Across different industries, there are people that I deeply respect. This respect is based fundamentally on two attributes:
1) They are disproportionately right with their ideas (or at least, I think they're right).
2) They are exceptionally good at communicating their ideas at useful levels of abstraction.
In the marketing industry, one of my favorites is Seth Godin. When it comes to startups, one of my favorites is Eric Ries.
I had dinner with Eric in Boston when he was in town for the Business of Software conference (it's coming up again, you should go. I'm speaking again, for the 4th year in a row). During that dinner we chatted about the book Eric was working on. I sympathized with his plight. Writing a book is hard, even if you're a good writer, like Eric. I'm happy to announce that Eric's book was released today. If you're reading this blog (which you clearly are), you should read Eric's book, "The Lean Startup". Seriously. 
The following are some quick quotes and insights from Eric with convenient tweetable links (so you can spread the wisdom and look really smart and clueful to your twitter followers). Enjoy.
23 Tweetable Insights From "The Lean Startup"
1) Our future prosperity depends on the quality of our collective imaginations. [tweet]
2) A startup is a human institution designed to create under conditions of extreme uncertainty. [tweet]
3) The answer to strategic plans being difficult and disorienting is *not* to rely on chaos. [tweet]
4) The goal of a #leanstartup is to move through the build-measure-learn feedback loop as quickly as possible. [tweet]
5) Lean thinking defines value as providing benefit to the customer; anything else is waste. [tweet]
6) The goal of a #leanstartup is to learn what is valuable to the customer. [tweet]
7) Leaning is the essential unit of progress for startups. [tweet]
8) Test assumptions you've made about your business, its customers and how you're serving them. [tweet]
9) Our job is to find a synthesis between our vision and what customers will accept, not just to capitulate. [tweet]
10) Just trying to make the customer happy does not produce a sustainable business model. [tweet]
11) True startup productivity is not just making more stuff, but systematically figuring out the right things to build. [tweet]
12) If you don't know what you're testing, all the results in the world will tell you nothing. [tweet]
13) Begin with a clear hypothesis that makes predictions about what is supposed to happen. [tweet]
14) The goal of every startup experiment is to discover how to build a sustainable business around the vision. [tweet]
15) It's not enough to just give it a whirl; you've got to give it a whirl with purpose and direction. [tweet]
16) Early adopters are those who crave a solution to the problem you've identified. [tweet]
17) Ask yourself: Do consumers recognize that they have the problem you are trying to solve? [tweet]
18) Build not only a product that can sell well, but a platform through which to deliver it. [tweet]
19) If we do not know who the customer is, we do not know what quality is. [tweet]
20) The three A's of metrics: actionable, accessible and auditable. [tweet]
21) Vanity metrics allow you to form false conclusions and live in your own private reality. [tweet]
22) Lethargy and bureaucracy are not the inevitable fate of companies as they achieve maturity. [tweet]
23) Be tolerant of all mistakes the first time, not don't make allow the same mistake twice. [tweet]
Did any of these strike a chord with you? What's your favorite insights?