Category: 2. BUY it!

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Philosophy · Psychology

BR 105: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

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Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Deciding which category to put ‘The Geography of Bliss’ in was not easy. I eventually went for the ‘Buy it!’ category because it isn’t really a must read but, my god, I can’t think of any book that I have enjoyed reading more than this one.

Eric Weiner, a ‘grump’, journeys the world searching for the secret to finding happiness and chronicles his learnings from his travels. He has a wonderful sense of humor and his great writing style makes the book very hard to put down. (I listened to the book and he makes for a great narrator too!)

Every year, I pick a book to gift friends and family on their birthdays. This is my new ‘gift’ book. Loved it!

Top 3 Learnings: For a change, I decided to pick out passages as they are so well written!

1. “Money matters but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude.”

2. “Part of positive psychology is about being positive, but sometimes laughter and clowns are not appropriate. Some people don’t want to be happy, and that’s okay. They want meaningful lives, and those are not always the same as happy lives.”

3. “Attention’ is an underrated word. It doesn’t get the… well, the attention it deserves. We pay homage to love, and happiness, and, God knows, productivity, but rarely do we have anything good to say about attention. We’re too busy, I suspect. Yet our lives are empty and meaningless without attention.

My two-year-old daughter fusses at my feet as I type these words. What does she want? My love? Yes, in a way, but what she really wants is my attention. Pure, undiluted attention. Children are expert at recognizing counterfeit attention. Perhaps love and attention are really the same thing. One can’t exist without the other.”

Also, here is my take on attention

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research · Psychology

BR 104: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

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Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: We are going through a golden age in understanding human behavior. And Dan Ariely’s research and book are definitely at the forefront of this shift in understanding. A very good book.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Conventional economics assumes we make logical rational decisions when, in reality, we exhibit repeated predictable irrationality.

2. I was astounded at some of the research on the placebo effect i.e. when medical treatments were substituted with ‘fake’ treatments that had equal (if not better) effect in terms of patient well being because the patients thought they had  been treated.

3. While the ability to choose gives us some happiness, choices do not. In fact, choices are amongst the biggest causes of unhappiness that exist.

Fascinating book. I’m well into my journey into modern behavioral economics and understanding. If  I had begun my journey with this book it would have been priority 1. A great book nevertheless. It will keep you intrigued and entertained..

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Money

BR 103: The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

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Priority: 3 – SHELF it  (All Categories are 1) Read ASAP! 2) BUY it! 3) SHELF it 4) SOMEDAY it)

Comments: One of those books that is worth reading simply because it touches on a critical skill – money management.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. The journey to financial management is akin to cycling uphill. You learn by working very hard on yourself and your ‘fitness’ until you get atop the hill. That’s the moment when the money from your investments sustains your life. That’s the moment you become financially independent.

2. Money is only good for 3 things – investment, fun and charity.

3. I wrote out a summary of my learnings from the book here

Great book. Must read especially if you are learning money management/have difficulties managing money. Not all his concepts are applicable today (the book was written in 2003) but the principles do hold.

Add on Mar 16, 2016: This was one of my first ever personal finance books. Definitely had an impact in hindsight.

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Creativity · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research · Psychology

BR 102: A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: A compelling read. I am a fan of Dan Pink’s work and this one didn’t disappoint.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Dan Pink’s thesis is simple – we moved from the era of physical labor to the era of the left brain where logical abilities were paramout. Now, we’re moving to the era of the right brain where abilities like creativity will take centre stage.

2. Here’s a learning on the importance of the ability to tell stories from the book.

3. Creativity is like a muscle. The more we engage it, the more we will develop it.

A compelling book with a clear thesis. I’ve read it 6 years late. But still worth reading!

2. BUY it! · Bio/Autobiographies · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Technology

BR 96: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

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Priority: 1 – BUY it!  (All Categories are 1) Read ASAP! 2) BUY it! 3) SHELF it 4) SOMEDAY it)

Comments: This book tells the story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation complete with the many ups and downs that were part of the journey. It helped me understand what made Jobs the man he was and gave me tons of learnings along the way.

Top 3 Learnings:

I learnt that the best way to learn from books about great men is to understand their strengths. Here is a list of strengths I feel Steve GOT –

1. Relentless strength focus (resulted in someone who was not balanced by any stretch of the imagination. But bloody good at what he did.)

2. Focus on top performers – Johnny Ives is a great example. The moment he discovered Ives, he made sure Ives reported to him directly!

3. Intersection of technology and creativity – This, of course, was his speciality.

4. Balance between design and engineering – Concurrent designing and engineering meant that the teams worked with each other. And, unlike other CEO’s, he gave Design first priority over engineering!

5. Shipping – All his greatest projects involved some amount of rework. But, when they shipped, they were generally perfect!

6. Simplification and simplicity – One button on the iPhone. What more can I say?

7. Finding great talent – From Wozniak and Lasseter to Ives and Cook. A great talent spotter.

8. Understanding Technology and Art. “Art takes discipline and technology takes creativity”

9. Marketing IS the product. All his products had their marketing built in. He cared. And it showed.

10. Negotiation – I’m unsure if anyone else would have been capable of single handedly disrupting the music industry. And let’s not forget his negotiations with Disney.

11. Showmanship. In this, he was probably without peer.

12. Marketing – He learnt a lesson early from his mentor Mike Markula. A great brand must impute i.e. demonstrate it’s greatness in everything it did.

13. Understood  natural materials – Really understood the intricacies of metal, plastic and glass and applied it on the iPod, the iMac, the iPhone and in all the Apple Stores.

14. Importance of Environment – His workplaces had to be well designed. They had to present fantastic collaborative working environments. See NEXT, Pixar and the new Apple complex.

15. Surrounding himself with people that complemented him – Tim Cook was a great example. In his final act, he surrounded himself with persistent folk who managed him.

16. Saying No. How else could he simplify the way he did? He also focused Apple’s energies on few products but made them world class.

(Of course, he was not a role model for many things – e.g.: relationships, diet and the like. But, I couldn’t help marveling at the list of things he was good at.)

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · History · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research

BR 91: The Lessons of History by Will Durant

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Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: A truly fascinating read. I was debating whether or not to put this into Category 1. It just missed the cut.

The most fascinating thing about this book, for me, is that this is literally historian Will Durant’s thesis – a thesis of his life. Will and Ariel Durant try to put together the lessons they have learnt from all their studies and bring it all together brilliantly.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Competition is a natural order. We only collaborate to compete better. The world is Darwinian. Character only arises once basic needs are met.

2. What was a great trait in the past is likely to be a weakness in the present. For example, a very virile brute of a man would have been THE asset in earlier times when physical survival and passing on your sperm mattered most. In today’s world however, he would just be a dumb mannerless brute.

3. Resources (like intelligence) are always scattered unfairly. As a result, a small proportion of the world will always control it. There is no such thing as equality in nature.

4. As a result, religion matters greatly because it is what ensures the masses keep faith. (Will Durant predicts a period of social unrest within decades because of falling faith in Christianity in the 1960s when this is written and my jaw dropped as I thought of the period of social unrest we are having right now)

5. Respect for tradition is something he feels he would take more seriously if he had to ‘do it all over again.’ It is the tension between youth and old age that advances our civilization after all and he acknowledges that as he’s getting older, he has increased respect for traditions.

Some of his observations and predictions are truly amazing. And as you can see from the extra 2 learnings, this was a fantastic book!

 

PS: It’s been a while since I’ve updated this. Lots of exciting books but a lack of time. More to follow..

2. BUY it! · Bio/Autobiographies · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Self Improvement · Skills

BR 83: Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman by Richard P Feynman

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Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Richard Feynman narrates the story of his very interesting life. This is an exceptionally smart, extremely curious scientist who, aside from being a Nobel Prize winning Physicist, is also a part time drummer, painter and the like.I think there are a few nice things to learn from this book – especially Feynman’s strait jacketed approach to everything in life and his knack of figuring out a way to have fun.

A fun read.

Add on Mar 16, 2016: Years after reading this book, I’ve come to appreciate it more over time. What has stuck with me is Feynman’s learning focused approach to life. He was a master at picking up skills thanks to his openness and childlike curiosity. That idea is one that has stayed with me.

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Management · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research · Psychology

BR 76: Drive by Daniel H Pink

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Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Dan Pink shares a new wave to look at ‘drive’ and ‘motivation’. In essence, he begins the book by illustrating old ideas behind motivating people (eg: throw money at them) and then proceeds to discuss the theory behind motivation 2.0 i.e. that people are motivated by a) autonomy b) mastery and c) purpose..

This book is well summarized in this popular video by RSA Animate.

Add on Mar 16 2016: What I love about Dan Pink is that he takes a complex topic like “Drive” and motivating people and boils it down to 3 things – autonomy, mastery and purpose. This is incredibly hard to do and he does it really well.

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Psychology · Self Improvement

BR 68: Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: I can see why this is a classic. It uses a very simple-to-relate story (of 2 rats and 2 little humans and their quest for cheese – where cheese is equated to income/ success) to convey a powerful message. It deals with our natural resistance to change and how we could turn that around to an attitude that welcomes change.

2. BUY it! · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · History · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research

BR 65: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

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Category: 2 – BUY it! (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Very interesting book – this is Jared Diamond’s reasoning and analysis on why the world is the way it is.

I did feel the ending was abrupt for some reason. The book had me asking for/wanting more!