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Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read
- jevanish 14y agoCurious what books the Hacker News community considers must read?
- acoyfellow 14y agoI just added these books to my "To Get" list.. Which is already large. As a broke fresh college graduate, one of the most widely talked about books (and one I actually bought myself) was Eric Ries' The Lean Startup. It really helped me feel like I had a sense of direction instead of "thinking I knew" something,
- kdsudac 14y agoThe public library is your friend, especially if you live in the right area. For example, many California libraries are in a program called Link+ that allows you to borrow books from other libraries, including college libraries. Even if a book you want isn't in the library's catalog, go talk to a librarian. They can work some magic.
- rdl 14y agoAlso check out public libraries with Overdrive (eBooks). Another thing to do is see if your college will let you keep online or other library access for a nominal fee. I remember (ab)using MIT libraries for a while after leaving.
- theoutlander 14y agoFounders at work by Jessica Livingston, Rework by Jason Fried and DHH, The Startup Owners Manual by Steve Blank...
- djt 14y agohere's mine: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018867 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018867
- judofyr 14y agoHacker News stories which contains plenty of book recommendations (sorted by points, labeled by topic): Science Fiction: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2978027 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2978027 Computer Science: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3595599 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3595599 General: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1752139 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1752139 Design: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3276986 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3276986 Computer Science: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1636275 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1636275 Developing mental models and increasing cognition: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3277457 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3277457 Quant finance: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3177815 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3177815 General: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=663662 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=663662 General (non software): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1226736 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1226736 Math: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=665029 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=665029 General: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=875686 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=875686 Entrepreneur: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2928211 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2928211 Statistics: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=902074 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=902074 Philosophy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1503137 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1503137 General: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865350 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865350 Math for beginners: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755043 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755043 Military strategy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=456275 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=456275 General: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=797070 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=797070 Investing: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=248469 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=248469 "I want to start a web company": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1567456 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1567456
- jevanish 14y agoThanks for puling this list together...I added it to the bottom of my post so more people can see what you helped assemble. Thanks!
- franze 14y agohere is a question i started for sci-fi books which got some decent recommendations http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3781486 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3781486
- ThomPete 14y agoMy 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 14y agoAgreed 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 14y agoI 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 14y agoBut 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 :-)
- diego_moita 14y ago> 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.
- intellegacy 14y agoAgree. Friends saw me as a dreamer, and so for several years I received numerous recommendations to read The Alchemist. I found the story superficial, disjointed, and disappointing overall. I'm not sure what the appeal is.
- franze 14y agoi 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/ 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 14y agoIt'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.
- adrianhoward 14y agoOne that's pretty much always on my list of recommendations is DeMarco & Lister's "Peopleware" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects_and_Teams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects... 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.
- michaelpinto 14y agoIt 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/ http://jephmaystruck.com/how-do-you-measure-your-strategy/
- ThomPete 14y agoI couldn't agree more. His books are some of the most thoughtful and insightful books I have ever read.
- pwang 14y agoI've found recommendations for Drucker on some entrepreneurial sites. I think if they re-released his books with updated covers (hire whoever does Malcolm Gladwell's covers), they might grab more attention from the "young generation".
- ggwicz 14y agoI'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 14y agoHere'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.
- rburhum 14y agoFor entrepreneurship some people may say you you committed blasphemy by ommiting Lean Startup and Business Model Generation
- davidw 14y agoLean 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?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0055D7O1U&linkCode=as2&tag=dedasys-20 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055D7O1U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... Started reading it, seems much more thorough than Lean Startup: 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 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984999302/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... - 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?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006UKFFE0&linkCode=as2&tag=dedasys-20 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006UKFFE0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... And of course, my favorite of all, because it's full of real, practical advice, Start Small, Stay Small.
- jevanish 14y agoI 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.
- pclark 14y agoHigh Output Management by Andy Grove Jack Welch: Straight From the Gut The Innovators' Solution.
- PHPAdam 14y ago>How to Win Friends and Influence People OR "How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age" by same Author
- jaredsohn 14y agoIn 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 14y agoI must admit, that was a head-scratcher... an amazing accomplishment when they're still crediting an author from the 30s.
- craigkerstiens 14y agoTo 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-Love/dp/0981690408?ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mypred-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0932633439 http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Lov...) - The best if not only required reading for product management Peopleware (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 http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-S...) - Great read on managing and understanding people as it relates to organizations Managing Humans (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 http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-Engi...) - Obviously on management, you can read much on this http://randsinrepose.com/ http://randsinrepose.com/, though the book does a great job of consolidating it
- jevanish 14y agoGreat call on Inspired. Hands down the best Product book out there...haven't heard any others even in the conversation.
- adaml_623 14y agoDoesn'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.
- firefoxman1 14y agoI'd add Poke the Box by Seth Godin.
- krollew 14y agoI'd add "Reality Test" by Guy Kawasaki.
- jaylevitt 14y ago_The Halo Effect_, Phil Rozenzweig: http://www.amazon.com/The-Halo-Effect-Business-Delusions/dp/0743291255 http://www.amazon.com/The-Halo-Effect-Business-Delusions/dp/... 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 14y agoThis 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.