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

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

#31

Post by canes123456 »

cjf4 wrote: post #11
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.

This makes me want to read much more after reading Good to Great. What a train wreck of cargo cult science, he kept misusing science and stats to convince you about the vital business "truths" in the book. Just presenting the his research and letting us draw our own conclusion would have made for a 10 times better book.

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

#32

Post by q-base »

bko wrote: post #30

Everything I've read about this book, apart from comments by Bill Gates, prevented me from reading it. Does anyone have any recommendations of better business books? I was incredibly inspired by Isaacson's Jobs biography. To learn that someone so flawed can achieve such greatness is inspiring. I also read it almost like a mystery novel, trying to decipher what he was actually doing that was creating such value. I've…

Have you read Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin biagraphy? I have heard it recommended but not yet read it myself.

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

#33

Post by codyZ »

bko wrote: post #30

Everything I've read about this book, apart from comments by Bill Gates, prevented me from reading it. Does anyone have any recommendations of better business books? I was incredibly inspired by Isaacson's Jobs biography. To learn that someone so flawed can achieve such greatness is inspiring. I also read it almost like a mystery novel, trying to decipher what he was actually doing that was creating such value. I've…

'Business' is a large topic - anything in particular? Marketing? Finance? Customer Development? Management? etc?

Books that I'd recommend: Anything by Peter Drucker, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers, Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne, among others. I'm sure plenty others here will also give you other recommendations that seem more 'start-up' like too.

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

#34

Post by guiomie »

bko wrote: post #30

Everything I've read about this book, apart from comments by Bill Gates, prevented me from reading it. Does anyone have any recommendations of better business books? I was incredibly inspired by Isaacson's Jobs biography. To learn that someone so flawed can achieve such greatness is inspiring. I also read it almost like a mystery novel, trying to decipher what he was actually doing that was creating such value. I've…

If your looking for business entertainement books, check out Michael Lewis (the guy behind money ball). I really like The new new thing, flash boys and boomerang.

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

#35

Post by guiomie »

brianbreslin wrote: post #14

This book was re-released because of this recommendation. Gates I'm guessing coordinated with amazon to get it back for sale, as previously the rare copies were prohibitively expensive.

I bought it at Chapters/Indigo today, to my surprise they had 3 copies. You think it ended up on bookshleves because of his endorsement ?

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

#36

Post by ChuckMcM »

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.

If it helps, I feel that way about the Opera.

Over the years I've had both experiences where I've asked for someones recommendation and found it amazingly accurate, and found what was recommended ordinary or uninspiring. My take on it is that the way people absorb information is unique to the individual and some presentations get through that filter and some don't.

The other important thing I learned was that the filter changes, as you become more educated in a subject, you can pick up more with less if the author assumes you already know the basics. When writing for publication I sometimes felt I was explaining too much but my editor would dial that in for me, when I described to little she would gently prod me back to reality with "How the hell is someone reading this supposed to know what that means?" :-) When I went to far she would chastise me with "Everyone already knows that."

I've read Brooks, and in my opinion he writes for people who are already in the role of business leader and are trying to advance by not making the mistakes others have made. But is it brilliant? I don't know. Can it be brilliant for Bill and Warren and not for anyone else? Probably. I found it useful but not as useful as Larry Bossidy's "Execution: the discipline of getting things done" [1] which really helped me understand what "progress" was when you were a manager versus when you were an engineer and progress was "obvious" in the sense that the project got completed. But I can't say that Execution is more brilliant than Business Stories, they are just different and one was better for me.

Bottom line don't sweat it if you don't see the brilliance, note it and move on. Later if you find you can recall what you read differently, based on your experience, consider going back and re-reading it. See if it has become more, or less, brilliant given your additional understanding.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Execution-Discipline-Getting-Things-Do...

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

#37

Post by cjf4 »

bko wrote: post #30

Everything I've read about this book, apart from comments by Bill Gates, prevented me from reading it. Does anyone have any recommendations of better business books? I was incredibly inspired by Isaacson's Jobs biography. To learn that someone so flawed can achieve such greatness is inspiring. I also read it almost like a mystery novel, trying to decipher what he was actually doing that was creating such value. I've…

I guess it's a matter of taste as I greatly preferred Business Adventures to the Jobs biography. The Jobs book, while informative, felt like it was missing something. I got a better sense about the guy watching his old NEXT era PBS interviews than I did Isaacson's bio, which too often felt like a recounting of major events shoehorned into what Isaacson decided the theme of Jobs' life was.

I'd still recommend reading BA because the writing style is first rate (and unexpectedly funny). It's also worthwhile for the realization that, due to it's mid century setting, that while the materials and ideas of the business world have changed since the books time, people really haven't, thus business itself really hasn't changed as much as you might otherwise conclude.

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

#38

Post by Estragon »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #36
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.

If it helps, I feel that way about the Opera. Over the years I've had both experiences where I've asked for someones recommendation and found it amazingly accurate, and found what was recommended ordinary or uninspiring. My take on it is that the way people absorb information is unique to the individual and some presentations get through that filter and some don't. The other important thing I learned was that the fil…

  > Larry Bossidy's "Execution: the discipline of getting things done"
The "Most helpful review" for this is quite acerbic. Just shows there's no accounting for taste.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2KRS1CQJCGZW0/ref=cm_cr_dp_tit...

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

#39

Post by lukasm »

> But the final outcome of the struggle was still uncertain late in 1968. McLuhan, for one, was convinced that all efforts to preserve the old forms of author protection represent backward thinking and are doomed to failure (or, anyway, he was convinced the day he wrote his American Scholar article). “There is no possible protection from technology except by technology,” he wrote. “When you create a new environment with one phase of technology, you have to create an anti-environment with the next.” But authors are seldom good at technology, and probably do not flourish in anti-environments.

That summaries all the government effort with copyright

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

#40

Post by davemel37 »

bko wrote: post #30

Everything I've read about this book, apart from comments by Bill Gates, prevented me from reading it. Does anyone have any recommendations of better business books? I was incredibly inspired by Isaacson's Jobs biography. To learn that someone so flawed can achieve such greatness is inspiring. I also read it almost like a mystery novel, trying to decipher what he was actually doing that was creating such value. I've…

Some Iconic Business Books I loved and are Worth Reading IMHO.

Use Your Noodle and Get The Boodle (aka Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill - that was his proposed but rejected title), Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, Be My Guest - Conrad Hilton Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, The Success System That Never Fails - W. Clement Stone, Winning Through Intimidation - Robert Ringer, Scientific Advertising - Claude Hopkins, The Ultimate Marketing Plan - Dan Kennedy, How to Win Friends and influence People - Dale Carnegie, The Psychology of Intelligence - CIA Manual - Richard Heuer https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intellig... ,

There are literally thousands of books worth reading, but the above are the ones I found to be the most enlightening.

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