It took me a second to translate HtWFaIP, I thought it was a new WIFII something – I wonder what Norman would think?

I also wonder if it will take even 10 years, perhaps less than a year or two for Tipping Point and Long Tail not to be underrated. I think our time cycles are so much shorter these days.

David

Don’t know why Personal Finance for Dummies is there. It’s a fine book, but light for ‘business’ reading. Tipping Point and Long Tail belong, but they won’t be underrated in 10 years.

Hey Mike. Thanks for the William James shout. I bet I find some new material for my collection…

What a helpful one page’r from William James and Pragamatism. The first thingk I did was print it out. Thanks for the resource as I always liked William James and his contributions to Psychology

David

Having worked in change management, I have come to appreciate incredible power of the Influence elements when yielded skillfully. If you combine the six elements of influence with William James’ How an Individual Settles Into a New Opinion, you have a powerful recipe for organizational development!

Mike

Yes, hopefully that are not all bad and we should also know how to influence in a postive way too.

David

I first learned this material via Cialdini’s excellent audiobook version, which pointed out your concern and addressed each one in terms of good use and bad use. Wasn’t the whole point of the book to say that the bad guys have been using this stuff for eons so you should be on the lookout for it?

Mike

I have been using the Influence book in psychology courses for a number of years and it is good to see the whole topic get more coverage as it can be so useful for us — command and control is now prehistoric and influence becomes an important tool or approach for managers.

I do worry that it is used by others to just manipulate us but to know the tools of influence also makes us much less gullible. I guess instead of buyer beware we should now have influencer and “influencee” beware.

David

Thanks for pointing this out. I heartily enjoyed the “Read this book instead” recommendations!

As for Seth’s comment about the length of books, I would agree with him. Most business books do have a high fluff-insight ratio, and I am loathe to pick up something that weighs in over 200 pages.

It was great to see “Influence” make the underrated list. If Charlie Munger says it’s the most important book he’s ever read and you can do your loved ones and associates no greater service than to buy it for them, it’s probably a good idea.

Mike

Thank you for taking time and energy to comment. I will have to check out the books you mentioned.

I wonder about books. I love reading books but find the bite size morsels of managment wisdom of blogs increasingly more appealing.

Seth Godin was saying that business book are shrinking from 400 to 200 pages and now 200 pages is too long. Dip was about 78 pages and he said no one complained that it wasn’t long enough.

David

I prefer to look for those kind of books that are full of ideas that I can use. The best example I can think right now of a book that qualifies as being busting at the seams with ideas is..

How to Have Kick-Ass Ideas by Chris Barez-Brown

I came across it by accident at the book store and I’m now reading it for the second time. Now there’s a question to offer your readers…

What business books were so good, that you read them a second or third time?

Eduardo