

Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read - jevanish
http://jasonevanish.com/2012/07/01/11-books-every-entrepreneur-should-read/

======
diego_moita
> The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Ok, nothing to see here, move along.

Disclaimer: I am Brazilian and read this book in Portuguese. That might
explain why I don't like Paulo Coelho. I see him as a pop version of Herman
Hesse, an easy to read cheap mystic. Gave up on these kind of readings a long
ago.

~~~
franze
i know i know you should never open a "hate" group on facebook, i did so
anyway a few years ago after one of his books took two hours of my life that i
will never get back.

here is the fb url <https://www.facebook.com/groups/40433509545/>

i know that this is not very HN, but neither is a "xx books ever entrepreneur
should read" linkbaitblogpost on the front page.

here my favorite quotes:

"porn movies has better plot than his books"

"He mixes a couple of diff books in one (but the other two arent his :-)"

"Reminds me something that could be called langue de bois, a suspicious
rhetoric that is targeted towards desire of happiness. Too good to be true, to
abstract to be examined, too vague to be accomplished. I guess the speeches of
early USSR politics could be depicted as a same type langue de bois, that were
talking about a perfect society in a loud tone of sentiments and deep
emotionality, but created nothing more than utopian abortion."

"in my opinion people who actually like Paulo Coelho have never ever read a
real book and are unable to enjoy literature. Paulo Coelho = scary new age
pseudo babble for lost middle class brats. It is good news for Paulo Coelho's
bank account the world is full of those."

~~~
ramblerman
It's fair enough to not like a book. I didn't really care for it either.

When you express this level of hate for something however, I'd venture to say
it's more about yourself than you might think. You talk about 2 hours of your
life wasted, yet your still burning energy in hating it, and forming a group
of all things.

~~~
franze
i know i know

nonetheless i made an exception for that guy. if everyone (according to
bestseller lists and the linked blogpost above) is an awe of that guy,
somebody has to point out "that the king has no clothes" (reference to
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperors_New_Clothes> )

------
ThomPete
My general advice for entrepreneurs (although I am sure most of them know
already) would be to not read books too close to the subject you want to know
about. Instead you should read books about subjects around the field of
entrepreneurship. (accounting or financing as an example)

If I where to give one recommendation it would be Clayton Christensens "The
Innovators Dilemma"

That book isn't specific to entrepreneurs but to business in general. It is
however the one book that will give you an understanding of the game you are
in.

As en entrepreneur you are trying to find the holes in the cheese or create
your own. Not to eat it.

~~~
jdp23
Agreed about The Innovators Dilemma; and from the original list, Founders at
Work, Crucial Conversations, and The Design of Everyday Things. Your mileage
may vary on The Alchemist; some people find it transformational, others aren't
so excited. I haven't read the others on the list so don't mean to be dissing
them, just don't have any first-hand experience.

I'd also add

\- Sherry Turkle's The Second Self \- Geoffrey Miller's Crossing the Chasm and
Inside the Tornado (a different Geoffrey Miller than the one in the original
list :) ) \- Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan, The Entrepreneurial Mindset

~~~
ThomPete
I have never understood why people are so positive about "Design of everyday
things".

I guess the book might make you appreciate design and that might affect your
sensitivity to design.

But I think you need to have a general affection for design in general to
really get anything out of the book.

Otherwise you run the risk of thinking your understand design now that you
have read a book about it.

Just my opinion of course.

~~~
adrianhoward
_But I think you need to have a general affection for design in general to
really get anything out of the book._

In my experience you don't :-) At least, I've seen it switch many people out
of the design == "making things pretty" mindset into something more
productive. It's always on my reading list for people who don't get design, or
people who understand that they need to get design. Seems be effective with
both groups.

I think it has something to do with it not being written as a "design" book
per se. Remember the original 1988 title was "The Psychology of Everyday
Things". It's up there with "Peopleware" as a book I keep buying for clients
:-)

~~~
ThomPete
In general I agree.

But I think the question is whether you can be a successful entrepreneur
without having some sense or idea about design.

In my experience from working with many many startups the entrepreneurs either
get it or they don't. In fact if they don't they wont even entertain the idea
that they don't get it.

But yeah our experiences might differ :)

~~~
psykotic
Most skillful people will tend to develop good taste and a sense of design in
and around their own field of expertise. The Design of Everyday Things has
helped people I know expand that sense beyond its original narrower confines
to, as the title suggests, the world of everyday things.

The downside is that now some of them think they can instantly render a well-
founded opinion on anything relating to design. Although that may simply be a
corollary of the general phenomenon where experts in one field (and
programmers and engineers may be the worst) think they possess the master key
to critical thinking and problem solving in any and all fields.

~~~
lwm
fantastic!

------
michaelpinto
It makes me sad that Peter Drucker is so out of style with you kids. I was
recently reading a book about Google and they made a huge reference to
Druker's OKR system (outcomes and key results). I found a decent article on it
here if anybody wants a summary: <http://jephmaystruck.com/how-do-you-measure-
your-strategy/>

~~~
ThomPete
I couldn't agree more. His books are some of the most thoughtful and
insightful books I have ever read.

------
ggwicz
I'd highly recommend Nassim Taleb's "The Black Swan", that's a useful tool for
reminding you how little you know and how little everyone else knows.

Personally, that's a motivator to build a product without being concerned
about what all the other products are doing / how they look. It's also a great
reminder of the importance of empiricism in some parts of life, which is great
to keep in mind with something as simple as debugging your code or doing
customer support...coming at a problem like an experiment, from the position
of knowing nothing, means you can get to the answer faster (usually) and with
more accuracy and precision.

------
davidjgraph
Here's my tip, stop reading books about it, stop reading the 15 articles
published about it daily, just get on with implementing something. No, really.

------
adrianhoward
One that's pretty much always on my list of recommendations is DeMarco &
Lister's "Peopleware"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects_and_Teams)

More than twenty years old now—yet still incredibly relevant. If you're new to
building/leading/managing teams or project management, and don't have a copy,
go get one now.

------
jevanish
Curious what books the Hacker News community considers must read?

~~~
judofyr
Hacker News stories which contains plenty of book recommendations (sorted by
points, labeled by topic):

Science Fiction: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2978027>

Computer Science: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3595599>

General: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1752139>

Design: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3276986>

Computer Science: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1636275>

Developing mental models and increasing cognition:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3277457>

Quant finance: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3177815>

General: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=663662>

General (non software): <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1226736>

Math: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=665029>

General: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=875686>

Entrepreneur: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2928211>

Statistics: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=902074>

Philosophy: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1503137>

General: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865350>

Math for beginners: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755043>

Military strategy: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=456275>

General: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=797070>

Investing: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=248469>

"I want to start a web company": <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1567456>

~~~
jevanish
Thanks for puling this list together...I added it to the bottom of my post so
more people can see what you helped assemble. Thanks!

------
craigkerstiens
To add a few that span outside entrepreneurship, but are of course very
valuable to entrepreneurs:

Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love
([http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-
Lov...](http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-
Love/dp/0981690408?ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mypred-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0932633439))
- The best if not only required reading for product management

Peopleware ([http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-
Teams-S...](http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-
Second/dp/0932633439?ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mypred-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0932633439))
- Great read on managing and understanding people as it relates to
organizations

Managing Humans ([http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-
Engi...](http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-
Engineering/dp/159059844X?ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mypred-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0932633439))
- Obviously on management, you can read much on this
<http://randsinrepose.com/>, though the book does a great job of consolidating
it

~~~
jevanish
Great call on Inspired. Hands down the best Product book out there...haven't
heard any others even in the conversation.

------
adaml_623
Doesn't anybody realise that affiliate links to amazon.com don't catch users
from the UK or Europe. Surely it's not that difficult to install a
geotargetting plugin to rewrite those links to amazon.co.uk, .ft .de, etc.

Also a question if any Amazoners are reading this. Why when I click from the
amazon.com to amazon.co.uk does it not remember the book I'm looking at. Come
on guys it's not the 20th century anymore.

------
rburhum
For _entrepreneurship_ some people may say you you committed blasphemy by
ommiting Lean Startup and Business Model Generation

~~~
davidw
Lean Startup fell pretty flat for me. It felt like there wasn't much "there
there". Recommended alternatives:

Read it, liked it more than Lean Startup:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055D7O1U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055D7O1U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0055D7O1U&linkCode=as2&tag=dedasys-20)

Started reading it, seems much more thorough than Lean Startup:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984999302/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984999302/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0984999302&linkCode=as2&tag=dedasys-20)
\- annoyingly does not have a Kindle version.

Haven't ready it, heard it's good:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006UKFFE0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006UKFFE0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006UKFFE0&linkCode=as2&tag=dedasys-20)

And of course, my favorite of all, because it's full of real, practical
advice, Start Small, Stay Small.

~~~
jevanish
I gotta agree with you. Conceptually Lean Startup was ok, but there was zero
content in it that I could easily grasp and apply to a company. It was all too
high level. I think most of Clayton Christensen's books are the same way.

Eric Ries is in the consulting business (like Clayton) and he's trying to
bring Lean Startup to the mainstream & big companies. I think his book
achieves that goal but at the expense of being helpful to startups.

------
jaylevitt
_The Halo Effect_, Phil Rozenzweig: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Halo-Effect-
Business-Delusions/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Halo-Effect-Business-
Delusions/dp/0743291255)

This revisits books from earlier in the decade (like _Good to Great_), and
shows that many of the profiled companies failed. It's a great way to learn
_how_ to read entrepreneurship books; many theories are based on "Intel is
successful; Intel does X; therefore doing X will make you successful".

In general, go read books from ten years ago and see if any of the predictions
held up. Likewise, I recommend _Founders at Work_ because so many of these
(currently) successful companies were launched with opposing philosophies, and
all of them worked. Open plan? Works! Offices? Also works! Deep funding?
Works! Bootstrapping? Also works!

~~~
SatvikBeri
This is part of what makes The Innovator's Dilemma so great and believable-a
lot of the predictions the author makes turned out to be correct over the next
15 years.

------
PHPAdam
>How to Win Friends and Influence People OR "How to Win Friends and Influence
People in the Digital Age" by same Author

~~~
jaredsohn
In case anyone is wondering how Dale Carnegie wrote a book on "How to Win
Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age", the actual author for the
current edition of both books is credited to "Dale Carnegie & Associates"

~~~
robbfitzsimmons
I must admit, that was a head-scratcher... an amazing accomplishment when
they're still crediting an author from the 30s.

------
pclark
High Output Management by Andy Grove

Jack Welch: Straight From the Gut

The Innovators' Solution.

------
krollew
I'd add "Reality Test" by Guy Kawasaki.

------
firefoxman1
I'd add Poke the Box by Seth Godin.

