PROCESS · BEST·BOOKS
How we pick endorsers
Every book here is on the site for one reason: someone worth respecting said it was worth reading. So the whole thing rises or falls on who counts as worth respecting. This is that filter, stated plainly.
The test
ONE QUESTION, PER CANDIDATE
Strip away the reading, the podcast, the newsletter, the writing — is a major real-world achievement still standing?
If yes, they're in. If the only thing left is that they read a lot and tell people about it, they're out.
+ Admitted
-
[01]
Scientists & engineers
Built or discovered something real — chip architects, AI researchers, a geologist with a legendary private library.
-
[02]
Founders & builders
Put a dent in the world, not just a deck. The company is the proof.
-
[03]
Investors & operators
A track record measured in decades and outcomes, not followers.
− Excluded
-
×
Brand is reading
Professional curators, book podcasters, aggregators. Reading is wonderful; it isn't, by itself, a reason to trust someone's taste over yours.
-
×
The merely famous
Celebrity reach is not insight. We optimize for the sharpest audience, not the largest one.
The result is a deliberately smaller list. We'd rather lose names you'd recognize than keep names that dilute the signal. If a recommender isn't here, it's usually not an oversight — it's the filter doing its job.
ONE CURATOR · NO SUBMISSIONS · NO RATINGS · NO CROWD