Books

Day one, review one: The Geek Way

It’s well articulated, it’s by an industry-adjacent person, and it’s pro tech. 

But it’s not going to surprise anyone already steeped in startup culture. 

It advises a four prong recipe for building a successful company culture:

- make data driven decisions 
- promote agency/ownership
- move fast
- be super open

If you’re looking at that and going “hell yeah” then it’s safe to skip this one. 

But it’d be a good handbook for teaching newcomers and outsiders. And it’d make a great passive aggressive birthday gift for a cofounder who thinks his “Steve Jobs level product intuition” trumps your “AB testing data”

Four stars for its type, a solid 101 on healthy tech company culture

Day two: Cod 

It’s hard to credibly convey how compelling Kurlansky’s books are, given the seemingly dull subject matter. The prose is merely fair, but the research is  impeccable and he mixes colorful illustrative anecdotes in at the perfect pace.

My then 5yo never lost interest, which is strong testimony. Four stars for its type. 

His books on salt and onions are also worth reading. For the sake of calibration, I’d cite At Home and The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson as five star examples of the class.

Thanks for the recommendation! Added to my reading list