Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder of Duolingo — How to Be (Truly) Mission-Driven, 10x Growth, and More

Google Translate

Google

“i have been incredibly impressed specifically with google translate with respect to in my case east asian languages because i do still communicate a fair amount in japanese”— Tim Ferriss

The Top Idea in Your Mind

Paul Graham

“i want to mention an article for folks it's very short that they might find interesting it's called the top idea in your mind it's by polygram”— Tim Ferriss

High Output Management

Andy Grove

“one book that i really liked and we make all managers read it at duolingo is it's an oldie but a really good one is high output management by andy grove”— Luis von Ahn

Oral-B iO electric toothbrush

Oral-B

“easy yeah easy an electric toothbrush ah i got the oral b io this changes your life i mean it just you can't go back”— Luis von Ahn

TOTO Neorest NX1 toilet

TOTO

“yes it's called neorest neo rest toto neo rest and it is hold on it is a specific one total nearest nx1”— Luis von Ahn

TOTO Washlet seat

TOTO

“i was given as a gift a washlet toto seat so it effectively replaces your toilet seat on your pre-existing toilet and it's a few hundred dollars”— Tim Ferriss

Built to Sell

John Warrillow

“there's a book called built to sell i think the author's name is john warlow and if someone wants to improve their own business”— Tim Ferriss

WeCrashed

Apple TV+ (inferred)

“i don't know if you've watched this show we crashed which by the way is an excellent show yes the story of wework”— Tim Ferriss

Spotify

Spotify (inferred)

“we ended up finding a monetization model that worked out really well which is this freemium model that is similar to what the dating apps do or what spotify does”— Luis von Ahn

Google Translate

Google

“if you're going to go to germany or something it's kind of good enough to like if you don't know any german to just kind of you know you speak to it”— Luis von Ahn

Squid Game

Netflix (inferred)

“the squid game the movie games called the one that won the oscar with a basement i know the one you're talking about parasite”— Luis von Ahn

Parasite

“the one that won the oscar with a basement i know the one you're talking about parasite parasite so stuff like that korean influence just keeps growing”— Luis von Ahn

Clash Royale

Supercell (inferred)

“the reason i'm learning spanish on duolingo is because you see i used to i don't know play a lot of whatever clash royale or a lot of some game”— Luis von Ahn

Zero to One

Peter Thiel

“there were two books that you mentioned as being particularly helpful or that you would recommend maybe both one was zero to one by peter thiel”— Tim Ferriss

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz

“and the other was the hard thing about hard things if i'm getting the title right i can never remember this title by ben horowitz yes”— Tim Ferriss

Muscle Milk

CytoSport (inferred)

“now it's just a little jug of muscle milk because my trainer gary on his first date... he said drink muscle milk”— Luis von Ahn

CD Baby order confirmation email

Derek Sivers

“people should google derrick sivers cd baby that was his company at the time email it's a confirmation email that they would send out when orders came in”— Tim Ferriss