Liar's Poker

Liar's Poker. It spurred my interest in investing topics, which made me take the phone call from a D. E. Shaw & Co. recruiter, which gave 25 year-old me's income a step-function up and an increase in the slope over time. It's also an amazingly enjoyable and engaging read.

I made a career change into sales and trading for a while, then went back into full-time medicine - finance is a really interesting subject, but the proportion of assholes in sales and trading is much higher than in software, medicine, or most corporate jobs (all of which of course have some proportion of assholes). That's not to say that people in that industry can't be charming - they totally can be, but they will also do whatever it takes to boost up their reputation (and therefore their annual bonus) at your expense. "Liar's poker" is a pretty accurate description of the culture, but it's much worse when you have to deal with it every day. My experience was on the sell-side, things may be different on the buy-side. Feel free to message me if you want to chat.

Editing: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg >>> Max Perkins was the editor of Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, F Scott Fitzgerald, and other famous 20th century writers. Great, great, book. Bartending: Cosmopolitan by Toby Cecchini >>> Very well-written memoir of a bartender in New York in the late 1980s. He invented the Cosmo in NYC while working at the Odeon — on a lark, without thinking much of it. The drink took off, but I think he's still a working bartender in NYC. Cooking: Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain Painting: Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester Music: Meet me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman Tech: Chaos Monkeys by AGM And seconding swyx's recommendations for all things Michael Lewis, who can spin a good yarn about any profession — whether it's baseball managers, junk bond salesmen, or high frequency traders, etc.…

1. How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling, Bettger A good intro to sales, and a very good book on self-development. 2. When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, Lowenstein A story about LTCM, one of the early and most notorious "quant" hedge funds. A cheeky nod to intellectualism. 3. Liar's Poker, Lewis Investment banking through a trader's eyes. Yes, the absurdity is only partly dramatized. 4. Pimp: The Story of My Life, Iceberg Slim No pithy blurb can summarize this; read it if you want a look into human nature. 5. The Six-Month Fix: Adventures in Rescuing Failing Companies, Sutton Written by a friend and a mentor; may he rest. Gives you a sobering account of what really goes behind the scenes of many companies, along with their management. Apologies; I know this list isn't focused on more humbling professions like the examples you gave.

Ex finance guy here - Liar's Poker for 1980s Wall Street, When Genius Failed for 1990s, More Money Than God for 2000s, Flash Boys for 2010s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_Poker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Genius_Failed - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Boys obviously these do not represent all of finance but its a nice decade-by-decade recap of talking points, i figured i'd try to do it and was surprised how nicely it broke out

SURELY YOU'RE JOKING MR. FEYNMAN BY RICHARD FEYNMAN -I loved this book for its humor, everyday practicality, how relatable it felt even without having a background in physics or knowledge about the pranks and experiments he conducted. As well as the book being well-written in the sense that it reads as if you're sitting on the couch with him as he's telling you stories about his life, all with a child-like sense of wonder and enthusiasm about the world. THE $12 MILLION STUFFED SHARK BY DON THOMPSON -I'm interested in the high-finance and fine-art worlds and this book discussed how they both go together - money and art - in an informative, quick-paced way. THE BUY SIDE BY TURNEY DUFF -For its humor, honesty, and how well written it was in terms of it being a page turner while also providing you with an insightful account about the high-finance industry. MOLLY'S GAME BY MOLLY BLOOM -It was an entertaining, quick-paced read about the private, high-stakes poker industry with an assortment of participants. MONEYBALL, LIAR'S POKER & THE BIG SHORT BY MICHAEL LEWIS -I thought they were all entertaining reads, while also being insightful about their respective subjects.…

1) Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree - Rating 3/5 - Got an idea about the times in receding Muslim powers, at the end of the 15th Century, in Spain - The author is an historian so positive point is that fiction rooted in history. But some of the fictional narratives could have been better, as he was not a fiction writer when he started out. 2) Zero to One - Rating 4/5 - Thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. Insights into and anecdotal examples of Paypal mafia, among the numerous over there. 3) Liar's Poker - Rating 4/5 - The first of several best seller's by Michael Lewis, gives insights into the working of Investment Finance business, and in a very interesting way (lots of humor) 4) Devotion of Suspect X - Rating 4/5 - Work of fiction by the Japanese best seller author Keigo Higashino. Enjoyable read - contrasts a Physicist and a Mathematician trying to out think each other in a crime context (reference to Maths/Physics are just pop-level so don't expect too much)…

Here's a few I've really liked that have a broader subject matter than only what you asked for. I figure that if you like to read you'd like these books. --- NON-FICTION --- Darkness Visible A Mathemematician's Apology Omnivore's Dilemma Fermat's Enigma The Code Book Born to Run Judgement of Paris Siddhartha Killing Pablo The Victorian Internet Lone Survivor I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman Papillon Into Thin Air Born on a Blue Day Touching the Void Got Fight The Conquest of Happiness --- FICTION --- Switch Bitch Lost Horizon The Cuckoo's Egg The Simlarillion The Time Traveler's Wife The Alchemist The Count of Monte Cristo A Canticle for Leibowitz Neverwhere My Uncle Oswald Stories of Your Life and Others Invisible Cities Life of Pi Atlas Shrugged --- WALL STREET / FINANCE --- When Genius Failed Liar's Poker Buffett (Lowenstein) Bull! Black-Scholes and Beyond (textbook) Fixed Income Securities (textbook) The Road to Serfdom The Smartest Guys in the Room Fortune's Formula The Fourth Turning Inside the House of Money --- ENTREPRENEURSHIP / COMPUTERS (non-textbook) --- Masters of Doom It's Not About the Bike Dot. Bomb Founders at Work The PayPal Wars…

Those last three are great suggestions (I don't know #1). #2 is a classic, but I've read it a couple of times. #3 I've been meaning to read for years. #4 I'm actually in the middle of right now (I think because tptacek recommended it here) and unlike the vast majority of business books, it's superb. It's also older (pre-internet) which is actually a good thing as it focuses one's attention on fundamentals.

The New New Thing Founders at Work Hackers and Painters How To Get Rich Competitive Strategies The Intelligent Investor (or Security Analysis) Liar's Poker

The Evolution of Cooperation - Robert Axelrod Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clark Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace The Informant - Kurt Eichenwald The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis