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Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

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Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#31

Post by chaz »

d23 wrote: post #14
caster_cp wrote: post #8

It's available since July 8th 2014 in Amazon... I see what you did there with your marketing ingeniousness, Mr. WSJ || Bill Gates. The problem is that I'm easy, all too easy, and I fall for these ploys. And now I'm biting myself to buy the book :) Well done. edit: what's available is a Kindle edition, that I suppose is from the same book http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str...

And the paperback just happens to be coming out in September but can be pre-ordered now. Kind of annoying to me personally, since I take the advice a little less seriously now.

Do you think he should have recommended a book that was otherwise hard to get? I think people here, after reading this article, would have thought it ridiculous that the book wasn't available on Amazon.

My guess is that it is legitimately was his favorite book (he's known for his voracious reading and recommendations) and he wanted it to be read by a lot of people. So he pitched it to the publisher and the WSJ to get it done. I don't see what's so bad about that. I hardly think he's motivated by money or fame right now.

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#32

Post by DanBC »

chaz wrote: post #31
d23 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the paperback just happens to be coming out in September but can be pre-ordered now. Kind of annoying to me personally, since I take the advice a little less seriously now.

Do you think he should have recommended a book that was otherwise hard to get? I think people here, after reading this article, would have thought it ridiculous that the book wasn't available on Amazon. My guess is that it is legitimately was his favorite book (he's known for his voracious reading and recommendations) and he wanted it to be read by a lot of people. So he pitched it to the publisher and the WSJ to get…

Indeed, if I got FU money there's a bunch of books I'd release as cheap sets, with corrections and updates, in multiple languages. (Around stats and science, mostly.)

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#33

Post by biot »

larrys wrote: post #23

Separately Gates looks amazingly old in the last few years way beyond his age. Especially in that photo. That is not the skin of a man in his late 50's. I've speculated that he has either to much sun exposure [1], smokes (but he doesn't?), or has some sickness that has caused him to age. Actually when he retired from Microsoft I had thought that health might have something to do with it. (I don't remember many cases…

It's quite inappropriate to speculate on a person's private health matters in a public forum. It's little different than being in the same room as someone, then pointing at them and asking "What's wrong with that person's funny skin? Is anyone a doctor here? Let's have a discussion about it!"

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#34

Post by frik »

larrys wrote: post #29
sliverstorm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building Microsoft cannot have been a low-stress endeavor, and people always remark how quickly Presidents visually age during stressful political times.

I agree that Presidents age over the course of their term. But there are many differences between being Potus and the head of Microsoft. President is a short term job (in general) and it is entered into later in life after I would guess a less stressful (than being President that is) life. Gates started Microsoft when young and grew into the job over time. Not to mention that being the captain of that ship is greatly…

Remember the Antitrust litigation (1998-2001): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Antitrust_litigation

Bill Gates brand suffered during this time, and it was definitely a high stress timeframe for him. He polished his brand by donating money (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundati... ) and he stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in January 2000.

Google image search "Bill Gates [year]" and compare how he aged over time.

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#35

Post by chaz »

frogpelt wrote: post #30

I wonder if they went to ebay and bought up all the stray copies before they did this marketing push. There's one copy there and the bid is currently at $260. And the product image is a picture of Bill Gates reading it. EDIT: Link: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_...

You can search on completed listings. Looks like only 2 copies were listed, both unsold. Also, it seems like a long way to get Bill Gates to write a guest column in the WSJ to make $260 (top bid $81 now).

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#36

Post by Chinjut »

sliverstorm wrote: post #17
nickgrosvenor wrote: post #11

This is sort of strange (but great) because at least once at every single Berkshire Hathaway meeting someone asks Buffett and Munger what they're favorite books are, and I have never heard them mention this one. There is 20 years of in in-depth content about Buffett in books, articles, meetings, and interviews. "What's your fav book" must be one of the top 5 questions he gets and I've never heard about this book. Thi…

Buffett is an investor though right? Whereas Gates built a company. The two closely related but not the same? So it doesn't surprise me they turn to different books. Investors usually recommend books on security analysis, which would hardly have been useful for Gates in the 90's.

In the article, Gates says that he was introduced to the book by Buffett, who recommended it as his favorite book about business.

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#37

Post by frogpelt »

chaz wrote: post #35
frogpelt wrote: post #30

I wonder if they went to ebay and bought up all the stray copies before they did this marketing push. There's one copy there and the bid is currently at $260. And the product image is a picture of Bill Gates reading it. EDIT: Link: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_...

You can search on completed listings. Looks like only 2 copies were listed, both unsold. Also, it seems like a long way to get Bill Gates to write a guest column in the WSJ to make $260 (top bid $81 now).

Oh, I wasn't trying to insinuate that the ebay seller was connected to the WSJ article.

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#39

Post by brador »

larrys wrote: post #23

Separately Gates looks amazingly old in the last few years way beyond his age. Especially in that photo. That is not the skin of a man in his late 50's. I've speculated that he has either to much sun exposure [1], smokes (but he doesn't?), or has some sickness that has caused him to age. Actually when he retired from Microsoft I had thought that health might have something to do with it. (I don't remember many cases…

I'd guess his malaria thing means he takes a few trips to Africa and other baking climates.

Re: Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

#40

Post by larrys »

biot wrote: post #33
larrys wrote: post #23

Separately Gates looks amazingly old in the last few years way beyond his age. Especially in that photo. That is not the skin of a man in his late 50's. I've speculated that he has either to much sun exposure [1], smokes (but he doesn't?), or has some sickness that has caused him to age. Actually when he retired from Microsoft I had thought that health might have something to do with it. (I don't remember many cases…

It's quite inappropriate to speculate on a person's private health matters in a public forum. It's little different than being in the same room as someone, then pointing at them and asking "What's wrong with that person's funny skin? Is anyone a doctor here? Let's have a discussion about it!"

"It's quite inappropriate to speculate on a person's private health matters in a public forum."

I don't agree at all. And what are you basing that on? Is there some "rules of public forum" that has been agreed upon and accepted by the internet rule setting committee? Is there anything in the HN faq that states this?

Even more importantly, Gates is a very public and well known person. I'm not making comments on some unknown individual who works in marketing at some YC company (or Microsoft for that matter). Or an HN commenter.

It's totally appropriate to speculate on his health [1] (and in fact the media does this all the time about many well known people). That is not the same as saying people on HN (such as yourself) might not find it inappropriate (obviously I'm being downvoted so many people reading this particular post don't seem to agree with me.)

Lastly, the richest or near richest man in the world doesn't need to be protected from some anonymous person's speculation.

[1] Not the same as saying HN likes the speculation or it's appropriate for HN. But you didn't say that. You said "health matters in a public forum".

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