Hi Abbas -

I've found that Eric builds upon Steve's philosophy while combining it with the ideas found in "Business Model Generation" by Osterwalder.

In my opinion, the two books go hand in hand more than repeat one another.

Specifically, in "Lean Startup", Ries talks about Customer Development for a bit; whereas "Four Steps..." is mainly about customer development.

In short: both books are valuable

Thanks for the valuable insight!

Would I be correct in assuming I shall read Eric's first, and then use Steve's book for elaboration or reference on an as-needed basis?

Hmmm - I think you can read them in whatever order. Steve's book came out many moons before Eric's.

Eric's is a bit easier to digest though.

Your advice makes so much more sense now that I've read about 70 pages of each book. They are same yet different. Thanks again for your response.