Jeff McNeill
+1 for Anarchists' Cookbook, -2 for the horrible plot device where everything is a weird noodle loop. Simply confusing and not very interesting.
This book is nice and has a variety of insights. After reading it once, I found I couldn't remember exactly the insights, so I read it again and wrote down some notes. That is what it takes as most of the “insights” are rather banal and only interesting in a small “i” way. Nevertheless, added together they do make sense. I'll put these into a didactic list:
- educate, don't sell
- share stories to reveal self and product
- focus on profit, not growth
- start, then learn (not reverse)
- creator first, entrepreneur second
- time + vulnerability = relationships + growth
- “community first”
- “find your people”
- work in public, share the work
- teaching results in more learning
- Goldilocks-size problem that only you have a solution to
- should have inevitable pricing/purchase in the product (vs. “give it away for free to get eyeballs”)
- build as little as possible to gauge interest
- build process/automation
- ship right away / early / often
- are you helping the customer?
- can you make a profit?
- mom test
- cold email, calls, messages (outreach)
- keep learning
- build an audience
- marketing funnel (top, middle, bottom)
- social media
- educate, inspire, entertain
- spend money last
- “look-alike” audiences
- raise money from community / crowdfunding
We can see that the author simply reverse engineered what worked for him. This is the problem with a smattering of success, which is that it doesn't really tell what doesn't work, only what has. While it is nice to see this in a narrative, and is worth the read, there are so many more books that provide a lot more detail, and offer a much deeper set of resources. A few come to mind:
- Traction by Weinberg and Mares
- Traction by Wickman
- Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
Essentially, much of these insights are a poor guide in any other kind of business, other than online services. Yes, the author has effectively leveraged his agonizingly slow slog toward profitability, the network effect of running an online marketplace, and his basic humanity. Good on him. Unless you are running a direct competitor, parts (perhaps many/most) of the plan must change.
That said, Gumroad just raised its fees from 9% inclusive to 10% exclusive of transaction costs. As Bezos has said: “your margin is my opportunity”.
This is a bit technical, and more or less goes over how complicated things are, in actual economic / industrial terms and how changing that (which produces greenhouse gasses and global warming) is a damned difficult thing to do.
For someone like Bill Gates, who recommends this book, it may be useful as it points out where innovation can and should be, and therefore where to make helpful (and profitable) investments. For the rest of us without venture funds, it is downright disheartening.
For me personally, it means I need to look at where to go and how to live to mitigate as much of the coming impact of global warming, for me and my family, and successive generations. Hunker down, boys and girls.
Verbose and misleading. It purports to explain the Stoics, yet (admittedly) changes it into some modern day analytic philosophy cul de sac. If you want to read about the Stoics, likely best to read them directly. Disappointing.
This is too short to be worth reading. Sure it is about Murderbot, but it is more like an advertisement. Just start with All Systems Red.
Probably just a four star rating, but being the 13th and final volume of the series, it is nice to see Uhtred and company have a mighty last battle. The same old themes of religious tolerance, trust, betrayal, egoism and grand politics are present. Worth a read.
Good stuff. Occasionally hard to understand, as the translation is a bit fanciful. Nevertheless the language is poetic at times, and the story enjoyable.
Way too short, and the story is realtime rather than an extended timeframe. Unfortunately because it was so short it was quickly obvious who the hidden murderer was (otherwise, why spend time with that individual?) Yeah, I like Murderbot a lot, but there was a lot less of the Murderbot media consumption and other aspects of the personality. If it wasn't Murderbot it would be 3 stars at best. Martha Wells is riding her success and not giving a good effort. I heard she had a new contract for more Murderbot novels. Hopefully she won't run this into the ground.
Informative and insightful regarding macro trends. However, doesn't effectively deal with what has changed since the 19th century, and how that can impact macro trends. Needs to read and engage with Polanyi in this regard. A quick, useful read, but not comprehensive.
Great continuation of the series, have waited for a long time for this, and it was worth waiting for. Murderbot is back, along with ART and Murderbot 2.0.
Klein is quite clear-sighted and diagnostic about our age, and it is something of a (limited) relief to understand as he puts it that this polarization is not new, but it is also not going away anytime soon. Sadly, in attempting to appeal to Republicans, the worst he can do is say that the Republican party would benefit from having to get democratic majorities. No shit. And it ain't gonna try to do that anytime soon. For progressives, all this really results in is a clear and present danger and the need to fight the good fight.
Very different from Killing Eve #1 and #2. The third in the series, this book uses the same characters but instead of back and forth between first person Villanelle and Eve, it is all or nearly all Eve. The book still works to some degree, but is simply not as well done as the first two books.
The tv series is interesting, but not even close to as stellar as these books (at least the first two), for various reasons. It is very difficult for a TV show to come as close to what a great book can say and portray.
Note that this is also called “Die for Me”.