Stripe Press — Ideas for progress Poor Charlie’s Almanack Edited by Peter D. Kaufman Maintenance Stewart Brand The Origins of Efficiency Brian Potter The Scaling Era Dwarkesh Patel Boom Byrne Hobart Scaling People Claire Hughes Johnson Pieces of the Action Vannevar Bush Where Is My Flying Car? J. Storrs Hall The Big Score Michael S. Malone Scientific Freedom Donald W. Braben Working in Public Nadia Eghbal The Art of Doing Science and Engineering Richard W. Hamming The Making of Prince of Persia Jordan Mechner Get Together Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kai Elmer Sotto An Elegant Puzzle Will Larson The Revolt of the Public Martin Gurri Stubborn Attachments Tyler Cowen The Dream Machine M. Mitchell Waldrop High Growth Handbook Elad Gil We Are As Gods A film about the many sides of Stewart Brand Beneath the Surface A Stripe Press podcast about infrastructure Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger Edited by Peter D. Kaufman Website Living cover “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up,” Charlie Munger advises in Poor Charlie’s Almanack. Originally published in 2005, this compilation of 11 talks by the legendary Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman has become a touchstone for a generation of investors and entrepreneurs. Delivered with Munger’s characteristic rhetorical flair, Poor Charlie’s Almanack draws on his encyclopedic knowledge of business, finance, history, philosophy, physics, and ethics to introduce the latticework of mental models that underpin his rational and rigorous approach to life, learning, and decision-making. It is an essential volume for any reader seeking to go to bed a little wiser than when they woke up. This abridged edition features a new foreword by Stripe cofounder and president John Collison. Purchase on Stripe $30 Purchase on Bookshop $30 Purchase on Barnes & Noble $30 Purchase on Amazon $30 Now available in softcover $18 Authors Charles T. Munger (1924–2023) was an investor, businessman, and former real estate attorney. He was the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett. He was chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation from 1984 to 2011. He was also chairman of the Daily Journal Corporation and a director of Costco Wholesale Corporation. Peter D. Kaufman is the chairman and CEO of Glenair, Inc. He was a longtime director of Wesco Financial Corporation and is a former director of Daily Journal Corporation. In 2005, he edited and published Poor Charlie’s Almanack, a compilation of talks given by his longtime friend Charlie Munger. PDF Praise This book is something of a publishing miracle—never advertised, yet year after year selling many thousands of copies from its internet site. Warren Buffett CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger was born before corporate speak, before business leaders minced words to obscure truths. But Charlie Munger’s words have always cut like a knife—and that sharp spirit of truth-seeking built Berkshire into what it is today. We should all aspire to such clarity. Katherine Boyle general partner at a16z Poor Charlie’s Almanack is a timeless classic that will change how you approach life. There is a billion-dollar education inside this book. Shane Parrish founder of Syrus Partners and Farnam Street This book is the best way to learn from Munger and his ideas. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in thinking clearly, rationally, and effectively. Ana Lorena Fabrega author, educator, and chief evangelist at Synthesis Charlie Munger’s insights are timeless. Some of these speeches were delivered over 20 years ago, but they feel like they could have been given yesterday. Tyler Hogge venture partner at Pelion If I could only read one book to help me succeed in life and business, this is the book I’d read. Charlie’s timeless wisdom has inspired millions and will continue to resonate for generations to come. David Senra creator of the Founders podcast Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One Stewart Brand Living cover The first in a multi-volume work, Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One offers a comprehensive overview of the civilizational importance of maintenance. The book explores the insights that can be gleaned from the maintenance of sailboats, vehicles, and weapons, with absorbing detours into the evolution of precision in manufacturing, the enduring importance of manuals, sustainment in the military, and the never-ending battle against corrosion. Maintenance: Of Everything is a wide-ranging and provocative call to expand what we mean by “maintenance.” It invites us to understand not only the profound impact maintenance has on our daily lives but also why taking responsibility for maintaining something—whether a motorcycle, a monument, or our planet—can be a radical act. Purchase on Bookshop $40 Purchase on Barnes & Noble $40 Purchase on Amazon $40 Author Stewart Brand is the cofounder and president of The Long Now Foundation. He created and edited the National Book Award-winning Whole Earth Catalog from 1968 to 1998. His books include The Media Lab (1987), How Buildings Learn (1994), The Clock of the Long Now (1999), and Whole Earth Discipline (2009). He was the subject of the documentary We Are As Gods (2020). Twitter Website Praise Stewart Brand makes a persuasive case that keeping the human show on the road through well-planned maintenance is as vital and as fascinating a task as innovation and discovery themselves. A deliciously good book. Matt Ridley author of The Rational Optimist Once again, Stewart Brand reframes our worldview with a new perspective. You may not imagine you would be interested in rust, Soviet tanks, or tricked-out Model Ts—that is, until Brand reexamines them through the lens of maintenance. Maintenance: Of Everything is destined to be a classic. Danny Hillis cofounder of Applied Invention Stewart Brand is back with a manifesto on maintenance, the tool that empowers all tools. Preventative maintenance, deferred maintenance, and emergency maintenance: this much-needed, no-nonsense treatise illuminates the difference, and why it counts. George Dyson author of Darwin Among the Machines and Turing’s Cathedral Civilization is maintenance. No one else but Stewart Brand is talking about the art and science of maintenance and how to do it well. This will be an instant classic. Kevin Kelly founding executive editor of Wired Brand masterfully takes us on a journey through the world of the fixers keeping the gears of civilization rolling. If you’re the kind of person who wants to know why things break and how to stop it, you should read this book. Kyle Wiens CEO of iFixit What a splendid book to read while fixing an old house. I stopped moaning and whining and became a quiet hero of relentless “sustainment.” Bruce Sterling author and editor of Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology Maintenance is interesting in more ways than I can count. I felt smarter for having read this book and lucky for being alive at a time when Stewart Brand is writing it. Charles C. Mann author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus In his fresh and inimitable prose, Stewart Brand makes a striking case for what he calls maintenance–the upkeep of the things that make modern life possible. Back to the basics of caring and repairing–sailing boats, automobiles, sewing machines, Colt revolvers, bicycles and even tanks in the Yom Kippur war–Brand shows us why know-how and understanding how machines work really matter. New things get our attention but mastering how to take care of things we already have is life work that counts like no other. This book is Stewart Brand at his best. Jerry Brown former Governor of California A new classic — original and fresh, smart, wise, a universal topic, Stewart makes me so happy once again. Edward Tufte statistician and professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University The Origins of Efficiency Brian Potter Efficiency is the engine of civilization. But where do improvements in production efficiency come from? In The Origins of Efficiency, Brian Potter argues that improving production efficiency—finding ways to produce goods and services in less time, with less labor, using fewer resources—is the force behind some of the most consequential changes in human history. He examines the fundamental characteristics of a production process and how each can be made faster, cheaper, and more reliable, with detailed examples from a range of industries: steel and semiconductors, wind turbines and container shipping, Tesla and the Ford Model T, and more. The Origins of Efficiency is a comprehensive companion for anyone seeking to understand how we arrived at this age of material abundance—and how we can push efficiency improvements into domains like housing, medicine, and education, where much work is left to be done. Purchase on Bookshop $40 Purchase on Barnes & Noble $40 Purchase on Amazon $40 Author Brian Potter is the author of the Construction Physics newsletter and a senior infrastructure fellow at the Institute for Progress. He previously managed an engineering team at Katerra, a SoftBank-backed construction startup, and has 15 years of experience as a structural engineer. Twitter Website PDF Praise Brilliant and comprehensive. Brian Potter is the single best writer in America on how important things get built, and his new book is the single best example of his work. Derek Thompson author of Hit Makers and coauthor of Abundance A whole-systems overview of all known manufacturing processes (past and present), crammed with dense details, stories, anecdotes, and lessons from the front lines… If you have any interest in, or responsibility for, how to make stuff at scale, you need to read this book. Kevin Kelly founding executive editor of Wired Brian Potter does impeccable, detailed research that he turns into clairvoyant insight about civilization’s most arcane processes. Here, he examines the mechanisms that enable spectacular efficiency in the production of goods and services. Stewart Brand cofounder and president of The Long Now Foundation America has forgotten how to make things. Brian Potter is here to help us remember. By the time you finish this book, you’ll feel like you’re well on your way to becoming an expert in manufacturing. Noah Smith author of Noahpinion The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025 Dwarkesh Patel with Gavin Leech Living cover How did we build large language models? How do they think, if they think? What will the world look like if we have billions of AIs that are as smart as humans, or even smarter? In a series of in-depth interviews with leading AI researchers and company founders—including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, MIRI cofounder Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—Dwarkesh Patel provides the first comprehensive and contemporary portrait of the technology that is transforming our world. Drawn from his interviews on the Dwarkesh Podcast, these curated excerpts range from the technical details of how LLMs work to the possibility of an AI takeover or explosive economic growth. It also includes 170+ definitions and visualizations, classic essays on the theme, and previously unpublished interviews. The Scaling Era offers readers unprecedented insight into a transformative moment in AI’s development—and a vision of what comes next. Purchase on Bookshop $35 Purchase on Barnes & Noble $35 Purchase on Amazon $35 Authors Dwarkesh Patel is the host of Dwarkesh Podcast, where he produces deeply researched interviews with both obscure intellectuals and the most influential figures of our time. Twitter Website Gavin Leech is the cofounder of Arb Research, a consultancy that does empirical and conceptual work in various sciences. He has a …