The trajectory of books about new technologies follows a similar pattern: first, hype; then, backlash; then, finally, a more considered view of what it might actually be good for.
Yup. Checks out.
Original source: The new tech effecting culture outline
As it says, some books.
Original source: Diplomacy and delusion: books to understand differences between Brits and Americans
It’d be useful at some point to compare the “how to be a startup” advice to “how to modernize and suite of enterprise applications.” For example, an enterprise often knows its product/market fit (e.g., selling kidnapping insurance to executives). However, it may not know the best product/technology approach (it needs a mobile app that tracks when the executive leaves the country), or product/design fit (the executive’s assistant does most of the interaction with the software, so you need to add a secondary user).
For enterprises, there’s much to be learned from startup think, but there’s also much that’s different.
Original source: Lessons from Elad Gil and High Growth Handbook
Original source: Ctrl Alt Delete: How Politics and the Media Crashed Our Democracy
Books as information tool and lifestyle are complex.
“Displayed books gesture forward and backward to acts of reading and rereading; of purchasing, posing, moving, and unpacking; of passing time and dropping into its folds.”
Original source: The Book Is a Time Machine
“Bazaarvoice’s board agreed in November to be acquired by Marlin Equity Partners in a deal valued at more than $500 million. Under the agreement, Marlin Equity Partners acquired all outstanding common stock of Bazaarvoice for $5.50 in cash for a total of $521 million.”
Original source: Bazaarvoice acquisition gets shareholder approval
The writing in this book is good, and I’m always a sucker for noir.
But it gets tiresome after awhile, all the balls-out crazy stuff and topics.
There’s a lot to study about fiction dynamics here though fueled by the picador plotting: lots of interesting characters, lots of mini-plots; paring characters; the weak male/strong female trope; unlimited budget; snarky, but weary direct address tone to the reader; maybe world building, but just as the back-story for the various characters you meet (the serial killer on the airplane, the Roanokes, but the Bob character is ignored/anemic in this respect); social commentary as asides (from Trix, often); sex for titilation.
Obviously I liked it enough to quickly read it.
The premise of this book, for most anyone, is painfully boring: planning out and project managing the installation of COTS software. This is mostly lumbering, on-premises ERP applications: those huge, multi-year installs of software that run the back office and systems of record for organizations. While this market is huge, touches almost every company, and has software that is directly or indirectly touched by almost everyone each day (anytime you buy something or interact with a company)…it’s no iPhone.
If you’re in the business of selling enterprise software and services, however, Beaubouef’s book is a rare look inside the buyer’s mind and their resulting work-streams when they’re dealing with big ol’ enterprise IT. As a software marketer, I read it for exactly that. I was hoping to find some ROI models (a scourge of my research). It doesn’t really cover that at all, which is fine.
There’s a core cycle of ideas and advice flitting in and bout of the book that I like:
While the book focuses on on-premises software, the overall thinking could easily apply to any implementation of a large IT-driven, vendor provided system: SaaS would work, and to an extent the kind of infrastructure software we sell at Pivotal. As the points above go over, the core thrust of the book is about managing how you make sure your IT is actually helping the business, not bogging down in its self.
If you’re pretty vague on what you should do in these large IT initiatives, you could do a lot worse than read this book.
Check out the book: *Maximize Your Investment: 10 Key Strategies for Effective Packaged Software Implementations *
The mathematical modeling of society is made possible, according to Pentland, by the innate tractability of human beings. We may think of ourselves as rational actors, in conscious control of our choices, but in reality most of what we do is reflexive. Our behavior is determined by our subliminal reactions to the influence of other people, particularly those in the various peer groups we belong to. “The power of social physics,” he writes, “comes from the fact that almost all of our day-to-day actions are habitual, based mostly on what we have learned from observing the behavior of others.” Once you map and measure all of a person’s social influences, you can develop a statistical model that predicts that person’s behavior, just as you can model the path a billiard ball will take after it strikes other balls.
