 What's the best first business book for a programmer?
jason_tko: Great question.Firstly, the more I've gotten involved in business over the years, the more I've come to realise that for any kind of sale requiring human contact, personal relationships are absolutely paramount.This is fairly straightforward, but it bears repeating.  People will buy from people who they like.  In a situation where a customer can choose between Vendor A and Vendor B who have similar products and prices, they will choose the likable Vendor A who is friendly and who they enjoy getting a call from.  This is 100 times more powerful than Vendor B who has 3 additional features that are really great, but who has made no attempt to establish any kind of relationship with the customer.As such, the first book I would recommend would be the classic "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.Once you've got a handle on that, "Ready, Fire, Aim" by Michael Masterson talks about the value of moving quickly, selling quickly, and figuring out the finer details as you're moving along.  This was invaluable for me, since I used to want to have everything pretty much perfect before moving.  This was negative because it took a long time to get anything to market, and also because theory rarely survives direct contact with reality - the adjustment period in the first stage of operations is critical to the overall success of the project.  This book also has plenty of enjoyable personal stories and business anecdotes that make it very readable.I second "Made to Stick" as a great study on what makes things popular, and how they become popular.It's really hard to narrow down more book recommendations actually - I've read hundreds of books over the years on a variety of topics.  What I found I needed to do, was continuously seek out good books and learn about topics as they arose.Generally when it comes to book learning and business, I would recommend this : figure out your basic plan, and get started.Once you encounter your first problem, seek help (ideally from both a mentor and some books).For instance, you've built a product, now you want to sell it.  You hop on Google Ads and put down $400.  You've got a solid click through rate, and 2 weeks later, zero sales.Time to learn about marketing.  Seek out some good marketing books (Your Marketing Sucks is very good), buy them, read them, and ask your mentor about them.Now you're making some sales, and a Sales guy approaches you.  He bought your product, and he likes it.  He's interested to become your salesperson.  Next you need to find some good books on negotiation (Getting To Yes).  Of course, you're also going to need to get some advice from a lawyer or a mentor to ensure that the deal you do is fair and economically sustainable.Different books will provide all sorts of different benefits and insights depending on the stage of your business and your level of experience.  Book selection should be a continual process.Hope this is helpful and best of luck.  Please feel free to contact me if you need anything else.