Dave Concannon

Firstly - my sincerest apologies for the long delay in posting to anyone reading this weblog. In a lottery of several jobs, myriad miscellaneous projects, and various other responsiblities writing articles drew a losing ticket. My next review from Joel's MBA software reading list is Paul Graham's "Hackers and painters".

Paul Graham co-created an early web application with Robert Morris, and reaped a very lucrative buyout as the economy (or Yahoo in this case) threw money at every startup in town. As their next collaboration, they started Y-Combinator, an incubator which helps young entrepreneurs turn their ideas into salient products.

Hackers and Painters is a collection of Graham's writings from his website. Although available for free, I always find it easier to read printed material. Also, having a stack of books next to my desk allows me to pretend I'm smart (until I open my mouth and ruin it all). There is no central theme to these essays although they generally stay within the "tech" umbrella and furtively dart into dark and murky industry corners.

The book is enjoyable although the essays can occasionally slip into subjective and emotive thought. Graham loves LISP, certainly understandable as his original fortune-making application was written in the language. For some reason though, this keeps cropping up. While I may be exaggerating the frequency of his soliloquies to this programming language the overwhelming impression I was left with after reading this book was "Man, this guy really digs LISP.".

Occasionally the crux of his argument is a little tentative, for example in the article which gives the book it's name Graham argues for the similarities between Hackers and Painters. While reasonably convincing, I think it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to compare Hackers to several other creative disciplines, though the fact that the author has studied classical art would seem to have influenced his opinion. In another he argues that companies who use proprietry software such as Oracle databases aren't worth worrying about, as they'll be "too slow" and populated by mediocre drones. It's perfectly acceptable to love technology for personal reasons, but dismissing any company out of hand for chosing a particular technology could be considered myopic.

Minor gripes aside, some of these articles are required reading and will certainly inspire lateral thought. This is a collection of opinion pieces though, so any reader looking for hard fact and step-by-step instructions should look elsewhere. Here are some links to articles I feel stand out:

• Why Nerds are unpopular - An interesting explanation for why Nerds don't get along with the "popular" kids.
• How to make wealth - The difference between working hard and working smart.
• What you wish you'd known - All the things you wish someone had told you back in school.

To be objective, I wouldn't put this book at the top of your reading list as Graham's articles are available online. He certainly doesn't pull any punches on his opinions, and if you sit on the wrong side of the technology fence some of his comments might smart.  I would definitely recommend that you check out his online essays; there's gold in them thar hills.

My latest read from Joel Spolsky's MBA reading list is "Rules for Revolutionaries" by Guy Kawasaki. Guy is founder and current CEO of garage.com, a firm that provides seed capital to technology startups. His pedigree is impressive - he was involved on the original team that developed the Macintosh, and was the Chief Evangelist of Apple.

I had stumbled across Guy's weblog a few months ago and it immediately became one of my top five reads; Guy has a wealth of knowledge that he manages to convey succinctly in staccato bullet points and in a self-deprecating, humourous style that I wish I could emulate. Hagiography aside - Guy writes informative and entertaining books that richly deserve their place on an MBA reading list.

It is difficult to categorise "Rules for Revolutionaries" - the essential pigeonhole would be "Evangelism", which I interpret as a mix of marketing, business strategy, and vision amalgamated into a driving force to turn your dreams into reality, your reality into products, and your products into customer magnets (to quote directly from the book sleeve). Kawasaki divides these goals into three main sections: "Create like a God", "Command like a King", and "Work like a slave". Each section covers fundamental issues at each stage of bringing a product from imagination to cash cow.

This is the kind of book that I find far more useful then a dry academic tome in that each point is backed up with a real-world example I can relate to. Every section is peppered with interesting and relevant quotes from industry mavens, and finishes with a recommended reading list which would compose an MBA reading list on its own. Picking some points completely at random and out of context:

• Ne Te Terant Molarii - This literally translates to "Don't let the plodding millers grind you down"; Guy describes it simply as "Don't let the Bozos grind you down". The world is full of people who will shoot down an idea, tell you to quit, and naysay until they're blue in the face. It takes temerity and indomitable spirit to be able to focus on your own vision with enthusiasm and prove them wrong.
• Churn! - You may create a product for an initial purpose, but it might not be the one that you stick with. Continually soliciting (and listening to) customer feedback is the only way to ensure that the product you develop satisfies the needs of your current customers; churning back these new concepts into the initial design means you can capitalise on markets you hadn't envisaged originally. Synonymous with the concept of Kaizen.
• Avoid death magnets - Companies can try to follow paths which seem to be positive ways to drive the business, but are actually paths which lead to a deep pit full of faeces-covered punji stakes. Concepts such as planning on making a product which is not quite as bad as the competitions, religiously obeying a budget to the detriment of common sense, or relying on a brand name above any evidence that the product has quality. Conventional approaches lead to conventional results - more often than not this means failure.

In summation, this is one of the most enjoyable books I've read so far on the reading list. Above the excellent information that it imparts, it's genuinely funny. As a result I've ordered two other of Guy's books and at the tentative half-way stage through reading his latest book I can also recommend "The Art of the Start" (review pending...).