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This is exactly what I did with business, instead of getting an MBA or a PhD. Here's my reading list: http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ http://person
by joshkaufman 16y ago
This is exactly what I did with business, instead of getting an MBA or a PhD.
Here's my reading list: http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/
Here's the book I wrote, condensing what I learned in the process: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591843529/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591843529/
I now own my own business, work for myself as a business teacher and consultant, have an enormous amount of flexibility in my day-to-day schedule, and make more than professors who teach at top business schools.
Education is changing.
- kmfrk 16y agoGive yourself some credit for going through 99+ books, though; if something doesn't sink in after all that, then you should reconsider the way you read. :)
- joshkaufman 16y agoIt wasn't just 99 - it was thousands. The books on the list are just the best. :-)
- bosie 16y agothousands? if your average book has 300 pages, and you read 30 pages per hour, you would need to read for 10000 hours, doing it for 8 hours a day you need 1250 days. that's without repeating anything of course. am i wrong? in what timespan did you read those thousands of books?
- dagw 16y agoI'm not the original poster, but I've found that most 300 page business books contain 10-20 pages of useful info and 280-290 pages of fluff and filler. I generally skim through the average business book in an hour or 2, including the time to make notes of all the potentially useful advice I find. It's rare to find a business book worth carefully reading cover to cover.
- joshkaufman 16y agoThat's exactly what I do, only I've practiced enough to cut the time per book to 10-20 minutes, depending on complexity. Reading for information extraction vs. word-for-word is much more efficient, and if you practice, your comprehension and retention is just as high. It's not uncommon for me to go to the library or B&N and read a stack of 20-30 books in a few hours. I've been reading business books for six years, and easily read 200-400 books a year. Here's a post I wrote on effective non-fiction reading techniques, for more info on the approach: http://personalmba.com/10-days-to-faster-reading/ http://personalmba.com/10-days-to-faster-reading/
- sunkan 16y agoWow! Has anyone else achieved this level of efficiency in their reading? -- 10-20 minutes per book? -- 20 to 30 books in a few hours. I am a bit skeptical, but maybe it is doable. I am curios to know if anyone else on HN can read/comprehend a non-fiction business book in less than 30 mins. I went ahead and ordered '10 days to faster reading'.
- johnwatson11218 16y agoJust this morning I had the idea that since so many books are appearing in electronic format it won't be long before lots of the text has been tagged. I'm reading an enjoyable book about sleep right now. In many places the author goes into personal stories that led to a particular discovery. I thought 'wouldn't it be nice to be able to have those parts filtered for me by my Kindle software?'. I could see things getting to the point to where you could have the option to generate an executive summary from any popular book that tries to hit the main points. Then you drill down as you want more information. Books could function almost like mini-wikis at that point but with a narrative or order that you use to drive through it.
- jacques_chester 16y ago1. Get out your kindle 2. buy a copy of Neuromancer 3. search for the part where Case tells his Ono-Sendai to "sift this shit. 2 minute precis" 4. Be amazed once again that a guy with a typewriter predicted what you're doing.
- thebigredjay 16y agoI like the idea of reading ridiculous amounts of things more than reading one thing ridiculous amounts of times.
- monk_the_dog 16y agoNice list. One quibble: I'd put Steve Blank's "Four Steps" under Entrepreneurship rather than "Value Creation and Design". I've read Four Steps, Universal Principals of Design, and Design of Everyday things (I have not read Rework, the other book in the category). Four Steps really covers much different material than the other other two books.
- crasshopper 16y agoRework is probably the best out of all of those!
- tricky 16y agoha! i just picked your book up off the new arrivals shelf at the library. glad to see you're on hn.
- joshkaufman 16y agoGreat to hear - please leave a review after you read it. Helps tremendously. Thanks!
- fuzzythinker 16y agoWow, incredible reviews, just picked up a copy ;)
- joshkaufman 16y agoThanks, I appreciate it!
- Nrsolis 16y agoDitto. Kindle rocks.
- mbesto 16y agoYou've just got another sale thanks to Kindle ;)
- joshkaufman 16y agoThanks, hope you find it useful!
- mbesto 16y agoI'll be sure to review it on Amazon afterwards.
- rlm 16y agoAny chance you could put an ebook up for sale? Your book hasn't been released in Europe yet, and the import charges when buying from Amazon.com are pretty bad (~200% increase in price). :-/
- joshkaufman 16y agoI can't sell an e-book directly, due to the grant of rights to the publisher. Kindle, etc. is the best option - the UK/International version comes out February 3rd, and an international Kindle version should be coming with it. That said, I'd recommend getting your hands on a hard copy if you can - the book is designed to be equal parts primer and reference, and the hard copy is optimized for easy reference use.
- crasshopper 16y agoIsn't there a limited amount of room for people to do what you did? I mean there can only be so many teachers and business consultants. To my mind part of being an entrepreneur is leaving the world of books, professors, and ideas. Anyway congratulations and here's to hoping that your book makes the B-school reading lists.