For the Brave New Digital World podcast, our CEO and founder, Andy Carvell, has interviewed countless leaders from major companies such as Amazon, Canva, Splice, and beyond. While each episode goes deep on strategy, AI, and the future of mobile marketing, there’s always a question that reveals something different about the people on the show: what are you reading, watching, or listening to right now?
The answers are rarely what you’d expect. Rarely does someone recommend a marketing blog, and never has anyone pointed to an analytics report. Instead, what guests actually reach for in their own time tends to be philosophy, behavioral science, and business thinking from well outside the app industry.
We thought it’d be an interesting idea to round up a few of the recommendations of podcast’s mainstays, whether that includes books, papers, or blog articles. Below, you’ll find a few recommendations from some of the true titans of the industry, a few of which may come as a surprise.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations — recommended by Ekim Dinc, Head of Customer Engagement at Amazon
Ekim came to marketing through logistics and systems thinking, and his recommendation reflects that. Meditations has been recently rediscovered as part of the founder zeitgeist, and it’s easy to see why: the private journal written by a Roman emperor to hold himself accountable to his own principles, never intended to be published, provides quite a blueprint to live your life. The core of it is simple: focus on what you can control, accept what you cannot, and act with clarity regardless of external noise.
For anyone managing growth at an Amazon scale, that discipline is necessary. Stoic thinking has quietly become a staple for operators who need to make decisions under pressure and move on quickly. If you haven’t read it, it’s short, dense, and free online.
Charlie Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack — recommended by Alex Beresford, Marketing Leader (formerly PayPal)
Having navigated the transition from the massive scale of PayPal to the agile phases of early-stage startups, Alex understands that while marketing tactics change, fundamental mental models do not. He recommends this collection of speeches and talks by the late investing legend Charlie Munger. Munger was famous for his multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving, a philosophy that perfectly mirrors Alex’s belief that tomorrow’s marketers must think beyond basic performance metrics. As AI agents increasingly make purchasing decisions on behalf of consumers, marketers will need to rely on robust, pliable frameworks that Munger championed. This book explores that and more.
Carol Dweck, Mindset — recommended by Michael Grierson, Senior Global ASO Lead at Canva
Michael’s journey through Skyscanner and Canva has been defined by a specific philosophy: treating failure not as a setback, but as an engine for growth. As such, it makes total sense that he would recommend Carol Dweck’s foundational book on the “growth mindset.” The book evokes an era where app marketing is moving rapidly away from static store listings and toward high-velocity creative testing.
The book also reminds us what every marketer knows, despite often forgetting: that clinging to what worked yesterday is a recipe for trouble and, of course, stagnation. For Michael, winning in App Store Optimization requires a relentless test-and-learn mentality, something Mindset preaches as essential for overcoming creative fatigue and adapting to new AI-driven trends.
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus — recommended by Hamza Alsamraee, CEO of Newform
Hamza is a Stanford math prodigy who, while still in college, bootstrapped a paid social agency while still in college. Because of this, you might expect him to recommend a deep dive into statistical modeling. Instead, he reaches for existential philosophy.
In our episode, Hamza unpacked the relentless pace of media buying, UGC fatigue, and the endless grind of keeping up with the algorithm. It’s not hard to see the parallel between the modern growth marketer (constantly testing creatives only to watch them fatigue, pushing the proverbial boulder up the hill every single day) and Camus’s Sisyphus. But as Camus writes in the final page of his masterpiece, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” which is a fitting survival mindset for anyone battling the ups and downs of paid social.
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough & The Book of Joy by The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu — recommended by Thierry Sequeira, CEO of Massive Rocket
Thierry is a remarkably grounded voice in the current digital landscape. Indeed, he actively warns brands against chasing AI hype before they’ve actually mastered their first-party data and CRM fundamentals. His reading list perfectly reflects this methodical, human-centric approach.
The Wright Brothers is a testament to the unglamorous, foundational work of building infrastructure and testing rigorously before taking flight. On the other end of the spectrum, The Book of Joy serves as a powerful reminder that behind every data point and automated workflow is a real human being. Both recommendations combine to undergird the vital truth that success in the digital age depends on a blend of discipline and intelligence, much like the Wright Brothers themselves at the dawn of flight.
Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, Working Backwards — recommended by Jeff Roberto, SVP of Marketing at Splice
With a resume spanning Napster, Shazam, PicsArt, and Splice, Jeff is intimately familiar with the intersection of creativity and rapid growth. His recommendation dives deep into Amazon’s famous methodology of starting with the desired customer experience and reverse-engineering the product from there.
On the podcast, Jeff stressed the importance of teams doing more with less and bridging the historic gap between brand and performance. Working Backwards provides the ultimate playbook for doing exactly that: it recommends stripping away internal biases and aligning every marketing decision directly with the end user.
Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, The Challenger Sale — recommended by Roi Nam, CEO and founder of Airbridge and AB180
Roi is at the vanguard of the post-ATT mobile landscape. He helps scale AI-generated creatives and pioneer web-to-app strategies. His recommendation, The Challenger Sale, is a masterclass in taking control of the conversation and pushing back against the status quo. For marketers trying to navigate the complex, often frustrating new world of measurement and modeled conversions, adopting a “challenger” mindset may be exactly what’s needed to disrupt traditional playbooks. By championing this mindset, the ultimate competitive advantage is the ability to lead the conversation rather than simply following the numbers.
A Curated Diet of Substack and Strategy — recommended by Sharon Romang, VP of Creative at Front Row
Not everyone relies on traditional books to stay on point. Sharon, who blends storytelling with performance data, gets her insights from a highly curated digital diet. She recommends keeping an eye on modern culture and strategy through Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me on Substack, the House of Content podcast, and Julian Cole’s Strategy Finishing School. It’s a reminder that influences can come in many shapes and sizes. For a creative leader navigating fast-moving AI rollouts and agency tech, staying plugged into contemporary, bite-sized cultural analysis is just as vital as reading a 300-page business book.
Our recommendations
We’d feel a little strange putting together a reading list without adding a couple of our own. Over the years, our team has tried to contribute to the same spirit of collective learning that runs through all of the recommendations above.
Our Advanced App Store Optimization e-book is a great place to start. Written by Phiture’s own Moritz Daan and Maggie Ngai alongside more than 20 contributors, it’s a 600-page deep dive into ASO, and covers everything from visibility and conversion to localization and Apple Search Ads, and it’s free to download. If you’re serious about store optimization, it belongs on your shelf.
For a broader view of the growth landscape, the Mobile Growth Stack originally published by our CEO Andy Carvell back in 2014, remains the framework we return to most. It’s been updated several times since, but the underlying logic hasn’t changed: sustainable growth comes from thinking holistically across acquisition, retention, and monetization, not from chasing individual tactics.
Neither of these will tell you whether to read Camus or Aurelius. But if you’re looking to build a durable mental model for mobile growth, they’re as good a place as any to start.
Brave New Digital World is Phiture’s podcast on the future of digital marketing. New episodes are available wherever you listen to podcasts.
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