Reading list
Books that shaped our thinking.
Software engineering, business strategy, marketing, and leadership — with our key takeaways.
$100M Offers
Alex Hormozi
Key Takeaways
- →Create Grand Slam offers
- →Value equation: dream outcome × perceived likelihood / time × effort
- →Stack value instead of discounting
- →Charge premium prices with irresistible positioning
Game-changer for packaging and pricing services. Essential for anyone selling consulting or productized services.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Al Ries & Jack Trout
Key Takeaways
- →Own a word in the prospect's mind
- →Be first in a category or create a new one
- →Simplicity wins in an over-communicated world
- →Repositioning the competition
The original playbook for brand positioning. Directly shaped how I position myself as an IT & Growth Partner rather than just a developer.
Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Donella H. Meadows
Key Takeaways
- →Feedback loops drive system behavior
- →Leverage points for maximum impact
- →Stocks and flows mental model
- →Systems produce their own behavior — structure matters more than events
Transformed how I approach business architecture and growth strategy. Everything is a system — understand the structure and you can change the outcome.
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Key Takeaways
- →1% better every day compounds
- →Habit stacking for effortless routines
- →Environment design beats willpower
- →Identity-based habits — become the type of person
Practical framework for building systems that compound over time. Applied it to daily shipping discipline and client delivery processes.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Martin Kleppmann
Key Takeaways
- →Data models and query languages
- →Distributed systems fundamentals
- →Consistency vs availability tradeoffs
- →Stream processing and event-driven architecture
The bible for building scalable data systems. Dense but essential for architecting any serious production system.