The book this episode covers
How to Succeed in Mr. Beast's Production
Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast) · Reading rank 315
David highly recommends reading the leaked memo.
Dedicated episode · Explicit praise
Books David recommends along the way
Hard Drive
James Wallace and Jim Erickson · Reading rank 6 · in 23 other episodes
David calls Hard Drive one of his favorite all-time biographies.
Explicit praise
Creative Selection
Ken Kocienda · Reading rank 7 · in 19 other episodes
David says he absolutely loves Creative Selection.
Cross-episode reference · Explicit praise · Reread language
Becoming Steve Jobs
Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli · Reading rank 8 · in 20 other episodes
David calls Becoming Steve Jobs the best Steve Jobs biography ever written.
Explicit praise
How to Make a Few Billion Dollars
Brad Jacobs · Reading rank 51 · in 10 other episodes
David tells listeners to read the book and calls it incredible.
Cross-episode reference · Explicit praise · Founder theme
The Founders
Jimmy Soni · Reading rank 67 · in 13 other episodes
David uses a Max Levchin quote from The Founders to draw a hiring-bar founder theme ('A's hire A's').
Founder theme
Insanely Simple
Ken Segall · Reading rank 86 · in 11 other episodes
David draws an uncompromising-standards founder theme from the ad-campaign anecdote in the book.
Founder theme
The House of Arnault
Brad Stone and Angelina Rascouet · Reading rank 99 · in 6 other episodes
David compares Arnault’s store-visit experience with MrBeast’s repeated study of videos as ways to notice details other people miss.
Cross-episode reference · Founder theme
The Power of Fastenal People
Robert A. Kierlin · Reading rank 118 · in 3 other episodes
David compares Kierlin’s growth-through-customer-service objective with MrBeast’s focus on making the best YouTube videos, emphasizing a common goal across the organization.
Cross-episode reference · Founder theme
The Billionaire and the Mechanic
Julian Guthrie · Reading rank 127 · in 9 other episodes
David draws a differentiation founder theme from the hard-wing sailing story in the book.
Founder theme
The Unpublished David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy · Reading rank 139 · in 4 other episodes
David draws a risk-tolerance founder theme from the Sears toy-buyer anecdote in the book.
Founder theme
Also mentioned
The Fish That Ate the Whale
Rich Cohen · Reading rank 2 · in 38 other episodes
David uses the attributed line about knowing a business from A to Z to reinforce the memo's lesson that deep operational knowledge speeds problem solving.
Founder theme
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charles T. Munger, edited by Peter D. Kaufman · Reading rank 11 · in 44 other episodes
David applies the Persian messenger syndrome material to the management practice of welcoming bad news promptly.
Founder theme
Physical Optics
Robert W. Wood · Reading rank 418 · in 2 other episodes
David uses Edwin Land's obsessive reading of this textbook to draw a founder theme about single-minded study and dedication.
Founder theme
The Goal
Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox · Reading rank 429 · in 1 other episode
While reading the memo, David presents the quoted speaker's recommendation of The Goal as support for managing production bottlenecks.
Founder theme
Each note is a short paraphrase of why David brings the book up. Book pages show every piece of evidence and its review status. How ranking works