Cover of In the Beginning…was the Command Line

In the Beginning…Was the Command Line. , Neal Stephenson. 1999. ISBN 9780061832901.  A short pithy and often hilarious essay by one of our eras better science fiction writers, coders and journalists.  I discovered that Neal had released quite a lot of his material into the public domain and in my searches found this essay.   Written about the time Apple was in a decline, Microsoft in the midst of antitrust suits and Linux was in a heyday, it is a great history lesson and guide for future programmers.   As an old UNIX programmer I know exactly what he is saying about its robustness and have at times decried that IOS is just a version of Linux, completely locked away from the bulk of the users.  This not a Cathedral vs Bazaar argument, but a simple story about how to get utility and usage out of what is available these days, if you want to.

A great comment, ” Apple has always been a hardware company first, using its software to protect the walled system system.  While Microsoft has chosen to be a software company,  using the cheap hardware out there, and forcing hardware manufacturers to write the code/drivers to work with Windows. , which extends Windows at no cost. ”

It will be interesting to see if his predictions play out – that OS  prices may inevitably  drive to zero.   Well written and useful if you like this kind of material.

Related articles

• Rise of Linux – a hacker’s history
• Neal Stephenson (b. October 31): “A good SF universe has coherence” & other quotes on writing
• See Neal Stephenson’s Badassery As He Opens A Bottle With A Sword

Screw the Valley.  A Coast-to-Coast Tour of Americas New Tech Startup Culture: New York, Boulder, Austin, Raleigh, Detroit, Las Vegas, Kansas City. Timothy Sprinkle. 2015. ISBN 9781940363301.  A very ambitious book.  Look at seven locations that are building up a tech economy, that are not in Silicon Valley. The author visited Detroit, New York City, Las Vegas, Austin , Kansas City , Raleigh-Durham and Boulder.  He met as many people, companies, accelerator/incubators, angels/VCs that he could and documented what he heard.  These locations are all going about this in their own way with or without government assistance.  The grass roots energy is considerable as is the commitment of local entrepreneurs who are paying their success back into the community. If your location/group/community is thinking about this path the book is a fresh view and there are some insights to be gained. The sheer size of this task allows you to forgive the very very odd mistake on why certain folks did very well.   Good read and it proves once again that cities can and will do it their way .

Related articles

• Stop Trying to Be the ‘Next Silicon Valley’
• Four Silicon Valley cities that topped New York in consumer spending
• MBA programs struggle to keep pace with latest digital-age innovations
• Nocera: The Myth of Silicon Valley’s ‘Meritocracy’

Aligning strategy and Sales, The choices, systems and behaviors that drive effective sales. Frank V. Cespedes2014. ISBN 9781422196052.   Forbes called this perhaps the best sales book ever. I found that this is true in many ways.  First it is hard to find a more thorough book that looks at the interaction of strategy with sales. As well this book details the inherent complexity and variability in sales roles and people. We know that this reproach works as we over the years have adapted our practice in sales /revenue improvement through much of what the author details.   Through iteration and adapting, many skilled sales leaders would find much to agree with in this book , and much that sheds a fresh view on things.  I would easily think this is the best sales book of the year.   I only add that our practice helps companies strengthen a sales framework  like in this book with a structured marketing framework that also aligns strategy with marketing.   This  is a good five hour read, the first time , but do not stop there.

More great  articles by the author

•  http://hbswk.hbs.edu/faculty/fcespedes.html
• http://www.gmpua.com/Marketing/worldmarket/cim/5479950.pdf
• http://chiefexecutive.net/focusing-sales-leaders-right-effectiveness-metrics-4-easy-steps
• http://blog.hubspot.com/sales/author/frank-v-cespedes
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbp-Rytdtr0
• http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-identify-the-best-customers-for-your-business/
• http://www.mbadepot.com/external_link.php?ID=18683
• http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/08/you-cant-do-strategy-without-input-from-sales/
• http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/industrial-marketing-managing-new-requirements/
• http://blog.hubspot.com/blog-search?q=frank%20Cespedes
• http://jakehuber.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/opportunity-reading-7.pdf

Related articles

• Books We Trust: Interview with Frank Cespedes, author of Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors that Drive Effective Selling (Harvard Business Review Press)