Articles, Ideas, and Books That Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

This is a start articulating a set of resources for entrepreneurs that are for the most part not yet widely appreciated as applicable to entrepreneurship but that have had a significant impact on my perspective. I welcome any suggestions or lists from readers for what has influenced you, and opened you to new perspectives on your entrepreneurial journey.

Articles, Ideas, and Books That Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

What follows are my two year old answers, in no particular order to a question on Hacker News:  Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life.

I developed the list thinking about my approach to business and entrepreneurship, which is narrower than “life” and accounts for a lack of spiritual, marital, self-mastery, and personal improvement books and ideas.

• Myers-Briggs Model for Personality
• “Four Steps to the Epiphany” by Steve Blank
• John Boyd’s OODA Loop as a model for competitive decision making
• Decision Analysis techniques: in particular
  • decision trees,
  • expected value of perfect information,
  • “good decision, bad outcome.”
• BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) concept for negotiation planning
• “Secrets of Consulting” by Gerald M. Weinberg
• “Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem” by Michael Rothschild
• SimCity computer game
• Analysis of Competing Hypotheses methodology
• wiki (social process) model for small team collaborative document development
• community of practice model for knowledge management
• “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Robert Heinlein (in particular TANSTAAFL)
• activation energy, catalyst, and phase change concepts from physics/chemistry
• Amplify Positive Deviance model from Jerry Sternin (Save the Children)
• “The Empowered Manager” by Peter Block, in particular his trust vs. agreement matrix
• “Crossing the Chasm” & “Inside the Tornado” by Geoffrey Moore
• “Maneuver Warfare Handbook” by William Lind
• “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life” by Daniel Amen
• “Micromotives and Macrobehavior” by Thomas Schelling
• Appreciative Inquiry Techniques

Here are a few more techniques or perspectives that I have added upon some further reflection.

• Russell Ackoff’s Decision Record Model
• Gary Klein’s Premortem Technique
• Saras Sarasvathy’s Effectual Reasoning Model from What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial
  • better version here: “What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial” on Effectuation.Org
  • See also “Saras Sarasvathy’s Effectual Reasoning Model for Expert Entrepreneurs“
• Andrew Grove’s “High Output Management” in particular “always review drafts” and his model for one on one meetings.
• “Computers, Networks, and the Corporation” by Tom Malone and John F. Rockhart (1991 Scientific American Article)
  • see “Cisco Presents Collaboration Technology as Sufficiently Advanced“
• “The Computer and the Dynamo: The Modern Productivity Paradox in a Not Too Distant Mirror” Paul David (1989)
• “Gunfire at Sea” Elting Morison; mentioned in
  • “The Ship that Never Was” from “Skunk Works” by Ben R. Rich
  • Gary Smith on Bebop As a Model For Innovation
  • Paul Saffo on Forecasting Innovation in Silicon Valley
  • Gunfire at Sea a Case Study in Innovation by Elting Morrison: Deming Institute and CIOW
• “Persistent Forecasting of Disruptive Technologies” by National Research Council (2010)
• “Technology Singularity” by Vernor Vinge, in particular the “Intelligence Amplification” section

August-16 2014: Two more after more reflection

• TacOps computer game – you provide doctrine and guidelines to units with limited intelligence of overall situation but cannot micromanage.
• Johari Window especially the blind spot and facade.

Wed-June-24 2015 Another triggered by a post by Valdis Krebs (@orgnet)

• Social Network  Analysis (Inflow Article in Release 1.0 Sep-88) https://www.dropbox.com/s/m5d2d930midw4j2/InFlow1988.pdf?dl=0
• Zone of Proximal Development for leaning which echoes
  • Stuart Kauffman’s concept of the “Adjacent Possible” in a design and systems analysis context and
  • “Nature does not make leaps” as an evolutionary principle (also a useful one for entrepreneurs)