Outthink the competition

What Hacker News says

1. mindcrimeApr 2013
   Is it possible? Yes. Is it easy? No. How do you do it? If I had a magic formula for that, I'd be rich. But...

   There is a large body of work "out there" on competitive strategy, differentiation, positioning, market segmentation, etc. I hate to say "go off and read this list of 15 books" but I don't think I can do justice to this topic in a HN comment. So, I will, indeed, just give you a list of books to consider.

   Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

   The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank

   Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

   The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries, Jack Trout

   The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries, Laura Ries

   REPOSITIONING: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

   Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

   Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant - W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne

   Understanding Michael Porter - Joan Magretta

   Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters - Richard Rumelt

   Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: Use the 36 Ancient Chinese Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge - Kaihan Krippendorf

   Outthink the Competition - Kaihan Krippendorf

   Competitive Strategy - Michael Porter

   Competitive Advantage - Michael Porter

   On Competition - Michael Porter

   Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value With Customers - C. K. Prahalad, Venkat Ramaswamy

   Yeah, it's a lot of stuff. I won't say you need to read all of that, but everyone of those books is something that's influenced my thinking, and that I've learned a lot from. If I had to pick one to start with, I'd say the Steve Blank book - The Four Steps to the Epiphany. He does a pretty good job of giving an overview of market segmentation strategies, which you'll probably want to pursue if you're entering a crowded market.

   After reading Blank, I'd go for Crossing the Chasm next, then the whole series by Trout, Ries and Rivskin, etc. The Michael Porter stuff is good, but somewhat dry and academic. The Understanding Michael Porter book is a good introduction to his stuff that is a little easier to digest.

   Also note a subtle, but important point... there are two different kinds of "positioning* you'll hear people talk about in these kinds of discussions. On the one hand, you have "marketing positioning" as described in the books by Ries, Trout, et al. This is more about the message you send to the market about your firm and your offerings. Then you have Michael Porter "structural positioning" stuff that relates to how your firm "fits" in with your competitors vis-a-vis the "five forces" and the rest of Porterian strategic analysis. One will influence the other, but they are really two different things. Note that anytime somebody starts telling you anything about your "positioning".

   And then you have what Bob Parsons (of GoDaddy fame) said "Don't be afraid to enter a crowded market, just be better than everybody else".

   Show morethread
2. mindcrimeFeb 2013
   I don't know but the author of the linked Forbes piece, Kaihan Krippendorff, has written a couple of pretty good books on strategy.[1][2]

   I got a lot out of reading Outthink the Competition and am planning to read it again soon. I like his ideas about "coordinating the uncoordinated" and "take what's left behind when the battle moves elsewhere" (paraphrasing in both cases).

   [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Outthink-Competition-Generation-Strate...

   [2]: http://www.amazon.com/Hide-Dagger-Behind-Smile-Competitive/d...

   Show morethread
3. mindcrimeDec 2012
   The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne. Probably my first favorite book, which I've read about 10 or 12 times in my life. Just re-read it again a few weeks ago. Never gets old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Island

   The three titles in The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant. I'm not normally real big on zombie stories, but this one was a breath of fresh air. Part zombies, part conspiracy story, and wildly entertaining. http://miragrant.com/newsflesh.php

   Living Low Carb - Jonny Bowden. Picked this up after I was diagnosed as diabetic, and needed to clean up my diet and lose some weight. Very detailed book, explains the endocrine cycle and the relationship between carbs, fat, insulin, etc. very well, and makes a compelling case for eliminating most carbs from one's diet. I've been following this approach for the last 2-3 months and feel pretty good about it. My weight is coming down, even though I'm not doing a lot more exercise (that part will come eventually, but for now I'm basically just doing on mountain bike ride of about 2 hours, on Saturdays). http://www.amazon.com/Living-Low-Carb-Controlled-Carbohydrat...

   The Startup Owner's Manual - Steve Blank and Bob Dorf. The successor to the famous The Four Steps to the Epiphany, this is the Bible of Customer Development. http://www.stevenblank.com/startup_index_qty.html

   Winning The Knowledge Transfer Race - kinda niche, but important to me, vis-a-vis Fogbeam Labs. Our space is (largely) knowledge management, and I got a ton of ideas from this book, in terms of how to articulate problems our customers might be facing, how some of the solutions map to capabilities we're working on, etc. http://www.michaeljenglish.com/books/winning.html

   Outthink The Competition - Kaihan Krippendorff. Definitely got me thinking about the value of strategy and strategic thinking. Contains a nice catalog of basic strategies one can employ. Inspired me pick up some other books on strategy and strategic thinking as well. I definitely recommend this one, unless you happen to be in a business that might compete with us at Fogbeam Labs, in which case, forget you ever heard of this. http://www.kaihan.net/outthinkthe_competitionbook.html

   Capability Cases: A Solution Envisioning Approach - Irene Polioff, Robert Coyne, Ralph Hodgson. An interesting book on matching business problems to technical solutions through something called a "capability case". Think of a "capability case" as something like a cross between a "use case" and an Alexanderian pattern, and a business "case" like you'd study in business school. Basically it's an approach to distilling the essence of a problem an organization might have, laying out the capabilities needed to address that problem, and demonstrating the business justification for the solution. http://www.capabilitycases.org/

   Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson. Just a fascinating story of a strangely interesting man. Lots of computer industry history embedded in here as well. http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/14516485...

   Hackers - Steven Levy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer...

   Artificial Life - Steven Levy. http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/books/artificial-life

   The Apocalypse Codex - Charles Stross. My first foray into "The Laundry Files" and it was a good one. When somebody first recommended this series to me, they said it was "sci fi with a Lovecraftian bent" which caught my attention as a huge fan of Lovecraft. Sure enough, that's exactly what it is. As soon as I encountered the phrase "computational demonologist" I knew I was in the right place. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apocalypse_Codex

   The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand. I like to read this for inspiration every now and again. Howard Roark is one of my favorite characters and I aspire to be more like him. Unfortunately, to date, I think I'm closer to Gail Wynand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead

   Trust Me, I'm Lying - Ryan Holiday. How one man manipulated a variety of media outlets to gain free PR for his clients. Some of these tactics may seem (and probably are) underhanded, perhaps even downright unethical. But even if you don't want to use them yourself, you should probably be aware of them, as it may help you understand why certain stories get featured in the media and why others don't. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_Me,_I%27m_Lying

   Ghost In The Wires - Kevin Mitnick. http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/d...

   This Machine Kills Secrets - Andy Greenberg. History of the cypherpunk movement, from the early days through Wikileaks and the Bradley Manning and Julian Assange sagas. Lots of great stuff here, definitely recommended for anyone interested in cypherpunks, government/corporate transparency, information security, and related topics. http://www.thismachinekillssecrets.com/

   Started, but haven't yet finished Taking People With You by David Novak. Another book on leadership and how to engage other people and get them onboard with whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. So far it strikes me as pretty good, with actual actionable material, not just a bunch of pithy aphorisms. But I'm only about 1/3rd of the way in, so kinda early to pass judgement. http://www.takingpeoplewithyou.com/

   Started Reamde by Neal Stephenson, but got distracted, set it aside and never resumed it. Will probably start it again sometime next year. Was entertaining up to the point I stopped. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reamde

   Started, but didn't finish The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. It's a long book, what can I say? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near

   Show morethread
4. methusala8Nov 2018
   a) Crucial Conversations, Kerry Patterson

   b) Way of the Wolf, Jordan Belfort

   c) Never Split the difference, Chris Voss

   d) Radical Honesty, Brad Blanton

   e) Outthink the competition, Krippendorff

   Show morethread