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Copyright © 2025 Pepijn van der Laan.
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Chris Voss – Never split the difference

Chris Voss – Never split the difference

Make sure you understand the motives of your counterpart, and make him/her responsible for finding a solution. 

Useful view on high-stakes negotiations condensed into simple rules, and larded with FBI ‘war stories’.

Simon Sinek – Start with why

Simon Sinek – Start with why

Live by Covey’s 2nd habit: ‘Begin with the end in mind’

Energizing expose of a well known leadership truism.

Liz Wiseman – Multipliers

Liz Wiseman – Multipliers

Most corporate cultures stifle learning and cross-fertilization of ideas.

Useful archetypes of desireable (‘multiplier’) and undesireable (‘diminisher’) behaviour.

Dan and Chip heath – Switch

Dan and Chip heath – Switch

If you want to realize change: have a compelling rationale, make it intuitive to grasp, and make it easy to do.

Just remember the metaphor of the elephant, the rider, and the path.

Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel

Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel

Environment-specific survival strategies developed by different civilizations explain the global power balance today.

Remark: Fascinating narrative on how agriculture spread across the globe.

Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths – Algorithms to live by

Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths – Algorithms to live by

Computer science provides self-help wisdom: optimal choices for some real-world dilemma’s can be defined as algorithms.

Essential concepts from computer sciences intuitively explained for non-techies.

Oren Klaff – Pitch anything

Oren Klaff – Pitch anything

When pitching: set the frame, tell the story, reveal the intrigue, offer the prize, nail the hook point, and get the decision. 

Remark: By far the best book on Pitching that I know.

Graham Jones – Click.ology

Graham Jones – Click.ology

Straight-forward sanity checks can make webshops a whole lot better.

A brave but flawed (e.g. on pricing) attempt to provide naive rules of thumb for how to influence highly context-dependent and ultra-personal customer decisions.

David Lewis – The Brainsell

David Lewis – The Brainsell

The impact of many facets of the in-store experience on shopping behaviour can be measured neurologically (from pricing, to colours and smells). 

More emphasis could have been put on online shopping where more direct measurement possible and implementation is easier.

Salim Ismail et. al. – Exponential organizations

Salim Ismail et. al. – Exponential organizations

Prioritize long term accelerating growth over short-term gains.

Diamandis’ Abundance concept applied to companies. The book peaks early on: the howto guide is not sufficiently specific.

David Maister – The trusted advisor

David Maister – The trusted advisor

Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / (Self orientation)

Much needed message in this age of voxpop: you need to earn the right to share your opinion.

Mark Hatch – The maker manifesto

Mark Hatch – The maker manifesto

Access to means of production is no longer constraint by capital, which empowers a whole new army of innovators.

En contagiously enthusiastic account of all you can do with laser cutters,milling machines, 3D printers, AutoCAD software, and the like – and how cheap it is.

Martin Ford – Rise of the Robots

Martin Ford – Rise of the Robots

In just a few decades most jobs will be automated and only a basic income guarantee for everyone can prevent social unrest.

Interesting thought experiment by an author who underestimates human ingenuity (I sincerely hope).

Stanley McChrystal – Team of teams

Stanley McChrystal – Team of teams

Without mutual understanding of different perspectives teams cannot be effective, because people you don’t trust are never truly on your team.  

Background: the US couldn’t win the war in Iraq in 2003 because the compartmentalized army organization could not react adequately to changing circumstances and an agile enemy.

Antonio Garcia Martinez – Chaos monkeys

Antonio Garcia Martinez – Chaos monkeys

Former Goldman Sachs quant, in continuous pursuit of adrenaline rushes, launches startup later bought by Twitter, and becomes Facebook product manager.

Written with the contagious swagger of a cocky analytical thinker convinced that he is ahead of the game.

Brian Burke – Gamify

Brian Burke – Gamify

Triggering authentic engagement aligned to corporate goals is what will make points, badges, and leader boards work.

The book focuses on engagement, accomplishment, and competition as performance drivers; whereas ‘hard benefits’ such as shorter feedback loops and more targeted content get less attention.

Don Tapscott et. al. – Blockchain revolution

Don Tapscott et. al. – Blockchain revolution

The technology behind Bitcoin will disrupt trust-based industries and interactions, from Banking to Voting

The writers’ enthusiasm seems at some points somewhat naive, considering the scope of vested interests in target markets.

Sean O’Neil and John Kulisek – Bare nuckle people management

Sean O’Neil and John Kulisek – Bare nuckle people management

To get the most out of your team, adjust your management style to each individual.

MBTI without the dogma that ‘there are no good or bad personality types’; of course there are – from the manager’s perspective.

SC Moatti – Mobilized

SC Moatti – Mobilized

Mobile product should appeal to our sense of beauty (body rule), address our deepest needs (spirit rule), and improve with every interaction (mind rule).

It is hard to be truly ‘mobile first’.

P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman – Cybersecurity and Cyberwar

P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman – Cybersecurity and Cyberwar

Best way to win a cyberwar or battle cybercrime is to reduce the ‘return on investment’ for your adversary – similar to battling a disease or old-fashioned piracy.

Refreshingly nuanced expose on a polarizing topic. Particularly useful if you happen to be a nation state.

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Copyright © 2025 Pepijn van der Laan.
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