Biographies

Day 01Charlie MungerInvestor · Multidisciplinary Thinking · 1924–2023 Day 02Warren BuffettInvestor · Inner Scorecard · 1930– Day 03Steve JobsProduct Patriarch · Reality Distortion · 1955–2011 Day 04Elon MuskSpaceX/Tesla · First Principles · 1971– Day 05Bill GatesMicrosoft Founder · Think Week · 1955– Day 06Jensen HuangNVIDIA Founder · 16-Year CUDA Bet · 1963– Day 07Ray DalioBridgewater Founder · Principles & the Exception · 1949– Day 08Sam AltmanOpenAI CEO · 96 Hours & One Version · 1985– Day 09Jeff BezosAmazon Founder · Regret Minimization · 1964– Day 10Yvon ChouinardPatagonia Founder · Earth Is the Only Shareholder · 1938– Day 11Lee Kuan YewFounder of Modern Singapore · Performance Legitimacy · 1923–2015 Day 12Deng XiaopingChief Architect of Reform · Down Three Times, Up Three · 1904–1997 Day 13Ren ZhengfeiHuawei Founder · Institutionalizing Fear · 1944– Day 14Jack MaAlibaba Founder · The Power & Backlash of Narrative · 1964– Day 15Tim CookApple CEO · Inventory Like Dairy · 1960– Day 16Marie CurieFounder of Radioactivity · Focus as Weapon & Backlash · 1867–1934 Day 17Rosalind FranklinX-ray Crystallographer · The Power & Price of Rigor · 1920–1958 Day 18Frances ArnoldPioneer of Directed Evolution · Humility & the Discipline of Owning Error · 1956– Day 19Sara BlakelyFounder of Spanx · Ignorance as a Weapon · 1971– Day 20Sheryl SandbergFormer Meta COO · The Top Executor & the "Lean In" Controversy · 1969– Day 21Indra NooyiFormer PepsiCo CEO · Long-Termism Under Quarterly Tyranny · 1955– Day 22Peter DruckerFather of Modern Management · Asking Beats Answering · 1909–2005 Day 23Sam WaltonWalmart Founder · Asymmetric Edge in the Margins · 1918–1992 Day 24Howard SchultzFormer Starbucks CEO · Mission as Both Engine and Blind Spot · 1953– Day 25Lin HuiyinArchitectural Historian · Poet · Routing Around the Locked Door · 1904–1955 Day 26Reid HoffmanLinkedIn Founder · Network as Leverage & the Moral Ledger of Blitzscaling · 1967– Day 27Audrey TangTaiwan's First Digital Minister · The Edge of Radical Transparency & Open Collaboration · 1981– Day 28Linus TorvaldsAuthor of Linux · Creator of Git · Giving Control Away Is the Real Leverage · 1969– Day 29Naval RavikantFounder of AngelList · The Elegant Formula of Judgment × Leverage, and Its Shadow · 1974– Day 30Grace HopperCompiler Pioneer · Spiritual Mother of COBOL · Lowering the Barrier Is the Greatest Lever · 1906–1992 Day 31Richard FeynmanFounder of QED · An Operating System for Refusing to Fool Yourself · 1918–1988 Day 32Charles DarwinAuthor of Natural Selection · Twenty Years of Caution and Delay · 1809–1882 Day 33Barbara McClintockDiscoverer of Jumping Genes · The Power of Deep Looking & the Cost of Refusing to Be Understood · 1902–1992 Day 34Alan TuringFounder of the Theory of Computation · Breaker of Enigma · The Power & Cost of Taking Problems Down to Definitions · 1912–1954 Day 35Tu YouyouDiscoverer of Artemisinin · Pruning the Search with Priors · The Glory & Shadow of One Person's Nobel · 1930– Day 36Leonardo da VinciPainter · Anatomist · Engineer · The Extreme of Curiosity & the Cost of Never Finishing · 1452–1519 Day 37Frida KahloMexican Painter · Painting Wounds into Art & the Cost of Self-Myth · 1907–1954 Day 38Ludwig van BeethovenComposer · Writing the Ninth While Fully Deaf & the Cost of an Unchecked Will · 1770–1827 Day 39Su DongpoSong-dynasty writer · Playing a hopeless political hand into the most serene life & the cost of a too-sharp brush · 1037–1101 Day 40Hannah ArendtPolitical thinker · The banality of evil & the courage and cost of independent judgment · 1906–1975 Day 41James BaldwinNovelist & essayist · a "witness" who refused every camp & the exile's bind · 1924–1987 Day 42Rachel CarsonMarine biologist · Silent Spring, halting an era's blind faith in chemistry & its controversy · 1907–1964 Day 43Jane GoodallPrimatologist · rewriting the definition of "Man" with a 26-year-old's patience, and the method disputes · 1934–2025 Day 44Ludwig WittgensteinPhilosopher · reaching philosophy's end twice, then tearing down his own work · 1889–1951 Day 45Akira KurosawaFilm director · "Emperor"-grade perfectionism, the method of never averting one's eyes, and its price · 1910–1998 Day 46Florence NightingaleFounder of modern nursing · using one rose diagram to make an empire face preventable death, and its shadow · 1820–1910 Day 47Nikola TeslaFather of the AC system · won the grid yet tore up his patents and died in debt · 1856–1943 Day 48Yayoi Kusamaavant-garde artist · no cure sought — a production line built for her hallucinations, for seventy years · 1929– Day 49Simone WeilFrench philosopher · argued attention is our highest capacity, then spent herself with the same absolutism · 1909–1943 Day 50Ernest ShackletonAntarctic explorer · three expeditions, no stated goal met — and 28 men brought back alive · 1874–1922 Day 51Katherine JohnsonNASA computer · the decade when machines couldn't be trusted, and she became the only way to verify them · 1918–2020 Day 52Xu XiakeMing geographer · no degree and no salary, and a standard of evidence stricter than the state gazetteers · 1587–1641 Day 53John Coltranejazz saxophonist · built free improvisation on the dullest drills ever enumerated · 1926–1967 Day 54Katsushika Hokusaiukiyo-e artist · thirty-odd names, ninety-three addresses: starting over as standing procedure · 1760–1849 Day 55Wangari Maathaifounder of the Green Belt Movement · erosion and dictatorship reduced to one act a farming woman could do today · 1940–2011 Day 56Srinivasa Ramanujanmathematician · a conjecture engine of huge throughput and no self-check, where the triumphs and the errors share one source · 1887–1920 Day 57Eileen Changnovelist · saw through the undignified half of human nature, yet filed politics under private life and made retreat her default · 1920–1995 Day 58Václav Havelplaywright and president · withdrawing cooperation is the strongest lever, but diagnosing a system is not running one · 1936–2011 Day 59Maria Montessorieducational reformer · rebuilt the environment instead of the teaching, then locked the method down with control · 1870–1952 Day 60Ibn Battutathe longest traveller of the Middle Ages · crossed three continents on verifiable credentials, and never stepped past their boundary · 1304–1368 Day 61Nelson Mandelareconciliation completed while the enemy still held the guns · dismantle their fear first, then press your victory · 1918–2013 Day 62Abraham Lincolna moral goal broken into an executable political procedure · preserve the container first, then load emancipation into it · 1809–1865 Day 63Mahatma Gandhia moral position turned into executable action design · pick a target anyone can copy and that looks absurd to suppress · 1869–1948 Day 64Winston Churchillthe real fork was never fight-or-surrender but whether to start asking about terms at all · the certainty that saved 1940 also drove 1915, 1925 and 1943 · 1874–1965 Day 65Martin Luther King Jr.the Montgomery boycott · I Have a Dream · nonviolent resistance · late radicalization Day 66John Maynard Keynesthe prophecy at Versailles · the revolution of the General Theory · Bretton Woods · art & speculation Day 67Adam Smithtwo books because it was one system · trading a chair for ten years owing nothing · the miscalculated case against slavery · 1723–1790 Day 73Larry Page & Sergey Brinmeeting at Stanford & PageRank · the rise and fall of "don't be evil" · the Alphabet restructuring and stepping back · returning in the AI era