4 ms·

* Steve Jobs biography. I couldn't put it down and I'm shocked there aren't more fans on HN For those who liked Malkiel's Random Walk, read: * Ben Graham's In

by vm 15y ago

* Steve Jobs biography. I couldn't put it down and I'm shocked there aren't more fans on HN For those who liked Malkiel's Random Walk, read: * Ben Graham's Intelligent Investor * Philip Fisher's Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits They counter Malkiel's thesis (yup, he's wrong) and Warren Buffet credits both men for teaching him how to invest. True classics.

davidw 15y ago
I read both Malkiel's book and Grahams' book this year and was much more convinced by the former, especially in the context of just wanting to put some money away and not work at it too much - although to his credit, Graham also says that investors like this should not be all that active. I think reading both is not a bad idea, but for those of us not in a position to crack open a company's books like someone like Buffet can do, I'm not convinced of the wisdom of trying to beat the market at determining which companies are 'value' companies.
hello_moto 15y ago
Steve Jobs may be a great entrepreneur and innovator (or tweaker, whatever, people can debate this for decade) but not all people care much about his life. Especially when most of it have been exposed for years. I borrowed the book from library and only read a few pages here and there. Returned the book within a week because I have other priorities or other books to read. I think it's good that the "herd" mentality is missing on this book. In fact, I hope the herd/blogger mentality decreases as well in any other books (like Gladwell's, Ferris's, etc).
- Riesling 15y ago
  I strongly disagree. I got the biography for christmas this year and finished it in two days. Having never owned a piece of apple hardware due to its closed nature and being an open source supporter myself, I was quite surprised by the joy I got from reading this book. The honesty used by Walter Isaacson to describe Jobs was really refreshing and not expected by me at all. I was able to draw many conclusions from this book. For example I do not think that there is the possibility of using it as a recipe for your own success as an entrepreneur, which might be the reason of why the hn community might be undervaluing this book. It clearly shows that Steve had many unique character traits which made him successful after all. Most of them were negative in my eyes. Actually he often seemed borderline insane. When thinking about the way he treated people, the way he manipulated people, the way he thought that he knew it all and used all of those techniques in order to make those things happen, I realized that those are character traits that lie deep within and cannot easy be emulated, if at all. As a conclusion I might add that I really respect Steve and his family for allowing such a self critical biography to be published.
  - hello_moto 15y ago
    What are you disagreeing against? I find it... weird when someone said something in HN and somebody else has to agree or disagree. It's like a blog post that requires a rebuttal or something. Some people want to read about Steve Jobs, some don't... And FYI, I'm not sure if reading a book on X and consider it as a recipe for your business is a good thing anyway. Nobody has replicated 37Signals success so far. Whatever you thought about Steve, most people probably already knew that from the numerous books, articles, and whatnot written about him. And if this book exposed 10-30% more about him... well.. some people may not bother to know more... It's not like we all must read the book or something...

by vm 15y ago

davidw 15y ago

I read both Malkiel's book and Grahams' book this year and was much more convinced by the former, especially in the context of just wanting to put some money away and not work at it too much - although to his credit, Graham also says that investors like this should not be all that active. I think reading both is not a bad idea, but for those of us not in a position to crack open a company's books like someone like Buffet can do, I'm not convinced of the wisdom of trying to beat the market at determining which companies are 'value' companies.

hello_moto 15y ago

Steve Jobs may be a great entrepreneur and innovator (or tweaker, whatever, people can debate this for decade) but not all people care much about his life. Especially when most of it have been exposed for years. I borrowed the book from library and only read a few pages here and there. Returned the book within a week because I have other priorities or other books to read. I think it's good that the "herd" mentality is missing on this book. In fact, I hope the herd/blogger mentality decreases as well in any other books (like Gladwell's, Ferris's, etc).

Riesling 15y ago
I strongly disagree. I got the biography for christmas this year and finished it in two days. Having never owned a piece of apple hardware due to its closed nature and being an open source supporter myself, I was quite surprised by the joy I got from reading this book. The honesty used by Walter Isaacson to describe Jobs was really refreshing and not expected by me at all. I was able to draw many conclusions from this book. For example I do not think that there is the possibility of using it as a recipe for your own success as an entrepreneur, which might be the reason of why the hn community might be undervaluing this book. It clearly shows that Steve had many unique character traits which made him successful after all. Most of them were negative in my eyes. Actually he often seemed borderline insane. When thinking about the way he treated people, the way he manipulated people, the way he thought that he knew it all and used all of those techniques in order to make those things happen, I realized that those are character traits that lie deep within and cannot easy be emulated, if at all. As a conclusion I might add that I really respect Steve and his family for allowing such a self critical biography to be published.
- hello_moto 15y ago
  What are you disagreeing against? I find it... weird when someone said something in HN and somebody else has to agree or disagree. It's like a blog post that requires a rebuttal or something. Some people want to read about Steve Jobs, some don't... And FYI, I'm not sure if reading a book on X and consider it as a recipe for your business is a good thing anyway. Nobody has replicated 37Signals success so far. Whatever you thought about Steve, most people probably already knew that from the numerous books, articles, and whatnot written about him. And if this book exposed 10-30% more about him... well.. some people may not bother to know more... It's not like we all must read the book or something...