Business Books - Page 2

Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

Michael Lopp

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $4.79

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Human Resources & Personnel Management
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Languages & Tools -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Managing Humans is a selection of the best essays from Michael Lopps web site, Rands In Repose. Drawing on Lopp's management experiences at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, and Borland, this book is full of stories based on companies in the Silicon Valley where people have been known to yell at each other. It is a place full of dysfunctional bright people who are in an incredible hurry to find the next big thing so they can strike it rich and then do it all over again. Among these people are managers, a strange breed of people who through a mystical organizational ritual have been given power over your future and your bank account. Whether you're an aspiring manager, a current manager, or just wondering what the heck a manager does all day, there is a story in this book that will speak to you. You will learn:

• What to do when people start yelling at each other

• How to perform a diving save when the best engineer insists on resigning

• How to say "No" to the person who signs your paycheck

Among fans of Michael Lopp is the incomparable Joel Spolsky, cofounder and CEO of Fog Creek Software:

"What you're holding in your hands in by far the most brilliant book about managing software teams you're ever going to find".

This book is designed for managers and would-be managers staring at the role of a manager wondering why they would ever leave the safe world of bits and bites for the messy world of managing humans. The book covers handling conflict, managing wildly differing personality types, infusing innovation into insane product schedules, and figuring out how to build a lasting and useful engineering culture.

Where Are the Customers' Yachts: or A Good Hard Look at Wall Street (Wiley Investment Classics)

Fred Schwed

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $8.85

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Investing -> Stocks
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Investing -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Investing -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Once I picked it up I did not put it down until I finished. . . . What Schwed has done is capture fully-in deceptively clean language-the lunacy at the heart of the investment business."
-- From the Foreword by Michael Lewis, Bestselling author of Liar's Poker

". . . one of the funniest books ever written about Wall Street."
-- Jane Bryant Quinn, The Washington Post

"How great to have a reissue of a hilarious classic that proves the more things change the more they stay the same. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."
-- Michael Bloomberg

"It's amazing how well Schwed's book is holding up after fifty-five years. About the only thing that's changed on Wall Street is that computers have replaced pencils and graph paper. Otherwise, the basics are the same. The investor's need to believe somebody is matched by the financial advisor's need to make a nice living. If one of them has to be disappointed, it's bound to be the former."
-- John Rothchild, Author, A Fool and His Money, Financial Columnist, Time magazine

Humorous and entertaining, this book exposes the folly and hypocrisy of Wall Street. The title refers to a story about a visitor to New York who admired the yachts of the bankers and brokers. Naively, he asked where all the customers' yachts were? Of course, none of the customers could afford yachts, even though they dutifully followed the advice of their bankers and brokers. Full of wise contrarian advice and offering a true look at the world of investing, in which brokers get rich while their customers go broke, this book continues to open the eyes of investors to the reality of Wall Street.

Piled Higher and Deeper: A Graduate Student Comic Strip Collection

Jorge Cham

Amazon Price: $9.60 List Price: $12.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Piled Higher & Deeper Pub Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $4.05

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Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Cartooning
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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Satire

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great gift for grad students 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

the first of Cham's oh-so-true chronicles of the lives of graduate students in America. I have given this book as a gift to many of my friends as we struggle through our own advanced degrees. They love it every time.

PhD Comics First Book Published 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I had to wait for about a Month to get my hands on this book (shipping to Malaysia from the US seems to take a long time) but it was worth the wait. Very nicely done and the quality of the book is very good. The comic strips are nice and hillarious...As a PhD student, what Cham says in his comics really apply to your day to day life and this makes this comic strip really special.....

Any Postgrad student who's interested in purchasing this book, don't think twice go ahead and order now!!!....I myself am thinking of ordering the remaining two books in future....

Editorial Review:

A collection of the first five years of "Piled Higher and Deeper," a comic strip about life (or lack thereof) in graduate school, as it originally appeared in Stanford University's "The Stanford Daily Newspaper" and online at phd.stanford.edu.

"Piled Higher and Deeper" the comic strip is currently read by grad students from over 300 universities and from around the world.

The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Soft Skull Press Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $7.65

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Retailing
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Business
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Essays

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Fun Series of Essays on Life in the Retail World 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Often humorous, occasionally poignant and at all times all too real, this book is a collection of essays on life in the retail world. Many of us have been there, whether as full time employees out of college or as part time slaves during our high school and college years. Any of us who have performed the retail job duties will recognize many of these stories. I was laughing much of the time; almost cried a couple of times, but I enjoyed the book completely at all times.

Don't let the fact that you have never worked in retail stop you from reading this book. You may learn a thing or two about life in the retail world and you may think twice before being snooty to those poor clerks behind the counters.

Editorial Review:

From mom-and-pop general stores to big-box, strip-mall chains, it is impossible to consider the American experience without thinking about the buying-and-selling retail culture: the sales and the stockrooms, the shift managers, and the clock punchers. The Customer Is Always Wrong is a tragicomic and all-too revealing collection of essays by writers who have done their time behind the counter and lived to tell their tales. Jim DeRogatis, author of Let It Blurt, for example, describes hanging out with Al himself at Al Rocky’s Music Store, while Colson Whitehead explains how three summers at a Long Island ice cream store gave him a lifelong aversion to all things dessert-like. This book not only shines a light on the absurdities of retail culture but finds the delight in it as well.

Rhinoceros Success

Scott Alexander

List Price: $9.95 By: Rhinos Pr Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $9.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Absolutely Terrific 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

"Rhonoceros Success" was given to me by a close friend and I am grateful that this book fell into my hands! This book is jam-packed with life lessons that ultimately guide you toward prosperity and abundance in all areas of life. It clearly charts out the path of success and if you heed the recommendations, wealth will surely follow. I especially enjoyed the part about happiness. Since everyone chooses their own state of mind, choose to be happy and you will be happy! That alone is a simple concept that has very powerful ramifications (positive) if you make the choice. Treat yourself to success and buy this book ASAP!

- Dr. Matthew J. Loop

Author of "Cracking the Cancer Code"

Repetitive and lacking in direction 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This book is meant to be motivational, but the message grows stale rather quickly. The author's main points are that one must be thick-skinned and aggressive (a rhinoceros) to succeed in life, but they are repeated so often that most of the book could be summed up in a few pages. There is an overuse of exclamation points, question marks and UPPERCASE emphasis as if the author is not just content to continuously repeat the message. In his opinion, there must be internal emphasis as well.
After reading the book, I did not feel motivated, I felt relieved. The easiest thing in the world is to say, "Be powerful and tough" to anyone and everyone. However, life is far too complicated for a simple message, even a good one, repeated over and over to be enough to insure survival. Without some specifics about how a rhinoceros acts, then it is just a slogan. And let us not forget that the rhinoceros has the worst eyesight of any large mammal, so bad that it cannot tell a human from a tree at 15 feet. This means that it quite often doesn't know exactly what it is that it is charging. Charging ahead without knowing what is in front of you or what direction you are going is dangerous. There is little of that "think before you charge" mentality expressed in this book.

The Office Space Kit

Sarah O'Brien

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Running Press Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $8.65

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Office Space, the universally laugh-out-loud movie that pokes fun at the everyday monotony and pointlessness of modern office life, has become a cult classic among viewers. More than 5 million DVD and VHS copies of Office Space have shipped, and a new special DVD edition was just released in November of 2005. Now, for the first time ever, comes the official Office Space Kit that gives you everything you need to survive Mondays in the cubicle. The perfect gift for anyone and everyone who breaks into a sweat just thinking about their job, The Office Space Kit is for all the minions out there whose TPS reports just aren’t cutting it. Includes the office accessories featured in the movie: Milton’s Red Stapler Lumbergh’s Initech Mug “Is this Good for the Company?” Sign Starter “Flair” “PC Load Letter” Copy Machine Sticker Your Very Own “Jump To Conclusions” Mat A Humorous 32-Page Book (Complete with TPS Report Covers)

Positive Attitude: A Dilbert Collection (Dilbert Books (Paperback Andrews McMeel))

Scott Adams

Amazon Price: $10.39 List Price: $12.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Andrews McMeel Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $6.16

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Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Comic Strips -> Dilbert
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Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Comic Strips -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Die hard fans: get it! New readers: don't start here! 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I am a long time fan of Adam's descriptions of Dilbert and co-workers' exploits. I own more than 10 Dilbert books and the recent ones, while good, are not the best. I never laughed harder than from Casual Day has Gone too Far and Still Pumped from Using the Mouse, and every subsequent Dilbert book gets measured against that. The earlier ones are worthy just for leading up to the pinnacle, and are interesting for spotting the budding genius of the later installments.

I think the Dilbert series as a whole holds its own still, and for sarcasm, it is one of the best. Something similar, although much darker, is Red Meat, which I also recommend.

Editorial Review:

Proving that corporate CEOs are indeed clueless, that PowerPoint presentations are at best perfunctory, and that the Office Nemesis is an omnipresent force to be reckoned with, Dilbert creator Scott Adams offers his 29th comic compilation all in four-color—collecting all cartoons published from June 19, 2006, through March 31, 2007.

Dilbert continues to be the voice for the embattled cubicle-dwelling Everyman. With best-friend Dogbert, and a veritable who's who in accompanying office characters ranging from the Boss and Wally to Alice and Catbert, Dilbert offers a reflective critique of corporate.

Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics (O'Rourke, P. J.)

P. J. O'Rourke

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Atlantic Monthly Press Amazon Marketplace: 124 new & used starting at $0.01

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> International -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 108 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

How to Get Rich: Write a Book that Says Nothing but Makes People Laugh 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 15 people found this review helpful.

P.J. O'Rourke manages to dizzy his audience with a tautological series of stories, comparsions, and self-defacement and then nauseatingly spews empty paragraphs. Don't know what a tautology is? Read this book, you'll figure it out.

An author either takes pride in his ignorance or banks on his authority. O'Rourke attempts to do both, the former almost always shining through the latter. Coming away, you'll feel like you learned something. Of course you did! It just took him 10 angles, 5 anecdotes, and 8 less-than-appropriate similes to convey a Macro 101 principle. If you want a good laugh, read this book. If you want someone who knows what they're talking about, keep looking

Editorial Review:

What is it that makes one person rich and another poor? It's a tough question and not one generally suited to laughs, but P.J. O'Rourke--in the audio version of his ironic and insightful book, Eat the Rich--is a master at finding humor in the most unlikely places. Here he travels from Wall Street to Russia, Hong Kong to Cuba on an immensely entertaining quest for economic enlightenment. It's an educational journey wrapped in hilarity, which is especially enjoyable when heard in the surprisingly deep, resonant voice of the author himself. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) --George Laney

Law School in a Box: All the Prestige for a Fraction of the Price (Mental Floss Presents)

Mental Floss

Amazon Price: $14.95 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Quirk Books Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $7.51

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best thing since sliced bread and/or Dostoevsky 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 20 people found this review helpful.

This is another quality Mental Floss product and is a great book for someone who just got into law school, your lawyer, your wannabe-lawyer friend, and/or you! Clearly this includes all you need to accomplish the following: (1) pass the bar, (2) get a plush firm job, (3) win your first case, and (4) argue in front of and ultimately become a judge on both the Supreme Court of your State and the United States. Well, maybe not, but at least it's fun.

Editorial Review:

Sure, you could spend $100,000 on a law degree from Harvard or Yale. But then you'd have to deal with crowded classrooms, inconvenient course schedules, and rigorous academic study. Fortunately, the brilliant minds of Mental_Floss magazine are proud to offer an alternative: Law School in a Box. This prestigious boxed university offers a complete legal education for just $14.95. Your program includes:
Law School in 96 Pages: Your Comprehensive Textbook
10 Heroes of the Courtroom Trading Cards
10 "You Be the Judge" Cards
A devilishly complicated legal trivia bar exam
A rolled diploma with real Latin words

It's the perfect gift for lawyers and would-be lawyers of all ages, from the highest-ranked boxed law school in the country!

The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit Page-A-Day Calendar 2009 (Original Page a Day Calendars)

Lois Beckwith

Amazon Price: $9.59 List Price: $11.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: 2009 Calendars - Model: 15045 Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $6.28

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Editorial Review:

Introducing the calendar certain to pop up in cubicles all over America. If you've ever wondered how to "harness intellectual capital," why that MQNWSMEWGABHANG (Moderately qualified, non-threatening white straight male employee who gets ahead because he's a "nice guy") was promoted ahead of you, or what your boss really meant when she said "keep me in the loop," this calendar belongs on your desktop. Based on the book The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit, the calendar features hundreds of caustically funny definitions for the clichéd, meaningless, and euphemistic jargon and "buzzwords" that supplant actual communication in offices every day. Size: 6" w x 5.5" h.