9 ms·

Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

311 points by AJ007 12y ago

AJ007 12y ago
Not available on Amazon currently, but available on Abebooks: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=john+brooks&sts=t&tn=business+adventures http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=john+brooks... Also on Google Books for $9.99: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMPTAwAAQBAJ http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMPTAwAAQBAJ
- graffitici 12y ago
  Isn't this the same book: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str...
  - dmix 12y ago
    Yes, it was re-released in 2014 as mentioned in the video.
  - mcguire 12y ago
    Isn't that one linked from Gatesnotes, "The Blog of Bill Gates": http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Business-Adventures-Free-Chapter-Download?WT.mc_id=07_11_2014_BizBook_WallStreetJournal&WT.tsrc=WallStreetJournal http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Business-Adventures-Free-Cha...
- kbeegle 12y ago
  Also available as an ebook: Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str... iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/business-adventures/id890312020?mt=11 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/business-adventures/id89031... Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/business-adventures-john-brooks/1119770228?ean=9781497638853 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/business-adventures-john-bro... and Google, mentioned above.
- jsloat 12y ago
  Bill links to the Amazon version on the "Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox" download page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1TPCKW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00L1TPCKW&linkCode=as2&tag=orim201407d-20&linkId=QUWPNAMJCPV5FWW3 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1TPCKW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...
- Luc 12y ago
  I followed your link to AbeBooks, and in the minute it took me to decide which copy to buy, it was bought by someone else. First time that happens to me. I often keep books for months in my shopping cart. EDIT: Ha, never mind, every copy I've tried (4 of them) has been sold, but it only shows once you add them to your shopping cart.
- technophiliac 12y ago
  now available in Kindle Unlimited (http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405741393&sr=8-1&keywords=business+adventures http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str...)
thewpguy 12y ago
I second the recommendation. It's a good book.
caster_cp 12y ago
It's available since July 8th 2014 in Amazon... I see what you did there with your marketing ingeniousness, Mr. WSJ || Bill Gates. The problem is that I'm easy, all too easy, and I fall for these ploys. And now I'm biting myself to buy the book :) Well done. edit: what's available is a Kindle edition, that I suppose is from the same book http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str...
- d23 12y ago
  And the paperback just happens to be coming out in September but can be pre-ordered now. Kind of annoying to me personally, since I take the advice a little less seriously now.
  - chaz 12y ago
    Do you think he should have recommended a book that was otherwise hard to get? I think people here, after reading this article, would have thought it ridiculous that the book wasn't available on Amazon. My guess is that it is legitimately was his favorite book (he's known for his voracious reading and recommendations) and he wanted it to be read by a lot of people. So he pitched it to the publisher and the WSJ to get it done. I don't see what's so bad about that. I hardly think he's motivated by money or fame right now.
    - DanBC 12y ago
      Indeed, if I got FU money there's a bunch of books I'd release as cheap sets, with corrections and updates, in multiple languages. (Around stats and science, mostly.)
caster_cp 12y ago
It's available since July 8th 2014 in Amazon... I see what you did there with your marketing ingeniousness, Mr. WSJ || Bill Gates. The problem is that I'm easy, all too easy, and I fall for these ploys. And now I'm biting myself to buy the book :) Well done.
nickgrosvenor 12y ago
This is sort of strange (but great) because at least once at every single Berkshire Hathaway meeting someone asks Buffett and Munger what they're favorite books are, and I have never heard them mention this one. There is 20 years of in in-depth content about Buffett in books, articles, meetings, and interviews. "What's your fav book" must be one of the top 5 questions he gets and I've never heard about this book. This is great.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Buffett is an investor though right? Whereas Gates built a company. The two closely related but not the same? So it doesn't surprise me they turn to different books. Investors usually recommend books on security analysis, which would hardly have been useful for Gates in the 90's.
  - nickgrosvenor 12y ago
    Actually it's a little known fact that Buffet built a company too. Yes He did invest in other publicly traded companies, and he's also acquired quite a few too. You can think of those as acquisitions. It's sort of a lesser known fact that he made the majority of his money in insurance. Before anyone else thought of it, Buffett developed a Homeostatic operation that collected insurance premiums and then invested that float in other companies who had a history of spinning off large amounts of free cash flow. He'd suck off that free cash flow and buy up more companies. All while keeping a larger and larger amount of free cash on hand in the event that he had to pay out any large claims. This is all easier said than done because if you price your premiums wrong you can blow up the whole business. He priced his premiums conservatively and sold odd insurance in the back of newspapers and trade magazines, covering things and making policies that no one else dare take on. There's a lot more gun slinging and pivoting in the Buffett story than you'd read about today. He raised cash manually from groups of Doctors in the 60's for his first investor partnership (he was 26). It was no different than a 26 year old kid going out today and raising cash for a startup. And incidentally, he delivered. There's one story in the excellent Alice Schroeder bio about him (http://goo.gl/nZGrIX http://goo.gl/nZGrIX) He was around 30 years old living in suburban Omaha. One afternoon he casually asks his next door neighbor if he's ever thought about how he'll pay for his children's college then goes into a sales pitch asking him for $10,000 (in the 60's). The neighbor declined. Can you imagine? He had hustle, and street smarts, and swagger. That's a businessman. In fact he's one of the best businessmen. Even Gates would tell you that.
dumbarton 12y ago
Will check out BA when I get a chance. But can't imagine it will displace what remains my favourite "business" book of all time, the Id Software creation yarn: Masters of Doom by David Kushner. It was recently suggested to me that every entrepreneur should read Sir Richard Branson's autobiography. I was dismissive having read the LRB review of Bower's biography of "the stuntman": http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-runciman/the-stuntman http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-runciman/the-stuntman. Is "Losing My Virginity" worth a peruse? Or should we just wait for Gates himself to deliver his memoirs?
- AndrewKemendo 12y ago
  Though I did not glean any particular business acumen insights from it, I thought it was very well worth the read. It painted a portrait of Branson as a person and personality, which helps explain his success.
higherpurpose 12y ago
I'd be more interested in Steve Jobs' favorite business books. I know he was a huge fan of the Innovator's Dilemma, probably because he already naturally understood most of it from experience before having to read it, and he was probably fan of other similar books too, and I'd like to know which books those were. I don't think Bill Gates ever understood a book like Innovator's Dilemma. Not really.
- stillsut 12y ago
  Check out the Innovator's Solution, the follow up. It explains why most of the profit (ability to charge your costs plus a premium) was dominated in the 90's by OS's, and not by the now notorious disk-drive companies. Gates probably understood this (how to position yourself not be disrupted) and it's why we're all reading his favorite book - which is great by the way.
  - dumbarton 12y ago
    And for the other side of the coin -- Jill Lepore's "What the Theory of Disruptive Innovation Gets Wrong" http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/23/140623fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/23/140623fa_fact_...
    - davidw 12y ago
      And the response to that: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-20/clayton-christensen-responds-to-new-yorker-takedown-of-disruptive-innovation http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-20/clayton-chri...
    - mtdewcmu 12y ago
      I haven't read Christensen's books, but the story Jill Lepore tells in that article sounds totally credible. Disruptive innovation is a theory of history. Given any historical event with winners and losers, it reframes it as a contest between innovator and non-innovator with a preordained outcome. Microsoft succeeded and Xerox failed because PCs were the inevitable future, which Microsoft embraced and Xerox denied. Xerox should have seen that the PC was inevitable and planned accordingly, the theory says. However, there is a problem when trying to apply the theory in real time, as Lepore points out: "Disruptive innovation can reliably be seen only after the fact." She explains the theory's circularity: "Christensen has compared the theory of disruptive innovation to a theory of nature: the theory of evolution. But... advocates of disruption have an affinity for circular arguments. If an established company doesn’t disrupt, it will fail, and if it fails it must be because it didn’t disrupt. When a startup fails, that’s a success, since epidemic failure is a hallmark of disruptive innovation. ... When an established company succeeds, that’s only because it hasn’t yet failed. And, when any of these things happen, all of them are only further evidence of disruption." It works well only in retrospect, and it can't be disproven. Like all theories of history, it only explains things that have already happened.
usefulcat 12y ago
What is the deal with the embedded ticker symbols with popup stock info? I suppose they're trying to drive traffic to some of their other articles, but I can't help seeing those things as irrelevant distractions to an otherwise interesting article.
- frogpelt 12y ago
  Those are on pretty much every website that spends any time talking about stocks.
thesumofall 12y ago
And for those who missed it, there is a free chapter here: http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_John_Brooks_Business_Adventures_Xerox_Free_Chapter.pdf http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_Jo...
larrys 12y ago
Separately Gates looks amazingly old in the last few years way beyond his age. Especially in that photo. That is not the skin of a man in his late 50's. I've speculated that he has either to much sun exposure [1], smokes (but he doesn't?), or has some sickness that has caused him to age. Actually when he retired from Microsoft I had thought that health might have something to do with it. (I don't remember many cases anecdotal of successful business people "retiring" as early as he has done. They usually continue strong until a ripe age.) Obviously there is no known sickness that he has spoken publicly about but that wouldn't be that unusual. [1] But he doesn't seem like the type that would be baking in the sun over the course of many years and he does live in Washington State not in Florida. Edit: It's not off topic and it's not a comment made for vanity reasons (ie "jeez doesn't he look bad!"). The comment is made primarily because I think he possibly has health issues and I'm curious what others think (especially those on HN with a medical background).
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Building Microsoft cannot have been a low-stress endeavor, and people always remark how quickly Presidents visually age during stressful political times.
  - larrys 12y ago
    I agree that Presidents age over the course of their term. But there are many differences between being Potus and the head of Microsoft. President is a short term job (in general) and it is entered into later in life after I would guess a less stressful (than being President that is) life. Gates started Microsoft when young and grew into the job over time. Not to mention that being the captain of that ship is greatly different (in terms of the "masters" that you serve) than being a politician. Not having done either it's hard to really decide what the real differences are. But my guess is that Gates obviously had a tremendous amount of support from people hand picked over the years to carry out his wishes and way more latitude to do what he wanted which a President doesn't have. I think that factor alone is good with reducing stress of a job. (Being more in charge of your destiny, being more in control). Also although I don't have photos to show I do remember there was a demarcation point where he started to just "look older". That didn't seem to coincide with just normal aging. Ballmer of course doesn't look bad for his age. (Not that that proves my point but I will point that out.)
jessep 12y ago
If you have a New Yorker subscription, you can read all of John Brooks' work online: http://www.newyorker.com/search?qt=dismax&rows=10&sort=score+desc&fixedDate=&query=&submit=Search&magOnly=on&bylquery=John+Brooks http://www.newyorker.com/search?qt=dismax&rows=10&sort=score... Each of these links (after a summary) to a scanned archive version of the actual magazine, which is cool. You can see the ads and layout of the day. Edit: I actually want to read all of them, so here's the direct links to the original articles: - Fluctuations: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1963-08-31#folio=034 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1963-08-31#folio=034 - The Fate of the Edsel: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-12-03#folio=198 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-12-03#folio=198 - The Federal Incom Tax: --Part 1: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-03#folio=052 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-03#folio=052, --Part 2: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-10#folio=051 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-10#folio=051 - A Reasonable Amount of Time: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-11-09#folio=160 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-11-09#folio=160 - Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1967-04-01#folio=046 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1967-04-01#folio=046 - Making the Customers Whole: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-11-14#folio=160 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-11-14#folio=160 - The Impacted Philosophers: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1962-05-26#folio=045 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1962-05-26#folio=045 - The Last Great Corner: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1959-06-06#folio=128 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1959-06-06#folio=128 - A Second Sort of Life: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1961-04-29#folio=045 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1961-04-29#folio=045 - Stockholder Season: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1966-10-08#folio=159 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1966-10-08#folio=159 - One Free Bite: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-01-11#folio=037 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-01-11#folio=037 - In Defense of Sterling: -- Part 1: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-23#folio=060 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-23#folio=060 -- Part 2: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-30#folio=043 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-30#folio=043
- jobu 12y ago
  "Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox" is also available here thanks to Bill Gates and Alex and Carolyn Brooks: http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_John_Brooks_Business_Adventures_Xerox_Free_Chapter.pdf http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_Jo... Only about halfway through that, and I'm amazed at how history has repeated itself in regards to copyright law.
frogpelt 12y ago
I wonder if they went to ebay and bought up all the stray copies before they did this marketing push. There's one copy there and the bid is currently at $260. And the product image is a picture of Bill Gates reading it. EDIT: Link: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbusiness+adventures+john+brooks&_nkw=business+adventures+john+brooks&_sacat=0 http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_...
- chaz 12y ago
  You can search on completed listings. Looks like only 2 copies were listed, both unsold. Also, it seems like a long way to get Bill Gates to write a guest column in the WSJ to make $260 (top bid $81 now).
  - frogpelt 12y ago
    Oh, I wasn't trying to insinuate that the ebay seller was connected to the WSJ article.
lowglow 12y ago
We've been adding our favorite business books here: https://books.techendo.com/tags/business https://books.techendo.com/tags/business There's a good list and some non-traditional books for any adventurous readers out there.
nbouscal 12y ago
Bill Gates also recommends My Years with General Motors [1], calling it "probably the best book to read if you want to read only one book about business." I would second that recommendation. [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Years-General-Motors-Alfred-Sloan/dp/0385042353/ http://www.amazon.com/Years-General-Motors-Alfred-Sloan/dp/0...
- dsinha 12y ago
  Agree, one of the best business books I have read!
bitwize 12y ago
It's not Business @ the Speed of Thought???
- tim333 12y ago
  I'm not sure most people are that keen on their own stuff.
- softbuilder 12y ago
  Clearly it's _The Road Ahead_.
- mindcrime 12y ago
  Apparently not, but I personally am a huge fan of Business @ The Speed Of Thought. Even though I'm not a huge Gates fan, and definitely not a Microsoft fan, there's no question that Gates hit on some good stuff in that book. And amazingly, as old as it is, I'd argue that most businesses (heck, most organizations period) to this day have still not achieved anything quite equal to his idea of a "Digital Nervous System" (and yes, I know term didn't originate with Gates, but he did a brilliant job of articulating and popularizing it). I still keep that book near my bed and re-read sections of it from time to time. From even an avowed "Micro$oft" basher from back in the Slashdot days when the GatesBorg image was The Thing, I have to give the devil his due - B@TSOT is solid stuff.
sandstrom 12y ago
Anyone know where I can buy the book in `epub` format? (without any DRM)
mandeepj 12y ago
> I know I'm not alone in seeing this decision as a mistake on Xerox's part. I was certainly determined to avoid it at Microsoft. But they still missed on touch and social. I am not counting in tablets, mobile because they at least tried in this space
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

311 points by AJ007 12y ago

AJ007 12y ago

Not available on Amazon currently, but available on Abebooks: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=john+brooks&sts=t&tn=business+adventures http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=john+brooks... Also on Google Books for $9.99: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMPTAwAAQBAJ http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMPTAwAAQBAJ

graffitici 12y ago
Isn't this the same book: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str...
- dmix 12y ago
  Yes, it was re-released in 2014 as mentioned in the video.
- mcguire 12y ago
  Isn't that one linked from Gatesnotes, "The Blog of Bill Gates": http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Business-Adventures-Free-Chapter-Download?WT.mc_id=07_11_2014_BizBook_WallStreetJournal&WT.tsrc=WallStreetJournal http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Business-Adventures-Free-Cha...
kbeegle 12y ago
Also available as an ebook: Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str... iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/business-adventures/id890312020?mt=11 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/business-adventures/id89031... Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/business-adventures-john-brooks/1119770228?ean=9781497638853 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/business-adventures-john-bro... and Google, mentioned above.
jsloat 12y ago
Bill links to the Amazon version on the "Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox" download page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1TPCKW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00L1TPCKW&linkCode=as2&tag=orim201407d-20&linkId=QUWPNAMJCPV5FWW3 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1TPCKW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...
Luc 12y ago
I followed your link to AbeBooks, and in the minute it took me to decide which copy to buy, it was bought by someone else. First time that happens to me. I often keep books for months in my shopping cart. EDIT: Ha, never mind, every copy I've tried (4 of them) has been sold, but it only shows once you add them to your shopping cart.
technophiliac 12y ago
now available in Kindle Unlimited (http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405741393&sr=8-1&keywords=business+adventures http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str...)

thewpguy 12y ago

I second the recommendation. It's a good book.

caster_cp 12y ago

It's available since July 8th 2014 in Amazon... I see what you did there with your marketing ingeniousness, Mr. WSJ || Bill Gates. The problem is that I'm easy, all too easy, and I fall for these ploys. And now I'm biting myself to buy the book :) Well done. edit: what's available is a Kindle edition, that I suppose is from the same book http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street-ebook/dp/B00L1TPCKW/ http://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Str...

d23 12y ago
And the paperback just happens to be coming out in September but can be pre-ordered now. Kind of annoying to me personally, since I take the advice a little less seriously now.
- chaz 12y ago
  Do you think he should have recommended a book that was otherwise hard to get? I think people here, after reading this article, would have thought it ridiculous that the book wasn't available on Amazon. My guess is that it is legitimately was his favorite book (he's known for his voracious reading and recommendations) and he wanted it to be read by a lot of people. So he pitched it to the publisher and the WSJ to get it done. I don't see what's so bad about that. I hardly think he's motivated by money or fame right now.
  - DanBC 12y ago
    Indeed, if I got FU money there's a bunch of books I'd release as cheap sets, with corrections and updates, in multiple languages. (Around stats and science, mostly.)

caster_cp 12y ago

nickgrosvenor 12y ago

This is sort of strange (but great) because at least once at every single Berkshire Hathaway meeting someone asks Buffett and Munger what they're favorite books are, and I have never heard them mention this one. There is 20 years of in in-depth content about Buffett in books, articles, meetings, and interviews. "What's your fav book" must be one of the top 5 questions he gets and I've never heard about this book. This is great.

sliverstorm 12y ago
Buffett is an investor though right? Whereas Gates built a company. The two closely related but not the same? So it doesn't surprise me they turn to different books. Investors usually recommend books on security analysis, which would hardly have been useful for Gates in the 90's.
- nickgrosvenor 12y ago
  Actually it's a little known fact that Buffet built a company too. Yes He did invest in other publicly traded companies, and he's also acquired quite a few too. You can think of those as acquisitions. It's sort of a lesser known fact that he made the majority of his money in insurance. Before anyone else thought of it, Buffett developed a Homeostatic operation that collected insurance premiums and then invested that float in other companies who had a history of spinning off large amounts of free cash flow. He'd suck off that free cash flow and buy up more companies. All while keeping a larger and larger amount of free cash on hand in the event that he had to pay out any large claims. This is all easier said than done because if you price your premiums wrong you can blow up the whole business. He priced his premiums conservatively and sold odd insurance in the back of newspapers and trade magazines, covering things and making policies that no one else dare take on. There's a lot more gun slinging and pivoting in the Buffett story than you'd read about today. He raised cash manually from groups of Doctors in the 60's for his first investor partnership (he was 26). It was no different than a 26 year old kid going out today and raising cash for a startup. And incidentally, he delivered. There's one story in the excellent Alice Schroeder bio about him (http://goo.gl/nZGrIX http://goo.gl/nZGrIX) He was around 30 years old living in suburban Omaha. One afternoon he casually asks his next door neighbor if he's ever thought about how he'll pay for his children's college then goes into a sales pitch asking him for $10,000 (in the 60's). The neighbor declined. Can you imagine? He had hustle, and street smarts, and swagger. That's a businessman. In fact he's one of the best businessmen. Even Gates would tell you that.

dumbarton 12y ago

Will check out BA when I get a chance. But can't imagine it will displace what remains my favourite "business" book of all time, the Id Software creation yarn: Masters of Doom by David Kushner. It was recently suggested to me that every entrepreneur should read Sir Richard Branson's autobiography. I was dismissive having read the LRB review of Bower's biography of "the stuntman": http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-runciman/the-stuntman http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-runciman/the-stuntman. Is "Losing My Virginity" worth a peruse? Or should we just wait for Gates himself to deliver his memoirs?

AndrewKemendo 12y ago
Though I did not glean any particular business acumen insights from it, I thought it was very well worth the read. It painted a portrait of Branson as a person and personality, which helps explain his success.

higherpurpose 12y ago

I'd be more interested in Steve Jobs' favorite business books. I know he was a huge fan of the Innovator's Dilemma, probably because he already naturally understood most of it from experience before having to read it, and he was probably fan of other similar books too, and I'd like to know which books those were. I don't think Bill Gates ever understood a book like Innovator's Dilemma. Not really.

stillsut 12y ago
Check out the Innovator's Solution, the follow up. It explains why most of the profit (ability to charge your costs plus a premium) was dominated in the 90's by OS's, and not by the now notorious disk-drive companies. Gates probably understood this (how to position yourself not be disrupted) and it's why we're all reading his favorite book - which is great by the way.
- dumbarton 12y ago
  And for the other side of the coin -- Jill Lepore's "What the Theory of Disruptive Innovation Gets Wrong" http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/23/140623fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/23/140623fa_fact_...
  - davidw 12y ago
    And the response to that: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-20/clayton-christensen-responds-to-new-yorker-takedown-of-disruptive-innovation http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-20/clayton-chri...
  - mtdewcmu 12y ago
    I haven't read Christensen's books, but the story Jill Lepore tells in that article sounds totally credible. Disruptive innovation is a theory of history. Given any historical event with winners and losers, it reframes it as a contest between innovator and non-innovator with a preordained outcome. Microsoft succeeded and Xerox failed because PCs were the inevitable future, which Microsoft embraced and Xerox denied. Xerox should have seen that the PC was inevitable and planned accordingly, the theory says. However, there is a problem when trying to apply the theory in real time, as Lepore points out: "Disruptive innovation can reliably be seen only after the fact." She explains the theory's circularity: "Christensen has compared the theory of disruptive innovation to a theory of nature: the theory of evolution. But... advocates of disruption have an affinity for circular arguments. If an established company doesn’t disrupt, it will fail, and if it fails it must be because it didn’t disrupt. When a startup fails, that’s a success, since epidemic failure is a hallmark of disruptive innovation. ... When an established company succeeds, that’s only because it hasn’t yet failed. And, when any of these things happen, all of them are only further evidence of disruption." It works well only in retrospect, and it can't be disproven. Like all theories of history, it only explains things that have already happened.

usefulcat 12y ago

What is the deal with the embedded ticker symbols with popup stock info? I suppose they're trying to drive traffic to some of their other articles, but I can't help seeing those things as irrelevant distractions to an otherwise interesting article.

frogpelt 12y ago
Those are on pretty much every website that spends any time talking about stocks.

thesumofall 12y ago

And for those who missed it, there is a free chapter here: http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_John_Brooks_Business_Adventures_Xerox_Free_Chapter.pdf http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_Jo...

larrys 12y ago

Separately Gates looks amazingly old in the last few years way beyond his age. Especially in that photo. That is not the skin of a man in his late 50's. I've speculated that he has either to much sun exposure [1], smokes (but he doesn't?), or has some sickness that has caused him to age. Actually when he retired from Microsoft I had thought that health might have something to do with it. (I don't remember many cases anecdotal of successful business people "retiring" as early as he has done. They usually continue strong until a ripe age.) Obviously there is no known sickness that he has spoken publicly about but that wouldn't be that unusual. [1] But he doesn't seem like the type that would be baking in the sun over the course of many years and he does live in Washington State not in Florida. Edit: It's not off topic and it's not a comment made for vanity reasons (ie "jeez doesn't he look bad!"). The comment is made primarily because I think he possibly has health issues and I'm curious what others think (especially those on HN with a medical background).

sliverstorm 12y ago
Building Microsoft cannot have been a low-stress endeavor, and people always remark how quickly Presidents visually age during stressful political times.
- larrys 12y ago
  I agree that Presidents age over the course of their term. But there are many differences between being Potus and the head of Microsoft. President is a short term job (in general) and it is entered into later in life after I would guess a less stressful (than being President that is) life. Gates started Microsoft when young and grew into the job over time. Not to mention that being the captain of that ship is greatly different (in terms of the "masters" that you serve) than being a politician. Not having done either it's hard to really decide what the real differences are. But my guess is that Gates obviously had a tremendous amount of support from people hand picked over the years to carry out his wishes and way more latitude to do what he wanted which a President doesn't have. I think that factor alone is good with reducing stress of a job. (Being more in charge of your destiny, being more in control). Also although I don't have photos to show I do remember there was a demarcation point where he started to just "look older". That didn't seem to coincide with just normal aging. Ballmer of course doesn't look bad for his age. (Not that that proves my point but I will point that out.)

jessep 12y ago

If you have a New Yorker subscription, you can read all of John Brooks' work online: http://www.newyorker.com/search?qt=dismax&rows=10&sort=score+desc&fixedDate=&query=&submit=Search&magOnly=on&bylquery=John+Brooks http://www.newyorker.com/search?qt=dismax&rows=10&sort=score... Each of these links (after a summary) to a scanned archive version of the actual magazine, which is cool. You can see the ads and layout of the day. Edit: I actually want to read all of them, so here's the direct links to the original articles: - Fluctuations: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1963-08-31#folio=034 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1963-08-31#folio=034 - The Fate of the Edsel: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-12-03#folio=198 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-12-03#folio=198 - The Federal Incom Tax: --Part 1: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-03#folio=052 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-03#folio=052, --Part 2: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-10#folio=051 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-04-10#folio=051 - A Reasonable Amount of Time: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-11-09#folio=160 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-11-09#folio=160 - Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1967-04-01#folio=046 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1967-04-01#folio=046 - Making the Customers Whole: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-11-14#folio=160 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-11-14#folio=160 - The Impacted Philosophers: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1962-05-26#folio=045 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1962-05-26#folio=045 - The Last Great Corner: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1959-06-06#folio=128 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1959-06-06#folio=128 - A Second Sort of Life: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1961-04-29#folio=045 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1961-04-29#folio=045 - Stockholder Season: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1966-10-08#folio=159 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1966-10-08#folio=159 - One Free Bite: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-01-11#folio=037 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-01-11#folio=037 - In Defense of Sterling: -- Part 1: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-23#folio=060 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-23#folio=060 -- Part 2: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-30#folio=043 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-03-30#folio=043

jobu 12y ago
"Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox" is also available here thanks to Bill Gates and Alex and Carolyn Brooks: http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_John_Brooks_Business_Adventures_Xerox_Free_Chapter.pdf http://www.gatesnotes.com/media/features/books/Bill_Gates_Jo... Only about halfway through that, and I'm amazed at how history has repeated itself in regards to copyright law.

frogpelt 12y ago

I wonder if they went to ebay and bought up all the stray copies before they did this marketing push. There's one copy there and the bid is currently at $260. And the product image is a picture of Bill Gates reading it. EDIT: Link: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbusiness+adventures+john+brooks&_nkw=business+adventures+john+brooks&_sacat=0 http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=john+brooks&_osacat=0&_...

chaz 12y ago
You can search on completed listings. Looks like only 2 copies were listed, both unsold. Also, it seems like a long way to get Bill Gates to write a guest column in the WSJ to make $260 (top bid $81 now).
- frogpelt 12y ago
  Oh, I wasn't trying to insinuate that the ebay seller was connected to the WSJ article.

lowglow 12y ago

We've been adding our favorite business books here: https://books.techendo.com/tags/business https://books.techendo.com/tags/business There's a good list and some non-traditional books for any adventurous readers out there.

nbouscal 12y ago

Bill Gates also recommends My Years with General Motors [1], calling it "probably the best book to read if you want to read only one book about business." I would second that recommendation. [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Years-General-Motors-Alfred-Sloan/dp/0385042353/ http://www.amazon.com/Years-General-Motors-Alfred-Sloan/dp/0...

dsinha 12y ago
Agree, one of the best business books I have read!

bitwize 12y ago

It's not Business @ the Speed of Thought???

tim333 12y ago
I'm not sure most people are that keen on their own stuff.
softbuilder 12y ago
Clearly it's _The Road Ahead_.
mindcrime 12y ago
Apparently not, but I personally am a huge fan of Business @ The Speed Of Thought. Even though I'm not a huge Gates fan, and definitely not a Microsoft fan, there's no question that Gates hit on some good stuff in that book. And amazingly, as old as it is, I'd argue that most businesses (heck, most organizations period) to this day have still not achieved anything quite equal to his idea of a "Digital Nervous System" (and yes, I know term didn't originate with Gates, but he did a brilliant job of articulating and popularizing it). I still keep that book near my bed and re-read sections of it from time to time. From even an avowed "Micro$oft" basher from back in the Slashdot days when the GatesBorg image was The Thing, I have to give the devil his due - B@TSOT is solid stuff.

sandstrom 12y ago

Anyone know where I can buy the book in `epub` format? (without any DRM)

mandeepj 12y ago

> I know I'm not alone in seeing this decision as a mistake on Xerox's part. I was certainly determined to avoid it at Microsoft. But they still missed on touch and social. I am not counting in tablets, mobile because they at least tried in this space

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