Episode · Invest Like the Best · 2021-07-22
Patrick O'Shaughnessy & Stewart Butterfield: books mentioned on Invest Like the Best #43
Stewart Butterfield - We Don’t Sell Saddles Here - [Founder’s Field Guide, EP. 43]
My guest today is Stewart Butterfield, founder and CEO of Slack. Stewart’s 2014 essay “Why We Don’t Sell Saddles Here” had a massive impact on my own business journey, which made this discussion extra special.
Patrick O'Shaughnessy discussed Positioning by Al Ries and others and Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute. Stewart Butterfield recommended Eunoia by Christian Bk and The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza Translated from the Latin with an Introduction, by R. H. M. Ehves. Vol. I. Introduction, Tractatus Theologico-politicus, Tractatus Politicus by Baruch Spinoza, and discussed Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become? by Michael Schrage.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Positioning
Discussed“One was Positioning, a book about marketing. Another was this amazing video called Inventing on Principle by a program named Brett Victor.”
Where to get it
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Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?
Discussed“And I got this from an extended essay or very short book called Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become? And that concept of the innovation being, in a very literal definitional sense, the change in human behavior was eye-opening for me”
Where to get it
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Eunoia
Recommended“There's a great book. It's by Christian Bach, B-O-K. And it's five chapters. And in each chapter, you're only allowed words that start with one of the vowels. So the E chapter is definitely the best.”
Where to get it
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Leadership and Self-Deception
Discussed“You've said elsewhere that there's this book called Leadership and Self-Deception, which has, I think, informed some of your thinking on leadership. And I'm really interested in this idea of self-deception.”
Where to get it
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The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza Translated from the Latin with an Introduction, by R. H. M. Ehves. Vol. I. Introduction, Tractatus Theologico-politicus, Tractatus Politicus
Recommended“If you had to assign one philosophy book for everyone in the world to read, what would it be? It depends how much support they had, because I think Spinoza's tractatus would be a great thing for everyone to read.”
Where to get it
