My Book List - On Lean In Bangalore

It was a casual discussion of books in the Lean In Bangalore whatsapp group. I had posted a list of books along with my recommendations. It was published by Lean in Bangalore at this link

2020 Mid Year Books Recommendations - Lean In Bangalore

I am listing the books here too. I have added expanded on the review for a few books.

1. Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day - Andy Puddicombe

One of the best books on meditation. I found it realistic and accessible. Very easy to follow. I have been able to meditate consistently for 10 min on most days (I tend to do nothing over the weekend !).

2. Talking to my daughter about the economy - Yanis Varoufakis

I was first intrigued by the title. When I read the sample, it had this line -

“As a teacher of economics, I have always believed that if you are not able to explain the economy in a language young people can understand, then, quite simply, you are clueless yourself.”

So for a person who does not feel she understands economy (not really) I felt I had to read it. The principles of economy are expostulated as stories. And they stick for this same reason.

It was fascinating to read about a microcosm of economy (without money) that came about in the German prison-of-war where cigarettes became the currency and was used for exchange. In this analogy the Red Cross Organisation was neutral but the author argues than in real life - money and politics are intertwined and will always be.

A fun and informative read !

3. Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors - Matt Parker

Mostly humorous, a bit dry in some places but always informative.

Some funny excerpts

Olympic team reaching the tournament on the wrong date
An exercise class causing a skyscraper to shake due to frequencies matching
a parabolic tower causing melting cars
and emails not going beyond 500 miles.

However some stories depict how serious the consequences of mathematical mistakes can be.

Bridges that collapse
Fatal X-ray radiation and drug dosage issues
Under-fuelled plane due to unit mismatch and same type of error causing a space probe failure.
Precision type of error causing scud missiles to hit the wrong targets.

I think the most important message from the book is that - there will always be mistakes and that the Swiss cheese model of fail-safes is important but there are many math mistakes hidden from public view since those reports are not made publicly available and we cannot learn from them.

And this should change.

4. Business Adventures - John Brooks

Recommended by Bill Gates - Considered his all time favorite read on business. Loved it!

This book has 12 tales of business adventures and they are eye openers. It shows how people behave and how their behaviour affects business. Businesses may change, technologies may change but human nature at its core does not. And so even though one may shake one’s head when reading some of the stories ultimately, we do not always make rational choices and this shows up in business. Beware though each tale is a long read.

The stories are -

Stock market crash in 1962 and how the exchanges got together to prevent the panic from causing too much damage. (Astonished me no end !!). There was no reason for the panic but it ensued in mayhem nevertheless.
How Xerox made a dangerous and risky bet on photocopying. It worked but then they got complacent.
Over hyped Edsel Car launch failure by Ford. Small cars had gotten popular in the interim.
Non compete/Intellectual property rights/Trade Secrets - How a Goodrich engineer was almost prevented from working for a competitor due to the trade secrets he knew.
Pricing fixing within GE and failure of its internal communication.
Insider Trading - Texas Gulf Sulfur employees making money by trading based on inside information.
Piggly Wiggly - story of how a publicly traded company can be undermined by outsiders who manipulate the markets (Chilling !).
Federal income tax - A look at American taxation and how it has become very convoluted (and unfair?).
Sterling crisis - A strong bank alliance between various countries kept the pound from being devalued for a considerable time. (It was devalued later).
Market Fraud - A company was leveraged on falsified receipts. Trading was done using these fraudulent receipts as collateral. The exchange along with banks got together to ensure the customers did not lose everything. The customers got all their money back. Unusual.
Stockholders meetings.
Role of a person coming from public sector to private sector.

Must Read - If you want to learn about unusual and cautionary business tales intertwined with human complexity.

5. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It - Chris Voss

My child loves it. I have started reading it, and have found it good so far!

6. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics - Tim Marshall

I do not consider myself very savvy with geopolitics. This book opened up a whole new way of looking at the machinations of different countries.

7. The Art of War - Sun Tzu

All business schools recommend this book. The original source of sledging I think.

8. Deep Work - Cal Newport

Increasingly in a world filled with stimuli that asks us to respond immediately this book encourages the opposite. It talks about having non-interrupted periods of time wherein one is involved in deep work. Work that fulfils us, work that allows us to create.

9. The 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene

Currently reading - so far it is interesting, although a bit disquieting.

10. Influence - Robert Cialdini

A seminal book on the psychology of persuasion.

If you read widely - blogposts / articles / newspapers though you would have come across many tenets.

11. First things first - Stephen Covey

More to do with life management in general.

12. Impro : Improvisation and the Theatre - Keith Johnstone

While it is about theatre and dramatisation; interactions with people is part of everybody’s sphere. It is after all the language that one uses to communicate with the world.

I found the chapter on ‘Status’ illuminating !

As the author says -

Once you understand that every sound and posture implies a status, then you perceive the world quite differently, and the change is probably permanent.

A big part of the book is about getting back in touch with our emotions to spark that flicker of creativity via the theater. To not be afraid of failure. To realize that perhaps peasants who stare at the night sky may feel more. That valuing a person solely by their intelligence is a fallacy. That the person who can dance is probably more superior than word-and-thought-bound people who are unable to dance.

The author cites an example where he views the drawings of kindergarten children and those of adults who were given the same exercise. He was blown away by the creativity displayed by the children. And that is when the thought process changed - that perhaps - children are not to be viewed as immature adults, but that adults should be viewed as atrophied children.

The chapter on the art of the mask is shocking and to some extent I don’t think I fully understood it. However the author mentions that mask work is something almost anyone can learn to enjoy and this is because it is very refreshing to be able to shed the personality thrust on oneself by other people.

The part that details how really horrible we are at being original and imaginative is a not surprising but excruciating to read because it is easy to identify how much of creativity is lost in the process of education.

Some quotes -

When a very high-status person is wiped out, everyone feels pleasure as they experience the feeling of moving up a step.

Sanity has nothing directly to do with the way you think. It’s a matter of presenting yourself as safe.

Imagination is as effortless as perception, unless we think it might be ‘wrong’, which is what our education encourages us to believe. Then we experience ourselves as ‘imagining’, as ‘thinking up an idea’, but what we’re really doing is faking up the sort of imagination we think we ought to have.

Read if you want to view the world differently, improve creativity and recognize human nature.

13. Quiet - Susan Cain

I would say the biggest take away from the book is that to be an introvert is not a liability. It is just a different way of interacting with the world and if you recognise your strengths you can definitely achieve your notion of success.

14. Nudge - Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

A bit dry - It highlights how small nudges can help us make better decisions (Institutions or a person).

To some extent the non-thinking choices we make reminds me of System 1 behaviour (Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow).

Basically we are not rational humans as depicted by economics but are mostly lazy, inconsistent and averse to making decisions that require a lot of thought.

Nudges are small behaviour changes that can be incorporated by companies, governments, institutions and people to help make a better choice. There are no neutral and non-biased choices in life.

15. Man’s search for meaning - Viktor Frankl

Very inspirational!

16. The 7 habits of highly effective people - Stephen Covey

This book made me realise there were books that did not offer cookie cutter solutions!!

17. The Road Less Traveled - Scott Peck

Self-control, self-discipline, delay of gratification are the corner stones of Dr Peck’s brand of philosophy. The roles of responsibility, truth, important role of parents, suffering and empathy are well elucidated in the book. What stands out however is - the journey from facing one’s problems to a path of grace - spiritual growth.

18. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

A deep thinking book. Considering the author went insane thinking about these philosophical investigations it is no wonder. One goes back and forth in the narrative of a motorcycle trip to reacquaint oneself with one’s thoughts. People tend to love this book or hate it.

19. The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity - Steven Strogatz

Compilation of the NY Times columns that the author wrote. You don’t need to love math to read this.

20. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Light reading - The basic concepts of astrophysics are explained simply and in a straight forward easy manner.

Why the cosmos perspective is important is beautifully explained -

The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their “low contracted prejudices.” And that would be the last gasp of human enlightenment.

21. The brain that changes itself - Norma Doidge

Amazing book on the plasticity of the brain and how it uses maps and how the brain itself can be altered through learning, experience and thoughts. The section which talks about Dr. V. S. Ramachandran and the handling of phantom pain experienced by amputees from phantom limbs is eye opening. Amazing work.

22. Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science - Atul Gawande

An oft-repeating thought that ran in my mind while reading this book was - how did doctors allow this book to be published? It exposes human errors that surgeons can make in their practice.

Note the word practice - that is what the life of a doctor is. And this with lives hanging in balance !!

Lest one think that the process is all negative it is more to do with how doctors do their best in limited time and with varying possibilities of things going wrong.

23. Weapons of Math Destruction - Cathy O’Neil

Read if you want to get an idea about the dark side of big data/algorithms. These days covered in so many articles.

24. Flash boys - Michael Lewis

You could mistake this book for a high speed chase thriller - that is how eminently readable it is.

Flash boys starts off with the secret laying of a straight cable across a tough geographical terrain to give a microsecond advantage to traders willing to pay millions for the split second advantage.

What is ironic in this book are the marks of the scheme - they are not just regular folks - they are other hedge funds and wall street brokers who are also disadvantaged due to dark pools, kick backs and arbitrage advantages !

25. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker

For health. A bit depressing really since there seems to be no solution if you lose sleep on a few days. But it definitely stresses on the importance of sleep.

26. Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All Around Us - Oscar Fernandez

For math lovers!

27. Mindset - Carol Dweck

Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset. I liked how the author described the two mindsets. While I don’t think people tend to have only one mindset at a time - we can judge ourselves on where our predominant thoughts lie.

Fixed Mindset - Intelligence is constant. A desire to look smart can be counter productive because such people may not take up challenges for fear of not being instant-experts! They do not like criticism.

Growth Mindset - Intelligence can be developed. Enjoy challenges since they look at them as avenues to learn. Do not feel threatened by other people’s success stories.

28. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Caroline Criado Perez

This book took me a long time to read. A bit depressing but certainly an eye opener.

It is about more than only male crash test dummies and glass stair cases.

When one reads of cases like some I have mentioned below - It is clear that in an age where there’s talk of personalised drugs, we still have a long way to go.

A female police officer in Spain faced disciplinary action for wearing the women’s bulletproof jacket she had bought for herself because the standard-issue men’s jacket did not fit her.

One would think they would have valued the police officer more?? Strange.

Symptoms of heart attack being different for women and yet not taken seriously by the medical fraternity which leads to more deaths in women.
Building thousands of homes after a disaster (earthquake and tsunami) without kitchens! This happened in 2 countries - what a waste of time, energy, effort and money.
Forgetting the need of water and fuel in Ebola Quarantined areas (women’s jobs - I wonder what is happening now). So women go out to get water and fuel thereby increasing chances of infection.
Women who would rather live rough than go to shelters in US because they perceive them as dangerous.

And so many more situations - some with dire consequences be it death, violence and abuse. Many with monetary losses. The default human as a male (and in the tech world - white male !!) is a design paradigm that should change and include the rest of population.