Category: Books

“Boundless” by Henry King and Vala Afshar

This is resposted from a post on Linkedin Completed “Boundless” by Henry King & Vala Afshar this weekend. I found this book because of my interest in Salesforce #AI initiatives and in general Smart Cities. While searching for info to see if Salesforce and Smart Cities would appear anywhere, I happened upon Vala Afshar, and…
The Business of Venture Capital & The Resilient Founder

These were originally two different posts on Linkedin but since they are both by the same author, they are reposted together. TLDR: This book is inspired. Yes, it’s about venture capital, but the principles explored, the anecdotes shared — especially those concrete situations specific to venture capital — are so artfully told that they become…
“The Right It” by Alberto Savoia Book Review, PLUS a Midjourney Pretotyping Experiment

A week or two prior to this posting, I did an AI experiment to pretotype how capable ChatGPT was at writing code and wrote about it on LinkedIn. AI’s ability to code was unsurprising, everyone’s talking about it. But for some (or perhaps many) the concept of a pretotype was — surprising that is. “Pretotype?…
“Platform Revolution” and “The Cold Start Problem” — Two Books, One Masterclass

Several years back I read “Platform Revolution” by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary. It presented the problems that platform businesses face: one sided networks, chicken and egg problems, as well as covering basic expectations and vocabulary to understand how a platform functions. Fast forward to just a few weeks ago,…
“What You Do Is Who You Are” by Ben Horowitz – Book Review and Reflections for Life

There are some books that entertain you, others that enlighten, and still others that evoke an emotional response. Rare is the business book that will do all of them. “What You Do Is Who You Are” is that rare book that accomplishes all three. I will briefly cover “Enlightenment” and “Entertainment” and then move on…
SIX Novels to Help You Become a Better Engineer, or Person

While there are many non-fiction books written to teach you something, “10 Steps to Become a Better X”, “The Five Rules of Y”, “The 23 Secrets of Z”, I’ve found that some lessons are best learned through fiction (especially the important ones). Because, while it’s become a trope “that one cannot learn without doing”, fiction…
41 Books for Product Managers in Tech, or Founders

There are lots of lists I’ve seen on the internet, but in my opinion, this will be the best one yet, despite not having mini-pitches for any given book. All the books that appear on this list I have read personally and gotten much value from. And, while some are “better” than others, I believe…
45 Books for Self Improvement and Learning

Similar to my other blog post about books for Product Managers and those desirous of founding their own startup… there are no “explanations” for any of these books. Suffice it to say, some are better than others. Some books that are listed here are also on the other list. The best way to use this…