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The Corpify Library

A library for people who build things.

The books that actually move the needle. Sorted by what you're working on — strategy, money, leadership, startups — with a straight answer on why each one earns its place.

180 hand-picked titles across 9 shelves.

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The Legends' Shelf16 books
The primary sources behind the minds we study. Read the originals, not the summaries.
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Meditations — book coverA ruler wrote it for no audience but himself — which is exactly why you can trust it.
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin — book coverSelf-improvement before it became an industry: a system for becoming, not a pep talk.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
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Self-Reliance and Other Essays — book coverThe original argument for ignoring the crowd — still the hardest advice to follow.
Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The Last Days of Socrates — book coverWatch a man out-think an entire city, then choose principle over survival.
The Last Days of Socrates
Plato
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Leonardo da Vinci — book coverGenius decoded as relentless curiosity — a skill, not a gift you were born without.
Leonardo da Vinci
Walter Isaacson
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My Inventions — book coverThe inventor who saw finished machines in his head before touching a tool.
My Inventions
Nikola Tesla
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Business Strategy23 books
Not how to compete harder — how to make competition irrelevant.
Articles See all 23 →
Zero to One — book coverCopying winners keeps you second. This is the case for building the thing that has no rival.
Zero to One
Peter Thiel
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Good Strategy Bad Strategy — book coverMost "strategy" is a list of goals. This shows you the difference — and why it costs you.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
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Good to Great — book coverThe leap isn't made by visionaries — it's made by disciplined people doing boring things well.
Good to Great
Jim Collins
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Competitive Strategy — book coverThe framework everyone quotes and few actually apply. Read the source.
Competitive Strategy
Michael E. Porter
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Playing to Win — book coverStrategy as a set of hard choices, from the people who ran P&G. Where do you play, and how do you win?
Playing to Win
A.G. Lafley
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Blue Ocean Strategy — book coverStop fighting for a share of a bloody market. Go make a new one where the competition is irrelevant.
Blue Ocean Strategy
W. Chan Kim
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Leadership23 books
Authority is granted. Trust is earned in the boring, repeated moments.
Articles See all 23 →
The Speed of Trust — book coverTrust isn't soft — it's the hidden tax or dividend on everything you do.
The Speed of Trust
Stephen M.R. Covey
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Leaders Eat Last — book coverThe team's performance is a mirror of whether they feel safe. Read it before your next reorg.
Leaders Eat Last
Simon Sinek
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The Hard Thing About Hard Things — book coverThe advice no one gives: what to do when there is no good move, only the least-bad one.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
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Turn the Ship Around! — book coverThe best leaders create more leaders, not more followers. A submarine captain proves it.
Turn the Ship Around!
L. David Marquet
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High Output Management — book coverThe operating manual behind Intel — still the clearest thinking on what a manager's job actually is.
High Output Management
Andrew S. Grove
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Extreme Ownership — book coverThere are no bad teams, only bad leaders. Own everything — even what isn't your fault.
Extreme Ownership
Jocko Willink
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Finance24 books
Doing well with money has little to do with how much you know.
Articles See all 24 →
The Psychology of Money — book coverBehavior beats spreadsheets. The best returns go to those who can stay calm, not those who are clever.
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
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The Almanack of Naval Ravikant — book coverWealth is built with leverage you own — code, media, equity — not hours you rent out.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Eric Jorgenson
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The Intelligent Investor — book coverThe book Buffett calls the best ever written on investing — because it's about temperament, not tips.
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
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A Random Walk Down Wall Street — book coverThe unglamorous truth about beating the market: you probably won't, and that's the strategy.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street
Burton G. Malkiel
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The Little Book of Common Sense Investing — book coverThe founder of Vanguard on why the boring index fund quietly beats the geniuses who charge you fees.
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
John C. Bogle
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The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing — book coverThe whole low-cost, do-nothing-clever playbook in one place. Unsexy, and that's the point.
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
Taylor Larimore
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Marketing19 books
Marketing isn't the megaphone. It's the story people tell themselves after you leave.
Articles See all 19 →
Positioning — book coverThe whole game in one book: you don't win in the market, you win in the mind. Everything I do — the directory, the tools, the tone — is a fight to own one word before someone else does.
Positioning
Al Ries
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This Is Marketing — book coverThe book that keeps me honest. Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve their problem — not shouting louder. When our outreach starts to feel needy, I re-read this.
This Is Marketing
Seth Godin
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Building a StoryBrand — book coverThe client is the hero, we're the guide. The day I rewrote the directory as "a community that talks about you" instead of "list your business," this was why.
Building a StoryBrand
Donald Miller
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Purple Cow — book coverBeing "very good" is invisible. Remarkable — worth remarking on — is the only safe bet left.
Purple Cow
Seth Godin
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Crossing the Chasm — book coverEarly fans love you for reasons the mass market never will. This is how you cross that gap alive.
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey A. Moore
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Influence — book coverThe six levers behind every yes. I use them to design honest funnels — and to catch myself the instant a nudge tips into a dark pattern.
Influence
Robert B. Cialdini
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Productivity22 books
Being busy is the easy part. This shelf is about the courage to do less.
Articles See all 22 →
Thinking, Fast and Slow — book coverThe two systems behind every decision — the fast one that feels, the slow one that reasons. Almost everyone buys, hesitates, and abandons on System 1. My entire job is designing for the mind that's actually in the room, not the rational one we pretend shows up.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
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Predictably Irrational — book coverWe're not irrational by accident — we're irrational in patterns you can predict. Anchoring is why a $499 tier makes $99 feel reasonable. I use these patterns to make the honest choice the easy one, never to trap.
Predictably Irrational
Dan Ariely
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Nudge — book coverChoice architecture: you can't present options neutrally, so present them honestly. "Most businesses start here" is a nudge — a signal, not a shove. This book is the line I refuse to cross into manipulation.
Nudge
Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein
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Descartes' Error — book coverThe myth I fight daily: that good decisions are purely rational. Damasio proved emotion isn't the enemy of reason — it's the thing that makes deciding possible at all. That's why I design for the feeling first, the feature list second.
Descartes' Error
Antonio Damasio
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Deep Work — book coverThe ability to focus without distraction is becoming rare — which is exactly why it's becoming valuable.
Deep Work
Cal Newport
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Atomic Habits — book coverYou don't rise to your goals; you fall to your systems. Fix the system, not the motivation.
Atomic Habits
James Clear
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Startup21 books
You don't need permission, a huge team, or a runway of years to start.
Articles See all 21 →
The Lean Startup — book coverMost startups don't fail at building — they succeed at building something nobody wanted. Learn faster.
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
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The $100 Startup — book coverProof that the gap between idea and income can be days and dollars, not years and investors.
The $100 Startup
Chris Guillebeau
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Company of One — book coverThe heresy: what if the goal isn't to grow? Staying small on purpose as a competitive edge.
Company of One
Paul Jarvis
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Rework — book coverA wrecking ball for startup dogma — plans, meetings, and "more" are usually the problem.
Rework
Jason Fried
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Traction — book coverGreat product, no distribution, dead company. Nineteen channels to find the one that actually works.
Traction
Gabriel Weinberg
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The Millionaire Fastlane — book coverA blunt attack on "get rich slow." Wealth is built by control and scale, not by clipping coupons for 40 years.
The Millionaire Fastlane
MJ DeMarco
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Communication18 books
The hardest conversations are the ones that decide everything.
Articles See all 18 →
Crucial Conversations — book coverEvery deal has one conversation that decides it — usually the one nobody wants to have. This taught me to stay in the room when the price, the doubt, or the silence gets heavy, instead of retreating to email.
Crucial Conversations
Kerry Patterson
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Made to Stick — book coverWhy some ideas survive and others die. Being right isn't enough — being remembered is the job.
Made to Stick
Chip Heath
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Never Split the Difference — book coverThe one I go back to before every hard call. "I'll think about it" is never about the price — it's an objection you haven't found yet. Tactical empathy beats pressure every single time. This is my playbook.
Never Split the Difference
Chris Voss
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On Writing Well — book coverClear writing is clear thinking made visible. Cut the clutter and the reader trusts you.
On Writing Well
William Zinsser
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Talk Like TED — book coverA pitch that spreads has one idea, zero jargon, and a moment you feel. I reverse-engineer this every time I write an outreach email — the subject line "We want to write about you" is straight out of here.
Talk Like TED
Carmine Gallo
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How to Talk to Anyone — book coverCharisma isn't born, it's built from small, learnable moves most people never bother to practice.
How to Talk to Anyone
Leil Lowndes
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Technology14 books
The books that shaped how we build. Code as craft, systems as art, shipping as religion.
Articles See all 14 →
Gödel, Escher, Bach — book coverRecursion, patterns, consciousness. The book that breaks your brain and rebuilds it better.
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas Hofstadter
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The Mythical Man-Month — book coverOne person shipping beats ten people meeting. Written in 1975, still true every single day.
The Mythical Man-Month
Frederick Brooks
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Hackers & Painters — book coverThe essays that reframe coding as art — from the man who funded half of Silicon Valley.
Hackers & Painters
Paul Graham
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The Design of Everyday Things — book coverWhy the best systems are invisible. If you notice the interface, someone failed.
The Design of Everyday Things
Don Norman
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — book coverQuality. Craft. Attention. The philosophy of giving a damn about what you make.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert Pirsig
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How to Solve It — book coverA mathematician's method for solving any problem. Understand, plan, execute, review. That simple. That hard.
How to Solve It
George Pólya
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