[momofuku]

I'm pretty sure I'll get downvoted, but Ashlee Vance's book on Elon Musk. Hear me out. I'm not recommending it for Elon's story but more to understand how to build companies, understand complex problems, look for great talent and how to build better systems by looking at things from a slightly different perspective. I read it when I was 18 as well and I learnt that Tesla wasn't actually (not entirely) Elon's acheivement. It was actually JB Straubel's passion project. As an engineer, I deeply admire JB and the things he has acheived (by being at the helm of Tesla), and what he will acheive through Redwood Materials, his new recycled batteries project. If his resillence and stint at Tesla/Stanford etc are any indication, we can soon expect some revolutionary things from him (once again).

It also showed me how SpaceX was born when Elon and his team crunched some numbers on a trip back from Russia, only to realize that it would be cheaper to build their own rockets rather than rent Russia's.

That book is filled with stories about complex systems that humans broke down into simpler problems and hacked them together into monolith companies. Contrary to popular beliefs (mostly held by people who haven't read the book), its not entirely about Elon.

My two cents.