Hardly anyone has heard of it, but those who do swear by it, and they tend to be some of the world's top copywriters. For example, Gary Bencivenga, who retired in 2003 as the world's most effective and highest paid copywriter, named Obvious Adams as one of the most important copywriting and business books he's ever read. Some say that Bencivenga was given the book by David Ogilvy himself, the father of modern advertising. And some even whisper that the allegorical character of Obvious Adams is a veiled reference to Claude Hopkins, whose work is studied by serious marketers to this day. So make use of this treasure that you hold in your hands. Read it once, to enjoy the story. Then read it a second time, to appreciate the wisdom that it shares. Make notes in the margins, and carefully apply what you learn - and your future customers will thank you for having done so!

    It's a fun, effective way to start writing, publishing, and promoting a book, one post at a time.

    Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care?Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet.Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls “an intellectual Wild West.”The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.

    --Julie Bick, best-selling author of ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW IN BUSINESS I LEARNED AT MICROSOFT. Enlivened by witty anecdotes, THE MCKINSEY WAY contains valuable lessons on widely diverse topics such as marketing, interviewing, team-building, and brainstorming. --Paul H. Zipkin, Vice-Dean, The Fuqua School of BusinessIt's been called a breeding ground for gurus. McKinsey & Company is the gold-standard consulting firm whose alumni include titans such as In Search of Excellence author Tom Peters, Harvey Golub of American Express, and Japan's Kenichi Ohmae.When Fortune 100 corporations are stymied, it's the McKinsey-ites whom they call for help. In THE MCKINSEY WAY, former McKinsey associate Ethan Rasiel lifts the veil to show you how the secretive McKinsey works its magic, and helps you emulate the firm's well-honed practices in problem solving, communication, and management.He shows you how McKinsey-ites think about business problems and how they work at solving them, explaining the way McKinsey approaches every aspect of a task: How McKinsey recruits and molds its elite consultants; How to sell without selling; How to use facts, not fear them; Techniques to jump-start research and make brainstorming more productive; How to build and keep a team at the top its game; Powerful presentation methods, including the famous waterfall chart, rarely seen outside McKinsey; How to get ultimate buy-in to your findings; Survival tips for working in high-pressure organizations.Both a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most admired and secretive companies in the business world and a toolkit of problem-solving techniques without peer, THE MCKINSEY WAY is fascinating reading that empowers every business decision maker to become a better strategic player in any organization.

    And now there’s a sure-fire way to solve their problems and test solutions: the sprint.While working at Google, designer Jake Knapp created a unique problem-solving method that he coined a “design sprint”—a five-day process to help companies answer crucial questions. His ‘sprints’ were used on everything from Google Search to Chrome to Google X. When he moved to Google Ventures, he joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky, both designers and partners there who worked on products like YouTube and Gmail. Together Knapp, Zeratsky, and Kowitz have run over 100 sprints with their portfolio companies. They’ve seen firsthand how sprints can overcome challenges in all kinds of companies: healthcare, fitness, finance, retailers, and more.A practical guide to answering business questions, Sprint is a book for groups of any size, from small startups to Fortune 100s, from teachers to non-profits. It’s for anyone with a big opportunity, problem, or idea who needs to get answers today.

    He has also been friends with some of the most successful people in business history, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Rupert Murdoch, and Peter Drucker. Now this elder statesman reveals how great enterprises get into trouble. Even the smartest executives can fall into the trap of believing in their own infallibility. When that happens, more bad decisions are sure to follow. This light-hearted “how-not-to” book includes anecdotes from Keough’s long career as well as other infamous failures. His commandments for failure include: Quit Taking Risks; Be Inflexible; Assume Infallibility; Put All Your Faith in Experts; Send Mixed Messages; and Be Afraid of the Future. As he writes, “After a lifetime in business I’ve never been able to develop a step-by-step formula that will guarantee success. What I could do, however, was talk about how to lose. I guarantee that anyone who follows my formula will be a highly successful loser.”

    They teach you how to make games. This book does not show you how to make games. It shows you how to take your game project to the finish line. Many game projects never make it beyond the alpha state.Game Development Success Is All About The Inner Game.Being a successful game developer does not (just) mean being a great programmer, a smart game designer or a gifted artist. It means dominating the inner game of game making. This separates the pros from the wannabes. It's the knowledge of how to stay focused, motivated and efficient during your game projects. It's the skillset of keeping things simple and avoiding misleading dreams of the next overnight success. Finally it's about thinking as a salesperson, not just as a designer, programmer or artist.

     They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little . As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right .Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. This book is going to show you how customer conversations go wrong and how you can do better.

    MONEY. If you have ever thought to yourself: How come I have to keep back to this DEAD-END JOB?  How can I make enough money to afford to STOP WORKING and START HAVING FUN??  When will it be MY TURN to live the GOOD LIFE??? Imagine how your life would become if you knew what it really takes to make more money that you have ever dreamed possible. For instance, can you imagine that...All the money stress in your life suddenly vanishes? You get to fire your boss and tell him where to shove it? Take holidays whenever you want and for as long as you want? You are living in the house of your dreams, driving the car of your dreams and also have a boat and a cabin and even a plane if you want? You can afford to give your children the perfect, healthy, fun and fulfilling childhood that you always wanted to give them? In this no-nonsense, no-holds-barred guide, international entrepreneur, best-selling author, and self-made multi-millionaire Dan Lok shows you how to live the lifestyle you really want without having to work or rely on anyone else for money.

    Over the same time frame Jack has advised more than seventy-five companies through private equity and dozens more in a senior advisory role at IAC. Now Jack and Suzy Welch draw on their experiences to address the biggest problems facing modern management and offer pragmatic solutions to overcome them.Going beyond theories concepts and ideologies they tackle the real stuff of work today. When you get down to it they argue winning in business is all about mastering the gritty inescapable make-or-break real-life dilemmas that define the new economy the old economy and everything in between.Work is a grind. We just got whacked. My boss is driving me nuts. I m stuck in career purgatory. My team has lost its mojo. IT is holding us hostage. Our strategy is outdated the day we launch it. We don t know what our Chinese partners are talking about. We re just not growing. These are some of the day-to-day issues the Welches take on. Coupled with Jack s years of iconic leadership and Suzy s insights as former editor of the Harvard Business Review their new database of knowledge infuses The Real Life MBA with fresh relevant stories and equally powerful solutions that every manager at any level can

    If you have a home and an Internet connection, you have a solution: Airbnb hosting. Get Paid For Your Pad is the veritable blueprint on how to transform your home into a short-stay rental boon. Renting in the short-stay market, when done correctly, crushes the return from long-term tenants. Like hundreds of thousands of people, you can boost your profits by 2 to 3 times with the most well known short-stay marketplace in the world: Airbnb. This step-by-step guide to renting your home on the Airbnb platform teaches: • How Jasper went from making $24,000 per year to $60,000 from his house in Amsterdam • How to prepare your home like a 5-star hotel in a cost-effective manner • How to set up a dazzling and polished Airbnb listing from start to finish • How to communicate with guests in a professional and responsive way • How to scientifically calculate an optimal price point for profit maximization • How to catapult your search rank within the Airbnb platform The book comes with countless (1) tips, (2) examples, (3) real life stories from Airbnb hosts, (4) action points, and (5) easy-to-implement templates that can be employed to launch and optimize your Airbnb business right away!

    It covers the basic steps needed to create a vSphere HA and vSphere DRS cluster and to implement vSphere Storage DRS. Even more important, it explains the concepts and mechanisms behind HA, DRS and Storage DRS which will enable you to make well educated decisions. This book will take you in to the trenches of HA, DRS and Storage DRS and will give you the tools to understand and implement e.g. HA admission control policies, DRS resource pools, Datastore Clusters and resource allocation settings. On top of that each section contains basic design principles that can be used for designing, implementing or improving VMware infrastructures and fundamental supporting features like (Storage) vMotion, Storage I/O Control and much more are described in detail for the very first time. This book is also the ultimate guide to be prepared for any HA, DRS or Storage DRS related question or case study that might be presented during VMware VCDX, VCP and or VCAP exams.Coverage includes: HA node types HA isolation detection and response HA admission control VM Monitoring HA and DRS integration DRS imbalance algorithm Resource Pools Impact of reservations and limits CPU Resource Scheduling Memory Scheduler DPM Datastore Clusters Storage DRS algorithm Influencing SDRS recommendationsBe prepared to dive deep!

    His books have been read by over 1,000,000 people and are #1 best-sellers. His book Beginning Ubuntu Linux recently entered its sixth edition, and picked-up a Linux Journal award along the way. Thomas is also the author of Ubuntu Kung Fu. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Get to grips with the Ubuntu command-line with this #1 best-selling and concise guide. "Best buck I've spent yet" — Amazon review.* Readable, accessible and easy to understand;* Learn essential Ubuntu vocational skills, or read just for fun;* Covers Ubuntu commands, syntax, the filesystem, plus advanced techniques;* For ANY version of Linux based on Debian, such as Linux Mint--not just Ubuntu!;* Includes BONUS introduction to Ubuntu chapter, plus a glossary appendix and a guide to reading Linux/Unix documentation.

    Parts cover: Windows 8.1 Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know - an introduction to the dual interfaces, basic mechanics, file storage, and instruction on how to get the free upgrade to Windows 8.1.Working with Programs, Apps and Files - the basics of finding and launching apps, getting help, and printingGetting Things Done on the Internet - instructions for connecting a Windows 8.1 device, using web and social apps, and maintaining privacyCustomizing and Upgrading Windows 8.1 - Windows 8.1 offers big changes to what a user can customize on the OS. This section shows how to manipulate app tiles, give Windows the look you in, set up boot-to-desktop capabilities, connect to a network, and create user accounts.Music, Photos and Movies - Windows 8.1 offers new apps and capabilities for working with onboard and online media, all covered in this chapterHelp! - includes guidance on how to fix common problems, interpret strange messages, move files to a new PC, and use the built-in help systemThe Part of Tens - quick tips for avoiding common annoyances and working with Windows 8.1 on a touch device