Ask HN: Would a list of books recommended by founders and makers be interesting? - leonagano
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megamindbrian2
I'd be very interested. This is actually one of the things I like to ask
entrepreneurs when we first meet. I'd tell you what I've found, but it would
get me kicked off HN again.

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dustinlocke
Well now I need to know...

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megamindbrian2
I was specifically looking for religious related answers. Reason being, I
think a lot of management decisions are made based on religious relationships
inside the office (e.g. I go to church with this person so I'll support their
projects more). I've asked dozens of people in leadership positions what book
they recommend. Some of my favorites I've gotten Maxwell Leadership, and The
Bible, and I was surprised to hear Arnold's Bodyshaping for Women made a huge
difference in one person's life and approach to physical health. I will
continue to ask people this throughout Linkedin and Facebook.

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tfmatt
I'd recommend the book "Coders at Work," it features lots of industry veterans
and candid interviews with them. I remember not being able to put the book
down while reading the chapter interviewing the founder of LiveJournal.

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leonagano
I created a quick landing page to feel if people are interested in
it......[https://bbfounders.carrd.co/](https://bbfounders.carrd.co/)

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whatyoucantsay
It provides zero value. It just asks for our email.

Here's a useful page: [https://medium.com/startup-library/marc-andressen-
bookshelf-...](https://medium.com/startup-library/marc-andressen-bookshelf-
db20dd9309c9)

~~~
leonagano
How would you think it’d be good to test the idea before launch it? More
information on the landing page? Some kind of prototype? I’m just learning to
launch and would love to hear feedback.

~~~
whatyoucantsay
What do you mean by "launch", exactly?

The easiest way to see if people find a list of book recommendations useful or
not is to just compile it, put it online and share it! Better yet, do this
several times with different formats or recommendations from different people
and your page traffic will let you know what is and isn't valued. Asking in
the abstract is very, very difficult to get good intel from.

One somewhat related success model is Maria Popova, who has built a massive
site called Brain Pickings from reading and writing summaries of books
herself. There was no sudden launch to fanfare. She learnt what worked by
creating and listening to her audience over time.

