OYENTE

Bill

  • 20
  • opiniones
  • 3
  • votos útiles
  • 20
  • calificaciones

Single best finance book I’ve ever read

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-22-25

I’m an avid reader of finance books; Graham, Buffett, you name it. If it’s a popular finance book worth reading, I’ve likely read or listened to it. I’ve even read some of Ed Thorp’s mathematical finance work. Most finance books focus on *how* to make money. This book covers that, but also looks at *why* we seek money, and whether it really gets us what we want. It caused me to rethink my relationship with money — I never wanted it for its own sake, I just wanted to be liked and respected. With reflection, it’s clear to me that money, beyond a certain point, runs into sharply diminishing returns in helping me get the connections and relationships I want. People aren’t that impressed by luxury spending — we think it’ll make people respect us, but it’s more that they respect the objects, in part because they want them for themselves! I’ll try to find more effective means of earning peoples’ love and respect going forward.

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Not as practical as a pure technical book; not as entertaining as literature / philosophy

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-22-25

The book is like a memoir about Taoism applied to finance / economics. It’s vague enough that it belongs more in the “entertainment” than the “how-to” category. Yet as entertainment, it’s less interesting than good literature of philosophy. There are better things to read, in my opinion.

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An interesting story, weighed down by annoying writing

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-22-25

I bought this book to better understand U.S. foreign policy as it is applied “in the real world”. This book provides that, but the author engages in a lot of annoying, performative hand-wringing about how America and China are so exploitative to the backwards third-world countries with which it trades. The author comes across as rather unlikable.

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Valuable content, but I don’t love the narration

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-31-24

The narrator has a tendency to dramatically inflect words in sentences that would be better spoken plainly, or to emphasize words in a style inconsistent with Buffett’s way of speaking. It loses some of the “spirit” of the text and makes it harder to absorb, in my opinion.

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Entertaining, well-researched, and thought-provoking

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-11-24

A philosopher’s account of his time in management consulting, and his critical review of business schools and various theories on management. Extraordinarily well-written and entertaining.

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This is the most inspiring and well-written audiobook I have ever read.

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-22-24

If you’re interested in John D. Rockefeller or in American business around the turn of the 19th century, then buy this book. Scratch that — if you have any interest in human nature at all, then buy this book. The writing, historical research, and narration are first-rate. Ron Chernow weaves historical records into a cohesive narrative that to my utter amazement never felt dry or lifeless across its many hours. It explores the personalities and motives of every subject with such mastery that they might as well have come to life — I’ve somehow bonded to all the main characters as one might to the characters of a drama series, which seems quite rare in a nonfiction book. To me, this signals the utmost mastery of the art of biography. This book is a masterpiece.

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Positive-sum vision of business, plus practical tips from someone who has founded multiple billion-dollar companies

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-07-24

I’ve read multiple business books and almost none, if any, of them have as broad a vision of what founders should focus on when thinking about their business. Thiel basically says the best business is the creation of new, valuable, and definite things, rather than competing in a saturated field or vaguely hoping for the best. And he suggests dominating a small niche first, before expanding. Many examples are given. The ones I found most interesting are a description of the “PayPal Mafia”, and his analysis of Tesla’s success. Lots of interesting philosophical observations thrown in, so I think it’d be a fascinating book even if one had no special interest in business.

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Good as either an introduction or a review

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-04-24

I liked the collection of programming tips in this book. Many of them would probably be known to an experienced developer, but it doesn’t hurt to review. Some of the material was also new to me; I learned about some OOP principles that I hadn’t heard of before. Well worth a credit, in my opinion.

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Hammering the same point over and over

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-04-24

This book is incredibly repetitive, as all the worst business books are. The main idea of so-called Blue Ocean Strategy is to offer something unique so that you don’t have to directly compete against others in an existing market (the authors call existing markets “Red Oceans” because they are rife with competition).

Well, it’s a good idea, but a business book should contain more than one good idea. The verbosity and repetition in this book turned me off. I might have given it five stars if it were about 1/50th its current length.

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Verbose, redundant, and boring

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-08-24

Much of this book is written in “business-ese”; the jargon-riddled language that academics and bureaucrats use to waffle around and seem smarter than they really are. In this book, like everywhere else, it has the opposite effect: It turns me off. It frustrates me to see how points that could be made concisely are delivered in the least efficient way possible.

There is also no actionable business info in this book, which was disappointing since I was hoping to find some.

The narration was okay though.

3/10, a boring waste of time.

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