
Guy Kawasaki - Four free books - aespinoza
https://plus.google.com/+GuyKawasaki/posts/TkA1Knf6EZS
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wazoox
The Macintosh way is interesting for technology history, insider stories and
technology marketing. Database 101 is dated but probably still relevant to
learn database basics. WTP is mainly interesting if you want to make the best
of Google+. I'd bet it will mostly interest community managers. Computer
Curmudgeon is apparently a bunch of amusing stories, nothing more.

Unfortunately the 3 old books are quite badly jpeg-compressed pdfs instead of
proper text.

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GuyKawasaki
Feel free to OCR and copy edit.

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clinth
The four books are:

The Macintosh Way (1989)

Database 101 (1991) -- pdf does not include free disk inside, wow I'm old

Computer Curmudgeon (1992)

What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us (2012)

<http://www.yousendit.com/download/WUJZZUNndWNlaFRMYnRVag>

edit: added link to the download page, for the G+ averse

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chris_wot
I guess those people won't be downloading the G+ book then.

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exim
It is amazing how people can produce such an amount of content with absolutely
no value at all.

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lucian303
Bullshit is an art indeed.

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wallflower
Gems from Computer Curmudgeon that I am typing in verbatim, as I really think
these are some of the most interesting things I have read about the craft of
programming in a very long time. Apologies to Guy Kawasaki, this may go past
fair use on your copyright - I felt they were too wise to be left buried.

 _How to Program_

 _Program freely_

Have rollicking fun when you program. Program as if you were creating
something for your friends. Make programming easy on and interesting to
yourself, without fear of failure. Thumb your nose at the know-it-alls,
critics, managers, and MBAs at least once a month and program freely.

 _Program recklessly_

Ignore "market" requirements (the market usually doesn't know what it wants
until it sees it). Go where no programmer has gone before. Add Excel,
PageMaker, and RTF compatibility at the end. If ever. If you want. Make
history, not compatibility. Your goal is to create software so great that
customers are willing to rekey data, so tell the world to kiss your SCSI port
and go for it.

 _Program for love_

Programming is generosity. You can have an insight or know a truth about how a
computer can do something. You want other people to share it. So you program.
Put your love for people into your program. It will touch people, and all of
you will be better for it. It may even sell - because people are willing to
buy love on a disk (If you want to see love on a disk, look at HAM from
Microseeds publishing. This little jewel allows you to customize the order of
your Apple menu and it adds a folder to the Apple menu containing a directory
of the items used recently. HAM shows some serious love of System 7 users.

 _Program honestly_

Most software is dishonest. When you look at it, you can't believe that a
programmer with a triple-digit IQ believes that this is the way things should
work. Instead, the software is saying, "This isn't really what I think. The
design specs said to do it this way." Or, "My boss saw John Sculley demo a
HyperCard stack that has this kind of interface." Or, "My boss saw this
feature in an Apple video." Be honest. And be accepted or rejected on what you
really believe.

 _Program to infect_

Great software leaps from a computer and infects people's brains. It makes
their fingertips sizzle and mouse buttons palpitate. Infection happens
immediately or it doesn't happen at all. It won't happen because people try-
and-try to like a program or because a reviewer says it's good. As you
program, keep the goal of infection in your mind.

 _Program for intrinsic rewards_.

Programming yields two intrinsic rewards. First, programming helps you
understand your feelings better. Nothing forces a person to understand himself
better than trying to communicate his feelings. Second, programming increases
creativity: the more you use your creative power, the more you will have
(Don't you wish Powerbook batteries worked this way?) No matter how many
copies of your program you sell, if you program for intrinsic rewards, you'll
reap satisfaction.

 _Program in the present_.

To borrow a Ueland[1] analogy, work like a child strings beads: one bead at a
time, unconcerned about what the necklace might look like with different
beads. Ignore the rumors you read in MacWEEK about DAL, RISC chips [Ed.: HA!
RISC won!], and cross-platform compilers. Instead, do the best you can with
the present. If you wait for the perfect platform and the perfect object-
oriented compiler, you may never finish anything. Create a product so great
that people won't care about upgrading to the latest gee-whiz-what-have-we-
shipped-but-no-perfected technology.

 _Program anything you want_.

Ueland quotes William Blake to illustrate this point: "Better to strangle an
infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires." Ignore the forecast about
market size in the year 2000 and the competitive analysis of the viability of
various platforms. Tackle anything that fascinates you: a product for NeXT, an
Excel killer - even a Macintosh database program. If your company won't let
you do this, then quit. Have you ever met anyone who regretted quitting a job?

 _Program microscopically_.

Take a close look at the software you've created. Does it show a microscopic
attention to detail? A fine eye? Empathy for the user? Forget "patentable,
paradigm-shifting algorithms for the '90s" because great software come down to
minute details. Get out your microscope and program software for mortals.

If you want to see programs not programmed microscopically, look at Microsoft
Word or Aldus PageMaker. Don't you love dialog boxes that contain three pop-up
menus and nine buttons (Save, Cancel, Apply, Set Default, Apply Set, Apply
Default, Default Apply, Default Set, and Default Default) plus four buttons
leading to additional dialogs?

These products were programmed with a telescope. It must have something to do
with being from the Pacific Northwest. Maybe there are hooded owls living in
Word and PageMaker, so it is against the law to cut down the number of dialog
boxes.

 _Program when you are discouraged_

Ueland quotes Van Gogh: "If you hear a voice within you saying: You are no
painter, then paint by all means, lad, and that voice will be silenced, but
only by working." No one- not Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson [2], Steve Capps
[3], or Michael Jordan [23] - woke up one day and was great. They make it look
easy because they've worked hard. Great programming is opening a vein and
pouring blood onto a disk.

>>

 _Interface_

That which justifies Apple's margins.

\- From Computer Curmudgeon, page 144 - 147, 95, 1992

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ueland>

[2]
[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_E...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt)

[3]
[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Steve_Capps_Day.txt)

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jonpeda
Interesting advice from someone who was never a professional developer. Has
Kawasaki done any hobby programming?

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saraid216
Everything quoted in the GP can be said about writing in general. It's
excellent advice, but it's not specific at all.

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lucian303
As a writer, I absolutely agree. It's also not new advice. As in hundreds of
years old.

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ableal
(Computer Curmudgeon did not age very well, with some stuff now obscure even
for those of us who were watching at the time, but this entry is an
interesting snapshot of the commercial internet in 1991 California:)

"AppleLink - A marketing research project to determine whether people will pay
$25/hour for electronic mail service when $5/hour service are available.

 _America Online is for geeks; CompuServe is for tweaks; AppleLink for sheiks;
The Well is for freaks_ "

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jonpeda
Isn't that the entire history of Apple, though? "Maybe people will pay more
for our de-commoditized version." Many times, Apple was right, for at least a
significant minority of customers.

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lucian303
Entire history, yet published in the early '90's?

Let's face it. Had Steve Jobs not returned, Apple would have been bankrupt by
y2k.

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TommyDANGerous
I've been wanting to read Art of the Start. Any recommendations or advice?

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lucian303
Feel-good books about programming from an "evangelist." Yeah, just confess
your sins and accept Apple/Whatever as your savior and you'll be a great
programmer.

No prior programming knowledge needed.

$999,999,999 for the 2 hour seminar.

Thanks Mitt, but I think we've had enough.

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GuyKawasaki
I'd love to see the software that you created. Please provide a link.

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IridescentBlue
Personally, I prefer the book Millionaire Next Door. Helped me develop some
effective money saving ideas: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-
Door-Surprising/d...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-
Surprising/dp/1589795474/?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=the%20millionaire%20next%20door&tag=produc05-20&linkCode=ur2&qid=1356985180&camp=1789&sr=8-1&creative=9325)

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kirian
I think you are mixing up Guy Kawasaki (The Art of the Start and other books
like the ones given away free here) with Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad)

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chris_wot
Oh gosh - PLEASE don't purchase or recommend anything to do with Robert
Kiyosaki!

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anthonyb
That book's not even by Kiyosaki, so it's a doubly random link.

