Category: 3. SHELF it

3. SHELF it · Career

BR 154: More than Money by Mark Albion

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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 one of 3 books that I read before starting out on my MBA. This is a good book and written with all the right intentions.

However, it failed to make an impact on me just because I’d read “How will you measure your life?” by Clayton Christensen  – which, I found more more comprehensive in terms of thinking about your impact on the world.

Top Learning: Think long term when thinking about your post-MBA career

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

BR 153: Flash Boys by Michael Lewis

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

Comments:  If you have any interest whatsoever on the financial markets, this book is a must read. If not, well, put it on your shelf. Michael Lewis’ books are like art – you’ll never tire of flipping the pages. He makes  a heavy financial book feel like a fascinating novel.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Every time a new regulation is put in place, it creates an unforeseen set if market conditions that inevitably results in arbitrage by those looking to game the financial system. This sort of quick money scheme repeats itself – the housing bubble in the 80s, the credit default swaps in early 2000s and then high frequency trading in the late 2000s and perhaps now.

2. Such arbitrage causes billions of dollars to move from the pockets of investors to middlemen.

3. The behavior of the big Wall Streets bank is shocking. That’s not to say the people in these banks are bad. Somehow, the incentives and existing cultures result in horrible short term decision making. (I can’t help but wonder if the system of reporting earnings every quarter does more harm than good. It seems to drive short term thinking everywhere!

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

BR 151: Things a Little Bird Told Me by Biz Stone

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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 book is another one of those really good books I’d recommend to anyone interested in technology. This is Biz Stone’s story and thus, in large part, his narration of important parts of the Twitter story.

It feels sincere and heartfelt and, that is, from what I’ve heard, what Biz Stone is all about.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Opportunity is manufactured. As Biz Stone did not train in the traditional sports, he was well behind sporting level in his high school. As he really wanted to play sports, he started a high school lacrosse team. Since everyone who signed up was a beginner, he was on a level playing field and  had a great time.

2. Constraints are great. When Steven Spielberg was shooting jaws, he wanted to create a realistic model of a shark so they could film it attacking people for all the scary scenes. However, this was going to be very expensive and beyond their budget. Faced with this constraint, Spielberg had a new low budget idea – shoot it from the point of view of the shark under water.  And guess what? Way scarier!

Twitter did well with constraints as well, of course. :)

3. Pick opportunities based on what inspires you. Biz Stone lives this idea. He left university because he got an inspiring opportunity to apprentice in a creative agency. He then left Google even though he had millions of dollars worth of stock options to vest because he wanted to continue working with his former boss and friend, Evan Williams. It’s a great story and it obviously works out for him. But, the thing to note is his incessant positivity and his habit of zeroing on the things that really matter.

Book notes here.

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

BR 148: Boomerang by Michael Lewis

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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 was a really good read. I have to say this about all Michael Lewis books. His books are a real lesson in writing. He really takes you on a journey with him and beautifully extracts the insight out of it. He doesn’t do many interesting stories and anecdotes. Instead, he runs a few stories in parallel bringing out a central theme or insight. Just fantastic.

Boomerang is about his travels in Europe following the credit crisis. He explores what Iceland,  Greece, Ireland and Germany did with the explosion of cheap credit.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. It’s hard to do the right things when conflicts of interest are afoot. Banks, for example, employed analysts who were supposed to give an unbiased view of the markets. However, in the case of Phil Werner, who predicted the Irish property bubble, this didn’t work in practice because Merrill Lynch’s angry clients were the banks who were behind the property bubble.

2. It’s amazing how quickly old financial institutions let go of traditions when a new upstart comes in with a ridiculous idea that seems to make money.

Anglo Irish Bank was that upstart. A property developer could practically walk in the morning and walk out by afternoon with 100s of millions of euros. Soon, all Irish banks had divisions which paid their staff based on the amount of money they lent (talk about bad incentives). Allied Irish even had a department called ABA – anybody but Anglo with salespeople focused on poaching anglo’s customer.

3.The effect of cheap credit had different effects in different places. Americans decide to use it to buy houses they couldn’t afford. The Greeks decided to use it to fund a lifestyle that was definitely beyond their means. The Irish used it to buy more of Ireland from each other. The Germans behaved responsibly within but went crazy in enabling everyone else. In fact, the Germans were the ones who bought all crap assets until the very end. The followed the rules and took AAA rated bonds at face value to devastating effects

Book notes here.

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

BR 147: Alex Ferguson – The Autobiography by Alex Ferguson

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

Comments: For some reason, Sir Alex Ferguson fell a bit in my opinion after reading this book. I am still in awe of the man’s ability and achievements and the relentless spirit that he possesses like many greats to keep winning. However, I felt like this book contained one too many pot-shots at ex-players, e.g. Roy Keane. While he asserts a couple of times that he doesn’t carry grudges, his actions seem to say otherwise.

No doubt an incredible manager who will go down as one of the greatest ever. I think he would have gone down as THE greatest ever if he had won another European cup.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Pay attention to the little things. Ferguson and the United staff always paid detailed attention to a potential new signing’s family background, attitude, reputation and mental make up. He believed these signs were a very useful sign of success aside from what the player did on the field.

2. Focus on the infrastructure. Fergie invested incessantly into the United infrastructure – the youth team, the training facility, the medical facility, etc. These undoubtedly set the stage for generations of success.

3. Change is the only constant. He is one of those who truly understood the meaning of “what got you here won’t get you there.” Football teams work in cycles and he ensured he was constantly and proactively bringing change about. He was relentless – both after victory or defeat.

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

BR 146: Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

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

Comments: Liar’s poker was a quick breezy listen about Michael Lewis’ 2 years at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s. He tells it as it is and walks away after 2 years at the end of which he’d made about 400,000 dollars just out of school.

The experience clearly had an impact on Lewis as he’s gone onto write about one Wall Street head fake after another calling for tougher action and more regulation on the industry. Interestingly, while he wrote this book intending to keep people away from investment banking, he revealed later that he received one thank you note too many from trader hopefuls who said his book really inspired him.

Not a book you get tons of specific insights from but definitely one that gives you insight into what still is a very sought after industry for its ability to make people rich.

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

BR 145: In the Plex by Steven Levy

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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 really enjoyed the book. I find Google, as a company, awe-inspiring and this book gave great insight into why Google functions the way it functions by giving an insight into the genius that is Larry Page. Sergey Brin is painted as the dependable supporting act. It is a great read if you are a technology enthusiast.

We can’t all be like Larry Page. But, what I found amazing about him is that he is a learning machine. He has clearly learnt how to learn and goes on accumulating expertise and understanding of a broad array of topics. Great entrepreneurs demonstrate that ability – I’ve seen the same trend in the books about Jobs and Bezos. They were/are learning machines.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Larry Page is exceptionally smart. That’s one of those things that just strikes you when you read this book. He is probably as high IQ as it gets and just thinks on a whole different level. To really understand Google, you have to understand Larry Page. Google is Larry Page’s machine learning project – he wants to shove as much information into this machine and then make sure they use it make humanity smarter/better.

2. Both Sergey and Larry built Google by constantly asking “why not.” Google has practically reinvented the idea of an office by making it similar to a lovely university dorm. Larry refused to have customer service staff and instead suggesting replacing it with support forums where users helped each other. They did their IPO differently, they did email differently –  by consistently asking “why not.”

3. A bit tangential – people fantasize about college drop outs who go on to become billionaires. It is telling that the billionaires who are talked about are drop outs from Harvard college (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg), or in this case, from the top computer science P.hD program in the world at Stanford university.

3. SHELF it · Bio/Autobiographies · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Business · Entrepreneurship · Management · Relationships · Technology

BR 142: Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton

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

Comments: If you love technology, you will find this book very interesting. It felt a bit gossip-y in that it focused a lot more on the dynamics of a handful of people who were responsible in building Twitter. You come to learn how Twitter nearly imploded multiple times but, against the odds, survived to change the world.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. A strong board of directors is a key in every company as in life. It is very important to have people who have a long term interest in you who are then willing to call bullshit on your decisions and occasionally, guide you to move to a better place.

2. Complexity, conflict, clash of egos, etc., are not the words that come to mind when you think of the glory of a start-up’s journey to success. They’re part and parcel of the journey, however. And, it is worth remembering that no good comes without significant pain and learning. The book explores the path of these multi millionaires who all learnt some very tough life lessons in the process.

3. Twitter was founded by a bunch of geeks who saw it as a way of connecting with people. These weren’t people with strong social bonds or relationships. They understood the power of technology in helping people like themselves find connection. I thought it interesting that Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in the process of getting back at the girlfriend who dumped him. Scratching your own itch is a very powerful reason to build a company that changes the world.

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

BR 137: Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage by Mark Gungor

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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 book for 2 reasons – because I’m getting married and because I loved Gungor’s famous YouTube video on men’s and women’s brains. The book was okay – very good in parts and pretty okay for the most part.

Gungor is occasionally scientific and structured but for the most part it centers around his observations as a pastor. I also think it didn’t help that he wrote this for Christians. There were way too many bible, Jesus references for a non Christian.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Boxed in (watch Mark Gungor’s famous nothing box video on YouTube for this section). Men’s brains are like boxes – they are dealt with one at a time and DO NOT TOUCH. And a man’s favorite box is the nothing box… Given a choice, we love the nothing box and hence, love staring into the ceiling.

This is contrast to a woman’s brain which is like a bunch of wires and is typically thinking of many things at once.

2. Communication. When men communicate, they say what they mean and mean what they say. Women, on the other hand, are masters of nuance. Words are just one part of communication. So, in a women case, what is said matters less than how it is said.
The way to get past this is to implement the Covey principle of understanding – seek to understand before seeking to be understood.

3. What men want: Respect – unconditional respect. Men don’t want to earn respect on performance. They want it because of who they are. They don’t want criticism or women to change them – they want to be loved as they are. But just because men aren’t resistant to improvement doesn’t mean they can’t be improved, a women’s effect on a man’s maturity, cleanliness, etc is always massive. Strong women make a huge difference to a man’s life. A touch of fear of the wife has also found to be good in strong marriages. :-)

What women want – women want to be picked. They want to know that you would choose them above all else – your tv show, your outing with the lads, etc. the more you

Book notes

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

BR 135: The Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam

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

Comments: Really good book. This book was recommended to me by one of my favorite authors William J Bernstein when I asked him for Singapore specific investment advice.

A must-read for folks living outside the US looking for solid money and investment advice.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Live like a millionaire. Millionaires wear cheap watches, buy second hand cars, and live in the suburbs. Real millionaires live frugally and invest wisely.
2. Compound interest is the most important mathematical concept you need to know. The earlier you start investing, the better it is for you as compound interest will take over. Invest in simple plain vanilla index funds (same as Bernstein’s advice.. the value add here is clear steps for folks living in Canada, UK, Australia, and Singapore) and remember that financial service firms are out to eat into your money. Actively managed mutual funds are a no-no.
3. Every generation is gripped by irrational financial madness at some points (the tech bubble being an example). When you see a market behaving irrationally, be fearful. The relationship between the value of a stock and it’s earning is similar to a dog on a leash with it’s master. One can be far ahead of the other for only a short while.

Click here for book notes from the book