I see it's from 1995. Is there something more updated? With the prominence of programming life-style businesses I'd imagine there are new things to be taught.
"Work on your business, not in your business"
the problems are the same - technology can help you solve them, but fundamentally it's an issue of how to scale up in terms of people. Here's another one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004IYISQW/?tag=dedasys-20
with a cute story, but the concepts are pretty similar.
Rob Walling also covers this, briefly and more to the point in Start Small, Stay Small:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YH9MMI/?tag=dedasys-20
Which is also full of real, practical advice for people doing small software businesses.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4360330
I took the time to recommend some books that were very specific to the thread at hand, that I had taken the time to read and evaluate. Getting a few extra dollars to buy more books with, that costs those clicking nothing, seems like a mutually beneficial transaction in that it makes me more likely to read some interesting books I can recommend in the future.
So: yes, they were. If you don't like them, don't click on them. If you think my account is a spam account, created for the purpose of spamming HN with affiliate links, feel free to report it to Paul Graham.
Otoh I think the disclaimer that you made above is good and informs people of why you did what you did so it might be an idea to include it. If the parent thought that, I'm sure others did as well. (Of course this might encourage others to do the same who don't put the same effort in that you did to read and evaluate.)
This is somewhat similar to when someone at a store makes a suggestion and adds "I'm not on commission". Here you are saying "I am on commission but I use this product and can vouch for it". Nothing wrong with that.
(I'd like a suggestion on a learning rails book by the way.)
[free] http://ruby.bastardsbook.com/toc/ [free] http://ruby.learncodethehardway.org/ [free] http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/
[$$$] The Well-Grounded Rubyist
Rails:
The book lays out a systemic formula for making your business grow and run more and more with out you so you can work on your business, instead of your business.
Also this book has been updated I believe from time to time. It's not worth worrying about in this case because it's not opinion based advice, or based on current trends.