Radek Pietruszewski
Programmer; builds Mac and iOS apps, wrote WatermelonDB, and writes about tools, focus and software craft.
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Where they publish
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 60 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Read Punished by Rewards
Podcast (Part 2). Incentivizing people — punishing or rewarding (with bonuses, commissions, grades, public praise, and other bribes) is manipulative and doesn’t actually work. It seems to work, but only in the very short term and causes severe long-term damage.
radex.io 16 Aug 2026
Read Digital Minimalism
Podcast. Cal Newport’s new book is a great distillation of what I’ve come to believe is the right, sustainable, healthy approach to social media, and technology more broadly. Browse less, make the best of it, and live more.
radex.io 16 Aug 2026
Read Courage to Be Disliked
This is a very strange book, and I can’t say I liked it very much, but there is some useful philosophy inside (and perhaps a lot if you or someone you know is struggling with low self-esteem).
radex.io 16 Aug 2026
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Read Factfulness
The world is bad, but better. The vast majority of westerners believe the world is poorer, more violent, deadly, primitive, and awful than it actually is. This book beautifully illustrates our ignorance, updates your knowledge, and gives you tools for a fact-based worldview.
radex.io 16 Aug 2026
Read Finding My Virginity
Richard Branson’s second autobiography. As someone not very familiar with his work, it was an interesting read (but as always with autobiographies, take it with a grain of salt).
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read Turn the Ship Around
Guide to transforming top-down organizations into lean ones, where everyone is a leader. Written by a submarine commander, it’s mostly useful to managers in big corporations and other institutions.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read The Culture Code
Ideas about developing teams that work together better. Underwhelming — took just a few base concepts and then stretched them very thin by applying to them a dozen different (not always compelling) stories.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Loved The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Podcast. Despite the apparent red flags about the book, it’s actually pretty genius! Read it with the right mindset (filter out bullshit), transform your relationship with objects, and declutter your life once and for all.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
What others say about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up →
Read Profit First
Podcast. A simple system for managing money based around human flaws. Written for entrepreneurs, but you can adapt it for personal finance.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read Conspiracy
Fascinating story of how Peter Thiel masterminded the takedown of Gawker — with some help from Hulk Hogan.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read Age of Ambition
If you don’t really understand or know a lot about China today, this is one perspective. Good book.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read Merchants of Doubt
Recommended read. If you want to spread FUD and lie to millions of people about issues such as tobacco smoking or global warming, this is a perfect handbook for you. If you don’t, you’ll learn their tactics.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read Titan: Life of John D. Rockefeller
Nice read, but be warned: this is long.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read The Pope of Physics
Biography of Encrico Fermi, and, among other things, another perspective on the Manhattan Project.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read What do You Care What Other People Think?
Amusing anecdotes from Richard Feynman’s life. They never disappoint.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
What others say about What do You Care What Other People Think? →
Read Bad Blood
A story of a big, decade-long Silicon Valley scam. Good read.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read Billion Dollar Whale
Another good story of a big, multi-billion-dollar scam. They’re fun!
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership
A book about management in big organizations. Though still somewhat interesting if you work in small organizations for perspective.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read Bullshit Jobs
Podcast. Funny, scary, thought-provoking book. Thesis: what if a large portion of our population performs jobs they secretly know don’t need to be performed, and if they disappeared, no one would notice?
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read This Is Marketing
If you do (or want/need to do) some marketing, want to be good at it, and distrust standard marketing bullshit the world is filled with, this might be a book for you.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
Podcast. Another classic manifesto from Jason Fried and DHH, challenging the status quo of business today. Properly sparkled with both “fuck”s and wisdom. Fuck 50 or 80-hour work weeks, the always stressed, always anxious way of working, constant crunch. Let’s all calm down. It doesn’t have to be crazy at work.
radex.io 1 Jan 2018
Read The Vital Question
A fascinating book exploring the role of energy in biology and evolution. It explains how eucaryotic life emerged and why it grew in complexity, while bacteria have remained unchanged in their simplicity for billions of years. It also presents the best theory of abiogenesis we have, and a lot more.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Life Ascending
An earlier biology book by Nick Lane. With his characteristic richness of detail, it explores the evolution of DNA, photosynthesis, movement, sight, sex, consciousness, and death.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read This Is Your Brain on Parasites
Another biology-related book. Explores the role of parasites (and bacteria, disease, disgust) in human behavior, attraction, even politics, morality, religion. Some of this is is cutting-edge, speculative, or not fully proven — but very interesting stuff indeed.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
A collection of stories from Richard Feynman’s life. Very entertaining.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Sleep Smarter
Podcast. Practical advice on how to improve the quality of your sleep. Quality is the key word — there are more factors come into play than just the amount of sleep.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Fooled by Randomness
Podcast. Ramblings about randomness and all the ways in which our minds aren’t properly equipped to deal with it.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read How to Read a Book
Rough Notes. A very meta book with some serious advice on how to read books well. Frustratingly long for its content, though.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Bad Science
Examples of good science, pseudo-scientific bullshit, and how to discern between the two.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read A Guide to the Good Life
Podcast (Part 2). A modern, approachable guide to Stoicism — a philosophy of life whose goal is to maximize the experience of tranquility. This is a seriously useful bag of psychological tricks.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Insanely Simple
Podcast. Rough Notes. Yet another history book about Apple and Steve Jobs through one person’s perspective. Not super inspiring, but entertaining.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Skunk Works
History of Lockheed Martin’s secret division that created many of USA’s greatest military innovations. I don’t care for the military, but to create an organization this lean and innovative inside a big, slow, bureocratic corporation is very rare.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Homo Deus
Rough Notes. A rather dystopian prediction of the future of humanity. Can’t say I agree with it all, but definitely something to think about.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Loved Nonviolent Communication
Podcast. Rough Notes. A brilliant guide to resolving conflicts with other people, cultivating empathy, and understanding other peoples’ feelings and needs.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read The 4-Hour Body
Rough Notes. Never finished it to be honest, but the part about dieting supplements the classic Why We Get Fat (the former explains the theory well, while Ferriss’s book gives practical dietary ideas)
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read Driven to Distraction at Work
Rough Notes. This book identifies common patterns among people struggling to stay focused, and offers some coping strategies. Haven’t found it as inspiring as I’d hoped, but has some good stuff.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read The Emperor of All Maladies
History of cancer (and the research and people trying to combat it) taught through (very good) storytelling.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Loved Better Than Before
Podcast. A great book of strategies for cultivating good habits and overcoming bad ones. Highly recommended.
radex.io 1 Jan 2017
Read The ONE Thing
A few great insights, but also some cringeworthy parts. Would recommend Essentialism over this one.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Loved Why We Get Fat
Podcast. Before I read this book, my understanding of what makes us fat (what made me fat!) was highly mistaken. That, or this book is bullshit. But I don’t think so. My research and experience applying the lessons so far seem to confirm it. Hard to argue with 10kg lost in 4 months with little effort.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read The Everything Store
A biography of Jeff Bezos and Amazon. An enjoyable read, some history, and some insight.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Good to Great
A research-based look at what causes companies to move from mediocre or good to great performance. Not super engaging to read, but the methodology behind the book gives its ideas more credibility.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Loved Sapiens
The history of humankind from 2 million years back all the way until today. Fascinating read. I liked that it wasn’t just a list of events, but an overarching “theory of history”. Also enjoyed that this one topic was presented through many lenses: history, evolutionary biology, archeology, economics, even philosophy and theology.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Your Brain at Work
Notes (More notes). A lot of knowledge about how our brains work, packed into useful, practical terms. Understanding this stuff will help you be more productive, deal with stress and emotions better, even get better at working with and influencing other people.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Narconomics
If you’ve enjoyed Narcos, you’ll like this book. The world of drugs, cartels, gangs, violence, and prisons looked at from the perspective of an economist.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Industries of the Future
If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably well-prepared for what’s to come in the next few decades. Still, things will change, and this book offers one perspective at the industries that will flourish, and how wealth will be distributed in the world.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Zero to One
Thoughts on building innovative new companies. There’s some startup BS in Zero to One that turned me off, but still enough interesting insight to recommend the book.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Loved Deep Work
Podcast. Yes, yes, yes! We live very distracted lives and most of our working days are filled with shallow tasks and interruptions. Although programmers get the importance of flow, it’s so hard to achieve. Our environments don’t support it, and shallow work is just easier. The book makes a compelling case for why we should double down on deep work, and offers some practical strategies for achie…
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Whole Earth Discipline
An ecopragmatist book making a compelling argument that urbanization, nuclear energy, and genetic engineering are good for the environment and must be pursued. This is all counterintuitive — environmental movement traditionally despises those things. But we’ve gone so far changing Earth, there might not be another choice.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Start with Why
We tend to focus on the “what” and “how” of our companies and products. This manifesto reminds us to always start with “why” — the reason we do the things we do, to let that guide our decisions, the whats and hows. Personally, I found the book neither very insightful nor inspiring, but YMMV.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read 4 Disciplines of Execution
Podcast. A system for pursuing goals, keeping track of progress, and making sure they ultimately get done. Useful in organizations and individuals. You won’t find the ideas very innovative, but the approach is helpful, and yet not something we tend to do. Worth a read if you have goals you have trouble actually finding time for.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Loved Originals
Podcast. Good advice for generating, recognizing, and championing original ideas, as well as for creating resilient cultures that promote creative thinking, and resist groupthink. A lot of stuff to unpack, a good read.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Loved How to Fly a Horse
Podcast. More stories and insight on creativity. In particular, the book makes a strong case for just how ordinary creativity is, and makes you notice the things that hold us back from creating or lead us astray when we do.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Naked Money
An interesting read about macroeconomics, the nature of money, the role of central banking, and other related topics. Lots of history, and packed into a very enjoyable and approachable book.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Naked Statistics
The book’s stated goal is to convey an intuitive (as in: very little math) understanding of statistics, and I think it succeeds at that. It shows both the awesome power of statistics (for research, science, predictions) and the dangers of its misuse.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Loved The Gene
The fascinating history of genetics, told from the very beginning up until today. Covers the broad range of genetics-related science, its development, and its implications. Long, but very well written, and a pleasure to read (or listen to).
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Smarter Faster Better
Podcast (Part 2). Stories and case studies about the invisible forces that shape how productive we are — both individually, and in organizations. A good read.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age
To me, this biography of Nikola Tesla is a cautionary tale of what happens when you start believing you’re the smartest person on Earth. After a brilliant invention and commercial success of his induction motor, he created nothing else of great significance. He promised a lot, but delivered nothing.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
What others say about Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age →
Read The Inevitable
Podcast (Part 2). A story about how the world will change in the next few decades. The nature of technology available today makes certain trends almost inevitable. Even though the exact future is unknowable, we can still extrapolate from high-level trends to make some good predictions about the future.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
Read The Now Habit
A guide to procrastination: why we do it, how we do it, and a number of tips and strategies to help overcome it. Overall a dry read, but there are a few bits I found useful.
radex.io 1 Jan 2016
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