# A Product Design Rule, an AI IQ Framework, and a Prohibition History Pick

*By Recommended Reading from Tech Founders • May 13, 2026*

Three organic recommendations stood out today: Tony Fadell highlighted David Epstein’s *Inside the Box* for its constraint-driven product lesson, Scott Belsky surfaced Ryan Eshea’s *AI IQ* framework, and Marc Andreessen pointed readers to *Last Call* for a more nuanced view of how Prohibition happened.

## Most compelling recommendation

### *Inside the Box* [^1]
- **Content type:** Book
- **Author/creator:** David Epstein [^1]
- **Link/URL:** Not provided in the source post
- **Who recommended it:** Tony Fadell [^1]
- **Key takeaway:** Fadell pointed to the book for the idea that **constraints create freedom**, arguing that better products often come from removing features instead of adding more screens, menus, or complexity [^1].
- **Why it matters:** This was the clearest operating lesson in today’s set: feature subtraction can be a product advantage, not just a simplification exercise [^1].

> "Not every problem needs another screen, another menu, or another layer of complexity. Constraints create freedom" [^1]

## Also worth saving

### *AI IQ* [^2]
- **Content type:** X thread
- **Author/creator:** Ryan Eshea [^3]
- **Link/URL:** [https://x.com/ryaneshea/status/2054209480917754033](https://x.com/ryaneshea/status/2054209480917754033) [^3]
- **Who recommended it:** Scott Belsky [^3]
- **Key takeaway:** Belsky called it a "fascinating exploration," especially the **EQ vs IQ** comparison. The thread scores frontier AI models on the human IQ scale and shows where models land on the bell curve, how frontier IQ changes over time, how models compare on IQ and EQ, and what intelligence costs in practice [^3][^2].
- **Why it matters:** It reframes model comparison beyond leaderboard tables by combining capability, trend, and cost context in one resource [^2].

### *Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition* [^4]
- **Content type:** Book
- **Author/creator:** Not specified in the provided notes
- **Link/URL:** [Amazon listing](https://www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Rise-Fall-Prohibition-ebook/dp/B003JTHVHY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.izb0akHzovzGJoMws_Nw1wKZT8uQantSR4Vrp71ets7FujMXvG4wzoTd53HVmVvfC_4hoDeK6R3yVe6jw8yYjhwEtIDe3wik0Si_ilz5KhGE5JTBn8qrEvcxeJl8I2Sud3hdGBS6IfsQ6GApzbgjrqV00BieVtpERDVPCKFJ-SoK597NRPEi5iR_CzHRQ89hJMH-6yIP6wN4mR-DCPyCgrbzuFNcVXoKdbTGksNJpjw.1lg6fACyJNdW3c5r3hnlsvkY3xQUo_YtV9WbNmR0KBE&qid=1778635890&sr=8-6) [^4]
- **Who recommended it:** Marc Andreessen [^4]
- **Key takeaway:** Andreessen said the book makes it easier to understand how Prohibition happened while also showing that the Prohibitionists were not wrong about everything and that Carry Nation "had a real point" [^4].
- **Why it matters:** The value here is the nuance: it is framed as a resource for understanding how a movement can contain real arguments and still end badly [^4].

> "It is now easy to understand how Prohibition happened. It is important to realize that the Prohibitionists were not incorrect in many of their arguments. Carry Nation had a real point. And yet." [^4]

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### Sources

[^1]: [𝕏 post by @tfadell](https://x.com/tfadell/status/2054274442596164056)
[^2]: [𝕏 post by @ryaneshea](https://x.com/ryaneshea/status/2054209480917754033)
[^3]: [𝕏 post by @scottbelsky](https://x.com/scottbelsky/status/2054346487711015106)
[^4]: [𝕏 post by @pmarca](https://x.com/pmarca/status/2054374239571247613)