The 80% Lean Startup

I tend to agree with the "ADHD"-"undigested thoughts" analysis of the book. It's clear that Ries has some extremely innovative ideas about startups and has perhaps invented the best method of idea validation. However, he seems to have learned to write from a generation of bloggers who can organize a collection of paragraphs for poignancy, but have no idea how to organize chapters for understanding.

Still, you don't read this because Ries has mastered the pen, but because he's developed a system that will eliminate waste from your startups.

I think Eric is a fantastic author (and speaker). He uses examples from real companies like Dropbox, provides helpful vocabulary to use with your team, and moves on to the next point. Most modern business books take one fairly simple concept and tease 10 chapters out of it. I'd much rather have a book that is packed with ideas you can use, even if densely packed.

I'll take Eric's writing style over Steve Yegge's any day.

I'm in the process of reading it and wonder how different Build-Measure-Learn is from the Ready-Aim-Fire mantra of the late 90's.

Most businesses seem poor at measuring outcomes of what features they introduce but can't help but wonder if Eric's proposal is taking things too far the other way.