Everyone Loves You When You Are Dead. Neil Strauss. 2011 ISBN 9780061543678.  I admit that a huge hole in my upbringing is no knowledge of current or past pop cultures/music performers. I had zero interest in the lives and antics of singers and actors, but I listen to music and watch performances oblivious of who was performing.   Strauss  wrote for the New York Times, Rollin Stones  and more for years on all these folks and more. He has pulled out from his archives snippets of interviews that show the best and worst of these people as people, living and dead.   I found it a trudging read due to my non interest, but if you have any interest at all you will likely find these insights fascinating

Related articles

• Mötley Crüe Movie THE DIRT Still Alive; Moves to Focus Features With Jeff Tremaine Directing
• The Sex Ratio Is Getting Worse For American Men

Hooked. How to build habit-forming products. Nir Eyal. 2014. ISBN 9780670069323.  The book is very good. Using four stages the author shows you how the user moves from Trigger, to Action, receives a Variable reward and Invests into the product.  Clearly written and easily familiar to any of us with addictive tendencies,  the book is a welcome addition to the literature of making compelling products.  The author makes a clear distinction between products that make the users life better and all the others out there.  A good addition to the work documented by Dan Ariely.   A four hour well written read.

Unselling. The new customer experience. Scott Stratten & Alison Kramer.2014. ISBN 9781118943007. . A pair of almost zany Canadians that write about recent classic sales fails (Unmarketing talked about marketing fails) .  Well written in a jocular style.  Don’t expect a deep analysis , but read this to enjoy the clear joy in learning about obvious dumb moves that many people and companies did with the best of intentions.  A good book for that next boring AirCanada ( Poor you )  flight you find yourself on.    They have an unpodcast and it truly is…a conversation that might say something on topic

Related articles

• Do You Suffer From Funnel Vision?
• Glowing online reviews for Bell smartphone app were written by Bell employees

Global Catastrophes and Trends. The Next fifty Years. Vaclav Smil.. 2008. ISBN  9780262195867. At first this seems like a weighty book to go through. However the widely read, and acknowledged expert author  ( Resident of Manitoba)  has just the right style to weave anecdote, research and analytic data together to create a compelling read.  It may be more for the Economist vs People magazine reader, but if you care about the planet and what may or may not occur bases on the numbers and the trends, a very needed read.   E.g. 9/11 killed about the same numbers of people as those who die in the  every two weeks because of medical  errors in the hospital, or every four weeks from car accidents.  Extrapolate what would happen if the money spent daily to  “prevent” another 9/11 addressed hospital error? And  car accidents and medical error continue. while 9/11 happened once.   Or that Russia kills so many adult makes due to chronic alcoholism and related events ( car crashes etc)  that their population will decline by 25% by 2025?  Read this book and you will have a completely different view of of the 6 pm news broadcast.

Related articles

• Beware Of These 10 Deadly Tech Hazards In Hospitals
• A Mother’s Battle Against Medical Errors
• China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. used during the entire 20th Century

Value Proposition Design. How to create products and services customers want.  Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda & Smith. 2014. ISBN 9781118968055. A textbook, workbook and piece of graphic art all in one.   In our practise we help companies discover their value proposition and it is quite a bit of hard work for them.  This is a thorough look at the process with a terrific front end explanation as to why this is so important.   the book is a significant contribution to the field.  It should be required reading for all technology companies ( and more) . Clearly written , but you will need a lot of thinking time as you work through this process.

Related articles

• What’s in it for me? The Value Proposition Explained
• What Is a Value Proposition and Why Do You Need One? (Part 1)
• Uber & Airbnb: the challenges in two-sided markets