Two more fun business books

Two more business beach books. The first, The New New Economy, proves that business humor is not necessarily an oxymoron. Written by Tim McEachern and Chris O’Brien, two guys with technical backgrounds, this book will tickle your funny bone by spoofing the excesses of the dot-com era. And yet, while I could make the case that this book delights because it satirizes the greedy, misguided, boneheaded mindset of so much New Economy thinking, there’s a far simpler reason to buy. The book is funny. It advocates the use of a time machine to formulate strategy. It makes up quotes by folks like Larry Ellison and Gordon Moore. And it preaches the gospel of Total Quality Avoidance.

Another fun read, with a few degrees more verisimilitude, comes in 21 Dog Years: Doing Time@Amazon.com by former employee Mike Daisey. This snarky book skewers the dark yuppie underbelly of Amazon.com during its get big fast phase, a time in which slackers staffed the electronic sweatshop of customer service and know-nothings in Business Development passed judgement on business plans comprised of nothing more than a great PowerPoint presentation. How does Daisey know? He was there. Starting as a temp, the mischievous Daisey works his up to "bizdev," where he throws darts at the flaky dot-com plans seeking Amazon validation. Daisey’s book succeeds because it casts his reflective, bemused eye on an MBA-fueled culture that defied the Gen X values of most of its lower and mid-level employees. Daisey is not afraid to rib Amazon by reporting on his own willingness to increase his call response time by hanging up on calls, or his strange need to send personal emails to Jeff Bezos (none of which were answered.) Today Daisey has left Amazon and is pursuing his real dream of being a playwright: his one-man show of the same title is playing to critical praise off-Broadway.