Startup books are like books about screenwriting: the common wisdom is you learn the most by actually doing it. Reading about it without doing it is like reading about the piano or programming without actually doing it.
Now, once you've started the most useful book or resource has to do with the problem you face. If you have customers but need to raise money, its one kind of advice. If you have a customers but the product isn't working, its another sort of advice.
If you don't have customers, well, that's the hard part.
The way you related it to programming gave me a whole new perspective. Books and coaching have a role to play in programming, for example. Most of the time it is to accelerate learning it. Yet, you do need to have some momentum to begin with by having an own project. I never looked at it so clearly with regards to startups.
The great majority of people shouldn't read these — not because they're not good books or don't increase one's chances of startup success (they may or may not — I have no clue), but because the great majority of people will think they're doing startup stuff by reading them. It's confusing activity for accomplishment. If you do read these, keep in mind the entire time you're reading these you're not working on your startup. In other words, be very cognizant of the fact that you may very well be procrastinating.
While I agree with your general sentiment (a lot of the readings on this list strike me as being startup porn), there are some readings -- and these could be in a list -- that are good for an early startup founder to read in moderation.
Topics would include "fundamentals" like different ways to talk to customers or different ways to test product-market fit (possibly in a very efficient way). These may seem very obvious to people who have done them or know someone who has, but they are not obvious to a lot of people.
I will also add that once product-market fit is achieved and the business is officially a thing, there are a wide range of readings that would be useful for a (relatively) new founder. Topics would include things like sales, fundamentals of management (this topic is really not obvious or widely known to a lot of young, gifted people who are often founders of decent startups), and basics of business operations. Granted most of these things can be found on one's own, but a tight, curated list (this one does not seem to be one) would certainly have some value.
Note to the budding startup founders out there: Reading in moderation is fine. Always read for a purpose. Stay away from the startup porn -- it will take you down a path of failure.
This is a ridiculous comment. Read and learn from other people. Just don't substitute that for learning from experiment, instead use it as in a complimentary manner.
My interpretation of n72's comment: These books aren't worth reading because they make you focus your time and mental energy on activities that make a good startup, rather than activities that make a good product.
There's a temptation, when you're an early-stage startup with little direction, to start "playing house"[0]: Trying make your startup look and feel like all these other successful startups you've seen, and, by reading more books, getting positive feedback for doing those things.
There's obviously value in wisdom gained from those who've walked down this road before. But it's not worth obsessing over how to make the perfect startup. It is worth obsessing over how you can be delivering more value to your customers.
It is indisputable that more knowledge is a good thing. My point is merely that "in a complimentary matter" so very often becomes "instead of", because of the insidious nature of procrastination.
Pick a spot where it's hard to be objectively productive, e.g. on the elliptical at the gym (hard to code), or train (uncomfortable if packed train, too much stimulus). Read there. When you are home, work.
Personally, I don't track time spent reading, unless it's to understand how to solve a specific problem.
I think the great majority of people should read these books - in a matter of hours they can be a fly on the wall. Mistakes cost money and time. Also, most people aren't around people who have had success in this avenue, so being 'around' the authors does help to make their goal real.
N72,
I think there is some truth in what you are saying.
I would just pay attention in phrasing this in the right way. After all, even if you 'just' read all this resources, I would not consider it a waste of time.
Those books have been suggested/given to me by Unicorn founders.
There is a moment, as C*O, that you need to mature. Turning your 'garage' project into a scalable and structured company.
Those reading gives you good direct insight by people that have been there before.
We just need to stay humble and remind ourself that there is always opportunities to learn from others. Not just by our own mistakes.
This is stupid and the startup community should mature beyond inspirational sources. Making your own company is really hard and I am not talking about creating a company like Facebook or Google, I am talking about creating something that gives you a 10x over a salary without being your own slave. If that is really hard you can't imagine how difficult (removing luck) is to achieve hypergrowth in an ethical way.
For the inspiring books, I tend to divide them in two categories.
1- the really inspiring one, which I read when I'm in a 'low' period.
2- the gems books, or in other words, those who have some key gems related to specific processes or pivotal moments in a startup life. Those are extremely good as 'go to' resources, when you are living the exact same moment in your own venture.
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[ 0.18 ms ] story [ 55.4 ms ] threadBaby Rudin
Collected speeches of De Gaulle and many biographies
The Bible
The Bhagavad-Gita
The Iliad
Thucydides
Xenophon
Chaos and Pain training manual
What's this?
Now, once you've started the most useful book or resource has to do with the problem you face. If you have customers but need to raise money, its one kind of advice. If you have a customers but the product isn't working, its another sort of advice.
If you don't have customers, well, that's the hard part.
Topics would include "fundamentals" like different ways to talk to customers or different ways to test product-market fit (possibly in a very efficient way). These may seem very obvious to people who have done them or know someone who has, but they are not obvious to a lot of people.
I will also add that once product-market fit is achieved and the business is officially a thing, there are a wide range of readings that would be useful for a (relatively) new founder. Topics would include things like sales, fundamentals of management (this topic is really not obvious or widely known to a lot of young, gifted people who are often founders of decent startups), and basics of business operations. Granted most of these things can be found on one's own, but a tight, curated list (this one does not seem to be one) would certainly have some value.
Note to the budding startup founders out there: Reading in moderation is fine. Always read for a purpose. Stay away from the startup porn -- it will take you down a path of failure.
Product always goes first.
There's a temptation, when you're an early-stage startup with little direction, to start "playing house"[0]: Trying make your startup look and feel like all these other successful startups you've seen, and, by reading more books, getting positive feedback for doing those things.
There's obviously value in wisdom gained from those who've walked down this road before. But it's not worth obsessing over how to make the perfect startup. It is worth obsessing over how you can be delivering more value to your customers.
[0] PG's term http://paulgraham.com/before.html
Personally, I don't track time spent reading, unless it's to understand how to solve a specific problem.
I think the great majority of people should read these books - in a matter of hours they can be a fly on the wall. Mistakes cost money and time. Also, most people aren't around people who have had success in this avenue, so being 'around' the authors does help to make their goal real.
For the inspirational books / articles, I usually get too excited and loose my reality check when I read them.
1- the really inspiring one, which I read when I'm in a 'low' period. 2- the gems books, or in other words, those who have some key gems related to specific processes or pivotal moments in a startup life. Those are extremely good as 'go to' resources, when you are living the exact same moment in your own venture.
I've read two titles from this list (The Lean Startup and Trust Me, I’m Lying) and halfway through both realised I knew it already.
No book has all the answers. It's better to attack a business idea intelligently in your own unique way.