Startup books and podcasts: making the most of a longer commute | Hacker News Reader

Startup books and podcasts: making the most of a longer commute

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83 pointsgolmansax27 comments

Obligatory shout out to Hardcore History: http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

I was never very much into history. But it didn't matter because this series is amazing. I would recommend "Blueprint for Armageddon" about the first world war, but be warned that it's very long. If you want something shorter (it's still almost 6 hours!) try "The Destroyer of Worlds".

But really, pretty much everything is fantastic.

Yup. I heard a lot of recommendations for that, saw that part I of "Wrath of the Khans" was 3 hours, and I kept putting it off.

One day I figured I should at least see what everyone was talking about, so I started listening during a bike ride. It made me want to exercise more, just so I could hear the next part of the story.

Dammit, Carlin, why did you have to release a new episode this close to exams?!

Once you've exhausted the supply of Hardcore History episodes, here are a few recommendations. I think these do a good job of fitting into the Dan Carlin-style "chatting about history" as opposed to the drier "reading off a list of names and events" style:

- Patrick Wyman's "Fall of Rome" [ http://wondery.com/wondery/shows/fallofrome/ ] and "Tides of History" [ http://wondery.com/wondery/shows/tidesofhistory/ ]. Good discussion of the Late Imperial period and of the Early Modern Era. Main disadvantage is that the sponsor messages are like commercials in that they abruptly butt into the middle of the episodes.

- "History on Fire" [ http://historyonfirepodcast.com/episodes/ ]. I find these episodes a little hit and miss, and the narrator's thick accent does take some getting used to, but it's definitely worth a try.

- "MartyrMade" [ http://historyonfirepodcast.com/episodes/ ]. Probably the closest to Dan Carlin in terms of style, where he's using history as a jumping-off point to explore questions about the human condition. Currently it contains a history of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and also an analysis of cannibalism and ritual sacrifice in history (a companion series to the "History on Fire" episodes about the Aztecs).

I have the privilege of working at a beautiful University campus and being able to get there by bicycle. In the 45 minutes it takes for me to complete the 7 miles of the bicycle lane along the Pinheiros river I like to hear audiobooks and podcasts.

Some of the things I've heard lately:

- Startups for the rest of us: http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/

- Rework (37 signals): https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Rework-Audiobook/B0036FL...

- Algorithms to live by: https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Algorithms-to-Live-By-Au...

NONE OF THE ABOVE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS (for the trigger-happy jerks among us).

Isn't it dangerous to listen to podcasts while riding your bike? (It seems to me if you wear headphones you're much less likely to hear any outside noise).

In my experience I hear a lot more of my surroundings while biking even with earbuds than in a car with the windows rolled up. I eventually stopped because I was worried about long-term damage on my hearing from needing to turn it up so loud.

Bone-conduction headphones are a good compromise here - they don't block any of the incoming noise, though distraction may still be a problem.

I guess you must be from some country were there are no safe bike lanes and everybody is supposed to drive a car.

Most of my commute is a 10 mile bike lane along a river. No pedestrians, no cars, no crossings, eyesight of a mile back and forth. And audio books are not like music, you can hear the whereabouts pretty well - it is less distracting than talking to a buddy while driving.

I can absolutely recommend the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, too.

StartUp by Gimlet on the other hand while entertaining doesn't provide a whole lot of valuable insight in my opinion.

Personally, I'd recommend these podcasts:

- Sales for Nerds: https://www.salesfornerds.io/ Pragmatic sales tips for people with a technical background.

- $100k Freelancing: http://www.100kfreelancing.com/ Advice on how to grow a freelancing or consulting business.

While the following technically aren't about startups or business in general they deal with a lot of - sometimes related - matters and insights that can help with becoming an overall better person:

- The Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/podcast/ General advice as to how to become better at many things in life, including business.

- 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org/ Interesting, groundbreaking, sometimes quirky, pieces of design from around the world.

- Design Matters: http://www.debbiemillman.com/designmatters/ Interviews with designers, artists and people from related backgrounds.

I have to contest 7 Habits...its conjecture on top of empty eureka after empty eureka.

Thanks for the Sales for Nerds mention. ;-) Let me know what you'd like to hear about, guests, topics, beverages, etc...

Am the only one that finds listening to startup podcasts to be useless?

I've listened to countless startup podcasts and read countless startup books. Without your own experiences running a business its hard to sift through the cruft of bad advice out there. I guess it's more entertainment than an actual productive pursuit.

I would say "useless" is a little harsh. You have to look take up these resources with a goal in mind.

For the most part they are just regurgitating commonsense and nothing is new under the sun as much as SV would want you to think.

If you want to create a health startup it probably better to become a bioscientist instead of an MBA ... unless you are filthy rich already an just need to learn management skills.

But for those that already have the tech skills and need a little guidance on management, marketing, talking to VCs I think the info is good. Just dont expect to understand how to make the next ubiquitous distributed system (amazon ec2) without any systems/programming knowledge.

In fact I think "startup" should be considered a fad that is over. The word holds little meaning and any meaning it had is now over. The money guys are all over the place and the true "startups" already panned all the easy gold from the river.

Startups as they were (if ever) cannot be create now. Now you just have an internet business. And that pretty cool too.

If anyone happens to know a nanotechnologist working out of their garage I would like to speak to them about a startup project

I posted this question on Indie Hackers earlier this week and got some really great podcast recommendations: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/which-podcasts-do-you-rec...

Enjoying the "Startups for the rest of us" podcast so far (http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/)

Startups for the Rest of Us is one of my favorite as well. Lots of good tactical advice on there. If you find yourself looking for something that is more inspiration (at least in the early stages of your entrepreneurial journey) I highly recommend Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series:

http://etl.stanford.edu/

This was one of my talks that covers dropping out of college, a funny story about trying to figure our pricing, as well as goes over transitioning a business from charging for a product to charging for a service based on value:

https://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcast/the-passion-and-perseve...

Thank you, I always find listening to startup podcasts remarkably inspiring, even though I'm not sure whether or not I want to work on one yet. The "you don't need to be perfect, but you do need to care" message a lot of them share is applicable to a lot of things I work on.

Anecdote: I was working at a restaurant this past summer and was cleaning up at the end of the night while listening to the AirBnB episode of Masters of Scale with headphones. When they brought up the presidential cereal boxes I laughed, and one of the waitresses who I had been hitting it off with recently asked what I was listening to. I said a podcast about AirBnB. She looked at me funny and walked away. Smooth. I guess not everyone shares the same enthusiasm.

Another thing to consider is listening to lectures in other fields. I liked to listen to astronomy, physics, astrophysics, etc lectures when I had a long commute.

Robert Sapolsky has two stress-related lectures that were absolutely fascinating - one titled "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers", and another one whose title I forget that was about his work with Baboons. They were great for making the Austin -> Dallas drive.

I've been really into politics and government lately, I'd recommend the following podcasts in the genre. I cannot provide links as I'm on mobile but a Google search should suffice.

The Weeds by Vox Media, this is a more 'wonk' and policy based podcast which also focuses on the latest news. This year their focus has been not surprisingly going into the finer details of ACA and Tax reform.

More Perfect by WNYC, this is a spin off podcast from the Radiolab folks which focuses on important supreme Court cases, this podcast features audio from oral arguments and interviews with folks involved in these landmark cases.

I'm a big fan of pretty much all of the content in the Heavybit library. Heavybit is primarily focused on developer products, but a ton of the content applies to anyone building a SaaS product or startups in general - https://www.heavybit.com/library/

I listen to podcasts that are more meta / spiritual:

New Books in Philosophy: http://newbooksnetwork.com/category/politics-society/philoso...

Jesus in Books: http://jesusinbooks.com

Rochester Zen Center Teisho: http://rzcpodcasts.blogspot.co.uk/

Here's a collection of my top audiobooks/podcasts that I think HN readers will love.

This is the best stuff I have discovered over the past 3–4 years, and I’m sure you guys will enjoy each of these books, so if you haven’t read some of them yet — I highly recommend you to check them out.

=======

Excellent audiobooks:

- Rework https://www.audible.com/pd/Rework-Audiobook/B0036FLXLQ

- Creativity, Inc https://www.audible.com/pd/Creativity-Inc-Part-1-Overcoming-...

- The Martian https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Martian-Part-1-Audiobook/B00B...

- The Hard Thing About Hard Things https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Hard-Thing-About-Hard-Things-...

- Zero to One https://www.audible.com/pd/Zero-to-One-Notes-on-Startups-or-...

- On Intelligence https://www.audible.com/pd/B002V8LKTE

- The Design of Everyday Things https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Design-of-Everyday-Things-Aud...

- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! https://www.audible.com/pd/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman-Au...

- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow https://www.audible.com/pd/Homo-Deus-Part-1-A-Brief-History-...

- Atlas Shrugged https://www.audible.com/pd/Atlas-Shrugged-Part-1-Audiobook/B...

- Mapping Innovation https://www.audible.com/pd/Mapping-Innovation-A-Playbook-for...

- Ghost in the Wires https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Art-of-Invisibility-The-World...

- Actionable Gamification https://www.audible.com/pd/Actionable-Gamification-Part-1-Be...

- Algorithms to Live By https://www.audible.com/pd/Algorithms-to-Live-By-The-Compute...

- Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups https://www.audible.com/pd/Angel-How-to-Invest-in-Technology...

- Steve Wozniak autobiography https://www.audible.com/pd/iWoz-Part-1-How-I-Invented-the-Pe...

- Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth https://www.audible.com/pd/Traction-How-Any-Startup-Can-Achi...

- Mastery https://www.audible.com/pd/Science-Technology/Mastery-Audiob...

=======

Excellent podcasts:

- YCombinator: https://soundcloud.com/akharris

- Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast

- Syntax (React and WebDev) https://syntax.fm/

- Rationally Writing http://alexanderwales.com/rationally-writing/

- Audio version of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/

- Audio version of Rationality: From AI to Zombies https://from-ai-to-zombies.eu/

Major up vote for Indie Hackers. Courtland does an amazing job!

This only goes so far in the bay area. Sooo many companies are dumbly opening shop in those tired places like Sunnyvale and PA that now take 90 minutes to get to from almost anywhere. No amount of podcasts or audiobooks can save you.

I really enjoy audiobooks. A great option if you drive.

Thank you so much for this.

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