🎬 Reed Hastings - co-founder and former CEO of Netflix - built a company culture famously credited with combining freedom and responsibility. His reading reflects an emphasis on creative leadership, disciplined operations, and practices that scale.
He hasn’t published an official reading list, but Hastings’ interviews, talks, and public commentary point to a set of books that capture how he thinks about culture, scaling, and creative teams. Below are 10 books inspired by Reed Hastings’ thinking.
1. Creativity, Inc. - Ed Catmull
Theme: Creative leadership and culture
Hastings frequently references Pixar’s lessons in fostering creativity and candor. This book reinforced his belief in building a culture where people are trusted to make decisions and innovate rapidly.
Why it matters:
- Practical playbook for creative teams
- Builds systems that protect creativity at scale
- Encourages candid feedback and iteration
2. The Innovator’s Dilemma - Clayton Christensen
Theme: Disruptive innovation
Netflix itself is a textbook example of Christensen’s theory: disrupting the video rental market, then the entertainment industry. Hastings used this framework to anticipate market shifts and embrace risk.
Why it matters:
- Explains how new markets upend incumbents
- Helps leaders spot early disruptive signals
- Encourages experimentation in adjacent spaces
3. High Output Management - Andrew Grove
Theme: Scaling organizations
Grove’s operational frameworks taught how to scale teams and decisions without losing leverage.
Why it matters:
- Concrete management techniques for scale
- Emphasizes measurable leverage and priorities
- Useful for fast-growing, metrics-driven orgs
4. Radical Candor - Kim Scott
Theme: Honest and empathetic feedback
Hastings emphasizes transparency and accountability; Radical Candor mirrors that balance between challenge and care.
Why it matters:
- Teaches candid feedback with empathy
- Reduces hidden performance risks
- Strengthens team learning cycles
5. The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
Theme: Rapid iteration and experimentation
From DVD rentals to streaming to original content, Hastings championed testing, learning, and iterating - principles central to Ries’ philosophy.
Why it matters:
- Promotes build-measure-learn loops
- Prioritizes validated learning over intuition
- Encourages rapid experimentation at low cost
6. Good to Great - Jim Collins
Theme: Sustaining excellence
Netflix’s culture of high performance reflects Collins’ focus on disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action.
Why it matters:
- Frameworks for sustained organizational success
- Highlights leadership and cultural levers
- Encourages focus and discipline
7. Measure What Matters - John Doerr
Theme: Objectives and key results (OKRs)
Hastings has publicly credited OKRs with helping Netflix maintain focus while scaling.
Why it matters:
- Aligns teams around measurable outcomes
- Scales focus without micromanaging
- Encourages ambitious, trackable goals
8. Drive - Daniel H. Pink
Theme: Motivation and autonomy
Netflix’s culture of freedom and responsibility reflects Pink’s insights into intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Why it matters:
- Explains intrinsic drivers of performance
- Helps design work that sustains creativity
- Aligns autonomy with organizational goals
9. The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
Theme: Leadership in adversity
Hastings faced major industry disruption multiple times; Horowitz’s book is a practical guide for those moments.
Why it matters:
- Honest playbook for tough leadership choices
- Practical advice on scaling under stress
- Emphasizes operational and people trade-offs
10. The Art of Possibility - Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander
Theme: Creative thinking and possibility
Hastings often emphasizes thinking beyond constraints - imagining new ways to delight customers and challenge industry norms.
Why it matters:
- Encourages reframing limits into opportunities
- Useful for creative strategy and culture work
- Sparks unconventional solutions to hard problems
💡 Final Thoughts
Reed Hastings’ reading list reflects a pragmatic, people-centered approach to innovation. These books span creativity, operational rigor, and leadership under pressure - useful reading for founders, leaders, and anyone building high-performance teams.
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