Well it’s been a poor six weeks of progress since my last update. I had a two-week holiday in Tobago to plough through some of these but very little got read. The moral of the story is: don’t take a two-year-old on holiday if you want to do any serious reading.
I started The Mythical Man Month, but found its content a bit old-hat - not surprising considering how long it has been since it was written. I can see how revelatory it might have been thirty years ago. Brooks is a bit fond of his biblical imagery and parables for my taste; it’s sometimes difficult to resolve a rational approach with such a faith-based outlook on life, but wiser people than me have managed it I suppose.
Unfortunately the list has got longer as well. I realised that two corporate sagas needed to be included: Barbarians At The Gate (about the takeover of RJR Nabisco) and The Smartest Guys In The Room (about Enron) are definite must-have-reads.
Latest status:
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell (job done)
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell
- The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki
- The Cathedral & the Bazaar, Eric S. Raymond
- The Mythical Man Month, Frederick P. Brooks (Started)
</font>6. Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis (job done)
- The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand, Chris Anderson (purchased but not started)
- The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, Clayton Christensen
- The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation, Matthew May
- The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind (purchase but not started)
- Barbarians at the Gate, Bryan Burrough and John Helyar (purchased but not started)