> Today, information technology is changing the world, making it more idea-intensive, better connected, and ultimately more urban. Improvements in information technology seem to have increased, rather than reduced, the value of face-to-face connections, which might be called Jevons’s Complementarity Corollary. The nineteenth-century English economist William Stanley Jevons noted that more fuel-efficient steam engines didn’t lead to less coal consumption. Better engines made energy use effectively less expensive, and helped move the world to an industrial era powered by coal. The term Jevons’s paradox has come to refer to any situation in which efficiency improvements lead to more, not less, consumption—one reason why low-calorie cookies can lead to larger waistlines and fuel-efficient cars can end up consuming more gas. Jevons’s paradox applied to information technology means that as we acquire more efficient means of transmitting information, like e-mail or Skype, we spend more, not less, time transmitting information.

> One might think that better information technology would reduce the need to learn from other sources, like face-to-face meetings in cities. But Jevons’s Complementarity Corollary, which follows naturally from Jevons’s paradox, predicts that improvements in information technology can lead to more demand for face-to-face contact, because face time complements time spent communicating electronically.

I attribute it to the fact that they were natural experts, and not necessarily book lovers. It would be like asking a sparrow for their favorite work on the dynamics of flight.

Also the writing style was great, Brooks had a knack for making the players in these case studies colorfully come to life.

Over the years I've had both experiences where I've asked for someones recommendation and found it amazingly accurate, and found what was recommended ordinary or uninspiring. My take on it is that the way people absorb information is unique to the individual and some presentations get through that filter and some don't.

The other important thing I learned was that the filter changes, as you become more educated in a subject, you can pick up more with less if the author assumes you already know the basics. When writing for publication I sometimes felt I was explaining too much but my editor would dial that in for me, when I described to little she would gently prod me back to reality with "How the hell is someone reading this supposed to know what that means?" :-) When I went to far she would chastise me with "Everyone already knows that."

I've read Brooks, and in my opinion he writes for people who are already in the role of business leader and are trying to advance by not making the mistakes others have made. But is it brilliant? I don't know. Can it be brilliant for Bill and Warren and not for anyone else? Probably. I found it useful but not as useful as Larry Bossidy's "Execution: the discipline of getting things done" [1] which really helped me understand what "progress" was when you were a manager versus when you were an engineer and progress was "obvious" in the sense that the project got completed. But I can't say that Execution is more brilliant than Business Stories, they are just different and one was better for me.

Bottom line don't sweat it if you don't see the brilliance, note it and move on. Later if you find you can recall what you read differently, based on your experience, consider going back and re-reading it. See if it has become more, or less, brilliant given your additional understanding.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Execution-Discipline-Getting-Things-Do...

http://davids-book-reviews.blogspot.it/2014/12/business-adve...

I concur to some degree: I did find it an enjoyable read, but "best business book ever"? I thought the stories were interesting, but ... no, I too failed to find it brilliant, which also makes me kind of uncomfortable.

A. Books that reiterate and reinforce my ideology.

B. Books that reiterate, sum up, and improve, my knowledge of something I personally and/or professionally, and very very subjectively, find interesting and/or useful (for whatever reason).

C. Books that opened my mind or lifted my sprirt.

There are probably one or two more categories.

Which of these are true for a particular recommendation depends on the reader's motivation for reading the book.

Whether it's A, B, or C, it just might not be useful to nor resonate with anyone else.

Though with B, sometimes the knowledge provided requires a certain level of experience with the subject matter. And if your experience level is either too low, or too high, the book will either not make any sense or will just seem useless, of little importance, lacking originality, or freshness.

Contrast: "We're going to get some snow" versus "The biggest 2-day snowstorm in recorded history is bearing down on us!"

"A man died" versus "World's oldest man died."

Yes, a lot of times superlatives are used for the purposes of pure link-bait or advertising hooks, but that doesn't mean we should eliminate their usage entirely.

I think its also kind of funny that I stopped reading this article half way through and jumped to the link since I was so curious if it was going to have a tag code. That says a lot about the nature of affiliate marketing.

BTW, I don't see anything particularly wrong with it.

They are all politicians (or else they wouldn't be where they are), so everything they do has an angle.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8020621

So add Moneyball, Liar's Poker, The Big Short (good telling of the 2007 financial crisis), Panic (contrasts before and after news articles around financial crises) and The Blind Side to the list.

(Don't let The Blind Side motion picture scare you off. The book has a lot of on-and-off-the field football strategy that I found interesting.)

Probably the most helpful book I ever read as a teenager, and I still read it every so often as a reminder. The lessons are simple but effective, not just in business but all relationships. Empathy, listening, and genuine interest will do more to 'win' people than anything else you can do.