Reality check
by Guy Kawasaki · first published 2008
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Broad, practical startup guide covering PR, marketing, legal and other early-stage topics, mixing high-level approach advice with nuts-and-bolts detail; suits founders and people new to startups.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
More uncommon common sense from the bestselling author of The Art of the Start.In Silicon Valley slang, a "bozo explosion" is what causes a lean, mean, fighting machine of a company to slide into mediocrity. As Guy Kawasaki puts it, "If the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic, and partner has become a verb, and strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that don’t make sense" . . . it’s time for a reality check.For nearly three decades, Kawasaki has earned a stellar reputation as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and irreverent pundit. His 2004 bests
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…"Domain Driven Design" - Eric Evans "Artificial Intelligence: The Basics" - Kevin Warwick ...and on the Project management / Executive side: "Agile Project Management with Scrum" - Ken Schwaber "Reality Check" - Guy Kawasaki "Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days" - Jessica Livingston
on “Ask HN: What good books have you read to learn more in tech?” ↗Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki is excellent, and covers everything from PR to marketing to legal. Some parts are advice on how to approach various aspects of starting up while other parts are more "nuts and bolts."…
on “Ask HN: Good books on the nuts and bolts of starting up” ↗From a start up perspective, Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki is probably one of the most all around no bs start up book out there....
on “Ask HN: Books that changed your life?” ↗…startup books and this helped me gain a lot of insight. I am now looking for other books. Do you have any recommendations? I'd like to start by listing a few names with a short description why I liked it. Reality Check, Guy Kawasaki: This book is great in that it covers many different aspects in the nature of a startup, and tells you the reality about issues that you either don't know or have false hopes with wishful…
on “Ask HN: Best startup books?” ↗…http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321525655/103-6148611-3957... http://blog.duarte.com/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596522347?ie=UTF8&tag=... You should also find a copy of Guy Kawasaki's "Reality Check" or "The art of the start". Even if you don't have enough time to push through the whole book, just read the chapter on pitching. Should be very helpful.
on “Ask HN: advices for presenting a project” ↗…(Bill Hodges Trilogy, #3) - Stephen King - Foundation (Foundation #1) - Isaac Asimov - Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity - David Foster Wallace - The Meaning of Science - Tim Lewens - Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition - Guy Kawasaki - The Last Mile (Amos Decker, #2) - David Baldacci - Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗Books I wish I had on my bookshelf: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Seth Godin, Oct. 21st) Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don't (Malcolm Gladwell, Nov. 18th) Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition (Guy Kawasaki, Oct. 30th) If you're the kind of person who lines up at bookstores to get the newest non-fiction books…
on “Ask YC (and PG): What books do you have on your bookshelf? ” ↗When launching Truemors, Guy Kawasaki registered 55 domains to "surround" truemors.com. This represented 9% of his total budget. (From Kawasaki's 2008 book Reality Check).
on “This blogger.com profile is squatting YC founder's names” ↗Just a note, I've switched from "Art of the Start" to "Reality Check" from Guy Kawasaki as my favorite, practical starting a business book. I think RC covers most everything in Art of the Start plus more.
on “What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?” ↗