*Asterisk indicates "Important" Book IMHO -- highly recommended :-)
| Title | Author(s) | Category | Read | Rating | Recommended By |
| Atlas Shrugged* | Ayn Rand | Fiction | 2002 | 10 | Dave Seidl |
| The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion | Jonathan Haidt | Philosophy And Psychology | 2022 | 10 | Marc Andreessen via Twitter |
| Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar | Jessie Inchauspe aka “Glucose Goddess” | Science and Medicine | 2024 | 10 | |
| Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything | Michio Kaku | Technology | 2023 | 10 | |
| Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst | Robert M. Sapolsky | Science and Medicine | 2024 | 10 | |
| The Body | Bill Bryson | Science and Medicine | 2020 | 10 | |
| The Obesity Code | Dr. Jason Fung | Science and Medicine | 2019 | 10 | |
| Hacking Darwin | Jamie Metzl | Science and Medicine | 2019 | 10 | |
| Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World | David Epstein | Startups and Business | 2019 | 10 | |
| We Are the Nerds | Christine Lagorio-Chafkin | Startups and Business | 2019 | 10 | |
| Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup | John Careyrou | Startups and Business | 2018 | 10 | |
| High Growth Handbook | Elad Gill | Startups and Business | 2018 | 10 | |
| Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction | Derek Thompson | Startups and Business | 2018 | 10 | |
| How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence | Michael Pollan | Philosophy And Psychology | 2018 | 10 | |
| How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story | Billy Gallagher | Startups and Business | 2018 | 10 | |
| The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe* | Sean Carroll | Science and Medicine | 2017 | 10 | |
| Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto)* | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Philosophy And Psychology | 2016 | 10 | |
| Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez | Startups and Business | 2016 | 10 | Antonio Garcia Martinez via Facebook |
| Elon Musk: Inventing the Future | Ashlee Vance | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2015 | 10 | |
| The Martian | Andy Weir | Fiction | 2015 | 10 | |
| The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers* | Ben Horowitz | Startups and Business | 2014 | 10 | |
| Zero to One* | Peter Thiel, Blake Masters | Startups and Business | 2014 | 10 | |
| Dad is Fat | Jim Gaffigan | Comedy | 2013 | 10 | |
| Inferno | Dan Brown | Fiction | 2013 | 10 | |
| Bossypants | Tina Fey | Comedy | 2012 | 10 | |
| This is a Book | Demetri Martin | Comedy | 2012 | 10 | Fred Goff |
| Venture Deals* | Brad Feld | Startups and Business | 2012 | 10 | |
| Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week* | John R. Little and Doug McGuff | Science and Medicine | 2011 | 10 | Rob Leathern |
| One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com | Richard Brandt | Startups and Business | 2011 | 10 | |
| Ready Player One | Ernest Cline | Fiction | 2011 | 10 | MKF, Scott Schoberg |
| The Ultimate Sales Machine* | Chet Holmes | Startups and Business | 2011 | 10 | |
| Thinking, Fast and Slow* | Daniel Kahneman | Philosophy And Psychology | 2011 | 10 | |
| Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us* | Daniel Pink | Startups and Business | 2010 | 10 | |
| The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine | Michael Lewis | Startups and Business | 2010 | 10 | |
| Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super-athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen* | Christopher McDougall | Philosophy And Psychology | 2009 | 10 | Ken Abel |
| Home Gain | Michael Lewis | Comedy | 2009 | 10 | |
| Onward | Howard Schultz | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2009 | 10 | |
| The Innovator’s Dilemma* | Clayton M. Christensen | Startups and Business | 2009 | 10 | |
| The Lost Symbol | Dan Brown | Fiction | 2009 | 10 | |
| Moneyball* | Michael Lewis | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2009 | 10 | |
| Predictably Irrational* | Dan Ariely | Philosophy And Psychology | 2008 | 10 | First LeadsCon Keynote |
| The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy* | Douglas Adams | Fiction | 2008 | 10 | |
| A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future | Daniel H. Pink | Philosophy And Psychology | 2006 | 10 | |
| Rich Dad Poor Dad : What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That The Poor And Middle Class Don’t* | Robert T. Kiyosaki | Startups and Business | 2000 | 10 | TJF |
| How to Win Friends and Influence People* | Dale Carnegie | Philosophy And Psychology | 1995 | 10 | |
| Think and Grow Rich* | Napoleon Hill | Philosophy And Psychology | 1985 | 10 | TJF |
| Permanent Record | Edward Snowden | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2019 | 10 | |
| Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening | Roger Nierenberg | Philosophy And Psychology | 2009 | 10 | |
| The Parasitic Mind | Gad Saad | Philosophy And Psychology | 2022 | 10 | |
| A Plague Upon Our House | Scott Atlas | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2022 | 10 | |
| The Real Anthony Fauci | Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2022 | 10 | Greg Cangialosi |
| Moving to Outcomes | Robert Glazer | Startups and Business | 2022 | 10 | Bob Glazer |
| The Coddling of the American Mind | Jonathan Haidt | Philosophy And Psychology | 2022 | 10 | Bob Glazer |
| Freakonomics | Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J Dubner | Philosophy And Psychology | 2005 | 10 | |
| The End of the World is Just the Beginning | Peter Zeihan | History | 2022 | 9 | Dennis Drenner |
| Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up | Abigail Shrier | Philosophy And Psychology | 2024 | 9 | Jason Calacanis All-in Podcast |
| Elon Musk | Walter Isaacson | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2023 | 9 | |
| The Order of Time | Carlo Rovelli | Philosophy And Psychology | 2023 | 9 | |
| The Righteous Mind — Why Good People are Divided by Politics & Religion | Jonathan Haidt | Philosophy And Psychology | 2022 | 9 | |
| Founder vs. Investor | Jerry Neumann & Liz Zalman | Startups and Business | 2023 | 9 | |
| Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage | Alfred Lansing | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2022 | 9 | |
| This Is Your Mind on Plants | Michael Pollan | Science and Medicine | 2021 | 9 | |
| Lifespan | David Sinclair | Science and Medicine | 2019 | 9 | |
| Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art | James Nestor | Science and Medicine | 2021 | 9 | Kyle Coughlin |
| The Ride of a Lifetime | Robert Iger | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2020 | 9 | |
| The Innovation Stack | Jim McKelvey | Startups and Business | 2020 | 9 | |
| Catch and Kill | Ronan Farrow | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2019 | 9 | |
| How the Internet Happened | Brian McCullough | Startups and Business | 2019 | 9 | |
| The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age* | David E. Sanger | Technology | 2019 | 9 | |
| Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the | Ryan Holiday | Startups and Business | 2018 | 9 | Greg Cangialosi |
| Home Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow | Yuval Noah Harari | Technology | 2018 | 9 | |
| Life After Google | George Gilder | Startups and Business | 2018 | 9 | |
| Wild Ride: Inside Uber’s Quest for World Domination | Adam Lashinsky | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2018 | 9 | |
| Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed | Alexis Ohanian | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2017 | 9 | Alexis Ohanian |
| Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania | Erik Larson | History | 2016 | 9 | |
| How Not to Be Wrong* | Jordan Ellenberg | Technology | 2016 | 9 | Mira Wilczek |
| The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics | Daniel James Brown | History | 2016 | 9 | Seth Birnbaum |
| A Walk in the Woods | Bill Bryson | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2014 | 9 | |
| Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco | Bryan Burrough | Startups and Business | 2014 | 9 | Tom Kane |
| The New New Thing | Michael Lewis | Startups and Business | 2014 | 9 | |
| A Voyage Long and Strange | Tony Horwitz | History | 2013 | 9 | |
| David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants | Malcolm Gladwell | Startups and Business | 2013 | 9 | |
| One Summer | Bill Bryson | History | 2013 | 9 | |
| Insanely Simple | Ken Segall | Startups and Business | 2012 | 9 | |
| Ishmael | Daniel Quinn | Philosophy And Psychology | 2012 | 9 | Mike Wolek |
| To Sell is Human | Daniel Pink | Philosophy And Psychology | 2012 | 9 | |
| A Short History of Nearly Everything | Bill Bryson | Science and Medicine | 2011 | 9 | |
| Peak | Chip Conley | Startups and Business | 2011 | 9 | |
| Steve Jobs | Walter Issacson | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2011 | 9 | |
| The Information | James Gleick | Technology | 2011 | 9 | |
| Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose | Tony Hsieh | Startups and Business | 2010 | 9 | |
| In a Sunburned Country | Bill Bryson | History | 2010 | 9 | |
| Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern | Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha | Sexuality | 2010 | 9 | |
| Where Good Ideas Come From | Steven Johnson | Startups and Business | 2010 | 9 | Fred Wilson Blog plus a killer promo video |
| SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance | Steven D. Litt | Startups and Business | 2009 | 9 | |
| Outliers: Story of Success* | Malcolm Gladwell | Startups and Business | 2008 | 9 | |
| The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable* | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Startups and Business | 2008 | 9 | |
| A Brief History of Time | Stephen Hawking | Science and Medicine | 2006 | 9 | |
| The Wisdom of Crowds | James Surowiecki | Philosophy And Psychology | 2005 | 9 | |
| Briefer History of Time | Stephen Hawking | Science and Medicine | 2006 | 9 | |
| The Johnstown Flood | David McCullough | History | 2006 | 9 | |
| The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century | Thomas L. Friedman | History | 2005 | 9 | |
| The Fountainhead | Ayn Rand | Fiction | 2004 | 9 | |
| The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare | Christian Brose | Technology | 2021 | 8 | @Balajis as guest on the All-In Podcast |
| The Capitalist Manifesto | Johan Norberg | Startups and Business | 2023 | 8 | Elon Musk |
| The Changing World Order | Ray Dalio | Startups and Business | 2023 | 8 | David Frieberg All-in Podcast |
| The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness | Jonathan Haidt | Philosophy And Psychology | 2024 | 8 | Jason Calacanis All-in Podcast |
| That Will Never Work | Marc Randolph | Startups and Business | 2019 | 8 | |
| Who is Michael Ovitz | Michael Ovitz | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2019 | 8 | a16z Podcast |
| Talking to Strangers | Malcolm Gladwell | Philosophy And Psychology | 2019 | 8 | |
| When Wolves Bite | Scott Wapner | Startups and Business | 2019 | 8 | |
| What You Do Is Who You Are | Ben Horowitz | Startups and Business | 2019 | 8 | |
| Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It | Scott Kupor | Startups and Business | 2019 | 8 | |
| Talking to Strangers | Malcom Gladwell | Philosophy And Psychology | 2019 | 8 | |
| The Culture Code | Daniel Coyle | Startups and Business | 2019 | 8 | |
| Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber | Mike Isaac | Startups and Business | 2019 | 8 | |
| Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts | Annie Duke | Philosophy And Psychology | 2019 | 8 | Marc Andreessen via Podcast |
| Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Startups and Business | 2018 | 8 | |
| Grit: The Power of Passion and Perserverance | Angela Duckworth | Philosophy And Psychology | 2017 | 8 | |
| Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari | History | 2017 | 8 | |
| The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future | Kevin Kelly | Technology | 2016 | 8 | |
| Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade | Robert B. Cialdini | Philosophy And Psychology | 2016 | 8 | |
| The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail–but Some Don’t | Nate Silver | Startups and Business | 2015 | 8 | |
| Boomerang | Michael Lewis | History | 2014 | 8 | |
| Natural Born Heroes | Christopher McDougall | History | 2014 | 8 | |
| Shakespeare | Bill Bryson | History | 2013 | 8 | |
| Anthem | Ayn Rand | Fiction | 2012 | 8 | |
| I’m Feeling Lucky | Douglas Edwards | Startups and Business | 2011 | 8 | |
| Think Like a Freak | Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner | Philosophy And Psychology | 2011 | 8 | |
| One Up on Wall Street | Peter Lynch | Startups and Business | 2010 | 8 | |
| ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever | David Heinemeier Hansson | Startups and Business | 2010 | 8 | |
| The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic | Dan Ariely | Philosophy And Psychology | 2010 | 8 | |
| Sway: The Irresisitible Pull of Irrational Behavior | Rom Brafman & Ori Brafman | Philosophy And Psychology | 2009 | 8 | |
| This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession | Daniel Levitin | Science and Medicine | 2009 | 8 | |
| The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right | Atul Gawande | Startups and Business | 2009 | 8 | Matt McLaughlin |
| What Technology Wants | Kevin Kelly | Technology | 2009 | 8 | Matt McLaughlin |
| What the Dog Saw: and other adventures | Malcolm Gladwell | Philosophy And Psychology | 2009 | 8 | |
| In the Plex | Steven Levy | Startups and Business | 2008 | 8 | |
| The Selfish Gene | Richard Dawkins | Science and Medicine | 2008 | 8 | |
| Great by Choice | Jim Collins | Startups and Business | 2007 | 8 | |
| The Happiness Hypothesis | Jonathan Haidt | Philosophy And Psychology | 2006 | 8 | |
| Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround | Louis V.Gerstner Jr. | Startups and Business | 2006 | 8 | |
| The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less | Barry Shwartz | Startups and Business | 2005 | 8 | |
| Wisdom | |||||
| The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It | Michael E. Gerber | Startups and Business | 2004 | 8 | |
| The Fifties | David Halberstam | History | 2004 | 8 | |
| Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap And Others Don’t | Jim Collins | Startups and Business | 2001 | 8 | |
| Radical Uncertainty | John Kay & Mervyn King | Startups and Business | 2019 | 8 | |
| The Cold Start Problem | Andrew Chen | Startups and Business | 2022 | 8 | Andrew Chen |
| No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention | Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer | Startups and Business | 2021 | 7 | Seth Birnbaum |
| The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance | Steven Kotler | Science and Medicine | 2022 | 7 | Greg Cangialosi |
| The Metaverse | Matthew Ball | Technology | 2022 | 7 | Zach Coelius |
| Going Infinity | Michael Lewis | Startups and Business | 2023 | 7 | Brian Ocheltree |
| Leonardo Da Vinci | Walter Isaacson | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2022 | 7 | Brian Ocheltree |
| The Future is Faster Than You Think | Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler | Technology | 2019 | 7 | |
| The Man Who Solved the Market | Gregory Zuckerman | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2019 | 7 | |
| Bezonomics | Brian Dumaine | Startups and Business | 2020 | 7 | |
| Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products | Nir Eyal | Technology | 2019 | 7 | |
| Principles | Ray Dalio | Startups and Business | 2019 | 7 | |
| Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked | Adam Alter | Startups and Business | 2018 | 7 | |
| Origin | Dan Brown | Fiction | 2018 | 7 | Brian Ocheltree |
| The Courage to Be Disliked | Philosophy And Psychology | 2018 | 7 | ||
| When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing | Daniel Pink | Philosophy And Psychology | 2018 | 7 | |
| Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations | Dan Ariely | Philosophy And Psychology | 2017 | 7 | |
| The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future | Kevin Kelly | Startups and Business | 2017 | 7 | |
| Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future | Joi Ito | Startups and Business | 2017 | 7 | |
| Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion | Robert B. Cialdini | Philosophy And Psychology | 2014 | 7 | |
| Man’s Search for Meaning | Victory Frankl | Philosophy And Psychology | 2013 | 7 | |
| Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict | Clayton M. Christensen | Startups and Business | 2013 | 7 | |
| Authentic Happiness | Martin Seligman | Philosophy And Psychology | 2012 | 7 | |
| Nudge | Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein | Philosophy And Psychology | 2012 | 7 | |
| Rumsfeld’s Rules | Donald Rumsfeld | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2012 | 7 | Fred Goff |
| The Honest Truth About Dishonesty | Dan Ariely | Philosophy And Psychology | 2012 | 7 | |
| Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience | Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi | Philosophy And Psychology | 2011 | 7 | |
| Brain Rules | John J. Medina | Philosophy And Psychology | 2010 | 7 | Ramon Castro |
| The Selfish Gene | Richard Dawkins | Science and Medicine | 2010 | 7 | |
| The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference | Malcolm Gladwell | Startups and Business | 2007 | 7 | |
| Built to Last | Jim Collins | Startups and Business | 2004 | 7 | |
| Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid | Douglas R. Hofstadter | Science and Medicine | 2004 | 7 | |
| Truman | David McCullough | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2004 | 7 | |
| Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change | Louis V Gerstner, Jr | Startups and Business | 2002 | 7 | |
| Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters | Steven Pinker | Philosophy And Psychology | 2022 | 7 | |
| Benjamin Franklin | Walter Isaacson | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2004 | 7 | |
| John Adams | David McCullough | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2004 | 7 | |
| 1776 | David McCullough | History | 2004 | 7 | |
| Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World | Tyler Cowen | Startups and Business | 2022 | 7 | |
| But What if We’re Wrong | Chuck Klosterman | History | 2022 | 6 | Marc Andreessen on a16z Podcast |
| The Lessons of History | Will & Ariel Durant | History | 2022 | 6 | Ken Abel |
| The Contrarian | Max Chafkin | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2021 | 6 | |
| Something Deeply Hidden | Sean Carroll | Science and Medicine | 2021 | 6 | |
| Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst | Robert M. Sapolsky | Science and Medicine | 2020 | 6 | |
| The Beginning of Infinity | David Deutsch | Science and Medicine | 2020 | 6 | @Naval |
| Is This Anything? | Jerry Seinfeld | Comedy | 2020 | 6 | |
| Measure What Matters | John Doerr | Startups and Business | 2019 | 6 | |
| One Million Followers | Brendan Kane | Startups and Business | 2019 | 6 | |
| The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness | Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga, et al. | Philosophy And Psychology | 2019 | 6 | |
| Trillion Dollar Coach | Eric Schmidt | Startups and Business | 2019 | 6 | |
| Factfulness | Hans Rosling | Philosophy And Psychology | 2018 | 6 | Tara Schoberg |
| Art of Non-conformity | Chris Guillebeau | Philosophy And Psychology | 2017 | 6 | |
| Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Prequel | James Lucerno | Fiction | 2016 | 6 | |
| Creativity, Inc. | Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace | Startups and Business | 2016 | 6 | |
| Thank You for Being Late | Thomas Friedman | History | 2016 | 6 | Dave Blundin |
| The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed our Minds | Michael Lewis | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2015 | 6 | |
| The Willpower Instinct | Kelly McGonigal | Philosophy And Psychology | 2015 | 6 | |
| What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite | David DiSalvo | Philosophy And Psychology | 2014 | 6 | |
| Flash Boys | Michael Lewis | History | 2013 | 6 | |
| The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation | Jay Elliot | Startups and Business | 2013 | 6 | |
| The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business | Charles Duhigg | Philosophy And Psychology | 2012 | 6 | |
| Imagine: How Creativity Works | Jonah Lehrer | Philosophy And Psychology | 2011 | 6 | |
| How the Mighty Fall | Jim Collins | Startups and Business | 2009 | 6 | |
| Play Nice But Win | Michael Dell | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2021 | 5 | |
| Am I Being Too Subtle? | Sam Zell | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2016 | 5 | Zach Coelius |
| Is This Anything? | Jerry Seinfeld | Autobiographies and Biographies | 2021 | 5 | |
| Reality Check | Guy Kawasaki | Startups and Business | 2008 | 5 | |
| Never Eat Alone | Keith Ferrazzi | Startups and Business | 2006 | 4 | |
| The Snowball: Warren Buffet | Alice Schroeder | Startups and Business | 2013 | 4 |
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