“A reading list for generalists” by Dylan Bowman

I, along with many others in AI safety, believe there is a shortage of generalists in the community and that there exist many projects and efforts that by default will not happen unless they are owned by a strong generalist[1][2][3]. As someone who is a reasonably good generalist, I decided to assemble a reading list of the essays and blog posts that have personally helped me the most. I would love others to comment with pieces they think should be on this list.

The crux of this reading list is the idea that if you’re working hard as a generalist on a project you care a lot about, then by rigorously applying the lessons from these documents you will improve more quickly than you otherwise would.

By the numbers:

• I’ve attached 18 documents to start this reading list.
• The authors cited more than once are Paul Graham (5), Ben Kuhn (4), Ethan Perez (2), and Greg Brockman (2). Sam Altman and Eliezer Yudkowsky also have their fingerprints over a lot of the content.
• The items are 15 blog posts, 1 blog comment, 1 interview transcript in blog post form, and 1 book.

Dispositional

What characteristics should you [...]

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Outline:

(01:15) Dispositional

(01:41) Strategy

(03:09) Project leadership

(04:10) Interpersonal/organizational

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 28th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sH4cFDDjRdGrn3p2o/a-reading-list-for-generalists

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.