How might one go about learning basic accounting? Any good textbooks you recommend?
(The reason for the lateness of my reply is that I haven't checked LW in couple of months.)
I took a sequence of two introductory classes (titled "financial accounting" and "managerial accounting") at a third-rate college. That was very valuable. (They were very easy classes.) Just reading a textbook or two would probably suffice for you. I do not have any textbook titles to recommend, but it seems hard to screw up a textbook on introductory accounting, so I'd just pick the texts that are easiest for you to get your hands on. A 50-year-...
I am learning as much as possible about effective organizations, specifically large corporations and their respective businesses.
My goals are to start a successful business and to really develop the skills needed to be a great executive.
If any of you on LessWrong have studied this area I would greatly appreciate your input.
My current approach has been to read some highly recommended books and also to read as much as I can about how modern day CEOs and founders start and run their companies. I worry that some of this information is more for entertainment than for obtaining knowledge. I am also starting a company with a friend to try and put a lot of this information into practice.
I've also been using the "execute by default" idea, which, has helped immenseley in actually making progress and I have already felt that practicing this changes the way I approach problems, mostly for the better.
Some books I'm reading:
* Management by Peter Drucker
* The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
* The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
* The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
* Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
* How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Some articles I've read:
* Marc Andreesen's articles on starting a company
* Paul Graham's essays on startups
* Most things that are highly voted on on Hacker News
I have found that a lot of the information in these books is very practical, and have really raised my understanding of how large organizations work (at least intellectually). What other approaches should I be taking?
If you have any suggestions on my plan, what I'm reading, or doing, or whatever, please let me know.