Name: Business @ the speed of thought
ISBN: 9780446525688

Business @ the speed of thought

In his new book, Microsoft chairman and CEO Bill Gates discusses how technology can help run businesses better today and how it will transform the nature of business in the near future. Gates stresses the need for managers to view technology not as overhead but as a strategic asset, and offers detailed examples from Microsoft, GM, Dell, and many other successful companies. Companion Web site.

What Hacker News says

dragonbonheurMay 2017

Have managers at every level read Business @ The Speed of Thought by Bill Gates.

thread

mindcrimeMay 2017

Gosh, there's so many. But these come to mind:

1. Neuromancer - William Gibson

2. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

3. Hackers - Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy

4. How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard

5. Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter

6. The Pragmatic Programmer - Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas

7. The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder

8. Code - Charles Petzold

9. The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner

10. Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become Book - Peter Morville

11. Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug

12. The Design of Everyday Things - Donald A. Norman

13. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering - Fred Brooks

14. Decline and Fall of the American Programmer - Ed Yourdon

15. Cube Farm - Bill Blunden

16. The Philip K. Dick Reader

17. The Cuckoo's Egg - Clifford Stoll

18. The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli

19. The 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene

20. The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross

21. Business @ the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System - Bill Gates

thread

mindcrimeJul 2014

Apparently not, but I personally am a huge fan of Business @ The Speed Of Thought. Even though I'm not a huge Gates fan, and definitely not a Microsoft fan, there's no question that Gates hit on some good stuff in that book. And amazingly, as old as it is, I'd argue that most businesses (heck, most organizations period) to this day have still not achieved anything quite equal to his idea of a "Digital Nervous System" (and yes, I know term didn't originate with Gates, but he did a brilliant job of articulating and popularizing it).

I still keep that book near my bed and re-read sections of it from time to time. From even an avowed "Micro$oft" basher from back in the Slashdot days when the GatesBorg image was The Thing, I have to give the devil his due - B@TSOT is solid stuff.

thread

mindcrimeJan 2012

I'd add Business @ The Speed of Thought by Bill Gates. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh if you want.... It's a seriously interesting book. And this is coming from a guy who's a huge F/OSS ideologue and who really isn't a fan of Microsoft or billg. But I can give the Devil his due when necessary, and B@TSOT is a worthwhile read.

Of course, you might ask "Why, mindcrime, why do you recommend a billg book so highly?" Fair question... I find it interesting for the vision that Gates lays out regarding how organizations should use technology to operate more efficiently. He leaned heavily on the analogy with the human autonomic nervous system back in those days, and was throwing around the term "Digital Nervous System[1]" a lot... and I think that that concept A. makes and lot of sense, and B. is still - after all these years - largely unfulfilled.

If you're in the business of software (at least the business of business software) I think the Gates book is still very inspirational and could seed some very interesting ideas, vis-a-vis technology in organizations.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Nervous_System

Other than that, my own list would include:

The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

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

Positioning - Al Ries & Jack Trout

Repositioning - Jack Trout (with Steve Rivkin)

Differentiate or Die - Jack Trout (with Steve Rivkin)

thread