Softwar
by Matthew Symonds, Larry Ellison · first published 2003
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Insider-access biography of Larry Ellison and Oracle, valued for its history, enterprise sales insights, and candid, entertaining footnotes where Ellison responds to the author. Suited to tech and business readers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…technology. I don't really have time to try and categorize them all, so here's a big dump of the ones I have and/or am familiar with that seem at least somewhat related. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering - https://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineeri... Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Le... The Cuckoo's…
on “Ask HN: Material on early computing history and innovation?” ↗One of the best uses of footnotes is in Softwar, the book on Ellison & Oracle. There, footnotes are an entertaining editorial compromise: the author refused to give up final approval, but he gave Ellison the right to respond within the book. Ellison…
on “Usability of Footnotes” ↗…Sir Alan grew an empire selling stereos out of the back of a car. Instructive because his key insights revolved around understanding what the average user wanted, as opposed to the technical elite. Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison - He started his first company at 33 after working for other high tech firms. This book is neat because Ellison adds his own comments in the footer when he disagrees…
on “Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?” ↗how to get rich by Richard dennis. Softwar - A bio on Larry Ellison, one where he writes footnotes responding to the biographer's text Made in japan - Akio Morita and sony - written by Akio Morita - founder describes early days of the company
on “Ask YC: What are some the best business books?” ↗The Lean Startup - Too bad this wasn't around when I was starting my (now failed) startup 4 years ago. Softwar - Larry Ellison's story. Fascinating read. Games People Play - Classic by Eric Berne. Must read psychology. Short, and you will get so much out of it. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Must read psychology.…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012” ↗"Softwar" is an insightful book about Larry Ellison, written by someone who had access to Ellison. I do not want to chime in with my own opinion, but would suggest to read the book to learn a lot about the history…
on “Watching Larry Ellison Become Larry Ellison – The DNA of a Winner” ↗If you want to know the history of Oracle, "Softwar" is an excellent book. It includes Ellison's notes too, wherever he felt he needed to add them.
on “Oracle’s Cloudy Future” ↗A good book about Larry Ellison is “Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle” from 2004. It looks like Larry himself proofread the book as he offers comments and corrections at the bottom of some of the pages. Oracle is unlike…
on “Watching Larry Ellison Become Larry Ellison” ↗If you want a different perspective, "Softwar" is a good read. The author (Matthew Symonds) worked directly with Ellison to write the book (as opposed to other books which were written based on third party accounts and public information). He made…
on “Watching Larry Ellison Become Larry Ellison” ↗If you like this story, you can continue the story with "Softwar" a book about Oracle and Larry Ellison in quite the same tone.
on “Watching Larry Ellison Become Larry Ellison (2014)” ↗Founding Sales Also while not exactly about sales, "Softwar" (a bio of Larry Ellison) has a ton of great insights on enterprise sales
on “Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?” ↗For reference, this book? - https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/... Personally, I'm still in awe about the madness described in Softwar (2004) - https://www.amazon.com/Softwar-Intimate-Portrait-Ellison-Ora...
on “Peak Bubble” ↗Same top two, 3) Softwar: Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds
on “Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?” ↗…I read. I'll just say this: regardless of what you think of Ellison, he's an interesting character and reading about the history of Ellison / Oracle is quite fascinating. [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Softwar-Intimate-Portrait-Ellison-Orac...
on “Larry Ellison Will Step Down as CEO of Oracle, Will Remain as CTO” ↗The book Softwars spends a lot of time on this topic, where Larry Ellison blasted all of his integration partners for over-customizing their solutions when the correct approach was to update the business processes to…
on “LIDL cancels SAP introduction after spending 500M Euro” ↗