Jimmy Soni

CEO/EIC @infinitebooks

Books:
WHEN THE LIGHT FINDS US ( FOUNDERS ( MIND AT PLAY (

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

Six years ago, I met a remarkable woman named Judy Henderson, who spent 36 years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit.

She entered at 32, a young mother of two, and when she was freed at 68, she walked out transformed — having turned her prison sentence into a testament to human resilience and an unwavering mission to help others.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours with Judy, listening as she shared how she maintained her humanity during decades behind bars, never losing faith that truth would prevail. She taught fitness classes, counseled fellow inmates, fought for women’s rights, and somehow found ways to mother her children through prison walls. She is, without a doubt, the strongest person I’ve ever met.

WHEN THE LIGHT FINDS US debuts this April, and you can pre-order it wherever books are sold (link in the next follow-up post). This is more than just a book about wrongful conviction — it’s about a mother’s love that survived the unthinkable, about finding purpose in pain, and about the light that can emerge from life’s darkest moments.

I’m deeply honored to have helped bring Judy’s story to the world. I know her words will move you as deeply as they’ve moved me.

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@Vixhal @imgeekkk Good taste. Collected Papers (Sloane/Wyner) cover his research. I actually wrote a Shannon bio—A Mind at Play—so I'm biased, but his life was wild: he built a maze-solving mechanical mouse and rode a unicycle down Bell Labs' halls. Happy to send a copy if it's of interest.

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

Everyone wants the reading list. The real hack is rereading. Here's the obsession behind THE FOUNDERS.

Thanks @david_perell - a fellow obsessive - for letting me share my nuttiness. (Shout-out to @EricJorgenson, whose Naval book is my current obsession!)

[David Perell Clips @PerellClips]

You get good by studying one great thing obsessively.

@jimmyasoni, best-selling author of The Founders, describes prepping for his writing sessions by studying what he calls "model books":

"One of the best pieces of advice I got was to take a book that's like the plaster cast for your idea, and study it obsessively. For my book The Founders, it was The Everything Store by Brad Stone. I read that book over 20 times.

I'll read the model book dozens of times if need be. I'm taking notes, dissecting things, seeing how he made certain sections work, why this sentence is longer than that one, etc.

I've read The Almanack of Naval Ravikant probably nine times, all the way through.

It teaches me why that book worked as well as it did."

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

Researching my PayPal book, I found Elon Musk's first congressional testimony—2003, before SpaceX had launched anything. The Senate barely took him seriously. Two decades on, as the company stages the largest IPO in history, it reads like prophecy.

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

From @WSJOpinion: Vindication for young Elon Musk: In 2004, he told the Senate that open competition would transform the industry, writes @jimmyasoni
https://t.co/l171f9SJhl

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@sadiefoster Thank you for the kind words!

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@p_millerd 🙌

[Erica Robles Anderson @fstflofscholars]

This conversation is about living from the universe of unthinkable loss. It will be profound.

Join us @interintellect_ on 7/7 and we will sit together with Dispatches from Grief.

https://t.co/j8FM2gNW62

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

C. S. Lewis with maybe the most important paragraph ever written for people with creative ambitions

[Politics and Prose @PoliticsProse]

Saturday (5/30), join Danielle Crittenden for DISPATCHES FROM GRIEF: A Mother's Journey Through the Unthinkable - w/Mary Haft - 3pm @ Conn Ave: https://t.co/3uddzsFmmw

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@ThierryBorgeat Thanks for the shout out!

[Evan Swarztrauber @SayreEvan]

🚨New podcast launched: The Center Edge.

Tech policy gets made in the center. The rhetoric lives at the edge. This show is about both.

👇Episode 1 with Chair @BrendanCarrFCC is out now —drones, routers, satellites, and evolving Republican approaches to leading the agency.

[Infinite Loops 🎙 @InfiniteL88ps]

On a February morning, @DCrittenden1’s world cleaved in two: the life before her daughter Miranda was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment, and the life after.

She joins Infinite Loops for a raw, unflinching conversation about grief, love, loss, and learning to live after the worst thing happens.

Her luminous memoir, Dispatches from Grief, is out now from @infinitebooks.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction
05:27 Childhood and Siloed Grief
12:03 The Smoking Ruin
18:53 Seeing the Body
25:22 Motherhood After Loss
34:34 False Comforts
42:02 Remembering Miranda
53:36 Advice for Grievers
01:03:12 Happiness Gurus
01:09:34 Pain and Love
01:18:36 Moving Miranda
01:27:21 Signs and Survival
01:39:25 EMDR and Trauma
01:46:19 Miranda’s Gifts

[Caitlin Flanagan @CaitlinPacific]

Dispatches From Grief by ⁦@DCrittenden1⁩ is out.

“Miranda was dead. Miranda no longer existed. Every thought about her, going backward or forward, had to contend with this singular, untenable fact.”

First, you have to know the assignment.

A perfect book

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@KayeSteinsapir @davidfrum @DCrittenden1 @washingtonpost Kaye, I'm so very sorry for your loss. Just jumping in here to say I'm sure Danielle would love to be a guest on your podcast. If you send me a DM, I'll get it organized.

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Losing a child may be about the worst thing anyone can imagine. @Dcrittenden1 has somehow managed to channel the pain of losing her wonderful Miranda into this moving and meaningful book, “Dispatches from Grief.”

https://t.co/9zfy5hsffs

https://t.co/jWPhOzRujl

[Infinite Books @infinitebooks]

“There is no ‘healing.’ No journey back to yourself—that map burned with everything else. On that February morning, we became entirely different people wearing the same faces.”

It’s a privilege to publish a book this profound

Dispatches from Grief is out now

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@AnnaLeptikon 🙌

[David Frum @davidfrum]

My wife @DCrittenden1 in weekend @WSJ on the torment of the electronic afterlife. (Gift article.) https://t.co/9JxKWntzCx

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@GennKato @elonmusk Thanks for the shout out and glad you enjoyed THE FOUNDERS!

[Jimmy Soni @jimmyasoni]

@ryanfoxeth @JustDeezGuy 🙌

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

I love this idea from Max Levchin: