Category: 3. SHELF it

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

BR 129: The Start-up of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

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

Comments: Good career book and potentially useful for those reading career books for the first time.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Follow your passion is bad advice. The biggest reason for following your passion being irrelevant advice in this day and age is that your passion could be for an industry that might not exist in 10 years. The rate at which industries are being disrupted means that, even if it does manage to survive the next ten years, it’s unlikely it’s going to be anywhere as lucrative or attractive as it is now.

2. Who you know is what you know. Reid and Ben argue that the network is truest fastest source of information.When you look at it that way, having a deep network in the field you’d like to be in is critical because news will likely reach you much faster than via conventional sources.
The use for this is with all sorts of career moves of course. You get to hear of job openings before they exist, and so on.

3. Beware keeping optoins open. We’re often told to keep options open but Reid cautions against it. Making a decision may reduce your options in the short run but increases your options in the long run.

There’s never a right time. Even if you make a wrong decision, you can make another decision to correct it.

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

BR 128: Free by Chris Anderson

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Comments: Interesting book, especially for those who are interested in the impact of “free” on business and industry.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. The world is moving from scarcity to abundance in most aspects of life. As a result, the structure of the world and business has undergone a fundamental change. A 100 years ago, all the top 100 companies in the world were involved in manufacturing. Now, the percentage is down to 30%.

The moment an industry moves from transmitting atoms (boxes) to bits – free becomes inevitable. So, if the industry is competitive (and we can argue that the Internet has resulted in more competition than ever before), then prices will keep going down till it just covers cost.

2. The important thing for companies is to adapt their business model to incorporate free as an integral part of their model. Free is here to stay.

Examples –

– The popular freemium model wherein businesses give a basic product for free and charge for premium usage

– Microsoft went through the DABDA curve in its reaction to Linux operating systems. While it initially began with the lens of competition, the end result was an acceptance that there is a place for open source in the market. Small companies would rather go open source as its free while big companies would pay money to minimize risk.

– Google’s strategy for information markets – 1) take whatever you are doing, do it for free 2) hook users in and generate scale 3) charge for valuable information Search and Gmail are easy examples. Another such example is Goog-411 – free voice help which is part of Google’s investment into a voice search engine.

– Music – 90% of money is made by bands is in concerts! So digital piracy (or free) helps the band find willing fans

3. The importance of corn – rice, wheat and corn have always been considered the key crops. Rice is high on protein but difficult to grow, wheat is low on protein but easy to grow, and corn is both. Since corn is the most efficient converter of water and sun light into starch, we use corn for more than we can imagine.

More than 25% of the products in a super market are derived from corn. In fact, soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, the boxes they are packed in, and even the compounds that the super markets are built with are  based on corn. A great example of corn power is in a chicken nugget. From the feed of the chicken, to corn oil, to the golden color and smell – nearly every aspect of it is derived from corn.

The big reason corn and food have gotten expensive over the past few years is that corn began being used for the production of ethanol for fuel. This has truly tested the limits of corn.

That was a really cool insight.

(Book notes here)

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

BR 127: The Price Advantage by Walter L Baker, Michael V Marn, Craig C Zawada

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Comments: I read this book thanks to preparation for a project at work. Really good book on pricing written by pricing experts from McKinsey & Co. and makes for a good read.

Pricing moonlights as a seemingly boring topic but is at the heart of understanding profit levers in a business.

Top 3 learnings:

1. Pricing is the single most powerful pricing lever in business. A 1% increase in price for an average fortune 500 company results in an 8.4% increase in profit (!) versus a 1% increase in volume (around 3%). If you care about being profitable, you need to care about pricing..

2. There are 4 components to understanding pricing and I’ve tried to describe these in terms of questions you need to ask yourself-

  • Market dynamics: Am I market leader? What sort of pricing conduct does our market have? How can we instituionalize good pricing conduct. (Aggressive price wars result in irreversible negative consequences)
  • Company strategy: What is our pricing strategy? Do we invest in a best-in-class pricing organization and invest in having  great market and industry analytics? Do we understand our position in the industry via value maps?
  • Transactions: Do we monitor how pricing is carried out in practice? Are our sales people watching for profit vs revenue? How does our pocket price distribution look? (Pocket price is the eventual price for a project following all discounts, rebates, etc.)
  • Pricing infrastructure: Do we have IT and enabling systems that support our pricing organization

3. There’s tremendous areas of opportunity in the organization. A few points critical to good pricing are –

  • Solid market information so you understand your cost and benefit in relation to the market
  • Sales data to understand “pocket price” i.e. what is the net price you receive on your products.
  • Pricing infrastructure for your sales team to understand what are good practices and what aren’t
3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Psychology

BR 122: Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert

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Comments: This is a very good book and almost makes it to the “Buy it!” list. The trouble I had with it is that there is no structure and this makes it rather difficult to absorb in the audio version. Some really really good insights, though.

Top 3 learnings:

1. The best way to sustain happiness is to do something in intervals. So, if you have access to something amazing, do it in intervals e.g. a fancy meal every few weeks vs every day.

2. We greatly underestimate 2 big factors in our judging of our experience – the strength of our personal immune system and our ability to project our current feelings into the future.

As a result, we underestimate how well we will cope with most kinds of adversity/loss. And, we make very poor predictions of how we will feel after an experience

3.  Surrogation (i.e. making a judgment based on someone else’s experience) is a very interesting technique to gauge happiness. We like  thinking we are unique but in reality, we are not. So, the best way to judge if you will be happy after a decision to ask others who’ve been through the experience. There is a certain wisdom in the crowd.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Philosophy · Psychology

BR 120: Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman

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Comments: Martin E.P. Seligman is the father of positive psychology and his book lived up to expectations. I didn’t find it “ground breaking” and that’s thanks to having read many a happiness book that builds on Seligman’s ground break findings.

The only miss is the lack of a “framework” in the book. I remember it as a collection of great anecdotes, many of which I’m sure to write about. I’ve always maintained that great books give you a framework in which to remember the key learnings – e.g. the 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey.

Top 3 Learnings

1. Two groups of school kids were studied for their happiness level. Group I involved the geeky kids who studied hard, attended various classes after school and played hard. Group II involved the “cool” kids who hung out in the mall. It was found that the geeky kids tested happier on every aspect except one – they thought the kids in the mall were happier.

What an awesome story.

2. Optimism is an acquired trait based on the 3 P’s – Permanence, Pervasiveness and Personalization. Optimists don’t believe a bad event is permanent, pervasive and that the world is “out to get them.”

3. Expressing anger and negative emotions does NOT help – contrary to popular belief.

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

BR 118: The Art of War by Sun Tzu

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Comments: I am guessing the original (Chinese) version is one with stories behind the principles. My audio book was a short 1 hour 2o minute listen with a summary of principles. Thanks to the absence of stories, they didn’t really stick. Age old war wisdom though.

Top 3 learnings:

1. You only move as a general when your odds are favorable. Bravado is foolish. At every point, it’s about staying rational and improving your odds.  A general is not the same as warrior..

2. Everything in life is about a few basic things. 3 basic colors give rise to a whole spectrum of colors – similarly, war (and, as an extension, everything else) has a few very basic principles. Ensure you know them well.

3. Control of communication and discipline is incredibly important if managing large groups. “Never attack an army whose banners are upright.”

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Self Improvement

BR 114: 9 Things Successful People Do Differently by Heidi Grant Halvorson

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

Comments: This is an HBR article expanded into a book. A very short, breezy read.

Top 3 learnings:

1. There are 2 kinds of optimism – unrealistic and realistic.

Realistic optimists have a belief that good things will happen but caveat it with the understanding that hard work would need to go in, and that bumps along the way are inevitable.

2. There are 2 ways of interpreting the world i.e. entity theory and incremental theory.

This is essentially the “fixed” and “fluid” mentality concept. Entity theorists believe that intelligence and ability are constant while incremental theorists believe that everything is malleable.

The easy test is what you do when things go wrong. Entity theorists respond with “maybe I’m not any good at this” while incremental theorists focus on improving their preparation, their strategy etc.

3. There are 2 types of goals – “be good” goals and “get better” goals “Be good” goals are those that focus on showcasing excellence. If it is achieved, that’s great. But if not, they kill our confidence.

Get better goals are those that focus on constant improvement and that allow us to fail.

Conclusion: Be a realistic optimist, an entity theorist and set “get better” goals. :-)

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

BR 113: The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

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Comments: Interesting book with a take on “lifestyle” entrepreneurs i.e. entrepreneurs who do things they like and fund a very good lifestyle for themselves.

If you are in touch with tech/entrepreneurship on the internet at large, it’s unlikely most of the ideas in the book are new. It still makes for a good read. (The other side of the story is – if you are interested in or are contemplating entrepreneurship, it’s a nice  book to read)

Top 3 learnings:

1. Launch fast and iterate. This has become common wisdom in a way but this books shows many examples of those who launched, iterated and got much better.

2. Keep working on side projects. Most of the lifestyle entrepreneurs’ ventures began as side projects.

3. Resourcefulness and initiatives go a long way. Lots of great examples again of people who generated significant value out of practically nothing (hence, the $100 start up)

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Psychology · Skills

BR 111: What Every Body Is Saying by Joe Navarro

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Comments: Nice book. Not necessarily the most entertaining book in the world but definitely has interesting insights.

Top 3 learnings:

1. The most honest parts of our body are our legs. As we move further up the body, we become increasingly dishonest as we learn to mask our emotions over time. As a result, if you see a couple in serious argument at a dinner table with their legs entangled – rest assured, all is well.

2. Any position that makes it hard for us to run is one that indicates our comfort. Our “lymbic” system is wired to react to any kind of threat. That explains why we immediately sit up when someone unknown enters a room (Especially if we are lying sprawled on the floor).

Another defence mechanism is covering important parts of our body. The best example here is the percentage of freshman girls who cover their chests with books.

3. Gravity defying gestures indicate happiness. Dancing, jumping, hugging, throwing our arms up are all gestures that define gravity and hence, indicate happiness.

Similarly, gestures that work with gravity i.e. shoulders drooping, head down etc indicate sadness. (Learnings here and here)

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research · Self Improvement · Skills

BR 109: Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

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Comments: A compelling book built off the research of Anders Ericsson.

Top 3 Learnings: There were many many learnings I took away from the book. Here are the top 3 that come to mind –

1. Deliberate practice is everything. EVERYTHING. Deliberate practice is what differentiates the average from the greats. It’s not just about 10,000 hours. It’s 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that makes the difference.

2. Over time, deliberate practice changes the constitution of our brains. When we look at top performers and say they are ‘different’, we are actually spot on. They are different because their practice has developed that particular part of their brains. So, in short, we are probably born with similar capabilities but the hours we spent developing our craft/ability is what separates us in the long run.

3. It’s all cumulative. Ability accumulates over time. And, there’s no such thing as talent.

4. So how does a kid become a genius? The typical genius starts very early and is egged on by her parents (not pushed, but egged). As she grows up, she develops the necessary intrinsic motivation that comes from experiencing success. That’s generally the beginning of something very special..

Great book. Must read. Go get it. You won’t regret it.