That's a false dichotomy, isn't it? Can't you just do it and take a moment to read books and listen to people who have done it and are determined to move the state of the art forward?

I "just do it" and read books, so I know it can be done.

To do you need to understand. To do you need to know. This is where insightful teachers like Eric Ries and Steve Blank add value.

I understand your point, but it's also inefficient to put the pedal to the medal and spin your tires endlessly without having any strategy behind your activity.

The whole point of lean startup is to achieve order of magnitude gains of efficiency by focusing on finding out what customers want sooner rather than later.

For those that aren't 'doing'- that's their problem. Eric's work is for doers.

This is really good advice, for those who aren't doing it.

For those of us who are doing it, however, books such as this one can be very valuable for improving how we're doing it.

I've found that some books pay for themselves thousands of times over!