The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton Christensen
30 people recommended it in 25 threads, 2008–2023.
1 commenter pushed back on it — worth reading the threads.
What people on Hacker News said
The core of the idea is that 'disruptive' technologies are underdog technologies that actually have worse performance than the leading technologies of their time, but also some other attributes (smaller, lighter, etc) that make them valuable to customers in niche, less profitable markets the big guys aren't interested in.
Innovator's dilemma & Innovator's solution- why big companies almost always get beaten by startups and how to overcome this
Books by Clayton Christensen such as the Innovator's Dilemma really helped me to realize something that is probably obvious to a lot of people which is the difference between correlation and causation; importance of understanding causal mechanism to get desired results.
His telling of the story of man's grappling to conquer flight really helped me to understand how I should approach grappling with my own challenges.
Previous book was the innovators dilemma. Both are kind of cliche books, good reads though which pull me out of the IT technical stuff which one has to read nowadays to keep up.
Where it comes up
- Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book 2014 · 3 recommendations
- Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models? 2017 · 2 recommendations
- A Startup Reading List 2013 · 2 recommendations
- Reading list for those who love to learn 2009 · 2 recommendations
- Extracting Hacker News book recommendations with the ChatGPT API 2023 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Which book are you reading, since when? 2022 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you? 2022 · 1 recommendation
- Books that changed my career as a software engineer 2021 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before? 2020 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books? 2020 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Which books teach mental models? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read? 2018 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time? 2018 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Books you read in 2017? 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Summer Reading List 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently? 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Books you read in 2016? 2016 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance? 2016 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Book Recommendations? 2016 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: I have $2k for books, training and confs. What should I spend it on? 2015 · 1 recommendation