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FROM THE SHARED SHELF · 2006–2026 SAMPLE

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson

13 readers recommend it across 11 discussions

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THE WORD OF MOUTH

What made it worth passing on?

Original Hacker News comments, in the readers’ own words.

lanstein
Advice to Founders and CEOs - Dear Founder (Maynard Webb) - The Hard Things About Hard Things (Ben Horowitz) - Straight Talk for Startups (Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman) - The Founders’ Dilemmas (Noam Wasserman) - The Entrepreneur’s Daily Nietzsche (Brad Feld and Dave Jilk) - Build (Tony Fadell) - Zero to IPO (Frederic Kerrest) - The Great CEO Within (Matt Mochary) Finance - Wharton's Introduction to Financial Accounting course: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting](https://w... (https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting]%28https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting%29) - How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart About the Numbers (Mihir Desai) - Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers (Karen Berman and Joe Knight) Open-Book Company (Employee Ownership, Financial Literacy, Goal-setting) - The Great Game of Business (Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham) Legal - Acceleration (Ryan Roberts) - The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Law and Strategy (Constance Bagley and Craig Dauchy) Company Strategy and Direction (post-product/market fit) - Crossing the Chasm (Geoff Moore) - Zone to Win (Geoff Moore)…

Also recommended in this reply

vo1d
- The Innovator's Dilemma by Clay Christensen - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking - The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross - Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss - Start with No by Jim Camp - How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg - The Everything Store by Brad Stone - The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
stevenj
SURELY YOU'RE JOKING MR. FEYNMAN BY RICHARD FEYNMAN -I loved this book for its humor, everyday practicality, how relatable it felt even without having a background in physics or knowledge about the pranks and experiments he conducted. As well as the book being well-written in the sense that it reads as if you're sitting on the couch with him as he's telling you stories about his life, all with a child-like sense of wonder and enthusiasm about the world. THE $12 MILLION STUFFED SHARK BY DON THOMPSON -I'm interested in the high-finance and fine-art worlds and this book discussed how they both go together - money and art - in an informative, quick-paced way. THE BUY SIDE BY TURNEY DUFF -For its humor, honesty, and how well written it was in terms of it being a page turner while also providing you with an insightful account about the high-finance industry. MOLLY'S GAME BY MOLLY BLOOM -It was an entertaining, quick-paced read about the private, high-stakes poker industry with an assortment of participants. MONEYBALL, LIAR'S POKER & THE BIG SHORT BY MICHAEL LEWIS -I thought they were all entertaining reads, while also being insightful about their respective subjects.…
jakegarelick
My recent favorites: Jobs, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, High Output Management, Innovator's Dilemma, Lean Startup, On The Shortness Of Life, How Google Works, Zero To One, Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Power of Habit, Things Fall Apart, Stoner
mindcrime
The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson Artificial Life - Steven Levy On Writing - Stephen King Machine Learning for Hackers - Drew Conway and John Myles White How Doctors Think - Jerome Goopman Cholesterol Clarity: What The HDL Is Wrong With My Numbers? - Jimmy Moore & Eric C. Westman Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco - Bryan Burrough & John Helyar
napoleond
These are the ones I remember, but not necessarily for being the best. Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson. I thought it was interesting; an honest attempt at cataloguing the life of a fascinating and complex person. How To Win Friends And Influence People - Dale Carnegie. I'd skimmed through it in high school, and decided it was full of obvious/cheesy platitudes, but was somehow convinced to take another look this year and I'm very glad I did. It is mostly full of very basic "don't be an ass" advice, but I needed it. Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi. I'm not sure what to think of this one. It's pretty low on actionable advice, but it did help me (together with HTWFAIF, above) reframe the way I approach interpersonal relationships. The Cat's Table - Michael Ondaatje. I haven't finished this one yet, but it's part of a recent concerted effort to read more fiction. I've always loved Ondaatje's work, and this latest novel is no different. Freakonomics - Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner. I just started reading this last night, and I'm already 100 pages in. It's an addicting read, and is already causing me to re-evaluate the incentive systems that are everywhere.…
Riesling
I strongly disagree. I got the biography for christmas this year and finished it in two days. Having never owned a piece of apple hardware due to its closed nature and being an open source supporter myself, I was quite surprised by the joy I got from reading this book. The honesty used by Walter Isaacson to describe Jobs was really refreshing and not expected by me at all. I was able to draw many conclusions from this book. For example I do not think that there is the possibility of using it as a recipe for your own success as an entrepreneur, which might be the reason of why the hn community might be undervaluing this book. It clearly shows that Steve had many unique character traits which made him successful after all. Most of them were negative in my eyes. Actually he often seemed borderline insane. When thinking about the way he treated people, the way he manipulated people, the way he thought that he knew it all and used all of those techniques in order to make those things happen, I realized that those are character traits that lie deep within and cannot easy be emulated, if at all.…