We’re avid readers here at Stacklist, and this year has been awesome for startup books.
We’ve handpicked our favorite books for you entrepreneurs and technologists in our audience; These
are books that will help you with your startup, inspire you, guide you and help you in both business and
life.
Ego is the Enemy
By Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is the author of Trust Me, I’m Lying, Growth Hacker Marketing, and The Obstacle is the
Way. In Ego is the Enemy, Ryan focuses on the ego as the main obstacle to success in business and
entrepreneurship (ego, not in the Freudian sense, but in the arrogant sense).
Ego is an impediment to the most important aspects of business: learning and working hard. Ego tempts
us to think of success as something we deserve because we are special. Ego makes us crave recognition
and praise.
Through examples based on history, Holiday shines the spotlight on people who eschewed recognition
in favor of higher goals. Holiday argues that this is almost never the best path to success – that it’s the
work itself and the learning itself that leads to success and satisfaction.
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley
By Antonio Garcia Martinez *
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley is a sharp story about Martinez’
experience in Silicon Valley. It’s a juicy, insidery and extremely honest read – a tell-all that explains what
life is like in the valley. Martinez recounts his experience moving from Goldman Sachs, getting accepted
into Y Combinator and then working at Facebook and Twitter.
As the critical title suggests, Martinez forces readers to look past the glistening sheen of tech .., to
consider that this startup obsession in the new world economy is not necessarily superior to legacy ways
of business.
Enter to win a copy of Chaos Monkeys, one of the best startup books of 2016.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
By Cal Newport
Cal Newport is a writer, MIT grad, and professor of computer science at Georgetown University. After
discovering and using deep work, he implemented it in his life. Deep work doubled the amount of
research papers he wrote, while he taught classes, raised a family, and wrote Deep Work: Rules for
Focused Success in a Distracted World.
Deep work is all about producing something great through intense periods of focus and thought while
avoiding distractions. It’s important to avoid distractions because of “attention residue” – lingering
thoughts of the previous task we were doing. Avoiding distractions lets you do intense, continuous work
that makes you more efficient.
For creators and those with important jobs – it’s important to set aside time for deep work that will
advance your career, startup or product. As Newport says, shallow work is what keeps you from getting
fired, whereas deep work is what gets you promoted.
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
By Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz
The authors of the book work for Google Ventures and help the startups in their portfolio. From their
experience, they’ve boiled down a rapid way to develop products and test business ideas.
The Sprint method is a 5-day plan that involves a small team (less than seven people, with one
appointed as the “decider”) across different departments of a company/startup. Sprint outlines what to
do day-by-day with your team and various exercises to get to a working prototype that gets tested by
end-users on the last day of the sprint for feedback.
The book is filled with different examples and stories from companies that have used sprints to develop
their product, like Slack. Product teams and startups that use the Sprint method will find a quick way to
validate ideas and iterate their product – meaning a faster reach to product/market fit.
