Comment by davidw | Hacker News Reader

Comment by davidw | Hacker News Reader

I don't get what he's got against eBooks. Half the comments are asking him about Kindle versions.

Looks like it could be a very interesting book though, if it's written top to bottom, and not just a bunch of his blog stuff lashed together with duct tape and twine.

I recently read The Lean Startup, against my better instincts, and was duly disappointed. A few key ideas and lots of what felt like hand waving to me. I think Eric is the real deal, but somehow managed to produce a book aimed at the management of large companies, rather than people running actual startups. Steve's book, on the other hand, promises "lots of details" and "metrics that matter". Hopefully, actual things that can be measured, rather than "innovation accounting"...

I wondered about that too for "Four Steps to the Epiphany" until I saw this post on Quora: http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-book-Four-Steps-to-Epiphany-...

Essentially he wants people to be able to use it as a workbook, and not as a quick read (if that's even possible).

His opinion is certainly not unreasonable, and I'm impressed that he's willing to give up a significant amount of revenue to release the book the way he wants to see it.

That said, I'm fairly frustrated that there is no electronic version. I like to take book notes too, but I like to take them on my Kindle, and I have no plans to buy more paper books. I feel like both the author and I are missing out because of his uncompromising position. (Assuming his position is what the Quora post claims..)

> I'm impressed that he's willing to give up a significant amount of revenue to release the book the way he wants to see it.

I don't think that revenue would be as significant to him as it would be to the average person.

So it seems more of a control thing, which I find unfortunate. Maybe the paper version is 'better', but presumably, if the book is good, an eBook version would be better than no version, and for some people, that is the choice.

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