{"id":682304,"date":"2026-01-08T13:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682304\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:39:14","slug":"netflix-co-ceo-says-he-doesnt-read-business-books-at-all-instead-he-reads-one-1902-fiction-about-a-ship-and-its-reckless-hot-dog-captain-over-and-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682304\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix co-CEO says he doesn’t read business books\u2014at all. Instead, he reads one 1902 fiction about a ship and its ‘reckless hot dog’ captain over and over again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Netflix<\/a> is in the midst of a high-stakes battle<\/a> to acquire Warner Bros., a deal that could dramatically reshape Hollywood\u2019s power structure. But amidst the uncertainty, co-CEO Ted Sarandos<\/a> isn\u2019t looking toward traditional management books for leadership advice.<\/p>\n

In fact, the 61-year-old executive doesn\u2019t like to read business books\u2014at all. He instead often returns to his favorite work of fiction: Typhoon, a 1902 Joseph Conrad novella about a steamship captain and crew navigating a severe storm while at sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t sound like a management story on the surface, but I think it\u2019s the most powerful leadership story I\u2019ve ever read,\u201d Sarandos recently told CNBC<\/a>. \u201cI read it over and over again because I find \u2026 I get something different in the book every time I read it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typhoon follows a captain forced to make difficult decisions with limited information as the ship faces extreme conditions. Goodreads<\/a> describes the book as an exploration of leadership, tolerance, and the consequences of making decisions under pressure.<\/p>\n

When Sarandos first read the novella some two decades ago, he admitted he thought the captain was a reckless \u201chot dog\u201d who was endangering his crew. Over time, his interpretation shifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, what I see is that when you go through life and you go through business, you make a lot of decisions that don\u2019t turn out the way you thought they would,\u201d Sarandos added to CNBC. \u201cThe real leadership test is: How do you manage through that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortune reached out to Netflix for further comment.<\/p>\n

Even business leaders like Bill Gates and Elon Musk take time to turn off the screen and escape inside a good book<\/p>\n

Sarandos\u2019s preference for fiction over traditional management books\u2014or even reading at all<\/a>\u2014may surprise some, especially considering reading is on the decline. Less than half of all Americans did not read a single book in 2025, and daily reading for pleasure has plummeted 40% over the past two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, reading is an activity shared by many of the world\u2019s most influential business leaders. A recent JPMorgan survey<\/a> of more than 100 billionaires found that reading is the most commonly cited habit tied to the success of some of the world\u2019s wealthiest families.<\/p>\n

Microsoft<\/a> cofounder Bill Gates regularly reads more than 50 books a year. And while many of them end up being works of nonfiction, when he does pick up a work of fiction, he makes sure to \u201cread about interesting characters who help me see the world in a new way.\u201d In a November blog post<\/a>, Gates recommended Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, a novel about finding meaning in life, especially as you get older.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s CEO Tim Cook has spoken about books that shaped him, citing Phil Knight\u2019s memoir, Malala Yousafzai\u2019s autobiography, and Harper Lee\u2019s To Kill a Mockingbird during a 2023 appearance on Dua Lipa\u2019s podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Elon Musk, the world\u2019s richest man, has also long credited reading with helping him build foundational knowledge. As a child, he said he spent hours immersed in science fiction and encyclopedias. More recently, he encouraged people to read Isaac Asimov\u2019s Foundation series and called<\/a> The Hitcherhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams his \u201cfavorite philosopher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d encourage people to read a lot of books,\u201d Musk said on Lex Fridman\u2019s podcast<\/a>. \u201cBasically try to ingest as much information as you can and try to develop a good general knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix is in the midst of a high-stakes battle to acquire Warner Bros., a deal that could dramatically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094],"tags":[3444,51,129180,17112,3134,3181,157098,388,451,28606,26503,16,15,206813],"class_list":{"0":"post-682304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-business-books","11":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","12":"tag-entrepreneurship","13":"tag-leadership","14":"tag-leadership-advice","15":"tag-lifestyle","16":"tag-netflix","17":"tag-reading","18":"tag-ted-sarandos","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-view-from-the-c-suite"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115859761697964459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}