Books are connected to other books, but it’s not easy to see the connections unless you read an entire book. That makes how books are networked, or connected, invisible. The primary way I discover books is seeing them mentioned in another book. I’m constantly making mental connections of ideas, periods, events, or people mentioned in several books. This blog shows the connections between books, but it hasn’t been easy to understand how many connections a book has . . . until now.

Starting today, when you view the Library page, you’ll notice that next to each book is the number of other books in my library with a connection to it. It’s an easy way to quantify a book’s network. If the quantity of connected books is interesting, you can easily see each connection by clicking “Learn more” to see the book’s profile.

I’m excited about this. I haven’t seen anything like it on other blogs. It’s helped me think more deeply about book connections. I hope that understanding how networked a book in my library is will help people find books they find useful.

If you want to see for yourself, check it out:

A friend is starting a new company. He’s got a great vision and a great idea, but it’s been hard to get funding. He didn’t let that stop him, though. He got creative and found ways to get the computers and other things he needed.

He didn’t have any money, but he had hustle. He found a surplus organization that has stockpiles of computers and other technology assets. He worked with the staff to figure out what he needed to do for his new company to qualify to receive surplus assets. And they eventually approved him to get computers, monitors, and other expensive assets. Now, with zero dollars raised, he has the resources he needs to get his company off the ground.

My friend’s journey highlighted to me the difference between resources and resourcefulness:

• Resources – a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization to function effectively
• Resourcefulness – the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties

Many early-stage founders focus on getting money so they can buy the resources they need to get their company off the ground. But in reality, what they need is a resourceful mindset. Entrepreneurs who are resourceful find clever ways to get the resources they need to get their company off the ground, even when they don’t have any money. They don’t take no for an answer. They think outside the box. Entrepreneurs who believe they must have money to buy the resources they need are much less likely to have outsize success or overcome the inevitable cash crunch that all entrepreneurs face at some point.

My big takeaway is that lack of money makes things harder, but it shouldn’t stop you if you’re resourceful.

In 2024, I challenged myself to accelerate my learning by reading a book (usually a biography) a week. To date, I’ve done it for 76 consecutive weeks. I wanted to share what I was reading and also keep track for myself, which was difficult (see here), so I created a Library section on this site. I added to it all the books I’ve read since my book-a-week habit began in March 2024, and I’ve committed to adding my latest read to the Library every Sunday (see the latest here).

That left the books I’d read before 2024 unshared and untracked. I set a goal to add my old reading to the Library over time. It began with a Memorial Day Challenge to add five books (see here) and continued with my challenging myself to add two books every weekend until my backlog is gone. This past weekend was my twelfth weekend, and I added two more books:

• Angel by Jason Calacanis
• American Pain by John Temple

That’s the latest update on my weekend goal. I hope that sharing these books will be of value.

Last week I shared a framework book, Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules, which details the principles Buffett used to run his partnership, Buffett Partnership Ltd, in his pre–Berkshire Hathaway days. When I read that book, it reminded me that few investors who are active today were also actively investing in the 1960s and 1970s, like Buffett.

Another person who meets those criteria is Howard Marks, cofounder of Oaktree Capital. Marks has written two books, one of which I read twice. So, I decided to read his other book, The Most Important Thing.

This book is a framework book that details the investing principles that Marks has learned over his many decades of investing, many of which led to the outsize success of Oaktree Capital. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the 19 principles and explains it thoroughly. My favorite was the chapter on understanding risk.

This book is a good tool for anyone interested in investing or understanding how public markets work. I enjoy Marks’s writing, and this book didn’t disappoint. I’ll definitely read it periodically as a refresher.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 76
• Total blog posts published: 497

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read The Most Important Thing, a framework by Oaktree Capital co-founder and investor Howard Marks about the guiding principles of investing
• Added two more books that I read in 2019, these an inside perspective on venture capital from a seasoned investor and a biography about a software engineer who became a crime lord, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred eighty-one was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles this week

What I learned:

• Understanding what has happened helps us understand what’s happening now and what might happen in the future. However, it’s not always easy to get context on historical events or periods. Reading multiple books to piece together history is often necessary. Giving people historical context from multiple books in a way they can access quickly is tremendously valuable to them.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

This week I heard multiple people compare the current AI revolution to the period when the internet was introduced in the ’90s. One was an accomplished entrepreneur I had a conversation with. Another, a seasoned VC investor who founded his firm in 1994 and has ridden the wave since, was on a podcast.

One of my takeaways from both conversations was that the internet introduced a new technology paradigm that reshaped society and led to a financial gold rush that lasted decades.

All of this got me thinking. I’m curious about how the cycles around new technologies work and how to identify what stage of a technology cycle you’re in. I have a rough idea, but not as detailed an understanding as I’d like. I’m going to look for some historical books on this topic to help fill my gaps.

Following up on yesterday’s post (see here) about the back office and recordkeeping. Another huge benefit of having good records is that it means your financial reports are accurate. If your financial reports are accurate, you make better decisions because you understand the current state of your business. Which means you can plan better for the future.

Surprisingly, many entrepreneurs don’t know the true financial health of their business. They don’t have good financial reports, or they don’t know how to read them. They make decisions based on bank balances (see here), but bank balances don’t account for unpaid liabilities.

Having accurate financial reports that provide a full picture of the business’s health is critical for entrepreneurs. And financial reports are only as good as the data and the processes that create that data. Recordkeeping and the back office are boring and seem like a cost center. But it all starts there. If you make them a priority, the trickle-down effect is a clear picture of the business’s health through accurate financials, which empowers you to understand the current state of your business and make better decisions about the future.

Recently, I had a conversation with an entrepreneur whose business is going through an audit by a government agency. He mentioned that a few years ago, he decided to pay a premium to upgrade his back office administration. That decision seemed expensive at the time, and he was reluctant to do it because of the added expense. But looking back, it’s clear that it saved him a tremendous amount of time and money in this audit, and he now realizes it was money well spent. His clean documentation has been a lifesaver in helping him smoothly navigate the audit. Because he has clean files and documents, he’s been able to quickly answer the auditors’ questions and provide supporting documentation.

To entrepreneurs who’ve found product–market fit and are growing their company, a solid back office to keep paperwork organized and create clean accounting records is important, but its value isn’t understood. As a business scales, an entrepreneur can’t be involved in everything. They transition to running the business using data and numbers generated by the business. If the numbers and data they’re fed aren’t quality, their decisions won’t be quality and the business will suffer.

In the case of this entrepreneur, having clean records is helping him run his business more efficiently with a close eye on profitability and navigate what could otherwise be a painful and costly audit.

In 2024, I challenged myself to accelerate my learning by reading a book (usually a biography) a week. To date, I’ve done it for 75 consecutive weeks. I wanted to share what I was reading and also keep track for myself, which was difficult (see here), so I created a Library section on this site. I added to it all the books I’ve read since my book-a-week habit began in March 2024, and I’ve committed to adding my latest read to the Library every Sunday (see the latest here).

That left the books I’d read before 2024 unshared and untracked. I set a goal to add my old reading to the Library over time. It began with a Memorial Day Challenge to add five books (see here) and continued with my challenging myself to add two books every weekend until my backlog is gone. This past weekend was my eleventh weekend, and I added two more books:

• The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff
• Secrets of Sand Hill Road by Scott Kupor

That’s the latest update on my weekend goal. I hope that sharing these books will be of value.