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Friday, August 21, 2015
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City
Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy DelisleMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I picked this one up by recommendation and for the sake of nostalgia; having lived in Israel for a number of years, it's always interesting to see and read what other people think about a culture that's very different from what we're used to.
Guy Delisle spent a year in Jerusalem, and the book is basically his experience from it. His wife is with the MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders), and he acts as a stay-at-home dad with their two kids. He explores Jerusalem and the rest of Israel, and finds a few strange things here and there. In particular, it is very interesting to read his perspective on the whole Israel/Palestine conflict.
It's written in comic form, and even though he doesn't necessarily try to be funny, there is some humor in there. Either way, it's a quick read, and well worth picking up to go through.
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Friday, August 07, 2015
When Strangers Cooperate: Using Social Conventions to Govern Ourselves
When Strangers Cooperate: Using Social Conventions to Govern Ourselves by David W. BrownMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book was written 20 years ago, and it feels like it shows when reading it. As an example, the Internet is portrayed as something new and possibly interesting coming up.
When Strangers Cooperate talks about how social conventions can help govern our actions and make us behave better and cooperate more. He provides a couple of examples, such as queuing up in a line when we are more people waiting. There's also a good critique of what people might respond in return, with a focus on liberty and individuality.
It feels like something is missing though, as there isn't really much of a conclusion (a short paragraph at the end) nor much on how to actually go about with it. The suggestion is that conventions are good, and that there should be more of them. Sure, sounds good, but not worth writing and reading a book about.
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Thursday, July 30, 2015
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Monday, July 06, 2015
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric RiesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I actually finished this book a month ago, but didn't know what I thought about the book until I went through it again. Now I know.
The Lean Startup helps startups go from idea to product through experiments that generate validated learning. How is this done? Through a repeated series of steps through the Build - Measure - Learn feedback loop. With the assumptions that are inherent in the product, decide how to test it, build something that tests it through the minimum viable product (MVP). The goal is to learn as quickly as possible, adjusting and moving along to experience growth. Eventually the next step becomes to accelerate and grow.
There is a lot of useful information in the book, but a lot of it has to be weeded out through the endless stories of Ries' experience. While it is great to be able to one's share experience and learning, in this case it gets to be a bit too much. Read it and be prepared to learn a lot, but you need to weed out a bunch too.
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Sunday, July 05, 2015
David and Goliath
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm GladwellMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Why did David beat Goliath? Why do seemingly smaller entities beat larger ones, in war or other situations? How can apparent disadvantages be turned into advantages?
I think that's the premise of the book. And there's some information about how the smaller ones can choose not to play by the rules of the other, and thus create advantages to their own. But then Malcom Gladwell goes on to tell a bunch of other stories that don't really seem to convey any sort of message, except for the unexpected things happening. They're interesting to read and quite capturing, but I always felt that it wasn't really adding much to the actual story...
The inverse U-curve, stories about discovering treatments for leukemia, the Three Strikes Law and Martin Luther King are good reads and well written, but it still feels like something is missing in the end. Should you read the book? Sure, but don't expect too much from it.
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