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Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
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Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#22If you have tried to build a business and failed then read “The Anatomy of Peace” or “Leadership and Self Deception” same writer, same message.
If you have build a business and want to do it even better, then “Principles” by Ray Dalio
Both are about mindset and worldview - something I am learning now is much more important in tools and marketing hacks and knowing what to do in every situation.
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#23If you have tried to build a business and failed then read “The Anatomy of Peace” or “Leadership and Self Deception” same writer, same message. If you have build a business and want to do it even better, then “Principles” by Ray Dalio Both are about mindset and worldview - something I am learning now is much more important in tools and marketing hacks and knowing what to do in every situation.
I read Principles, I think it's VERY difficult to implement because you need people around you who value the same things. Is that not the case for you?
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#24Pinning down just one would be nearly impossible, but I can tell you a small group that I consider indispensable.
The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank. This is a MUST read. If you read nothing else, make it this book. Note that there is a 2nd Edition, which changes the title to "The Startup Owner's Manual". There is a lot of overlap in the content, but enough difference to justify reading both, IMO. I would start with the older one.
The Discipline of Market Leaders - Fred Wiersema, Michael Treacy - another crucially important book IMO. Does a great job of explaining how there are many different vectors along which you can compete, and explains how choosing which vector you're going to compete on is fundamental to defining your business and market.
The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki. Lots of good basics on startups
Differentiate or Die - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin. - Title says it all.
It's Not The Big That Eat The Small, It's The Fast That Eat The Slow - Jason Jennings
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Jack Trout and Al Ries
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout, Philip Kotler
Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore
Mastering The Complex Sale - Jeff Thull - lays out an approach to selling that I believe is one of the best out there for enterprise / B2B. May not be as relevant for B2C or other approaches.
Exceptional Selling - Jeff Thull - more on Thull's selling approach.
The Prime Solution - Jeff Thull - and yet more still on Thull's selling approach.
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail - Clayton Christensen
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future - Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
How To Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard. - Maybe one of the most important books I've ever read. The ideas in this book can apply in many domains, related to startups or otherwise. I can't recommend this one highly enough.
Repositioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant - W. Chan Kim, Renée A. Mauborgne
Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company’s Future - Patricia Seybold
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#25The four steps to epiphany was a pretty great book for me.
Yep. It's the first book I'd recommend to a technical founder without a business background. It's an amazingly useful book, even if the formatting / etc. leave a little something to be desired.
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#26Creativity Inc., by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull. A funny and insightful book that should be required reading for any technical leader who works with artists/designers. http://www.creativityincbook.com
Seconded. Especially because it's a very candid engineer's account of a fundamentally creative endeavour.
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#27Creativity Inc., by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull. A funny and insightful book that should be required reading for any technical leader who works with artists/designers. http://www.creativityincbook.com
Separately he gives good evidence of what an A-hole and tyrant Steve Jobs was. Most won't talk about it out of politeness or concerns for their network. Having worked for a psycho at one time, you know how others shade their language when discussing. Very entertaining!
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#28How to take all the blame
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#29Debt: The First 5000 years is more of a historical examination of the modern origins of debt, not really 'business' per se but still a really solid book that I think many people in this industry could benefit from reading.
Except you reach the point where it talks about Apple and you start doubting every other single fact in it:
"Apple Computers is a famous example: it was founded by (mostly Republican) computer engineers who broke from IBM in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, forming little democratic circles of twenty to forty people with their laptops in each other's garages."
(Copy/pasted from web, but matches my memory of reading the book, so pretty sure it's accurate.)
Re: Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?
#30the Personal MBA, it outlines all the importance points of 2000 business books.