My favorite library at Yale
We seem to live in an age of instant gratification during which the average attention span resembles a strobe light blink and most people are only interested in (often obsessed with) the latest, “the best,” what’s new, the biggest, the fastest, what “they” recommend, etc.
I think it says something about populist values that Charlie Sheen can attract a crowd of 20,000 but Norman Borlaug couldn’t and that the claim to fame of most celebrities today is, well, their claim to fame.
It was a 12th century French Neo-Platonist philosopher, Bernard of Chartres, not Isaac Newton, who once observed, “We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.”
It was a 12th century French Neo-Platonist philosopher, Bernard of Chartres, not Isaac Newton, who once observed, “We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Authors of today’s business bestsellers crowd together atop the shoulders of those who wrote “classics,” the secular books almost unanimously agreed upon as having had the greatest influence on business thinking. They are listed in order of publication. Few of these were bestsellers when published, most continue to sell in revised/updated editions, and all offer original insights, brilliantly explained. Here are several of my candidates, listed in chrono order:
The Art of War (c. 2500 BC), Sun Tzu
On War (1816-1830), Carl von Clauswitz
Creative Experience (1924), Mary Parker Fowlett
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), Joseph Schumpeter
Concept of the Corporation (1946) or The Effective Executive (1967), Peter Drucker
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Thomas Kuhn
The Servant As Leader (1970), Robert Greenleaf
In Search of Excellence (1982), Thomas Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence (1985), Wayne Payne
The Fifth Discipline (1990), Peter Senge
On War (1816-1830), Carl von Clauswitz
Creative Experience (1924), Mary Parker Fowlett
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), Joseph Schumpeter
Concept of the Corporation (1946) or The Effective Executive (1967), Peter Drucker
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Thomas Kuhn
The Servant As Leader (1970), Robert Greenleaf
In Search of Excellence (1982), Thomas Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence (1985), Wayne Payne
The Fifth Discipline (1990), Peter Senge
There are others also worthy of inclusion.
Which ones? Ask the authors of today’s business bestsellers. On whose shoulders are they standing?
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