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Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?

#21

Post by techiferous »

jason_tko wrote: post #15

Great question. Firstly, the more I've gotten involved in business over the years, the more I've come to realise that for any kind of sale requiring human contact, personal relationships are absolutely paramount. This is fairly straightforward, but it bears repeating. People will buy from people who they like. In a situation where a customer can choose between Vendor A and Vendor B who have similar products and price…

Thank you for taking the time to write this up. It was very helpful!

Re: Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?

#22

Post by charlesju »

dnsworks wrote: post #13

Pick up a copy of the tried and true, "How To Win Friends & Influence People". The rest of the fad business books come and go, but this one is a great start to learn how to interact with people when you're trying to sell them on "something".

Here is the most important thing about the book. The basic motivation for all people is to feel important, you can influence people by making them feel important.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?

#23

Post by ecq »

Most of the books I read are usually business profiles/bios of founders/companies.

1) iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business

2) The Google Story

3) The Perfect Store: Inside eBay

4) Paypal Wars

5) Barbarians at the Gate (not tech-related but one of the best business books of all time)

Re: Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?

#25

Post by zavulon »

I'm going to go ahead and recommend "4 Hour work week" by Tim Ferris, BUT - you have to take that book with a big grain of salt. Some of the stuff he's talking about is fluff, and he's gotten some fair criticism over it - but he has some invaluable, very practical advice on automation of certain areas of a business, passive income streams, etc. Personally, I found it very helpful in moving from "full time job, but want to start my own business" stage to geting there and doing it full time.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?

#27

Post by jhlb »

My introduction to the way that businesses work was an "Engineering Economics" course. It is about how accounting works, i.e. "financial accounting" vs. "management accounting", the time value of money, what the numbers on a quarterly report mean, &c. If you find a course syllabus online you can see what topics are covered, and a find textbook.

Also when I was seeking this type of knowledge, I read chapters 2,3,4 of http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/ , which I found by looking at a MIT opencourseware course on project management. The textbook is about construction but the important aspects transfer to anything.

I think the most important thing is to learn the nuts and bolts. When you get comfortable with all that, then you can start to think at a higher level.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?

#30

Post by jlees »

Guy Kawasaki's books are pretty ace for learning the 'silicon valley' style of business, big picture, etc. I think the first real book I picked up was something more down to earth though like the Beermat Entrepreneur (UK-specific) that outlined the whole process quite well from what to incorporate as to accounting and sales.
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