“The Personal MBA”: Two Years and $100k in sleek portable book form

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Author @joshkaufman

“You dropped 150 grand on an education you could have gotten for $1.50 in late charges at the public library.” Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting

In The Personal MBA Josh Kaufman makes a very compelling case (as does Will Hunting) that for people considering an MBA, the economics aren’t that great. For many graduate students (not just Business majors), it feels like a Casino: everyone takes the tests, and gets primed, then takes out a huge loan from the bank (often a six-figure amount) hoping that when they come out the other side, there will be an awesome, high-paying job waiting for them. It’s a financial transaction, not really an educational one. In fact, much of the education gleaned from an Master in Business Administration is theoretical and marginally updated from the projects and Case Studies done in Bachelor of Business and Economics programs; after all, how can you possibly sit in a classroom and ‘learn’ how to be a Manager, or an Executive? Of course you can’t. But the schools are more than willing to let you try, as long as the cheques clear. Continue reading →

“Kindle Fire” and “Kindle Touch”: Meet Amazon’s latest crop of Kindles.

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Maker @amazonkindle

Today, Amazon held a press conference in New York to launch their 2011 line of Kindles, and they are beautiful. This full color version, known as the Fire (clever, I know) marks Amazon’s first entry into the tablet market. No small feat for a company that, up until a few years ago, had zero experience designing electronics. What started as a quick and dirty eReader has grown into an entire product line of sleek, web-enabled, and now Android powered devices, with a nice price range from $79 all the way up to the $199 tablet. While the top range Kinde isn’t going to kill the iPad anytime soon, it doesn’t really have to: still a couple months away from launch, the Kindle Fire is already the best Android tablet on the market. Slim pickings. Continue reading →

“The Lean Startup”: Take the Risk out of Entrepreneurialism

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Author @ericries

In David Fincher’s 1999 cult classic, Fight Club, there’s a scene where Tyler Durden and the Narrator are cruising down the highway talking about the future of their boxing club (first fight’s free, then you franchise out, etc). They’re arguing about who’s in charge, what’s the goal of the group, how to deal with growth: they’re entrepreneurs and they’ve both come up with something great, that seems to be catching on. And what does Tyler Durden do? He takes his hands off the wheel, and lets the car go where it wants. The car steers itself, and Tyler hits the gas.

This would be a great opening for my Lean Startup review, had Tyler and the Narrator not gone off the road. The car was destroyed, but the leaders survived, and got a little wiser. Was that a Pivot? This book is not just about small tech startups, though if you’ve heard anything about it (the buzz has been building around the interwebs for about 2 years now, mostly on tech sites), you’d be forgiven for the assumption. Frankly, if this book was just about starting tech companies in Silicon Valley, it’d be pretty boring, aimed at a very very niche audience. It’s neither. Continue reading →

“Your Brain At Work” The User Guide for that great big brain of yours.

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Author @davidrock101

I know what you’re thinking: a book on how to use your brain? It’s not so intuitive as you think. As it turns out, the brain has been one of the least understood ‘realms’ in science, and only very recently are some huge discoveries being made that totally change the way we view, and hopefully, use it. Continue reading →

“Mythical Man Month” Between Creativity and Silicon Valley Code

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Author: Frederick P. Brooks Recommended: Steve Jobs

Update.
Early October 2011

Today we find out that the brilliant man who inspired this post, that company, and the whole industry, has passed away. There will be untold number of stories and newspaper editorials written on the passing of what can only be described as a Visionary, as the Thomas Edison of our day.

The first computer I ever used was a Mac SE. It had an 8 inch black and white screen and only ran a handful of programs, but I was amazed at what this little box could do, and do with such charm and elegance. Years later, my parents kept buying Macs, a Performa, and then a Graphite iMac. Today their house is littered with MacBook Pros, and my latest gift to them, an iPad (they love it). The first computer I ever bought with my own money was a white MacBook. And I loved it. In many ways my work with computers was inspired by that first little black and white box that sits, collecting dust, in my parent’s attic.

But the brilliant work of Steve Jobs inspired the company to go forward, with a roster of incredible scientists, designers, and leaders. Apple should be very strong for many years to come. It’s with a little trepidation that I end with a tiny conspiracy theory of my own: Steve’s passing was marked not with a day, or time of death, but delicately, and respectfully, with a year only. Steven Paul Jobs was a master strategist, in business, and in life, and the current crop of iPhones and iMacs were in the works years ago. One wonders if the name of their latest gem was not selected with some knowledge that, the light was quickly fading on a brilliant star, Apple’s Crazy Diamond.
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“Outliers” The Story Behind Success

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Author @gladwell

“I’m a very lucky guy”
William H. Gates Jr., Philanthropist

Recently, I had drinks with a former colleague, who was bemoaning the pressure her parents were putting on her to get married. It was a common theme around Shanghai, young people under untold amounts of pressure to live up to some impossible standard; whether it was money, relationships, work, manners, education–parents just want what’s best for their kids, and believe that pressure is a good way to do it. They care about their retirement, and know that investing energy in their kids can, almost always, lead to a more financially stable and comfortable retirement (not to mention, more grandkids).

But if you examine the richest, most successful people in the world, they seemed to get there by doing something crazy, regardless of the financial upshots. Continue reading →

“Rework” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

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Author @jasonfried Tipped @four_sides

Rework is a book about how to rethink business–how to rethink your job, how to rethink your colleagues, how to rethink success. So what’s wrong with business in the first place?

Well, like how many pursuits go awry in life, the emphasis of image over substance (like in Mastery) is the killer. So how does this come across in business? The desire to have a cool business card is one way, the desire to get big fast is another, the desire to use ‘bizspeak’ words when plain English will do is another. There is this temptation to very quickly overcome your small size and limited experience, with a veneer of cheesy tacked on ‘professionalism,’ which really stinks because, of course, everyone around you can smell it. It’s a turn-off. And if you’re being dishonest about your size, your success and your persona, is it possible you’re being dishonest about your products too? Of course. Continue reading →