John Doerr – Measure what matters
If you look past the author’s boundless Andy Grove adoration, there are some useful lessons to be learnt.
To benefit the most from network effects: build local scale, fiercely fight for each new value pocket, and remember that every hockey stick will become an S-curve
The book proves that those A16Z folks are very good at marketing sauce on not-so-ground-breaking ideas (as described by Sebastian Mallaby)
Venture Capital has been of major importance in the making of the tech industry in general, and Silicon Valley in particular.
Sebastian Mallaby – The Power Law
Nice as a description of the historical evolution of the VC phenomenon, but rather condoning in its evaluation.
The philosophy of the Silicon Valley elite is just a bunch of ill understood one-liners from preferably obscure thinkers
Adrian Daub – What tech calls thinking
Entertaining and polemic book, although many of the author’s points hardly need to be argued.
The Silicon Valley philosophy of innovation and disruption undervalues the importance of maintenance and durability
Lee Vinsel, Andrew Russel – The innovation delusion
Funny enough, the polemic narrative applies all the trick of typical innovation literature to promote a maintenance mindset.
The success of Uber and AirBnB is (partly) due to structural exploration of legal limits
Most illustrative are the descriptions of failed competitors, which show importance of both luck and ruthlessness.