Hussein Sharif

Favorite books

Ten favorites I recommend without reservation.

These are the books I find myself recommending most often — to friends, colleagues, and anyone who asks. Each shaped, in some way, how I think about a subject I care about.

1. 01

   Starting Strength

   Mark Rippetoe

   The clearest introduction to barbell training I have come across. Rippetoe walks through five compound lifts in unhurried mechanical detail, with the patience of someone who has corrected ten thousand bad squats. Worth reading before your first session, and again after your hundredth.

2. 02

   Antifragile

   Nassim Taleb

   Taleb’s central claim is that many systems — bodies, careers, portfolios — gain strength from stress and volatility, up to a point. The prose is dense and the author is not modest, but the framework is genuinely useful for thinking about risk and exposure.

3. 03

   We Learn Nothing

   Tim Kreider

   My favorite book. A collection of essays on anger, friendship, ambition, and regret, written with unusual honesty and remarkably little self-pity. “Lazy: A Manifesto” is the essay I have returned to most often.

4. 04

   Why We Sleep

   Matthew Walker

   A comprehensive case for treating sleep as the foundation of cognitive and physical health. Walker draws on decades of research to explain what sleep actually does for memory, mood, hormones, and longevity. I came away unwilling to negotiate with myself about eight hours.

5. 05

   How Not to Die

   Michael Greger

   A practical, evidence-based guide to nutrition, organized around the leading causes of death. Greger reviews the underlying studies and recommends specific dietary patterns. The “Daily Dozen” is a sensible place to begin.

6. 06

   Determined

   Robert Sapolsky

   A careful argument against the existence of free will, drawn from neuroscience, biology, and behavioral genetics. The conclusion is unsettling, but Sapolsky makes the case patiently and humanely. It left me, somewhat surprisingly, less judgmental.

7. 07

   The Remains of the Day

   Kazuo Ishiguro

   Ishiguro’s novel about an English butler reflecting on a life of dignified service. Very little happens; almost everything matters. A quiet, devastating meditation on duty, restraint, and what we forfeit in the name of being excellent at one thing.

8. 08

   How to Win Friends and Influence People

   Dale Carnegie

   Despite the title, the book is largely about paying close attention to other people and taking their interests seriously. Carnegie’s advice has aged surprisingly well and remains more useful than most of its modern alternatives.

9. 09

   The Status Game

   Will Storr

   Storr argues that much of human behavior — careers, beliefs, conflicts — is best understood as the pursuit of status. The thesis is broad but well-defended, and the book is a useful corrective to the stories we tell about our own motivations.

10. 10

    Manufacturing Consent

    Herman & Chomsky

    Herman and Chomsky’s analysis of how mainstream media shape public opinion through a small set of structural filters. Written in 1988, the framework remains uncomfortably current. It has changed how I read the news.

Companies

Things I’m building.

Small software products, mostly built around Google’s tools.