[JohnnyHerz]

While there is certainly a lot of crap out there for business books, especially on sales/marketing and management, there are some core books that are must reads if you want to save 30 years of trial and error.

1. E-myth Revisited (absolute must read for small to midsize business owners) 2. Competitive Strategy 3. Discipline of Market Leaders 4. Good to Great 5. Built to Last

[calmbonsai]

I disagree on "Good to Great" and "Built to Last". In hindsight, they're classic extrapolations of survivorship-bias in a specific era of business instead of durable business practices. It should be more accurately titled as "Built to Fail" considering how those profiled companies have faltered or floundered.

I highly recommend Buffett's letters to shareholders https://a.co/d/cc1ufM4 and Goldratt's "The Goal" https://a.co/d/iJjTf1y and Taleb's "Antifragile" https://a.co/d/4bjC74J . Aside from his mathematical treatment's of uncertainty (which are free), I wouldn't recommend any of Teleb's other books.

"Let My People Go Surfing" https://a.co/d/2hq7ngp doesn't work for all business, but I really found it personally inspirational.

[georgeecollins]

If you like anti-fragile, I really recommend Fooled by Randomness and Black Swan. The Black Swan is a good example of a book with a good original idea that gets repeated so often its almost conventional wisdom, except that half the people saying it are misusing the term because they didn’t read the book.

[calmbonsai]

I've read both of them and also the Bed of Procrustes. Though they're useful, I just feel the others are very classic "paper non-usefully expanded to book form" business titles whereas Antifragile's topic is benefited by the full treatise treatment.

[marcosdumay]

> except that half the people saying it are misusing the term because they didn’t read the book

Oh, man, make that 95% and you would be describing The Innovator Dilemma.

What is up with people that take those ideas they never bothered to read and insist they know them?

[insane_dreamer]

Black Swan is one of those books that has definitely stuck with me even though it's been ~15 years since I read it.

But I would consider it philosophy, not a "business book".

[pbh101]

For me:

- the goal

- 5 dysfunctions of a team

- the first 90 days

A friend swears by:

- atomic habits

- seven habits of highly effective people

(Slightly different genre but quite close)

[calmbonsai]

Oooooh! I forgot about Atomic Habits. It's not only one of the best "business books" I've ever read. It's the single best "self-help" book I've ever read.

I disagree on "Seven Habits" as its model of "effectiveness" is only applicable to (for lack of a better term) extroverted vocations.

[ativzzz]

Tried to read antifragile but his writing came off as too egotistic for me to take seriously at the time

[mrbluecoat]

I also came to mention E-myth Revisited since its goal is to dissuade rather than promote. Same vibe as https://sive.rs/a

[monkeyelite]

The E-myth is good. It convinced me I do not want to run a business.

[121789]

Good to great and built to last are just classic survivorship bias in book form. They are interesting as history books but not as actual analysis. They are fun reads but not to be taken seriously