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The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

gatesnotes.com

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Re: The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

#11

Post by cjf4 »

alimoeeny wrote: post #5

I feel very uncomfortable that I cannot see what is so brilliant about this book that Bill Gates goes on and on about it. I tried to read it and was bored and stopped half way through it. Anybody can shed some light? Share what you've learned, please.

I liked that it was written as a piece of journalism rather than a didactic exposition of vital business truth, as most other books in the genre have a tendency toward attempting. Which is appropriate, because unlike hard sciences, business has few absolutes and is heavily context sensitive.

Also the writing style was great, Brooks had a knack for making the players in these case studies colorfully come to life.

Re: The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

#12

Post by Codhisattva »

alimoeeny wrote: post #5

I feel very uncomfortable that I cannot see what is so brilliant about this book that Bill Gates goes on and on about it. I tried to read it and was bored and stopped half way through it. Anybody can shed some light? Share what you've learned, please.

Serious question: what were you expecting to see from the best book about business?

Re: The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

#13

Post by sokoloff »

orenbarzilai wrote: post #6

How come everything is so dramatic this days? " The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read". What happened to: "Recommended reading book! you should add it to your reading list"

The former sentence (assuming true) communicates something more than the latter.

Contrast: "We're going to get some snow" versus "The biggest 2-day snowstorm in recorded history is bearing down on us!"

"A man died" versus "World's oldest man died."

Yes, a lot of times superlatives are used for the purposes of pure link-bait or advertising hooks, but that doesn't mean we should eliminate their usage entirely.

Re: The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

#15

Post by ghostunit »

alimoeeny wrote: post #5

I feel very uncomfortable that I cannot see what is so brilliant about this book that Bill Gates goes on and on about it. I tried to read it and was bored and stopped half way through it. Anybody can shed some light? Share what you've learned, please.

So you're telling me Bill Gates is no longer the paragon of intellectual honesty we all know and love?!

Re: The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

#16

Post by ghostunit »

Mahn wrote: post #8

Kind of surprising that Bill Gates would go through the trouble of setting up an amazon referal link for his article.

As a general rule, do not trust recommendations made by powerful people, be they magnates, presidents or generals.

They are all politicians (or else they wouldn't be where they are), so everything they do has an angle.

Re: The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

#17

Post by sopooneo »

alimoeeny wrote: post #5

I feel very uncomfortable that I cannot see what is so brilliant about this book that Bill Gates goes on and on about it. I tried to read it and was bored and stopped half way through it. Anybody can shed some light? Share what you've learned, please.

In general, I have been horrified by the book recommendations about various fields, by experts in those fields. I used to teach, and the masters of the craft, folks who could silence a room with a glance, and inspired kids to harder work than they knew possible, used to recommend books that seemed embarrassingly trite.

I attribute it to the fact that they were natural experts, and not necessarily book lovers. It would be like asking a sparrow for their favorite work on the dynamics of flight.

Re: The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read (2014)

#18

Post by aakilfernandes »

Mahn wrote: post #8

Kind of surprising that Bill Gates would go through the trouble of setting up an amazon referal link for his article.

Its possible he's using some site wide tool to monetize and that added the link automatically. Though the graphics suggest he did it with some forethought.

I think its also kind of funny that I stopped reading this article half way through and jumped to the link since I was so curious if it was going to have a tag code. That says a lot about the nature of affiliate marketing.

BTW, I don't see anything particularly wrong with it.

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