Category: 3. SHELF it

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BR 311: How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra

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Comments: I think a more accurate title would probably have been “Reflections on Infrastructure.” The title hints at a more systematic examination of infrastructure. This book wasn’t that. Instead, it was a nicely put together set of reflections about infrastructure. Still a very nice read – just not what the title might suggest

Insights that resonated: 

(1) The word infra means below or beneath. Infrastructure is a collection of the many systems below the surface that makes our life possible. It is, by nature, transparent. When it works, we just see right through it.

(2) Essential infrastructure goes from luxury to utility to a political right. The internet is a great example of this. It started as a luxury, then became a utility, and is on its way to becoming a political right.

(3) The challenge with addressing climate change until a few years ago was that our carbon emissions were directly tied to our consumption – more consumption meant more fossil fuels burnt. As societies advance, their energy needs grow. So, addressing climate change directly meant advocating a regression in lifestyle.

However, thanks to the incredible advances in renewables, we can now think of fossil fuels as a transition state. They were very useful while they were around. But we get to experience a future where energy is more abundant than ever before. <1% of the energy from the sun would comfortably meet all of humanity’s energy needs.

(4) The marvelous Dinorwig power station/electric mountain in Wales is a great example of how we are capable of creating elegant sustainable solutions for our energy needs. More in this post.

(5) “If you don’t schedule time for maintenance, your equipment will do it for you.”

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Business · Creativity · Management

BR 309: Sonic Boom – The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros Records by Peter Ames Carlin

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Comments: The is the story of Warner Brothers Music’s incredible thirty year run where they shaped the music industry via artists like Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, and Prince. I don’t know much about the music industry – certainly not much about the industry in the 70s and 80s. I also can’t remember how this book ended up in my collection. But I love scrappy origin stories – so maybe that explains it. This was an entertaining read.

Insights that resonated: One of my favorite anecdotes that gets to the heart of their success was that the ethos of the group was their insistence that their focus was to not make hits.

Instead, they were run top-down by an ethos of trying to make great music. Even when they failed commercially, the question the team was asked was – “Was it good?”

Combine this ethos with creative and edgy marketing and you have an incredible package.

As simple as this sounds, it is so hard to do consistently – especially when you’re under pressure to prove viability or to drive growth. And this is especially so when your original set of leaders aren’t in charge.

And that (leadership changes) is predictably what ended their epic run as well.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Career · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research

BR 308: Hidden Potential – by Adam Grant

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Comments: A good read.

Insights that resonated: 

(1) “The true measure of your potential is not the peak you reached but how far you climbed to get there.”

(2) Over 8 years, undergraduate students at Northwestern university were assessed on their performance on topics when their introductory class was taught by an “expert” on the topic. These students’ grades in subsequent advanced classes were logged and studied.

The trend of the results was clear – taking an introduction class from an expert decreased performance.

(3) Deliberate play works better than deliberate practice. Steph Curry’s coach believes practice can get monotonous. So his goal is to not have boring in their workouts

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Money · Parenting

BR 307: The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber

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Comments: A nice read.

Insights that resonated: I think the biggest insight from the book was to give kids a real experience with money by giving them an allowance and having them split it into “give,” “save,” and “spend” jars.

You can then get creative by introducing concepts like compound interest to them.

It isn’t something we’ve operationalized yet – but we definitely will.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Fiction

BR 304: The Overstory by Richard Powers 

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Comments: This book is masterfully written – a fascinating tale of people whose lives become linked thanks to their love of trees.

Insights that resonated: 

(1) “Watching the man, hard-of-hearing, hard-of-speech Patty learns that real joy consists of knowing that human wisdom counts less than the shimmer of beeches in a breeze. As certain as weather coming from the west, the things people know for sure will change. There is no knowing for a fact. The only dependable things are humility and looking.”

(2) “The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.”

(3) “Trees fall with spectacular crashes. Planting is silent and growth invisible.”

(4) “In fact, it’s Douggie’s growing conviction that the greatest flaw of the species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth. Single biggest influence on what a body will or won’t believe is what nearby bodies broadcast over the public band. Get three people in the room and they’ll decide that the law of gravity is evil and should be rescinded because one of their uncles got shit-faced and fell off the roof.” 

(5) “What you make from a tree should be at least as miraculous as what you cut down.”

(6) “Say the planet is born at midnight and it runs for one day. First there is nothing. Two hours are lost to lava and meteors. Life doesn’t show up until three or four a.m. Even then, it’s just the barest self-copying bits and pieces. From dawn to late morning—a million million years of branching—nothing more exists than lean and simple cells. Then there is everything. Something wild happens, not long after noon. One kind of simple cell enslaves a couple of others. Nuclei get membranes. Cells evolve organelles. What was once a solo campsite grows into a town. The day is two-thirds done when animals and plants part ways. And still life is only single cells. Dusk falls before compound life takes hold. Every large living thing is a latecomer, showing up after dark. Nine p.m. brings jellyfish and worms. Later that hour comes the breakout—backbones, cartilage, an explosion of body forms. From one instant to the next, countless new stems and twigs in the spreading crown burst open and run. Plants make it up on land just before ten. Then insects, who instantly take to the air. Moments later, tetrapods crawl up from the tidal muck, carrying around on their skin and in their guts whole worlds of earlier creatures. By eleven, dinosaurs have shot their bolt, leaving the mammals and birds in charge for an hour. Somewhere in that last sixty minutes, high up in the phylogenetic canopy, life grows aware. Creatures start to speculate. Animals start teaching their children about the past and the future. Animals learn to hold rituals. Anatomically modern man shows up four seconds before midnight. The first cave paintings appear three seconds later. And in a thousandth of a click of the second hand, life solves the mystery of DNA and starts to map the tree of life itself. By midnight, most of the globe is converted to row crops for the care and feeding of one species. And that’s when the tree of life becomes something else again. That’s when the giant trunk starts to teeter.”

(7) “To be human is to confuse a satisfying story with a meaningful one, and to mistake life for something huge with two legs. No: life is mobilized on a vastly larger scale, and the world is failing precisely because no novel can make the contest for the world seem as compelling as the struggles between a few lost people.”

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BR 303: Be useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Comments: I picked this up as I was fascinated by Arnold’s career. It is hard to succeed in any one career – and quite something to manage it in three of them (bodybuilder, actor, politician). Arnold’s stories got a touch repetitive by the end – but it was nice to hear it all in his voice.

Insights that resonated: The message from the book was simple – take the time to develop clarity of vision, then go all in and work incredibly hard to make it happen.

Stories of his work ethic were awe-inspiring. He definitely walked the talk.

Note: I read this following the Elon musk autobiography. Arnold talks briefly about the mistakes he’s made in his family life. Sadly, it was another tale of infidelity and a broken family. Another one of those that made me reflect on how extreme success can be ruinous in the dimensions of our life that matter in the end.

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BR 302: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

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Comments: Always fascinating, sometimes generous in its portrayal of Elon, and occasionally riveting.

Insights that resonated: I don’t yet know what I’ve taken away from the book. That’s not to say there isn’t much.

Elon’s ability to reason from first principles is always fascinating to read about. His ability to then convert this reasoning to simple and ambitious targets and then use it to rally his teams with “surges” is often inspiring. His surge to get Model 3 production up to 5000 per week was just a great display of operational excellence and leadership.

His approach to risk is mind blowing. I think there are few people on the planet who can reasonably label themselves as “risk takers” after watching Elon in action.

Then there is all the cringe-worthy drama that comes with all of this. I think it is lucky the book’s timeline stops when it does. Elon’s actions in the following months would have challenged the heart of Walter Isaacson’s message – which I interpreted to be “Elon is a complex character. All the cringe is just the flip-side of the traits that make the good possible. And there is more good than bad given the inspiring feats he’s pulled off.”

It is hard not to read the book and avoid reflecting on the trade-offs that come with extreme success and wealth.

Also, as someone who works in close relative proximity to Twitter, the portion of the book dedicated to that made for an interesting read. And it definitely inspired me to reflect on the kind of person and leader I wanted to be.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Money

BR 301: Mindful Investing by Jonathan DeYoe

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Comments: Jonathan DeYoe reached out after I shared a personal finance post on my blog and offered to send his book over. I love reading personal finance and investing books from time to time. They’re good reminders of the importance of sticking to the fundamentals. His book was definitely one of those.

Insights that resonated: Mindful investing is:

1. Mindfully looking at what you really need to make you happy (both now and in the long term), then making an investment plan to match your needs.

2. Once you’ve done that, avoiding the noise.

He shares a key concept in Taoist philosophy – “wu-wei” or intentional non-actiohn. Doing without doing.

The key is to do the planning part – determine the amount of money you’ll need in the future, save, and invest/rebalance regularly in a simple diversified portfolio. Then free yourself from market timing and investment selection judgements.

Make a plan, then wu-wei.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Psychology · Self Improvement · Sports

BR 299: The Inner Game of Tennis by W Timothy Gallwey

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Comments: The premise of this book is understanding the mental side to peak performance from a former tennis coach. But it really is a book about our psychology and how we can learn to work with it to learn and coach.

It had an immediate impact on my attempts to teach my son. Long may this impact stay.

Insights that resonated: 

There are 3 core concepts in the book :

  • Self 1 vs. Self 2: Self 1 is our conscious, analytical mind that often gives instructions and critiques while Self 2 is the intuitive and, instinctive self-capable of executing tasks without conscious interference. The goal is to quiet the critical Self 1 to allow the more natural and skilled Self 2 to perform.
  • Non-Judgmental awareness and relaxed focus: Gallwey’s thesis is that our ability to harness Self 2’s incredible powers is by practicing non-judgmental awareness. This means observing our actions and performance without attaching harsh judgments or criticisms. This enables us to focus our attention on the task at hand and achieve a state of “relaxed concentration.”
  • Trust in the Body’s Abilities: Once we visualize what we want our body to do, our body will know how to do it. The key is to trust in its abilities and let it perform naturally.

One key theme in his anecdotes is about players who “over-coach” themselves. They talk too much to themselves instead of letting themselves just play. The body is an incredibly complex machine – any attempt to micromanage is laughable and counter-productive.

This resonated.

Growing up, I never trained in any sport as we moved homes often. When I was in my 8th grade, I finally got an opportunity to train in table tennis. I loved this and enjoyed training hard for the best part of two years.

I stopped training 2 years in – to focus on academics to go to a good college and because I was too late anyway – I still got the opportunity to participate in a few tournaments in high school during the ensuing years. And I almost always choked. When push came to shove, I seemed to find a way to lose games against players I’d normally be able to beat. Many of these players weren’t as good – but they were seasoned tournament players. And they always had me beat on the mental game.

That’s why Gallwey’s notes hit a nerve. It reminded me of the few times I played my absolute best – it was when I didn’t attempt to control every move.

I’ve been attempting to teach our 5 year old football/soccer recently. This book has changed how I approach it. Previously, I used to try to get him to kick or pass the ball with the right technique. And that would inevitably lead to “over-coaching.”

Instead, I’ve started asking him to simply look at the target and kick. And, in time, when the kicks are good, I ask him to simply remember the feeling and replicate it.

His kicks have gotten better much faster with this approach.

It makes sense. Our bodies are awe-inspiring machines. We often get the best results from giving it body some direction and getting out of the way.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Business · Leadership

BR 297: The Song of Significance by Seth Godin

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Comments: Seth’s blog is my favorite blog – my first read every time it shows up on my feed. I love seeing Seth’s books on my shelf as I pick them up when I need inspiration. They always deliver. Seth’s voice and message is consistent and uplifting.

Insight(s) that resonated: 

(1) Where does your team/company fit in this 2 x 2?

(2) Culture beats strategy for breakfast. One of my favorite Seth posts is a definition of culture as “this is what we do here.” This book contained many reminders of that idea.