Category: 3. SHELF it

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Management · Technology

BR 108: Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky

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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 read this thanks to many favorable reviews and I walked away feeling a bit let down. I really couldn’t see what the fuss was about.

It’s definitely a very interesting book and describes the inside workings of Apple very well. Just didn’t think it was amazing.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Integrity. And here, I refer to Apple, the company. There is a certain ‘wholeness’ to everything Apple does. And their approach to communication, design showcases this from time to time. It’s one message and it’s always well delivered. That’s very hard to do in a big company.

2. Organizing the company around functional lines wherein you don’t need to ‘move up’ to management if you want to do better.

3. Maybe the whole purpose of the status quo is to change it. Change is the only constant in nature. Apple broke all traditional management beliefs and practices and became wildly successful. The nice thing here is that they lived their mission – to change the status quo.

And, of course, it will fascinating to see how Apple fare without Steve Jobs at the helm..

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

BR 106: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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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 a legendary book. It should be in the ‘BUY it!’ category but I didn’t put it there for a few reasons –

1. The book is written a bit like a research thesis with very little synthesis. There are hundreds of great lessons, great stories of outcomes from experiments with the kind of insights that you would expect from Nobel laureate. That said, it could have benefited by having a writer help synthesize the many takeaways.

2. The other more personal issue I had is that this book, while comprehensive, felt slightly late in the game. I have been going down the path of understanding the mind and behavior over the past year and found that many of his insights had already been covered by other researchers.

3. It’s not a book that I would recommend to other’s who aren’t math geeks/knee deep in the subject. It is a rather geeky book and I realize not everybody would enjoy it.

4. I found it very difficult to get through. It really depends on why you read books. I generally read books with 2 things in mind – what can I apply in my life? And are there any stories I can use for my blogs, learnings etc?

While I did find a few great stories from the book, it took a lot of effort to figure out what is applicable. The ‘so what’ question wasn’t easily answered. Again, a real researcher’s book. Lots of great content. Just not that easy to discern the applicability in my point of view.

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

1. Our judgments and decision making are always extremely biased. There are too many biases to keep track of and biases are almost always unavoidable. The best thing we can do is to accept these biases that we do have and remind ourselves that we are biased when making big decisions. Just this act of acceptance and awareness could save us a lot of pain.

2. Be careful with trusting experts who use their ‘gut’. Essentially, expertise can be trusted in fields wher the natural behavior is recurring and predictable. The stock market, for example, is one of those fields where the ‘gut’ or ‘expert intuition’ or Kahneman’s system 1 doesn’t work.

3. We have 2 selves – the experiencing self and the remembering self. And, when it comes to experiences, we are almost fully dependent on the remembering self. At the end of the day, if our memory of an experience is great, we remember the experience well.

And what do we remember? We remember the peak and end of an experience. As long as the peak and end are good, our memory of an otherwise bad experience could end up being great!

3. SHELF it · Bio/Autobiographies · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews

BR 101: Screw It, Let’s Do It by Richard Branson

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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 good book that gives great insight into the personality of one of the iconic businessmen of our time.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Entrepreneurship begins with initiative and a deep deep desire to take action and change things.

2. The most important leadership trait – authenticity. You can only be yourself. Be the best possible version..

3. When attempting to change things, a general irreverence helps a great deal. And a great support system (family and friends) to support you when you fail is vital because the irreverence regularly results in steep falls!

Good book. Definitely worth a read..

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

BR 99: Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins

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

Comments: Short book. A few interesting insights.. the rest tended to be close to the typical ‘self improvement’ talk that tends to drive many people crazy..

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Everything we do in life is influenced by the pain pleasure principle. We either do things to avoid pain or to derive pleasure.

2. Mental conditioning is incredibly powerful. When legendary basketball player Larry Bird had to shoot for a commercial that involved him missing a basket, he  had to shoot 9 times to make sure he missed. The moment he had a ball in his hand, his conditioning took over!

3. We react more to loss than to gain.

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

BR 98: The Law of the Garbage Truck by David J Pollay

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

Comments: One of those simple concept books that gave me a lovely light hearted framework to look at situations. Enjoyed it.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. There are a lot of people out there who walk around with pent up emotions, frustrations, anger i.e. garbage. As this garbage piles up, they are constantly looking for an excuse to dump on other people. Don’t take it personally. Wish them well and move on.

2. ‘Wish them well’ is very important. That means we make sure we don’t take it in. If we take it in, we process it. And garbage is not worth processing.

3. We are all guilty of dumping/venting from time to time. We just have to make sure we let the other person know that that’s what we’re doing!

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

BR 97: Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

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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 a very important book. If you have any interest in the internet/ innovation/entrepreneurship, this one is a must read.

Top 3 Learnings:

I’m going to be lazy here and link to Mark Suster’s top learnings.

This book is probably among the best books out there to understand how the internet is changing our lives.

3. SHELF it · Bio/Autobiographies · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews

BR 95: Gandhi – An Autobiography by M K Gandhi

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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 a fascinating book. I actually had no idea where to place this book. It didn’t seem to fit in any of the category. I decided to eventually place it in the ‘Shelf it’ category simply because this is a fascinating read and you won’t regret having this on your bookshelf.

However, it is of course likely to have extra significance if you are Indian as you will probably relate to the story that much better. Every time I think  of Gandhi, the word ‘fascinating’ comes to mind. I wouldn’t do a lot of what he did simply because it wouldn’t be part of my make up. He was definitely one of a kind. A real throwback to a different time, and generation.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Every experience of Gandhi’s was equated to an ‘experiment’. He was always experimenting.. an ultimate lesson in the ‘leaner’ mentality. Again, the word fascinating comes to mind.

2. He was capable of a tremendous amount of introspection and focus on what he could control. No wonder he is considered a supreme example of someone who acted within his circle of influence.

3. Gandhi was a fascinating man. Fascinating again. There’s no other word for it. Read it and tell me otherwise.. :)

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

BR 94: Gifts Differing by Isabel Briggs Myers

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

Comments: A book that really resonated when I read it – explains the “why” behind Myers Briggs. I had a whole post dedicated to it on my long form blog.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. We are all different. We have VERY different ways of seeing the world. Not right or wrong. Just different.

2. It is very helpful to understand the different kinds of characteristics in people because it helps us understand ourselves.

3. And when we begin to understand ourselves and our preferences, we begin to be more accepting of ourselves, and the world around us.

Add on Mar 16, 2016: A few years after reading this, Myers Briggs Type Indicator is trashed by nearly every self respecting psychologist. It still doesn’t change my view on the book much – it still taught me a lot and helped me understand my own introversion at a time when I needed just that.

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

BR 93: The Purple Cow by Seth Godin

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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 love Seth’s daily blogs more than I do his books – for some reason. I think the daily dose of “Seth-spiration” is something that just doesn’t come off as much in his book.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Innovation is the only way forward. We have to create an offering that’s a ‘purple cow’ i.e. extremely special!

2. Companies often lose focus after creating a purple cow. They sacrifice uniqueness for profits. E.g.: Starbucks

3. Many memorable examples of companies that have created such incredible products. One that comes to mind is Schindler Elevators which ask you to type in the floor you’d like to get to first and then directs you to the list that would take you there fastest – thereby saving valuable lift space. (now commonplace)

3. SHELF it · Bio/Autobiographies · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews

BR 90: The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman

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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 fascinating read. I hardly ever wanted to put it down.

The book helps give a clear picture of the genius that is Steve Jobs. Jobs is portrayed as the bright icon (which he is!) but it is also interesting to understand what makes the man the icon that he is. Also, the book takes us through the years before the success of Pixar when he struggled with himself following his ousting from Apple in 1985. The only caveat here is that the book was published in 2000. So, it doesn’t take us through his period of illness, the iPhone, iPad etc. It is more of an insightful deep dive into the complexity of his personality and the roots of his genius..

Top 3 Learnings:

1. This book clearly brought to mind the quote – ‘The brighter the picture, the darker the negative’

2. Steve Jobs took a lot of the credit for Pixar when the real creative genius was John Lasseter. Where Steve Jobs was incredible was his negotiations with Disney and his decision to take Pixar public right after the release of Toy Story. The interesting thing to note here is that Steve had close to nothing to do with the success of Pixar as an animation studio. He was kept busy with NEXT (which was a failure) and every time he tried to get closer to Pixar, he was literally pushed away by the Pixar team, which were moulded in John Lasseter’s image. However, Steve’s big ticket was, of course, his initial investment of 10 million.

It reminds me of a learning I had when playing poker with friends. The first big win gives us ‘cushion’ to experiment and try new things. This ‘cushion’ and increased experimentation allows us to take some big risks which have a higher chance of reaping dividends as the number of people who take that risk are lesser (how many would have had 10 million spare change in 1985 to invest in a group of animators?).

3. As great as the man was as an innovator and a visionary, I don’t think I would have been happy working for him. At the end of the day, he was yet another insecure over achiever..