Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

Why it’s on the list: Philip Fisher’s classic — one of the first books to argue that value discipline can be applied to growth companies, and the origin of the scuttlebutt method. A stated influence on Warren Buffett, who has described his approach as part Graham and part Fisher: the bridge between value and growth, written before the two were treated as opposing camps.

Where I heard about it

• On Investing Book List (Gavin Baker), Gavin Baker’s May 2020 investing book list (under Investing, one of his italicized favorites): one of the few books about growth investing.
• Mohnish Pabrai — on his list of the six books that helped him most in learning to invest, which reached me through a thread by Daniel Mahncke (November 2023).
• Goldman Sachs — on the firm’s recommended reading list from its careers site, shared by @F_Compounders on X (July 2025).
• Li Lu — on Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, under Value Investing, Finance, and Capitalism.

Connections

• Mohnish Pabrai — recommended it
• Warren Buffett — cites Fisher as a formative influence
• Value Investing
• Goldman Sachs Recommended reading list… (tweet) — recommendation #2: on Goldman Sachs’s reading list.