The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Published 2011 · 336 pages · 85,000 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Business & Self-Help, Media & Technology, Nonfiction

How hard is The Lean Startup to read?

The Lean Startup scores 17 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 28 out of 100
Business and startup terminology. Accessible to general readers.
Sentence structure: 25 out of 100
Abstraction: 35 out of 100
Business methodology grounded in practical examples.
Information density: 42 out of 100
Rich with case studies and practical frameworks.
Narrative indirection: 100 out of 100
Direct, methodology-driven presentation.
Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
Analytical rather than symbolic.
Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
Earnest, enthusiastic tone.
Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
Clear methodology presented and applied.
Structural complexity: 20 out of 100
Three parts with clear progression from vision to steer to accelerate.

How The Lean Startup is regarded

The Lean Startup holds a literary regard score of 40 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Eric Ries