BOOK · [288]
The Selfish Gene
Science
The gene's-eye view of evolution, and the introduction of "meme" as a unit of cultural replication. A reframe that survives every attempt to dismiss it.
Endorsed By
7 People-
Andrej Karpathy
Recommended in Lex Fridman Podcast #333 alongside The Vital Question and Life Ascending as the books that shaped his thinking on biology, altruism, and selection.
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Charlie Munger
“Dawkins explains how the selfish gene can also be a subtle gene. The world of the selfish gene revolves around savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit, and yet, Dawkins argues, acts of apparent altruism do exist in nature.”
Munger praised it for showing how bottom-up selection pressure produces emergent cooperation—a mental model he applied directly to incentive design in organizations.
- Naval Ravikant
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Paul Graham
Tweet from December 2020 simply naming 'The Selfish Gene' in answer to a question about what he was reading.
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Nick Szabo
“A crucial book on our origins and our natures.”
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Brian Armstrong
“It was interesting but I found I had already heard many of the ideas in this book, which speaks to how influential it is.”
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Matt Ridley
“From the moment of its publication 40 years ago, it has been a sparkling best-seller and a scientific game-changer.”