I found The Post American World” by Fareed Zakaria to be a very good read. It’s a good place to start learning about issues with India, China, and North America. The tone is very much of the “chill out” it’s not as bad as you think variety. This was nice to hear, but also probably what I wanted to hear. I’m totally out of my depth to decide if his ideas are good or bad, but I really resonated with the “back story”; his experience of moving to America to study and eventually live there. This discussion was what made the book for me.

Note that the wikipedia page for this book has a very good synopsis. Much better than I could do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post-American_World

I listened the audio version and it is well read.

This is part of my “Getting up to speed on China” reading project. Last year I decided I should read Kissinger‘s On China, Niall Ferguson‘s Civilization: The West and the Rest, and Fareed Zakaria‘s The Post American World after seeing them advertised in the Munk Debates – China. I’m slowly making my way through Niall Ferguson’s Civilization.

I can’t let go of Steve Jobs ability to “stop the presses” when he felt that a product (or feature ) was not ready to ship. This is so different than the more common plan — “let’s stick with our plan, ship it, and fix it later.”

This “stopping & resetting” skill is essential in today’s popular new product introduction models, like Steve Blank‘s Customer Development or Eric Ries‘ Lean Startup. It’s the key point that I have trouble getting across in my classes ’cause it seems so obvious in hindsight, but it’s not in real-time. Each of these models have a “stop, review, and go back to the beginning” section, but most people seem to think that this doesn’t apply to their idea That this “reset” is not a commonly used part of the model. But in reality this “reset” is the new thing about these models. It’s their killer feature.

In the past two years I have taken to showing that the customer development model really means re-starting at least 2 times. ( This is consistent with the findings at Startup Genome. ) As one can see in the Jobs book he did a lot of resetting. On Page 418 there is a discussion of his love for a recording of the Beatles revising “Strawberry Fields” over and over .. ’til they get it.

Today’s new product introduction models are very Jobs-like, they are not espousing “lets ship it and fix it later”. These models are — let’s test our ideas out in the market to see if they work. Let’s collect information before and after the experiment. Let the data make the decision. Thus if the product doesn’t exactly match the idea, then you’ve blown the experiment. If you really watch, and are aware, then you can “stop” with conviction. You know what to change. Each new model then advances the art with features that stick and features that don’t.

I think this is why the Steve Jobs “This is Shit” discussion style was so useful for him. Most people will not go back to the beginning, or significantly revise their idea, unless hit on the head with a sledge hammer. But this is exactly what has to be done, as Steve Blank says, “No new business plan survives first contact with a customer“. There is no nice way to say, “This is Shit”, but there has to be somebody to do it. And often.

Sometimes you can get lucky and have a “This is Shit” review as part of your process. At one start-up we had a rule where the key developer had to lead the customer beta test of his work. At first it seemed an unduly harsh rule, but at the end the developers loved it. They really heard if it worked our not, what mattered and what didn’t. It was great first hand “unsanitized” information.
(The long term effect of this rule was that the development teams had a way to develop Blank’s “Day In the Life of the Customer”. )

ASIDE: I think this is where Jobs buddhist training may have come in handy. There is a lot of teaching around developing boundaries, and saying “no” compassionately. Maybe Jobs missed out on the “compassionate” part, but then again, nobody likes to hear that they’ve got to re-start. “This is Shit” is probably the least offensive thing one can say in these situations.
(Here’s a link to an indepth article investigating Jobs Buddhism What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really?
By Steve Silberman

This leaves me with some good news and bad news about these new models that I’ve been a “fan boy” of. The good news is that the Apple/Jobs new product introduction style seems consistent with the Customer Development course that I’ve been teaching for the past few years. The bad news is that the Jobs book highlights how important “This is Shit” detection really is. I’m not sure how many people can really do that.

There may be a removal of hitting from PeeWee A ( Rep ). But the voting was not conclusive. It’s hoped that this issue will be decided at BC Hockey AGM this summer. What happened was that PCAHA representatives voted to support “No hitting at PeeWee Rep” at BC Hockey AGM this summer. The margin was narrow ( 92 For to 75 Against ). The PCAHA also decided that it would not have separate PeeWee A “hitting” rules from BC Hockey. ( 54 For and 111 Against )

On a downer note for hockey. This ruling will make hockey safer, but probably not enough. For example, girls hockey has no hitting and it has it’s own concussion epidemic

This story on concussions in football makes a pretty strong statement towards the question, “How much contact sport will our grand children be playing?” Answer. Not much. The Fragile Teenage Brain — An in-depth look at concussions in high school football
By Jonah Lehrer

It’s a very worthwhile read, but extremely disheartening from a manufacturing in North America perspective.

From the Jobs book perspective it is interesting what the NY Times added and omitted.

The omissions. The context that Jobs/Apple have US manufacturing experience. In the Jobs book there is a lot on Jobs fascination with manufacturing plants. He built state of the art plants in USA for 1st Mac and at NeXT. These experiences supported his move with “everybody else” to China. It’s not like he (Apple) didn’t try in the USA. They certainly weren’t the first to manufacture in China. It’s more like they were the last ones there. There is also the omission of the things that Obama told Jobs that couldn’t be done politically. This is not a knock on Obama, but more a knock on what is politically feasible and how Jobs/Apple operate.

The “additions”. A lot of “silly speak” on what USA could do to reclaim the business. No substance here. It just gets the anger going. Guess that’s what sells papers. Anger and not solutions

Best to read the Jobs book on this topic.

Tip to Christos ( @c_makiyama ) for tweeting this link

Wow!

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson was a very powerful experience on so many levels. It is hard to figure out where to start. I’m just going to splat out some thoughts here.

* Pages 567 – 570 Isaacson finishes with Steve’s thoughts on his legacy. Every technology person should read these four pages. It’s very inspiring to hear Steve talk about why prioritizing products over profits works.

* I particularly liked the sections discussing his years at Next and Pixar. It was interesting to see how low those endeavours went before they rebounded into successes.

* Page 546 “Apple had 700,000 factory workers employed in China, he said”

* All thru the book
… the attention to detail … the attention to detail … the attention to detail…
prioritize ( ie kill products) … prioritize ( ie kill products) … prioritize ( ie kill products)
( This kind of process takes super human strength … WOW!!! )

Just take my word for it — this is a great listen in your car

Billy Collins Live is an audible books essential selection that seems to be on many recommended lists. I’d click on it and the think “But really … a guy reading his poetry … forget it”. Then one day I bought it and added it to my iPod.

The book starts with a blast of energy intro by Bill Murray. It slows down a bit when Collin’s starts out. But as I got used to Billy Collin’s delivery the performance really hit stride. By the end I was laughing out loud.

Highly recommended non-work related reading.

Johah Lehrer’s Proust Was a Neuroscientist is a lot of fun to read. The gist of the book is that many of today’s big neuroscience discoveries were described very well by artists years before. The quote from the end of the book describes it well.

When we venture beyond the edge of our knowledge, all we have is art. (page 197)

My favorite chapter is “5. Paul Cézanne The Process of Sight” where Lehrer talks about how our eyes are not cameras. In a nutshell our mind fills in a lot of gaps. Most of what we see is “mind filler”. Very cool. Lehrer also talks about Cezanne’s minimalist nonfinito paintings which have just enough information for our mind to figure out the image. Which can be translated to — “this is the amount of information that our mind really gets via the eyes”. The rest is made up by our brain/mind. Fascinating.

For us cooks the chapter on Auguste Escoffier “The Essence of Taste” is a great ride through the discovery of umami and the development of french cooking. There is lots of discussion on the development of “stock”. Reminded me of my sous chef days. Lotsa time required to make “real” stock. It’s so “worth it”, boy does it ever taste amazing.

The other chapters are in a similar vein. Lehrer discusses the art of Walt Whitman and relates it to current Neuroscience on “feeling”. George Elliot on Freedom. Proust on Memory. Stravinsky on Music. Stein on Language. Woolf on The Self.

For a science head this is a great way to learn about, and appreciate, the work of a handful of great artists.

More

If you haven’t read Lehrer before I suggest starting with How We Decide. It’s his second book and his maturity as a writer helps us readers.

If you’re in the Technology business or doing an MBA Monk and the Riddle is essential reading. This book has a narrow focus and succeeds there.

Randy Komisar’s personal epiphany is that business is about people. His book’s story arc is a great vehicle to introduce and explore many of the “people” involved in the technology business. Randy uses himself to portray the “mercenary” lawyer, then the “mercenary” business development guy, the somewhat “compassionate” CEO, “sage” Angel Investor, and later VC (not part of book). He talks about his experiences with Apple/Claris Exec Bill Campbell that forced him to see the light. That business is about people.

This book spends a lot of time discussing the startup founder “battle” of “do it for money” or “do it for love”. This dialogue is well done with Komisar playing the “sage” Angel Investor providing advice to characters “Lenny (I’m in it for the money)” and “Alison (I’m in it for love. I want to change the world.)” The key point that Komisar makes is that most of the big successes have been done when the majority of the focus is on love. ( ie You’ve got to solve real problems for real people).

This book is very complementary to Steve Blank’s Four Steps to the Epiphany and Eric Ries’ Lean Startup. It fills in the gaps that those books have on the people side of the startup game. If you’re reading those you should also read “Monk and the Riddle”.

more

I can see why a lot of the Amazon 1-Star reviewers hate this book. It has little to do with eradicating competitive business tactics or discussing work life balance tradeoff’s. This book is all about “ideas” that get funded and finding a way to stay motivated in a startup. Working 24/7 for money is doable over a period of months, but most startup endeavors are 7 years or more. Thus you’d better love what your doing, and investors want to know that. This is a KPBC VC talking, not the Dalai Lama.

That said, I’d like to congratulate Randy Komisar for putting himself in the public eye with this book. He’s got some good stuff to say about one’s career. The fact that he is a KPBC VC will always rub some people the wrong way. Too bad for them.

I’ve been curious about Randy Komisar’s Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living ever since I saw it on the reading list of Stanford’s E145 Technology Entrepreneurship course. I thought — “a “life” book from a VC? Weird.” My gut was right. It’s not that. But it is a worth while read if one is in the target audience.

Odd point — the subtitle has changed over time. I think the first title (hardcover) is more representative of the content.
The original Title was Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and the new title is “Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living.

If you’re looking at a work and life balancing book. Give Tim Ferris’s 4-Hour Work Week a try. Good fun and good ideas.

I was “rocked” by Tim Flannery’s “Here on Earth”. I really like how Eric Ries wrote “The Lean Startup”. It’s much more than a re-hash of this blog. Very worthwhile. Tina Fey’s Bossypants was simply LOL. A great waste of time The Heath brothers “Switch” is a very practical book on organizational change. Roger Martin comes out against modern businesses love affair with “Maximizing Shareholder Value in “Fixing the Game”

I read a lot of non-fiction in 2011. I was big on Neuroscience and Education. I really like what Sir Ken Robinson has to say, but I’m still not sure how it will be implemented. Seth Godin’s “Linchpin” is a manifesto defining his model employee for today. We’ve all got a lot of work to do if we want to live up to his definition.

On the spiritual front. I read a lot of books, but I’m finding “The Daily Good Blog” to be a very good source of reading.

Fiction “Entertainment”

• Daemon and Freedom – Daniel Suarez | MUST READ | Techno-Thriller | Read in print this year. Listened in Audio last year. Still really fun.
• The 39 Clues – Pre-Teen … Totally fun for Adults too.

• Vinyl Cafe – Stuart McLean | Canadiana | I was mainlining these this year. Great Short stories. Best in audio, but print is good too.

Humour

• Bossy Pants – Tina Fey | LOL | Park Your “Guy-ness”. This is lots of fun. The Rules of Improv are great.

Non-Fiction

• Here on Earth — Tim Flannery | MUST READ | “Words of Hope from a Prophet of Doom” Love that quote
• Incognito – Dan Eagleman | Mind Bending | Neurolaw … wow!
• Mindsight – Dan Siegel | Very interesting | What is the medical definition of Mind? How do we “blow our lid”?
• The Post-American World – Fareed Zakaria | Interesting take on the rise of India, China, and RoW.
• Proust Was a Neuroscientist Johah Lehrer | Cool concept | Art precedes Science. Linkages may be a bit weak, but it is a fun read.

Education & Careers

• Switch – Chip & Dan Heath | MUST READ | Another practical gem from the Heath’s
• Johnny Bunko – Dan Pink | Graduation Gift | This is useful and fun
• Out of Our Minds – Sir Ken Robinson | Wow! | Very Interesting take on education today.
• The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything – Sir Ken Robinson | Easier read than “Out of Our Minds”. I preferred “Out of Our Minds”.
• Linchpin – Seth Godin | Wow | What are the attributes of the model employee in 2012?
• Drive – Dan Pink | Excellent ideas on motivation. Practical recommendations wrt/ reading and activities.
• War of Art – Steven Pressfield | Very practical “Kick in the !@#”. What are the attributes of a professional artist? A “HowTo” get to work.

Business

• The Lean Startup – Eric Ries | MUST READ | How to do “real” projects.
• Fixing The Game – Roger Martin | Thought Leader | Why you aren’t actually focussing on customers when you’re “supposedly” maximizing shareholder value.
• ProActive Sales Management – Skip Miller | This is for people who are actually doing the sales work. This is almost an “anti Sales Manager” perspective.
• Customer Centric Selling – Bosworth, Holland, Visgatis | for Sales Managers and Marketers. Good process ideas.

Spiritual

• The Daily Good Blog Just what it says.
• The Art of Happiness – Howard Cutler | Interviews with Dalai Lama. A humans purpose is be happy. It takes practice.
• Hidden Gifts of Helping | or Volunteering your way to happiness.
• Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life – Jon Kabat-Zinn | “What is a meditation practice” by one of the guys who brought meditation into the mainstream US medicine.

More Interesting 2011 Book Lists

• Harvey Schachter’s, Globe & Mail, Best Business Books of 2011
• Maria Popova’s Best of, Brain Pickings Blog | A lot of interesting titles. Goodnight iPad looks really good

David Eagleman’s Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain is a mind bending experience. It’s gotten a ton of good reviews and most of the write ups focus on the Neuroscience part. This book does a good job on assembling an introduction to modern neuroscience. Very cool stuff. It’s fun, but it not the compelling reason to read this book.

The compelling part of Incognito is when Eagleman starts talking about Neuroscience and the Law. Whoa! I was unprepared for this. I then took a quick look at the inside back jacket. It says that he’s the director of Baylor’s initiative on Neuroscience and the Law. What the !@#$ is that?

Baylor College of Medicine’s Initiative on Neuroscience and Law addresses how new discoveries in neuroscience should navigate the way we make laws, punish criminals, and develop rehabilitation. The project brings together a unique collaboration of neurobiologists, legal scholars, ethicists, medical humanists, and policy makers, with the goal of running experiments that will result in modern, evidence-based policy.

This part is like reading Sci-Fi, but it’s real. Wow!