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.

“A reading list for generalists” by Dylan Bowman

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“A reading list for generalists” by Dylan Bowman