently, and whenever I like something, I always just tell everyone about it. So I have recommended these a lot. I've been reading... One of the things I learned, which I didn't know is Churchill is a really good writer and he has a whole history of World War II that he wrote and it's like a combination history and memoir. And I think that's so cool because he was there, he did it. And there's something about what we do at everywhere. I feel some sort of kinship with that of like we're building stuff, we're writing stuff and it's very rare to find people that also do that. And so Churchill History of World War II is fantastic. I just finished the first volume. I'm on the second volume. The Nazis just invaded France. It's very captivating stuff. So that's one. I've been on a little bit of a quantum physics kick recently. AI is actually very good for quantum physics if you get into it. And there's this book called The Rigor of Angels that I just finished, which is, it's a history of ideas that relates Heisenberg, who has his uncertainty principle. Borges, who's an Argentinian fiction writer, wrote a bunch of great short stories. They're actually starting to get a lot of play now because they're very AI related. And Cont and very cool, super mind-blowing. Lots of interesting overlaps with AI stuff and, yeah, highly recommend.”
Lenny's Podcast · 24 May 2026
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book / recommends
History of World War II
“Obviously Annie Dillard. Everyone at every has to read The Writing Life. When you join, you get a copy and you have to read it. You only have to read the last chapter though. I think the last chapter is incredible, and it is at the intersection of writing and technology and the future and its relationship to the future and to time. It's everything about every wrapped up into a very tight chapter. It's so good. And I think Annie Dillard just generally is fantastic. What else do I recommend? I'll just tell you a couple things that I've read that I've really liked recently, and whenever I like something, I always just tell everyone about it. So I have recommended these a lot. I've been reading... One of the things I learned, which I didn't know is Churchill is a really good writer and he has a whole history of World War II that he wrote and it's like a combination history and memoir. And I think that's so cool because he was there, he did it. And there's something about what we do at everywhere. I feel some sort of kinship with that of like we're building stuff, we're writing stuff and it's very rare to find people that also do that. And so Churchill History of World War II is fantastic. I just finished the first volume. I'm on the second volume. The Nazis just invaded France. It's very captivating stuff. So that's one. I've been on a little bit of a quantum physics kick recently. AI is actually very good for quantum physics if you get into it. And there's this book called The Rigor of Angels that I just finished, which is, it's a history of ideas that relates Heisenberg, who has his uncertainty principle. Borges, who's an Argentinian fiction writer, wrote a bunch of great short stories. They're actually starting to get a lot of play now because they're very AI related. And Cont and very cool, super mind-blowing. Lots of interesting overlaps with AI stuff and, yeah, highly recommend.”
Lenny's Podcast · 24 May 2026
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app / uses
Whisper flow
“I use Granola. So I used to use Super Whisper and Whisper flow, which I think are fantastic.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
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app / uses
Super Whisper
“I use Granola. So I used to use Super Whisper and Whisper flow, which I think are fantastic.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
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app / uses
Granola
“I use Granola. So I used to use Super Whisper and Whisper flow, which I think are fantastic.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
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book / likes
War and Peace
“Something that I've done a lot, so I'm a writer for a lot of my job. And I know you're going to ask me about books I love, so I'm going to give you a sneak peek, which is I love War and Peace.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
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book / recommends
The Master and His Emissary
“Well, I already recommended one, which is War and Peace. Definitely got to read that. If you want a like Tolstoy primer, I would read The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Another good one is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, which is by George Saunders, and that's a collection of Russian short stories that is also about writing. And in particular, I really like the Russians because a lot of the Russian novelists are dealing with the effects of technology on the traditional Russian way of life, and they're very kind of in this really interesting middle ground between a sort of romantic outlook on the world and a more rationalist like, " We're progressing, we're making progress." And that's one of the things you'll find in Anna Karenina, oh, and ... God, what's the guy's ... Levin is out in the fields with the peasants, doing the scythe thing. That's Tolstoy kind of thinking about, "Oh, what would it be like, instead of being a nobleman who's trying to make farms way more efficient, I was just like with my scythe, that was really happy?" Anyway, so they're dealing with a lot of similar stuff to, I think AI. The Master and His Emissary is another really good one, and that's about basically how the different hemispheres of the brain view reality. It's really, really good, and I think it relates to a lot of AI stuff too. Yeah, I think those are my three or four. Yeah.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
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book / recommends
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
“Well, I already recommended one, which is War and Peace. Definitely got to read that. If you want a like Tolstoy primer, I would read The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Another good one is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, which is by George Saunders, and that's a collection of Russian short stories that is also about writing. And in particular, I really like the Russians because a lot of the Russian novelists are dealing with the effects of technology on the traditional Russian way of life, and they're very kind of in this really interesting middle ground between a sort of romantic outlook on the world and a more rationalist like, " We're progressing, we're making progress." And that's one of the things you'll find in Anna Karenina, oh, and ... God, what's the guy's ... Levin is out in the fields with the peasants, doing the scythe thing. That's Tolstoy kind of thinking about, "Oh, what would it be like, instead of being a nobleman who's trying to make farms way more efficient, I was just like with my scythe, that was really happy?" Anyway, so they're dealing with a lot of similar stuff to, I think AI. The Master and His Emissary is another really good one, and that's about basically how the different hemispheres of the brain view reality. It's really, really good, and I think it relates to a lot of AI stuff too. Yeah, I think those are my three or four. Yeah.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
Evidence receipt · Source ↗
book / recommends
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
“Well, I already recommended one, which is War and Peace. Definitely got to read that. If you want a like Tolstoy primer, I would read The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Another good one is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, which is by George Saunders, and that's a collection of Russian short stories that is also about writing. And in particular, I really like the Russians because a lot of the Russian novelists are dealing with the effects of technology on the traditional Russian way of life, and they're very kind of in this really interesting middle ground between a sort of romantic outlook on the world and a more rationalist like, " We're progressing, we're making progress." And that's one of the things you'll find in Anna Karenina, oh, and ... God, what's the guy's ... Levin is out in the fields with the peasants, doing the scythe thing. That's Tolstoy kind of thinking about, "Oh, what would it be like, instead of being a nobleman who's trying to make farms way more efficient, I was just like with my scythe, that was really happy?" Anyway, so they're dealing with a lot of similar stuff to, I think AI. The Master and His Emissary is another really good one, and that's about basically how the different hemispheres of the brain view reality. It's really, really good, and I think it relates to a lot of AI stuff too. Yeah, I think those are my three or four. Yeah.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
Evidence receipt · Source ↗
book / recommends
War and Peace
“Well, I already recommended one, which is War and Peace. Definitely got to read that. If you want a like Tolstoy primer, I would read The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Another good one is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, which is by George Saunders, and that's a collection of Russian short stories that is also about writing. And in particular, I really like the Russians because a lot of the Russian novelists are dealing with the effects of technology on the traditional Russian way of life, and they're very kind of in this really interesting middle ground between a sort of romantic outlook on the world and a more rationalist like, " We're progressing, we're making progress." And that's one of the things you'll find in Anna Karenina, oh, and ... God, what's the guy's ... Levin is out in the fields with the peasants, doing the scythe thing. That's Tolstoy kind of thinking about, "Oh, what would it be like, instead of being a nobleman who's trying to make farms way more efficient, I was just like with my scythe, that was really happy?" Anyway, so they're dealing with a lot of similar stuff to, I think AI. The Master and His Emissary is another really good one, and that's about basically how the different hemispheres of the brain view reality. It's really, really good, and I think it relates to a lot of AI stuff too. Yeah, I think those are my three or four. Yeah.”
Lenny's Podcast · 17 Jul 2025
Evidence receipt · Source ↗