Reading rank 419
The Guns of August
, subject: The opening of World War I and strategic decision-making, 1962
Read as a study in management and mismanagement, The Guns of August asks when leaders should stop seeking an optimal plan and commit to a reasonable one.
8
Coverage Score
2
Scored evidence
About the book
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the book re-creates the thirty days in the summer of 1914 that, in the publisher's words, determined the course of the conflict and the century.
Why read it
Best if you are weighing whether to commit to a reasonable strategy now or keep searching for an optimal one, and want to study how management fails as well as how it works.
Key themes
- Reasonable over optimal
- Learning from mismanagement
Evidence and original sources
Sources: official Founders episodes — #188, #194
This record is supported by 2 public evidence rows linked to original Founders episodes.
- Joe Coulombe (Founder of Trader Joes) — David quotes Joe Coulombe calling The Guns of August the best book on management and mismanagement he had read, then highlights Coulombe's lesson to choose a reasonable strategy and pursue it tenaciously instead of waiting for an optimal one.
- Ernest Hemingway (Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy) — David connects this book to Founders episode 188 and Trader Joe's founder Joe Coulombe.