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3 Werken 567 Leden 40 Besprekingen

Werken van Dan Lyons

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Few months ago, I read Chaos Monkeys, a scathing but a hilarious insider account on Facebook. It was written by a product manager, Antonio García Martínez. As a fellow product manager and as a snacker on content everything related to Facebook & Mark Zuckerberg, I thoroughly loved the witty at same time an optimistic critique on ad-tech companies and social media companies by Antonio.

I chanced upon, Disrupted by Dan Lyons, in a Kara Swisher's podcast. I loved this book. It is rip-roaringly hilarious, acerbic and brings down all the holy cows of the SaaS startup world. Yes, the tone of the writer is pessimistic and sometimes it borders lament. But it so very well written and an awesome experience to listen to the book in author's voice.

The book is about Dan's experience in working for HubSpot. It is a company that is revered in my work circle. I laughed out so loud during my commute on many instances on his snarky sarcastic comments. No one is spared. Dan makes fun of HubSpot's CEO and its CTO. He takes huge dig at Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff and my hero, Marc Andreessen. His take on HubSpot's CMO (Cranium - Mike Volpe), Mike's report (Wingman) and Dan's boss (Trotsky) are extremely funny and very enjoyable.

The chapter were he describes on how he gets fired from Newsweek was so moving and so scary. The travails he endured in dealing with Trotsky, his boss was also very gut-wrenching in many aspects. It was very, very well written and I could really empathise with him.

Sure, he really criticizes the Silicon Valley's ethos and ways of building things. I get a feeling that sometimes its a world view problem of people coming from a different (media, journalism) world and not getting the basic understand (insistence of make profit as a key and sound parameter for a business and many other such quirks). He dresses down and harshly criticizes Marc Andreessen and a16z's media content. I am not here to judge and pass comments on his opinions. But its damn interesting and funny to read his views. It is really good.

Highly recommend it for people interested in hearing an outsider's view into the startup world.
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Santhosh_Guru | 21 andere besprekingen | Oct 19, 2023 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
As an introvert I'm not the typical person this book was written for. But I thought it would be interesting from the opposite point of view. Even if you're not a "talkaholic" as the author describes himself, there's plenty of food for thought here, from disconnecting from the noise of social media to the importance of really listening to someone else. Lyons is a tech writer, not a science writer, and though he peppers his chapters with quotes from scientific research, some of his leaps and assumptions make me wish his editors had remembered that correlation is not causation. But this is a quibble. Overall, this is a quick and engaging read and I hope the people who need it most take advantage of the author's advice. It would be a less aggravating world if so.
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annez | 14 andere besprekingen | Jun 8, 2023 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
“STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World” by Dan Lyons has some promising ideas and has the intriguing premise of helping people (and particularly overtalkers) master the art of keeping quiet. Lyons, who identifies himself as an overtalker and describes how this has led to personal and professional problems, maintains that silence is not only golden but is also powerful. To emphasize his point, he uses personal anecdotes and references (mostly from websites and popular publications) to demonstrate how talking less can help our health, work, and relationships. His advice on how to STFU includes limiting use of social media, surreptitiously timing how long we talk in conversations, and embracing the “stiff upper lip” approach used by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

While the book has an undeniably provocative title and concept, it disappoints in terms of the execution. As other reviewers have noted, it is ironically too long. Ideas repeat themselves, and some of the chapters languish due to length (the first four chapters could have been condensed and combined). As mentioned above, Lyons uses a lot of examples and references to support his points, but they do not always seem necessary. These examples also do not always offer readers the best or most applicable advice. For instance, he opens the chapter “STFU is Power” with an example of how Anna Wintour and Jeff Bezos wield their power through silence and use terseness like a cudgel to inspire fear in their employees. The problem with this example is twofold. The first issue is that most of us do not have the reputation or power of Wintour or Bezos, thus making our silence less intimidating. The second (and bigger) issue is that leading through fear and intimidation does not seem like a way to create a healthy workplace. Other questionable advice includes “don’t be afraid to bail” (p.116) on a big meeting, and Lyons goes so far as to quote Elon Musk, who says “Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value… It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time” (p.116). Besides the fact that Musk is not exactly known for keeping his mouth shut or for being a reasonable person, we also do not have the power or professional clout to be able to walk out of a meeting without repercussions.

Despite my complaints, there are some valuable ideas in “STFU.” I appreciated some of the different suggestions that Lyons includes, such as using the WAIT test before speaking up. He also has some good communication techniques, like asking questions or just listening to others when they are complaining (as opposed to jumping in with advice). If “STFU” had been more consistent in synthesizing silence with empathy, as it does in the “STFU at Home” chapter, it could have been far more convincing.
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½
 
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sweeks1980 | 14 andere besprekingen | May 29, 2023 |
...

...oh sorry I was “shutting the f*** up.”

There is no doubt a nugget of truth to what the author says, that we need to talk less and listen more, but that is nothing new. Epictetus said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

The material was repetitive, and Lyons, despite saying he has worked on changing, still continues to blurt out things even in this book that perhaps were not in his best interest to do so. There are several reviews that make mention of this, and how off-putting those remarks are.

I did enjoy his humor at times, but this book comes across exactly as he describes himself – a talkaholic.
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Blazingfire88 | 14 andere besprekingen | Apr 29, 2023 |

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567
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#44,118
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3.8
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40
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58
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