Classics Library

Build your model of the world through the classics.

AI · Finance · Investment · History · Economics · Business · Philosophy · Technology

Skip the noise, follow the underlying patterns. One book to understand a field, a set of classics to build a cognitive map.

Bilingual search is supported: searching "人工智能" also finds Artificial Intelligence, AI, and AGI.

266 books 100 curated classics 166 from reading lists 12 categories 41 topics 5 reading paths

Featured Classics

A starting point from a hundred books.

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The Black Swan 《黑天鹅》 Nassim Nicholas Taleb Taleb argues that history and markets are shaped mainly by a very small number of extreme events — precisely the ones existing models cannot… Finance Classic Index 95

Superintelligence 《超级智能》 Nick Bostrom Writing before superintelligence existed, Bostrom systematically asked how much leverage humanity would retain once an intelligence far beyond our… Artificial Intelligence Classic Index 94

The Intelligent Investor 《聪明的投资者》 Benjamin Graham Graham separates investing from speculating, sets out defensive and enterprising frameworks built on intrinsic value, margin of safety, and… Investment Classic Index 97

Chip War 《芯片战争》 Chris Miller Miller braids the history of the semiconductor industry with geopolitics: from the invention of the transistor, through Japan's rise and Taiwan's… Technology & Science Classic Index 93

Thinking, Fast and Slow 《思考，快与慢》 Daniel Kahneman Kahneman organizes decades of judgment-and-decision research as a dialogue between two cognitive systems: fast, automatic System 1, and slow… Psychology & Cognitive Science Classic Index 95

Guns, Germs, and Steel 《枪炮、病菌与钢铁》 Jared Diamond Diamond sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: why did Eurasian societies conquer the rest of the world, and not the other way around?… World History Classic Index 93

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 《国富论》 Adam Smith Smith examines the sources of national wealth and argues that it comes from the division of labour and capital accumulation rather than from… Economics Classic Index 97

Zero to One 《从 0 到 1》 Peter Thiel Thiel argues that genuinely valuable companies create something new — going from zero to one — rather than copying what exists, and that in his… Business Classic Index 87

Today's Classic Book Pick · BOOK OF THE DAY

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

《大空头》

Michael Lewis · Finance

Why this book

It turns “bubble” from an abstraction into a chain of specific incentives and specific blind spots: why originators, rating agencies, and counterparties each failed to see the risk. More useful than its conclusions is its demonstration that careful reading of primary documents can expose a whole pricing system.

Today's Idea

Risk does not vanish when it is repackaged and stamped AAA; it moves to whoever can no longer see it.

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Last 7 Days

Two books a day, deduplicated against the whole library.

Reading Paths

Sequence matters more than the list.

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AI for Beginners

AI 入门

From the foundations of computing to the question of general intelligence.

01 Understand Computing The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
02 Understand Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
03 Understand Machine Learning Deep Learning
04 Understand Reinforcement Learning and Agents Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction
05 Understand LLMs and Alignment The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
06 Understand AGI and the Human Future Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

Investing from First Principles

投资入门：从第一性原理出发

Understand the market, build principles, then manage yourself.

01 Understand the Market A Random Walk Down Wall Street
02 Establish Principles The Intelligent Investor
03 Learn Valuation Security Analysis
04 Find Quality and Growth Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
05 Understand Risk and Uncertainty The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
06 Manage Your Own Behavior The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

Understanding World History

理解世界历史

From geographic conditions to the present order.

01 The Origins of Civilization Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
02 The Classical World History of the Peloponnesian War
03 The Rise and Fall of Empires The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
04 The Making of the Modern World The Guns of August
05 The Postwar Order Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
06 The Present Order The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

Economics Essentials

经济学入门

From division of labor to institutions and money.

01 Markets and Division of Labor An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
02 Institutions and Prosperity Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
03 Money and Crisis This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
04 Macroeconomics and Policy The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
05 Behavior and Real Decisions Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
06 The History of Economic Thought The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers

Thinking Better

认知升级

Reduce judgment error and gain from uncertainty.

01 Two Systems of Mind Thinking, Fast and Slow
02 Identify Noise and Bias Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment
03 Understand Probability and Luck Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
04 Improve Forecasting Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
05 Think in Systems Thinking in Systems: A Primer
06 Gain from Uncertainty Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder