8 ms·

Wood Egg (my new company)

71 points by kryptiskt 13y ago

dhruvkaran 13y ago
Is there a way to get a preview before buying? I'd love something like this. :)
- sivers 13y ago
  Follow the link from any book's page to its page on Amazon. There you can do the "Look Inside This Book" thing on the book cover, to read a few pages. Or just email me and offer to contribute. Then you'd get a free one. :-)
cjbprime 13y ago
The table of contents has entries like: > Describe the mindset of most people in Cambodia. Progressive or conservative? Future-focused or present-focused? Work-focused or pleasure-focused? Optimistic or cautious? Pressing for change, or maintaining traditions? Strict or easy-going? Or, if the mindset is very divided between groups, please describe the divide. (Feel free to just share your personal opinion.) .. which doesn't look like a table of contents; it looks like the e-mail you sent to the person that you asked to write the book for you.
- sivers 13y ago
  Good eye. I looked at that question so many times in the last couple years that I got blind to it. Thanks for pointing it out. Fixed for future editions. The books, instead of being written by one person, are written by 50 different researchers. For every question I had, I found 3 different people to answer it. One local, one expat, one other. That way the book isn't just one person's point of view. Then at the end, an editor combined all the different answers into one, and I went through the final-final to clean it up. I'll write more about this soon. Good lesson learned about making a robust plan versus a fragile plan. At first I thought I'd write all 16 books myself. Next I thought I'd hire one writer per-country. But this system turned out to be a much better way to get different viewpoints. Anyway - thanks again for pointing out the error.
  - Sambdala 13y ago
    Just skimming through the linked post, it seemed like you would be writing all 16 of the books (admittedly, this could be my own reading failing), which seemed like a really ambitious goal. Are you planning on writing about the entire process after you've completed your journey?
    - sivers 13y ago
      Yeah. I'll be writing about it very soon. Made a lot of mistakes. Learned some good share-able lessons from the process. You know I always try to describe those, afterwards, in case it can apply to something you're doing.
pdog 13y ago
Am I the only person that saw woodegg.com as "Woo Degg"?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
hamburglar 13y ago
Derek Sivers is one of our industry's truly interesting people. I like to think that if I had f-u money, my life would be like his. I'm almost certainly too lazy for that, though. Keep being interesting, Derek. Hope this project does well.
- jmotion 13y ago
  Yep. Awesome guy. Inspiring.
watershawl 13y ago
Derek, I like how you announced it only after actually doing it. This is much different than saying you're going to do it, which sounds obvious, but there is a big difference.
- sivers 13y ago
  Thanks! It was SO tempting! But keeping my mouth shut about it helped me slog through it and get it done, instead of basking in advance glory. It's too easy to slack off, if you've already felt the warm fuzzy joy from people's compliments on starting something. I didn't want to feel any of that until it was done. More on that thought process, here: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...
  - josscrowcroft 13y ago
    This was a fantastic video. Thanks!
    - jmotion 13y ago
      This is almost as if the question was placed in by Derek so he could plug that Ted talk! Saw that video a long time ago and ever since then I've kept my mouth shut. I've learnt a lot from you (another.. ideas are just a multiplier of execution :) )
dsirijus 13y ago
It would be interesting to get insight of least editor of all editions (if that is a sigular person) on rating of the the countries in this year's edition of these books, rating being general impression of handling a business in stated countries.
- sivers 13y ago
  Check out http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings That IFC "Ease of Doing Business" index is quite well-researched. That has better information than my books, for direct comparisons like you're asking.
mjfern 13y ago
Derek, Congrats on the launch! Just curious why you decided to launch with 16 books instead of just one or two? This seems to run counter to the Lean Startup/MVP approach. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you!
- sivers 13y ago
  Because I'm especially interested in the comparison between countries, I thought the most fascinating part of the project was to ask the same 200 questions of all 16 countries, and compare the answers. This definitely isn't a typical MVP business. I didn't test the market. I doubt this will ever make money. It's just something I wanted to do, for my own curiosity. If other people can use it, that's just a bonus.
  - rogerbinns 13y ago
    > I doubt this will ever make money. Why didn't you do this more of a wiki/collaborative/open style?
    - sivers 13y ago
      I may. But to get it started, I want to help set the tone and focus. But once there's a precedent/standard/example to follow, an open style may make more sense.
peterarmstrong 13y ago
Derek, congratulations on launching! (As cofounder of Leanpub, this makes me especially happy, of course :)
pan69 13y ago
This is a great initiative. However, I'm missing the one emerging country in all of South East Asia, any plans for Laos?
- sivers 13y ago
  Unfortunately not. I skipped Laos, Brunei, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and a few others. Having to draw the line somewhere, I picked countries where I either had an in, or had at least heard a lot of buzz and interest about (like Myanmar and Sri Lanka.)
contingencies 13y ago
As a predominantly Asia-resident member of this community who has passed through many of the countries I find this post rather interesting. I suggest changing the title to make the subject more obvious - I nearly skipped it. However, I am going to be honest: I think the horrible truth here is that there is no 'startup scene' in most of these countries, no 'serviced apartments' in the places 'to meet the post people'. The claimed contents themselves betray a distinct lack of understanding of the host cultures through an American perspective. Quite simply, these products look far too much like smoke and mirrors with external cultural baggage to boot. As someone who as actually run a startup in China, for instance, the contents are a joke. No mention of the most important areas of consideration, overemphasis of things that are irrelevant. So what the hell is this? They are hiring. Job description: "Find a few real estate people. Ask what’s the best place for a new business to locate." ... subtext: publish that as fact. Come on... this is lowly. Just because you have some money to spam-market quick-e-books with doesn't mean you are the arbiter of truth. Hire a real writer, do some real research, and be honest about it. Without quality, there is little point in publishing. Fail.
- mkress 13y ago
  There doesn't have to be a startup scene in all of the countries. The books were written for entrepreneurship, not Valley-level startup scenes. Eiter way, have you checked out write ups of the recent Echelon event in Singapore (http://e27.co/echelon/)or http://e27.co/echelon/)or that 500 startups just set up a fund only for SEAsia countries? As far as the spam-market quick-e-books comment, I'm pretty sure it was the absolute opposite of that. Did you read that after a year and a half of hard work he released these? I don't see these books as a fail at all, but instead a step forward to good, actionable information that is useful to help bring and grow entrepreneurship to Asia. I would love to hear what's important to you as I'm currently running a startup in Thailand and would love to learn more about all the countries, especially China. Why don't you offer some advice as to what you see ont he most important areas of consideration and what is overemphasized?
  - contingencies 13y ago
    Basic stuff: Stability, system of law, contrast available legal structures, different types of taxation, financial services, visa/immigration, shipping/logistics concerns, internal geographic breakdown, indicative service costings (utilities, advertising, etc.), nature of local human resources market, notable commercial events/tradeshows, trends over time with all of the above, etc.
secoif 13y ago
Just some feedback on your pricing: $50 is very steep for a kindle book, in fact I don't think I've ever seen a kindle edition so expensive. If this was around $20 I'd have bought it.

71 points by kryptiskt 13y ago

dhruvkaran 13y ago

Is there a way to get a preview before buying? I'd love something like this. :)

sivers 13y ago
Follow the link from any book's page to its page on Amazon. There you can do the "Look Inside This Book" thing on the book cover, to read a few pages. Or just email me and offer to contribute. Then you'd get a free one. :-)

cjbprime 13y ago

The table of contents has entries like: > Describe the mindset of most people in Cambodia. Progressive or conservative? Future-focused or present-focused? Work-focused or pleasure-focused? Optimistic or cautious? Pressing for change, or maintaining traditions? Strict or easy-going? Or, if the mindset is very divided between groups, please describe the divide. (Feel free to just share your personal opinion.) .. which doesn't look like a table of contents; it looks like the e-mail you sent to the person that you asked to write the book for you.

sivers 13y ago
Good eye. I looked at that question so many times in the last couple years that I got blind to it. Thanks for pointing it out. Fixed for future editions. The books, instead of being written by one person, are written by 50 different researchers. For every question I had, I found 3 different people to answer it. One local, one expat, one other. That way the book isn't just one person's point of view. Then at the end, an editor combined all the different answers into one, and I went through the final-final to clean it up. I'll write more about this soon. Good lesson learned about making a robust plan versus a fragile plan. At first I thought I'd write all 16 books myself. Next I thought I'd hire one writer per-country. But this system turned out to be a much better way to get different viewpoints. Anyway - thanks again for pointing out the error.
- Sambdala 13y ago
  Just skimming through the linked post, it seemed like you would be writing all 16 of the books (admittedly, this could be my own reading failing), which seemed like a really ambitious goal. Are you planning on writing about the entire process after you've completed your journey?
  - sivers 13y ago
    Yeah. I'll be writing about it very soon. Made a lot of mistakes. Learned some good share-able lessons from the process. You know I always try to describe those, afterwards, in case it can apply to something you're doing.

pdog 13y ago

Am I the only person that saw woodegg.com as "Woo Degg"?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

hamburglar 13y ago

Derek Sivers is one of our industry's truly interesting people. I like to think that if I had f-u money, my life would be like his. I'm almost certainly too lazy for that, though. Keep being interesting, Derek. Hope this project does well.

jmotion 13y ago
Yep. Awesome guy. Inspiring.

watershawl 13y ago

Derek, I like how you announced it only after actually doing it. This is much different than saying you're going to do it, which sounds obvious, but there is a big difference.

sivers 13y ago
Thanks! It was SO tempting! But keeping my mouth shut about it helped me slog through it and get it done, instead of basking in advance glory. It's too easy to slack off, if you've already felt the warm fuzzy joy from people's compliments on starting something. I didn't want to feel any of that until it was done. More on that thought process, here: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...
- josscrowcroft 13y ago
  This was a fantastic video. Thanks!
  - jmotion 13y ago
    This is almost as if the question was placed in by Derek so he could plug that Ted talk! Saw that video a long time ago and ever since then I've kept my mouth shut. I've learnt a lot from you (another.. ideas are just a multiplier of execution :) )

dsirijus 13y ago

It would be interesting to get insight of least editor of all editions (if that is a sigular person) on rating of the the countries in this year's edition of these books, rating being general impression of handling a business in stated countries.

sivers 13y ago
Check out http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings That IFC "Ease of Doing Business" index is quite well-researched. That has better information than my books, for direct comparisons like you're asking.

mjfern 13y ago

Derek, Congrats on the launch! Just curious why you decided to launch with 16 books instead of just one or two? This seems to run counter to the Lean Startup/MVP approach. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you!

sivers 13y ago
Because I'm especially interested in the comparison between countries, I thought the most fascinating part of the project was to ask the same 200 questions of all 16 countries, and compare the answers. This definitely isn't a typical MVP business. I didn't test the market. I doubt this will ever make money. It's just something I wanted to do, for my own curiosity. If other people can use it, that's just a bonus.
- rogerbinns 13y ago
  > I doubt this will ever make money. Why didn't you do this more of a wiki/collaborative/open style?
  - sivers 13y ago
    I may. But to get it started, I want to help set the tone and focus. But once there's a precedent/standard/example to follow, an open style may make more sense.

peterarmstrong 13y ago

Derek, congratulations on launching! (As cofounder of Leanpub, this makes me especially happy, of course :)

pan69 13y ago

This is a great initiative. However, I'm missing the one emerging country in all of South East Asia, any plans for Laos?

sivers 13y ago
Unfortunately not. I skipped Laos, Brunei, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and a few others. Having to draw the line somewhere, I picked countries where I either had an in, or had at least heard a lot of buzz and interest about (like Myanmar and Sri Lanka.)

contingencies 13y ago

As a predominantly Asia-resident member of this community who has passed through many of the countries I find this post rather interesting. I suggest changing the title to make the subject more obvious - I nearly skipped it. However, I am going to be honest: I think the horrible truth here is that there is no 'startup scene' in most of these countries, no 'serviced apartments' in the places 'to meet the post people'. The claimed contents themselves betray a distinct lack of understanding of the host cultures through an American perspective. Quite simply, these products look far too much like smoke and mirrors with external cultural baggage to boot. As someone who as actually run a startup in China, for instance, the contents are a joke. No mention of the most important areas of consideration, overemphasis of things that are irrelevant. So what the hell is this? They are hiring. Job description: "Find a few real estate people. Ask what’s the best place for a new business to locate." ... subtext: publish that as fact. Come on... this is lowly. Just because you have some money to spam-market quick-e-books with doesn't mean you are the arbiter of truth. Hire a real writer, do some real research, and be honest about it. Without quality, there is little point in publishing. Fail.

mkress 13y ago
There doesn't have to be a startup scene in all of the countries. The books were written for entrepreneurship, not Valley-level startup scenes. Eiter way, have you checked out write ups of the recent Echelon event in Singapore (http://e27.co/echelon/)or http://e27.co/echelon/)or that 500 startups just set up a fund only for SEAsia countries? As far as the spam-market quick-e-books comment, I'm pretty sure it was the absolute opposite of that. Did you read that after a year and a half of hard work he released these? I don't see these books as a fail at all, but instead a step forward to good, actionable information that is useful to help bring and grow entrepreneurship to Asia. I would love to hear what's important to you as I'm currently running a startup in Thailand and would love to learn more about all the countries, especially China. Why don't you offer some advice as to what you see ont he most important areas of consideration and what is overemphasized?
- contingencies 13y ago
  Basic stuff: Stability, system of law, contrast available legal structures, different types of taxation, financial services, visa/immigration, shipping/logistics concerns, internal geographic breakdown, indicative service costings (utilities, advertising, etc.), nature of local human resources market, notable commercial events/tradeshows, trends over time with all of the above, etc.

secoif 13y ago

Just some feedback on your pricing: $50 is very steep for a kindle book, in fact I don't think I've ever seen a kindle edition so expensive. If this was around $20 I'd have bought it.