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Books: 2017 Reading List

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Max Olson
Oct 16, 2017

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Competing Against Luck — finally a full writeup on “Jobs Theory”, and required reading for anyone involved in product strategy & UX design (i.e. all startups).

The Change Function — good, simple model to think about how valuable a new innovation is (all about UX, or if (perceived crisis > cost of adoption)).

Marketing High Technology — best book on distribution you can find, for technology or otherwise.

Shoe Dog — Great story; wish he would have spent more time in the later years of Nike’s growth.

Doing the Impossible — too dense overall, but I loved hearing the story of the moon mission from the inside, especially from such a talented project manager that made it happen.

Scale — not as good as hoped, but a good “skim” with lots of interesting ideas around a theme.

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership — great leadership advice + stories to go along with, Dale Carnegie style (but could have been much shorter).

Hard Drive — 3rd reading of the best bio of Bill Gates & Microsoft's early years.

The Elements of Computing Systems — I never had formal CS education so this was a great practical explainer, from translating binary to assembly, to how an OS works.

A Mind at Play — always been a huge fan of Claude Shannon’s work, mind, and humility.

Turing’s Cathedral — a little long in places, but great overall history of computing & early people who shaped it.

Softwar — Reading now. Interesting insights about early Oracle, also gives me new appreciation for Ellison. [Update: I would not recommend this book. First part is good but last half rambles on, fawning over Ellison with random stories. "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison" is much better.]


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The McDonald's Success Story
The story of McDonalds and why they were so successful.
Oct 26, 2009 • 
Max Olson

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Advantage Flywheels
Competitive advantage can be represented visually as 1 or more feedback loops. These create the advantage "flywheel" that maintain and grow a moat over…
Aug 3, 2019 • 
Max Olson
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Generalists vs. Specialists (and the Specialist's Dilemma)
Last December I gave a presentation to a group of investors on the mental models of robustness and generalist vs.
Jul 29, 2011 • 
Max Olson

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