In the recent years, there are many new books on brain science and social science. There are far too many. Brain Rules by John Medina is one of them. However, while most other brain science (neuroscience or however you call it) books always tell us amazing mysteries of our brains, “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School” by John Medina tells us amazing mysteries and it will also sometimes tell you… “well, we don’t really know about that yet!”. If you are looking for a secret of the universe book (which no one knows it yet), this might not be a book for you. But if you want to know about your brain, how it works, and how can you improve your life, this book is a safe bet.

Contents (The Rules)

1. Exercise: Exercise boosts brain power

Our evolutionary history can be summed up into two words: “We moved” (Yes, We Moved!…). We moved from Africa to all over the world. We didn’t take the low-cost flight. Human development was in jungles and grasslands. David Medina told us how exercise improve the performance of your brain, and it is astoundingly significant in terms of thinking as well as aging.

2. Survival: The human brain evolved, too.

“We learned to grow fangs not in our mouth but in the head”, in this chapter, the author wrote about “symbolic reasoning” and described our brain for those (like me) who are not familiar with the science of brain.

3. Wiring: Every brain is wired differently

In the beginning, John Medina familiarises us with the metaphors of DNA and neurons. There was a story about “Jennifer Aniston neuron” which is interesting and funny in a way. The chapter also tells us that verious regions of the brain develop at different rates in different people and what we do in life literally changes the way it looks like.

4. Attention: We don’t pay attention to boring things

The title says it all, this chapter is about attention and how we are aware of things. Dr. David Medina then elaborate the better way of teaching to improve the education of our children.

5. Short-term memory: Repeat to remember

This chapter is about memory, where it goes to and where it is processed. This is quite complicated to conventional thought (like me, duh) because memory (and our brain) is not like computer, it has no hard drive to store data. There are many other interesting findings. The author also suggest a better way for school and business to improve memory and learning.

6. Long-term memory: Remember to repeat

David Medina wrote about how our brain works; there are more than one ways to retrieve the long-term memory. We also tend to mix new knowledge with the past memories. There is also a compelling story of a Russian journalist Solomon Shereshevskii who has a virtually unlimited memory capacity. He can recall a complex formula of letters and numbers containing about 30 items… after 15 years… (not a typo, 15 years).

7. Sleep: Sleep well, think well

This is one of my favourite chapters. The author wrote about how different people have a need to sleep differently and the benefit of taking a nap during the daytime (my ex-boss won’t like that). Insufficient sleep will undermine your brain and the chapter also tells us that sleep might actually be the key to the process of learning.

8. Stress: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way

From the opposite view of sleep, stress hurts us. The evolution of the brain defines stress as an immediate circumstance, fighting a polar bear or running away from a jaguar, for example. Our brains are not shaped to cope with long-term stresses such as credit crunch or failed marriage. The chapter tells us how stress can hurt us and the author suggests an excellent way to improve the education system, lowering children’s stress by teaching parents, among others.

9. Sensory integration: Stimulate more of the senses

In learning, we always do better in a multi-sensory environments and smells have an unusual power to bring back memories, strange but true.

10. Vision: Vision trumps all other sense

“We do not see with our eyes. We see with our brains.” The fist story of this chapter is about wine experts. Wine specialists have a way of describing the taste of white and red wines differently. A cheeky researcher put an odorless red dye into white wine. All 54 expert tasters described it by the vocabularies of the red wine. Vision is the most dominant sense.

11. Gender: Male and female brains are different

The chapter is about the difference between genders. How different our brains are, how different we communicate, develop social relationship and so on.

12. Exploration: We are powerful and natural explorers

This is a conclusion chapter telling us that we learn and evolve. We have learnt and we will continue learning. We moved and we will move on.

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I’ll compare “Brain Rules” to my personal ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience

Ease of Understanding: 7/10: I have to divide it in two parts, the structure of the content and the content itself. The structure is very sound, each chapter is devoted to different topics but the content itself, the brain science, is not very easy to understand. If you read the book, you will know that the author tried and did an amazing job to simplify them but still, as a layman in this subject, I find it hard to understand all of it. But if you are a brain scientist or someone who did well in brain anatomy (as opposed to a person who nearly failed biology in a high school like me), it might be a walk in the park.

Distinction: 6/10: I have to be fair to say that there are many books of this kind available. The good thing is that each chapter can be a book of itself but Dr. David Medina did a great job synthesising and writing the brief key findings of each of them.

Practicality: 8/10: One of the best things of “Brain Rules” is towards the end of the most chapters, the author wrote “idea” of how to implement it mostly for the companies and schools. For individuals, we can easy grasp what we read from the book and implement as well.

Credibility: 10/10: A brain scientist writing a brain science book is better than a journalist writing about it, obviously. But the key is that this book is, or at least sounds, sincere and honest. There are many books that claim the new finding of our brain is the secret of the universe (I might exaggerate here but you know what I mean). This book does not. When the author does not know or does not have the evidence on a particular subject that is relevant, he says “we don’t know it yet”. It is better to not have an information than a false one.

Insight: 8/10: In each chapter, there are many short stories related to the topic. These stories might be researches, personal stories, brain metaphors, brain diseases, and so forth. They are all very interesting and I wish they were longer.

Reading Experience: 9/10: It would be ironic if a writer who wrote a chapter on “Attention: We don’t pay attention to boring things”, actually wrote boring stuffs. And this book is far from it and it really gets your attention. It is a fun read with a great sense of humour from the author.

Overall: 8.0/10: How much will you understand more about your brain? You will understand much more on how it has been evolved, how it functions, and how it should be treated. How much will it change your life? It depends, it you really value your brain, there are obvious things such as exercise more, sleep well, and less stress and there are things that will enhance your learning. There is no step-by-step instruction to power up your brain but you will know the rules.

If you think about a book on human behaviours, unexpected findings, and researches, you could probably think of a lot of them. If you add neuroscience to the mix, you would probably think of a few. But if you think of that kind of book with a practical and solid guideline for you to change how you live your life, I doubt you could find that many. And “How We Decide” by Jonah Lehrer falls in that category.

The book is about ‘decisions’ and how they are made by rationality and emotions from you brain (there are lots of parts within the frontal cortex but I’m not sure which). This is another typical book of this genre but let me tell you why should you ‘decide’ to get this book.

Contents

The Quarterback in the Pocket

The first story starts with the 2002 Super Bowl and how Tom Brady made the decision that led the team to victory. Lehrer moved onto stories of Plato and the very interesting one is the man who had a brain damage and lost emotions and eventually, he just could not ‘decide’. This chapter focuses on ‘emotion’ and how it is crucial to decision making.

The Predictions of Dopamine

The chapter begins with the story of Lieutenant Commander Michael Riley who commanded a British destroyer and decided to do something vital during the Persian Gulf War (I’m not going to spoil the story). The author also wrote about Bill Robertie, a chess master, a widely respected poker expert, and a backgammon champion. By the way, this is not my field but Dopamine is the brain region (or cell, or neurons, or whatever) that links our emotion to expectations.

Fooled by a Feeling

Emotions cannot do everything. The author wrote about Ann Klinestiver, a Parkinson teacher who became a slot machine addict (and lost literally almost everything in life) AFTER her Parkinson’s disease ‘treatment’. The chapter moves onto basketball player’s hot hands, stock investment, and a game show ‘Deal or No Deal’. The epic part of this chapter is about credit card (I am personally moved by this part and it sent shiver down my spine). The core of this chapter that wild feelings or emotions can bring us down.

The Uses of Reason

The story of a firefighter who survive the thick wall of raging fire starts the chapter perfectly because it is about how reasons are crucial at certain times. There is also another heartfelt story about a young girl, Mary, who were a brilliant and bright girl with bright future but one day she became different and ruined her life drinking, sleeping around and became angry a lot. She was eventually infected by HIV because of her brain tumor! Another great story in this chapter is how Captain Al Haynes of the United Airlines Flight 232 could maneuver the plane without basically everything working except the thrust levers.

Choking on Thought

The chapter begins with the opera singer Renee Fleming and how her career went downhill. Likewise, Van de Velde, a golf pro, could not recover from the career slump because of their ‘thoughts’. There are numerous researches in this chapter along with the MRI machine that failed to treat back pain. The point of the chapter is that we can think too much because our brain is not designed to calculate, take into account, and make a decision of 10 choices with 20 factors each.

The Moral Mind

This is also one of my favourite chapters starting with John Wayne Gacy, a psychopath who murdered thirty-three boys. The crucial aspect is how he thought and decided to commit those ‘evil’ (put your baddest word here) crimes without a wink. There are many researches including the one on war. There is also a very eye-opening story about ‘autism’.

The Brain Is An Argument

Within a decision, there are numerous parts of your brain working at the same time and you are likely to decide based on which part is winning be it choosing a political party candidate, shopping, or pundits. There is a story about decision-making failure during the 1973 war in the Middle East.

The Poker Hand

This chapter is mainly about Michael Binger, one of the world’s best poker players and how he applied different tactics in each different round. The chapter ends with the simple guidelines (with explanations, of course)
SIMPLE PROBLEMS REQUIRE REASON
NOVEL PROBLEMS ALSO REQUIRE REASON
EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY
YOU KNOW MORE THAN YOU KNOW
THINK ABOUT THINKING

Coda

It’s the conclusion with another great story

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I’ll compare “How We Decide” to an ideal business book in my personal opinion a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 9/10: From the briefing above, you will see that there are so many stories and they make it easy to understand the content and the way Jonah Lehrer wrote is a breath of fresh air. Each chapter has its core concept and the explanations are clear. The only confusion comes from the neuroscience. If you are not familiar with the brain parts, you might struggle a bit but that’s minor.

Distinction: 6/10: What can I say? I have read some researches in the book from other books and this book is not the breakthrough of a major finding on neuroscience. However, this book is different in the aspect that it tells you why you did what you did and it tells you how should you do, which brings us to the next part.

Practicality: 9/10: When I first picked up “How We Decide”, I did not have much hope in practicality but this book exceeds every expectation of mine. I might be biased but since I read the chapter on credit card, I really stopped using my credit card (except for online purchases) because the book told me what I thought and it was like a lightning struck on your head. The stories and researches will make you think of yourself and the world around you differently.

Credibility: 8/10: There is no need to not believe the book because of the tons of highly advanced scientific researches regarding the activity in your brain. Every explanation and analysis is written in plain language but scientific proofs are always there.

Insightful: 7/10: When I think of this book, I can think of so many stories (this is probably the book which has stories that I can recall most). I spent hours telling my friends about the stories in this book. There are lots of stories and lots of researches. Yes, it’s pretty insightful.

Reading Experience: 10/10: I love the book. The book changes the way I spend and that alone is much great than the $25 price tag of the book. I changed the way I think of an unfortunate autistic person I know personally because in the past, I think of feeling and emotion for granted but this book says ‘don’t, you don’t have a clue’. Moreover, the book has (I said it for the millionth time) great stories that you will remember.

Overall: 8.2/10: I love the book. Bias? Possibly. “If you’re going to take one idea away from this book, take this one: Whenever you make a decision, be aware of the kind of decision you are making and the kind of thought process it requires.” And trust me that if you start from that idea, you’ll get countless of invaluable ideas, for life.

“How The Mighty Fall” by Jim Collins can be called a sequel of “Build to Last” and “Good to Great”, arguably the two most influential business books in recent era. In a nutshell, the “visionary” companies in “Build to Last” and the “Good to Great” companies in “Good to Great” can fall. Jim Collins and his team studied the companies that used to be successful but eventually on the path of failure; some died, some recovered.

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” After studying success in depth in his two books mentioned, Jim Collins admitted in this book that the study of failures are more difficult and instead of pointing out specific activities or actions that doom the companies, he wrote the five “stages” in which failing companies went through some faster than others, some recovered at some points. These stages are:

Contents:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success

For many companies, “arrogance” comes with success. Collins termed “arrogance neglect” or the cycle that you built a successful flywheel (aka great business or the organisation per se); you found new opportunities and rushed to them and divert attention from your successful flywheel. The new ventures fail, you came back but your initial flywheel already lost momentum. Moreover, the hubris came when you replace “why” with “what” by instead of trying to understand the reasons behind specific things you do, the company takes it for granted and stops learning.

Examples: Motorola, Circuit City, Ames

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More

Complacency and lack of innovation are not the primary causes of the decline, “catastrophic decline can be brought about by driven, intense, hard-working, and creative people.” but it’s when you went to far. Companies going through this stage are “obsessed with growth”. They went outside the “Hedgehog Concept” or the core value of the organisation. Proportion of right people in key seats are less because they are confusing “big” with “great”. Other symptoms in this stage are bureaucracy, problematic succession of power, fetching easy cash.

Examples: Rubbermaid, Merck, Bank of America

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril

The obvious signs of the companies in this stage are that they “amplify the positive and discount the negative” and make big bets in the face of mounting evidence of the contrary, They often deny the downsides and blame external factors.

Examples: Motorola, NASA (Challenger), IBM, Scott Paper

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation

When the companies begin noticing obvious decline, they were in search for a silver bullet and most of the times, they are trying to find the “savior CEO”, seek game-changing acquisition, bet on new technology or new unproven product. “Companies stuck in Stage 4 try all sorts of new programs, new fads, new strategies, new visions, new cultures, new values, new breakthroughs, new acquisitions, and new saviors.” However, Collins continued “The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.” There will be hypes, panic, haste, confusion, cynicism and without being consistent to their values and “take one shot at a time” (e.g. IBM), the companies will fall into Stage 5.

Examples: HP, Motorola (again), Addressograph

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

The company that went through Stage 1-4 and fell into Stage 5 often ran out of resource (read: CASH) and lost hope. “The point of the struggle is not just to survive, but to build an enterprise that makes such a distinctive impact on the world it touch, and does so with such superior performance, that it would leave a gaping hole if it ceased to exist.”

Example: Zenith

Well-found hope

From Collins’ study, companies can still bounce from Stage 5 for example Xerox.

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I’ll compare this book to the ideal business book in my opinion: a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 9/10: First of all, this is a very short book, 2/5 of the size of the book are appendices. The charm of Jim Collins’ book is how he could break down the contents into highly structured chapters (Stage 1-5). But the point needed to be taken because if you have not read “Build to Last” and “Good to Great”, there will be some parts that you will not be familiar with unless you read all the appendices!

Distinction: 7/10: Writing and analysing the failures of companies is not new and all the cases are not new either. However, the advantage of this book is the historical researches of Jim Collins that he has done and accumulated and the way he tried to put them into patterns.

Practicality: 6/10: The good part of the practicality of this book is that in each Stage, Jim Collins wrote on how to bounce back and how to recover from the imminent path to failure. The not so good but not so bad part is that although Jim Collins listed out “markers” or symptoms of companies in each stage, it is still very difficult to identify ourselves as declining and which stage we are in because as he wrote that overlaps occur. The bad part of the practicality of the book is that we don’t need the book because Collins, most of the times, referred to contents in “Build to Last” and “Good to Great”, so get them instead.

Credibility: 4/10: I am not sure if I am correct or not but I believe that Jim Collins tried very hard to write the book and I also believe that he is not as confident in “How The Mighty Fall” as he is in his previous books. As he mentioned “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”, it is not very convincing in some of his remarks.

For example, “Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More” in “How The Mighty Fall” and “BHAGs (Big hairy audacious goals)” in “Build to Last” are separated by a very thin line. Boeing might ‘fall’ with their “bet the pot on the B-17, 707, 747”, IBM might ‘fall’ with their commitment to a $5billion gamble on the 360. etc.

Moreover, Scott Paper, from Good to Great, sold their other businesses and jumped into paper, and that’s “Hedgehog Concept” while Circuit City invested in CarMax and DivX and that’s “Hubris Born of Success”

I might be thick, I read them and try to distinguish by the word “discipline” and some others. Looking in a hindsight is still okay but if I were at that point of time, it can be very confusing.

Insight: 6/10: Despite being a small book, the researches Jim Collins did in the past are still extensive and impressive. I wish he write more but it might be the case that there are too many conflicts and controversy I mentioned earlier.

Reading Experience: 7/10: I ensure you that reading this book will not be pleasant because it might undermine your motivation because you will be guided through series of failures after failures. There are also glimpses of hope from some companies. However, if you like other Jim Collins’ books, you’ll still like the structure of this book.

Overall: 6.7/10: I have to be honest that I am disappointed with this book, I simply expected much more from Jim Collins. Do I recommend the book? I think I still do and if you are a Jim Collins fan, you will probably buy it anyway. I believe the topic is very difficult to write comprehensively but I praise the pattern of 5 Stages which will be very useful when the time comes. Nevertheless, I will stick with “Build to Last” and “Good to Great” while building a company, but if things start to go wrong, I might check “How The Mighty Fall” out.

“World Wide Rave” by David Meerman Scott is a small book on the new marketing. It is a book that encourages you to go out and give it a try. The rules of marketing have changed and will never be the same by the Internet and more importantly, social media. This book talks about “how” people use the new media to spread the ideas. Spreading ideas worldwide is no more a privilege of gigantic companies but anyone can do it, including you.

Contents

You (and I) Are Incredibly Lucky

This is the introduction to the World Wide Rave. David Meerman Scott started out with an intriguing story of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter on how telling a story to seven people can spread the idea to more than 350 million people worldwide, for free, of course. There are also a couple more interesting stories in this introduction.

Nobody Cares About Your Products (Except You)

The author explains the term, “buyer personas” and how the company (or you, or anyone) has to focus on the understanding of the market problem of your buyer personas (or target market) without obsessing with your product. Apart from many stories, the author encourages you to start writing an e-book which has replaced resume for many people (while multiplying the effect phenomenally).

No Coercion Required

Sometimes viral marketing is badly implemented which is just an extension of the old-world marketing. This short chapter tells you the difference between viral marketing and the World Wide Rave.

Lose Control

There is no such thing as a free lunch. But currently, there are millions such things as free videos, free songs, free information, free media, and so on. The author writes that trying to taking control will painfully backfire. An interesting part of this chapter tells you how to start making videos on YouTube. He also tells you how blocking social media sites, MySpace, facebook, YouTube, etc. in the workplace is a foolish way to increase productivity. Hear hear!

Put Down Roots

This chapter focuses on facebook, Twitter, and blogging. David Meerman Scott gives you advice on how to “put down roots” or participate in these social media websites.

Create Triggers That Encourage People to Share

The great site does not come with lousy contents. You need to have great contents to create the World Wide Rave and the advice for a great content is being interactive. And interaction can spread the ideas vigorously.

Point the World to Your (Virtual) Doorstep

Being in the first page of Google does not come from spending huge on SEO but rather from the content itself. You need a great content and you need the web site that synchronises with your customers. Instead of hiring an SEO, David Meerman Scott believes that you should hire a journalist instead.

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I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 8/10: This book is a short book and it is plainly easy to read and understand. The two points taken are from the blog-like writing which, although easy to read and understand, can be difficult to link with one another. Moreover, you might struggle a tad if you are over 30. Nevertheless, this is a straightforward book surrounding the idea of spreading ideas.

Distinction: 5/10: There have been countless books on the Internet and social media already. “World Wide Rave” is just one of them, albeit a good one. The great point of this book is that the author does not tell you how facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube work but he told you how real people used them and created a World Wide Rave.

Practicality: 8/10: The author gave you very good guidelines and instructions. One of the best parts of the book is the “Advice for generating a World Wide Rave” by the actual people who made it after their stories. However, everything depends on your contents and also your luck. However, I am fairly disappointed with the part of Venture Capitalist that creating a World Wide Rave is like investing, you hit some and you miss some. Although it’s true, it’s not particularly helping.

Credibility: 9/10: All the stories are from actual successful people including the author himself. Although David Meerman Scott did not create the World Wide Rave of more than ten millions in a week like Susan Boyle, his e-book, “The New Rule of Viral Marketing”, is an achievement. And I would like to exphasise more that “Advice for generating a World Wide Rave” is a gem.

Insightful: 5/10: The author has done a fine job in a small book. He had lots of interviews and insight from the actual World Wide Rave creators. The size of the book is the constraint but for a small book, it is insightful in its own right.

Reading Experience: 8/10: It is very fun and it is encouraging. It is not yet a revelation but it is eye opening. The book really encourages you to participate more in the social media.

Overall: 7.2/10: If you are not virtually active, this book will tell you how to be active. If you are already active, this book will give you an advice to spread your idea and become a World Wide Rave. If you already created a World Wide Rave, you can still read the book and sing your own praises! It might be time for marketing students to dump their huge 400 pages marketing communication and PR textbooks and read this book instead.

“The Element: How finding your passion changes everything” by Sir Ken Robinson is a book on passion, creativity, and, most importantly, education. In this book, he tells you how different people ranging from Paul McCartney (The Beatles), Meg Ryan (the actress), Paul Samuelson (the economist), Paolo Coelho (The Alchemist.. sorry, the writer) found their passion, their Element. His contention is that intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct and typical hierachical and standardised education squandered them.

Sir Ken Robinson works in education and he caught eyes of millions in his all-time favourite talk in the TED conference in 2005. You might want to take a look at the 20 minutes talk before reading the book. I have found his talk tremendously inspirational and my review might be biased. But I would encourage you to also be biased and inspired by this intelligent and witty thinker.

Contents

(every chapter is filled with amazing stories of different amazing people in the world. In this briefing, I could not list all or even half of them) (I also copy (plagiarise) lots of words from the book and I hope it did not terribly violate the copyright!)

Chapter One: The Element

The chapter starts with Gillian Lynne and Matt Groening who were hopeless at school but ending up giving pleasure to millions around the world because they found their Element – “the place where the things you love to do and the things you are good at come together.” Sir Ken Robinson explained that the Element has two main features and two conditions aptitude (I get it), passion (I love it), attitude (I want it), opportunity (Where is it?).

Chapter Two: Think Differently

We take things for granted. When asked how many senses we possess; people normally answer five or six. That is taking things for granted. Psychologists and scientists assert that there are four more. Likewise, when we talk about intelligence, people often refer it to IQ. That is taking things for granted. Sir Ken Robinson tells us that three features of intelligence are that it is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. And we should rather ask “How are you intelligent?” than “How intelligent are you?”

Chapter Three: Beyond Imagining

This chapter starts with three myths of creativity. One myth is that only special people are creative. Another myth is that creativity is about special activities like the arts, design, or advertising. The third myth is that people are either creative or not. Sir Ken said they are all not true. He wrote how imagination is different from creativity and how we should develop both. There are also stories of George Harrison (The Beatles) and how he and Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne created a wonderful album and how an American physicist, Richard Faynman won a Nobel Prize.

Chapter Four: In the Zone

“To be in the zone is to be in the deep heart of the Element.” “…it transforms our experience of the Element. We become focused and intent. We live the moment. We become lost in the experience and perform at our peak.” The Zone is the place or time where we feel the true sense of freedom and authenticity. Sir Ken Robinson wrote that we are often confined in boxes like the MBTI personality test that group people into sixteen personality types. “My guess is that sixteen personality types might be a bit of an underestimate. My personal estimate would be closer to six billion.”

Chapter Five: Finding Your Tribe

The chapter starts with Meg Ryan and how she met different people who gradually shape her Element. “Being a part of this tribe brings her to the Element.” People trying to find their Element need a place to discover themselves. Sir Ken talked about two distinct ideas; “domain” (the sorts of activities and disciplines people are engaged in) and “field” (the other people who are engaged in it). He also told us the difference between the tribe and the crowd.

Chapter Six: What Will They Think?

The three circles of constraint which are the barriers to finding the Element are personal, social, and cultural. In this chapter, he wrote about the disabled artist who would not give in to his disadvantage, the story of Paolo Coelho and his family, the Huffington Post (one of the most popular blogs) founder, and Zaha Hadid, the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture who grew up in Iraq.

Chapter Seven: Do You Feel Lucky?

Attitude plays an important role in finding your Element. People who find their Element often say they are lucky despite difficulties and unfortunate circumstances. Sir Ken Robinson wrote about himself when he was very young and caught polio when he was four. He wrote about an accidentally blind John Wilson who played a crucial role in curing blindness for millions in Africa. According to the study of the psychologist Richard Wiseman, lucky people tend to maximise chance opportunities; they tend to be very effective at listening to their intuition; they tend to expect to be lucky; and they have an attitude that allows them to turn bad luck to good.

Chapter Eight: Somebody Help Me

Most people who found their Element often have mentors who help them. The important lesson from this chapter is that mentors have four significant roles, recognition, encouragement, facilitating, and stretching.

Chapter Nine: Is It Too Late?

“Lady Di could be bicycling nude down the street giving this book away, and no one would read it.” was the comment Susan Jeffers received from a publisher directing at her book “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” before it had been sold millions of copies. And she only started writing properly into her forties. People’s life expectancy has risen in the past century and although we cannot be a gold medalist in Olympics when we are sixty but Sir Ken Robinson wrote about lots of successful people who found their Element later in their lives. “One of the fundamental precepts of the Element is that we need to reconnect with ourselves and to see ourselves holistically.”

Chapter Ten: For Love or Money

Not all those who find their Element have to be professionals. Sir Ken Robinson shows us the new way of looking at amateur. The word derives from the Latin word amator, “which means lovers, devoted friend, or someone who is in avid pursuit of an objective.” In this chapter, you will find lots of people who find their Element as an amateur; they do not do it for a living, just the love of it. Sir Ken tells us the difference between leisure and recreation. While leisure offers a respite, a passive break from the challenges of the day, “recreation carries a more active tone – literally of re-creating ourselves.”

Chapter Eleven: Making the Grade

Sir Ken Robinson focuses on education in this chapter and the most renown example would be Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin. The problem with an education system is the hirarchy of disciplines (subjects) in schools and the other is that conformity has a higher value than diversity. There are more college graduates now than ever and degrees worth less now. More people who graduate in this generation could not find job because they need higher degree, the so-called academic inflation. In this chapter, Sir Ken tells us the new, alternative education system that might turn schools into, an analogy of, high quality customised restaurant rather than a fast food chain with standardised and unimaginative products.

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I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience. Although this book is not purely business but it can be directly applied.

Ease of Understanding: 9/10: This book is written in plain English and it is a really easy read. It is very harmonious and stories are weaved perfectly into the content of the chapters. Most stories are filled with conversations and clear points.

Distinction: 8/10: We all know the power of passion and how it affects our lives. Apart from numerous stories from people whom Sir Ken Robinson encountered, there is a fundamental distinction in the book which is how conventional education system is hindering the creativity of children.

Practicality: 5/10: There are two sides to view the book; one is that the author, Sir Ken Robinson, did not offer any sound and practical advice for readers to follow; the other view is that there is no specific guideline to reach your Element. He said that intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. There are numerous kind of intelligence, linguistic, musical, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intra-personal. Intelligence is dynamic; it does not follow a linear pattern. And it is distinctive; it is as unique as a fingerprint. Thus, it’s yours to find.

Credibility: 9/10: All the stories in the book are real, not fictional or theoretical. All the findings are either scientific or psychological findings. There is no reason not to believe him. The one point taken is that although his advices in education are exceptionally inspiring and true, we do not know the extent of it. Nobody knows if we follow the advice especially in education, how it may play out. It might be good but not as great as Sir Ken expected or it might be even better.

Insight: 8/10: All the stories in the book are extraordinary and the book is a great compilation of great and inspiring stories. The psychological findings are sufficient and intriguing albeit not too deep.

Reading Experience: 10/10: This is, by far, the most inspiring book I have read. From the introduction, regarding the stories in the book, “None of them have “perfect” lives. But all of them regularly experience moments that feel like perfection. Their stories are often fascinating.” he continues “But this book isn’t really about them. It’s about you.” So, if you read the book with an open mind, you will find a way to discover your Element. The range of people in the book is astonishingly diverse and I hope that one of them will trigger your imagination to reach your Element. I cannot praise it enough.

Overall: 8.2/10: Am I biased? Probably. I am biased because Sir Ken Robinson gave a twenty minutes talk that changed the way I look at my life. I am biased because his book gave me inspiration that I look into the future with optimism and with passion. I am because that this book make me feel that “I” can pursue my dream with my creativity and intelligence. I am biased because this book tells me that my Element is there and it is for me to find it. So yes, I am biased in my review and I deeply hope that you will be biased like me and you will live the life you love. There is no one-size-fits-all but if any of my friends and family members want me to recommend a book on my shelf, they will fortunately get the same answer, The Element.

“Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way: Innovation, Transformation, and Winning in the 21st Century” by David Magee is the latest GE book on the seven to eight years since Jeff Immelt took over from Jack Welch as the CEO of one of the most admired companies in the world. Days after he was in position, there came 9/11; and his job has never been easy from the beginning. David Magee put the life of Jeff Immelt into this book.

Contents:

[Contents of the book will be very brief because in the 233 pages book (excluding appendices and references); each chapter has, on average, only 14-16 pages.]

Chapter 1: Following a Leader

The first chapter is about Jeff Immelt’s life in college and how he began his career life at GE. David Magee also wrote on Jeff Immelt’s character since he was a child.

Chapter 2: Confidently Seize Opportunity

This chapter is on his career progress in GE from Plastics to Appliance onto becoming a candidate of CEO and finally took it.

Chapter 3: Strength in Crisis

After Jeff Immelt took the role as a CEO, 9/11 came and he faced tremendous task of leading GE through tough time. Moreover, the Enron case did not help GE in the stock market.

Chapter 4: Appearances can be Deceiving

This chapter focuses on how GE took over an, then, unattractive wind power business and made it thrive.

Chapter 5: Understand Context

GE experienced a bad times in the stock market in the early 2000s and David Magee told us how Immelt dealt with it. Immelt’s personal strategy for overcoming tough times includes:
– Commit to learn every day
– Work hard with passion
– Give people a reason to trust
– Have confidence
– Be an optimist

Chapter 6: Cultivate Big Ideas

This chapter is on how Jeff Immelt focuses on innovation. Unlike his predecessor, Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt emphasises more on science and technology for the new businesses.

Chapter 7: Invest in Innovation

Jeff Immelt has created new tools to foster innovation in GE through enhanced laboratories, among other things.

Chapter 8: Use Your Ecomagination

Jeff Immelt has geared GE towards environmentally friendly businesses. Wind and solar energy are obvious examples. There are also new innovation in pipeline such as Organic LEDs and Smart Electric Grid.

Chapter 9: Maintain Core Values

GE’s core values have not changed; Integrity, Performance, and Change. David Magee wrote on how Jeff Immelt has zero tolerance towards integrity violation, how he and GE are still committed to performance as ever, and how change is always encouraged.

Chapter 10: Make Growth a Process

Like his predecessors, Jeff Immelt always focuses on growth and develops growth leaders to develop the company around six key elements; technology, commercial excellence, customer focus, globalisation, innovation, and developing growth leaders.

Chapter 11: Create a Learning Environment

“It’s all about learning.” The key to GE continuous progress is how leaders foster the learning environment in the organisation. The chapter shows how Jeff Immelt develops more learning sessions in GE.

Chapter 12: Find the Future

This chapter is about emerging markets around the world such as China, India, Russia, Brazil. GE’s three keys to effective globalisation are; 1 Use size as an advantage. 2. Create customer optimization, and 3. Leverage capabilities.

Chapter 13: Plant Many Seeds

GE is still expanding their businesses in various fields. Moreover, Jeff Immelt reorganised GE into four divisions; Technology Infrastructure, Energy Infrastructure, GE Capital, and NBC Universal.

Chapter 14: Find Opportunity in Adversity

This chapter is about the ongoing economic crisis and the stock market and how Jeff Immelt is coping with them.

Chapter 15: Leadership for the New Century

(This chapter is just a brief conclusion, albeit a grand name)

…

I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 7/10: This book is written in plain language. Most of the contents are from articles in the business magazines. It is an easy and fast read without deep analysis. The drawback is the flow of the book which lacks solid structure. Titles of the chapters, sometimes, are not really relevant to contents.

Distinction: 8/10: This is the only book on Jeff Immelt available.

Practicality: 2/10: There is no guideline on how to do anything in this book; it might be the purpose of the author. This book is a great compilation of what Jeff Immelt said. There are some lists of what GE and Jeff Immelt have done (see Chapter 5 above); and that is as far as the content goes.

Credibility: 5/10: The credibility of the sources is excellent because they are in quotations. However, there are some interpretations and journalism by the author that make this book a bit unconvincing. Everything Jeff Immelt did seems to be the right way and is taken for granted. David Magee unavoidably compared Jeff Immelt to Jack Welch and he praised Jeff Immelt for lots of things that he did but Welch did not do such as innovation sessions. There are countless features that the two are similar and the author seems to praise Immelt because he followed it nicely. I am not in the position to judge which CEO is better but the overall tone of the book is 100% pro Jeff Immelt (in everything he did) which is over the top.

Insightful: 3/10: Although this book has the most quotes from Jeff Immelt and other GE executives, it is extremely shallow. Analysis is non-existent in the book. Everything in this book is as deep as what Jeff Immelt and others said without any further and deep investigation. As I mentioned earlier, things, in this book, are taken for granted.

Reading Experience: 5/10: The good point is that this is an easy read and it can be fun if you don’t think about it too much. However, the tone of the book makes everything Jeff Immelt did a stroke of genius and it even seems that David Magee was occasionally having a go at Jack Welch which is ridiculous.

Overall: 5.0/10: The title “the New GE Way” is a massively misleading title because it is basically the same GE we have known. Under Jeff Immelt, GE has the same GE way with the new leadership, updated and refined business models, and enhanced management tools. Unlike other “GE” books (especially by Jack Welch), this book provides you with little insight and no guideline. But if you really admire GE (like me), I think that you will buy the book anyway. All in all, the book will make you know Jeff Immelt much more. Instead of “Jeff Immelt: the New GE Way”, the title should have read “Jeff Immelt: 7 years as a GE CEO mini biography” and I would have been disappointed slightly less than I am. By the way, I will be patiently waiting for a book by Jeff Immelt himself if he writes one. Skip this one if you can.

I will make an analysis on the 20 books I’ve reviewed so far.

(disclaimer: this analysis is based solely on my personal reviews and it has no scientific or academic data to support it.)

EoU - Ease of Understanding

Dist - Distinction

Prac - Practicality

Cred - Credibility

Ins - Insight

RE - Reading Experience

…..

The highest rating out of 20 books is “Winning” by Jack and Suzy Welch at 8.0/10. However, I reviewed this book years after I read it and it might not be fair to other book. Thus, the runner-up is “Business Stripped Bare” by Richard Branson at 7.8/10. The lowest score is “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst followed by “Tribes” by Seth Godin.

On the average scores of each attribute, “Ease of Understanding” has the highest at 7.75 not that I am intelligent but because nowadays, books need to capture broader market and they need to be easy to read since readers seem to have less patience nowadays. The lowest average score is “Practicality.” I believe that authors do not want to write their books like Dummy’s guide to … but sometimes it would help the readers if the authors really do focus on what can the readers do after reading.

There is no obvious correlation between each attribute. However, the “Read Experience” seems to be the most probable determinant of the overall book rating probably reading experience is an instillation of every dimension of the books.

Ease of Understanding:

Highest: “Reality Check” by Guy Kawasaki (9), “The Ten Commandments for Business Failure” by Donald Keough (9), and “Tuned In” by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott(9)

Lowest: “The Brand Bubble” by John Gerzema and Ed Lebar (5)

The determinant of the Ease of Understanding comes from the structure of the book and how different parts of the book are woven together. The notable attribute of “Reality Check” is its structure and bullet points writing style. “The Ten Commandments for Business Failure” is written casually and every point is easy to grasp. “Tuned In” has the most obvious step-by-step structure with nice stories. On the other hand, “The Brand Bubble” tried to put lots of things into the mix and each point of the book is not in sync.

Distinction:

Highest: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini (9), “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (9), and “The Future of Management” by Gary Hamel (9).

Lowest: “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst (2)

Distinction comes from how the author and the book looks at something from a unique perspective. It takes a careful but courageous creativity to look at the same things differently. “Influence” looks at sales from the perspective of deep psychology with astounding findings. “Outliers” look at success in a way people rarely thought about, Opportunity and Legacy. “The Future of Management” sees management from a genuine vantage and analogy. The lowest score is “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution”; the word revolution is a deadly overstatement. It is like a university textbook, but worse.

Practicality:

Highest: “Who” by Geoff Smart and Randy Street (9), and “Winning” by Jack and Suzy Welch (8).

Lowest: “Tribes” by Seth Godin (1)

Practicality is difficult to achieve by a book but “Who” did a great job by elaborating a step by step guide on recruitment. It covers essential things and tell you exactly how to implement. “Winning” is another great example; the one you will hear Jack Welch screamed “DO THIS, DO THAT.” Most books do not focus on actions and “Tribes” is not a very good example. The book does not tell readers to do anything. It only tells you some stories and hope you find your own way, if there is any.

Credibility:

Highest: “Winning” by Jack and Suzy Welch (10), and “Business Stripped Bare” by Richard Branson (10)

Lowest: “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (2)

It does help if you write something you are really good at. Jack Welch is arguably the CEO of the 20^st century and Richard Branson is one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. You can have high credibility with other people’s researches but the best proof is when you can do it yourself, then, you can expect others to believe you. Although “Outliers” views the world from a different angle, it fails to convince the world. There are lots of things that Malcolm Gladwell did not cover and it is hard to believe picking few examples and write rules around them.

Insight:

Highest: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini (9), and “The Brand Bubble” by John Gerzema (9)

Lowest: “Tribes” by Seth Godin (4), and “The Little Book of Bull Moves in the Bear Markets” by Peter Schiff (4).

Taking too many researches from other people might not build your credibility but they pack your book with interesting findings. “The Brand Bubble” is not the best written book but the amount of work and effort of the authors to write about lots of deep stuffs is insightful and we learn a lot from it. Likewise, “Influence” has a (very) long list of references and you can talk about the stories in the book all day. On the other hand, you should not write things based solely on your opinion. “Tribes” by Seth Godin is very shallow and “The Little Book of Bull Moves in the Bear Markets” has very little insight, just speculations.

Reading Experience:

Highest: “Reality Check” by Guy Kawasaki (10), and “Business Stripped Bare” by Richard Branson (10).

Lowest: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini (2), and “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst (3).

“Reality Check” is very humorous and funny while “Business Stripped Bare” is exciting and adventurous. They are the books with emotions and they even entertain the readers. “Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst did the opposite. It lacks emotion, dull, and boring. It is like a summary of a textbook. On the other hand, you should not reinforce a negative emotion from readers like “Influence.” Read my review for the details but all in all, you should not piss off the readers!

…

All in all, although I have no experience or knowledge to write a book, I come up with an easy guideline to write a better book from a reader’s point of view.

DOs;

- Write a book with a concise structure in plain language

- Look at the subject from a different point of view

- Tell readers what they have to do

- Write something you are truly good at

- Do research, and do some more

- Put feelings and emotions into the book

DONTs:

- Don’t write simple stuff with a rocket-scientifically complicated theory with a mess up structure

- Don’t try to write a textbook (there are a lot of them already)

- Don’t write what you know just to show off; tell people what to do

- Don’t think readers are thick; don’t think they will always believe you

- Don’t base everything solely on your own opinion

- Tell a story, or a journey…. Don’t just write a book

“The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle is a book on how to grow talent. The author is against the wisdom that talent is natural. The book is around the belief that talent come from Myelin. Myelin is the “insulation that wrap these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy.” When the certain signal is sent down the nerve system, myelin wraps around the nerve fibre. The thicker the myelin, the better the signal. Thus, “skill is myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and that grows according to certain signals.”

The book is divided into three parts of talent growing; 1. Deep Practice 2. Ignition 3. Master Coaching

Contents

Part 1: Deep Practice

Chapter 1: The Sweet Spot

This is the first chapter to familiarise us with the deep practice. Coyle wrote about Brazilian football (soccer) and why it is the world’s talent hotbed. He had an amazing story of Edwin Link and how his unusual device transformed the training of the Air Force.

Chapter 2: The Deep Practice Cell

This chapter surrounds the idea of myelin and how it might be the holy grail to talent. It is very scientific. To sum it up, “deep practice x 10,000 hours = world-class skill.”

Chapter 3: The Brontës, the Z-Boys, and the Renaissance

The author started with the Brontë sisters from England in the 1850s who wrote fantastic children books. He also wrote about the group of skaters by the name of Z-Boys and the guilds during the renaissance and how they produced highly talented people.

Chapter 4: The Three Rules of Deep Practice

This chapter, Coyle gives us three rules of Deep Practicing. 1. Chunk It Up 2. Repeat It 3. Learn to Feel It

Part 2: Ignition

Chapter 5: Prima Cues

It is merely things that get you interested, that excite you and bring you passion. Coyle wrote on how the success of Se Ri Pak, a Korean golfer, had an impact on the next generation of female Korean golfers and how young Russian tennis players wanted to be the new Anna. “If she can do it, why can’t I?”

Chapter 6: The Curaçao Experiment

The remote Caribbean island, Curaçao, did a miraculous work at producing lots of talented baseball players because the ignition sparked when an island hero, Andruw Jones, hit a home run. However, the real success of Curaçao is that it keeps motivational fire lit, Doyle tells you how they did it.

Chapter 7: How to Ignite a Hotbed

This chapter is about KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) by Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin. The story of success of KIPP is like a miracle but the core of it is to constantly ignite the students with just a word, college. No,… “COLLEGE!!”

Part 3: Master Coaching

Chapter 8: The Talent Whisperers

Talent does not come alone, the talented people in their fields need a coach, a mentor, or a master. Coyle wrote about Herman Lamm, the originator and teacher of modern bank-robbing skill! He wrote about Hans Jansen, a cello teacher at Meadowmount Music School in Chicago and how he personalised his teaching method. There is also a wonderful story of John Wooden, a great basketball coach and his amazing coaching techniques.

Chapter 9: The Teaching Blueprint

The author elaborated the four virtues of teaching 1. The Matrix or a task-specific knowledge of the teacher (He wrote a nice story of Linda Septein who taught Jessica Simpson and Beyonce Knowles) 2. Perceptiveness - how to perceive students individually 3. The GPS Reflex - the just-in-time informative directives 4. Theatrical Honesty which is the ability to connect with students.

Chapter 10: Tom Martinez and the $60 Million Bet

This is a chapter about Tom Martinez, a retired junior college American football coach, and his teaching method on a promising young quarterback, JaMarcus Russell.

…

I would like to compare this book to an ideal book: a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is written in simple language albeit some scientific information. The structure is very simple with the three parts, Deep Practice, Ignition, and Master Coaching. Minor drawbacks are some uses of unnecessary ambiguous words such as Matrix, Threatrical Honesty, etc. but they are minor, though.

Distinction: 7/10: There are many books on this subject already and it reminds me of a recent book, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell and the two have some similarities and some differences. However, The Talent Code is excellent at instilling the knowledge of Myelin making us view talent from a different perspective.

Practicality: 8/10: This book is practical especially in the field on Deep Practice. Daniel Coyle explained nicely on this issue and it is not difficult to implement it to our daily life. Chunk It Up, Repeat, and Learn to Feel It are pretty much straightforward and Deep Practice is the best part of the book because the other two, Ignition and Master Coaching are more difficult to implement.

Credibility: 3/10: Although this is a very good book, it has a major flaw. This book is like a qualitative research. It is deep in the subject and in the examples and stories in the book. However, it lacks generalisation. You might say “That’s the way it is” to a story but that might not be the way the rest are. There are some contradictions in the book as well.

For example, in the Chapter 9, the author stated that teaching soccer is different from teaching violin. Teaching soccer must be free flowing because the soccer circuitry is “varied and fast, changing fluidly in response to each obstacle.” So, the coach rather lets the players perform. On the other hand, the violinist has to be accurate, precise, and stable. The coach, thus, has to stop and make sure that the circuitry is correct.

The argument is convincing and sensible until we noticed the way the legendary John Wooden, a basketball coach, coached. It’s undisputed that basketball is more similar to soccer than violin that it requires fluidity in the game but Coyle wrote that John Wooden constantly issuing informative corrections of movements to players. He might not stop the game but he surely keeps correcting players, not letting them flow. Coyle wrote “[The soccer coach] occasionally smiles ot laughs or says oooooooo for a close play as a fan would. But he doesn’t coach in the regular sense of the term, which is to say he doesn’t stop the game, teach, praise, critique, or otherwise exert any control whatsoever.“

There are some other contradictions or, at least, an overlap. In the chapter 8, Coyle wrote that some coaches coach love or make the children love what they are doing. The quote from the research of Dr. Benjamin Bloom in the chapter is “Perhaps the major quality of these teachers was that they made the initial learning very pleasant and rewarding. Much of the introduction to the field was a playful activity, and the learning at the beginning of the stage was much like a game.“

However, in chapter 7, regarding KIPP, the process is not really similar, if not opposite. The new students will be introduced to “discipline” from the first day on everything; how to walk, how to talk, how to sit at a desk, how to look at a teacher or classmate who’s speaking, and so on. Students, on the first day, sat on the floor without a desk because “…everything here at KIPP is earned. EVERYTHING is earned. Everything is EARNED.” This is a much tougher game than the piano class in Dr. Bloom’s research. Likewise, at Spartak, the tennis hotbed in Russia, they did not “play” tennis - they preferred the verb borot’sya - “fight” or “struggle.”

There are many minor contradictions and overlaps in this book and make it much less convincing and credible and much of them are in the parts of “Ignition” and “Master Coaching.”

Insightful: 7/10: Daniel Coyle had done a very good work with his interviews in the so-called talent hotbeds around the world. Those examples are backed with stories from those involved. However, more researches with less depth would be great to confirm the findings of the deep and insightful ones.

Reading Experience: 6/10: At first, this book is very promising with the first part, “Deep Practice.” It gives you intriguing knowledge and very practical methods. However, the book fades out in the later parts I discussed above. While the “Deep Practice” part is very scientific, the other parts are not as solid. The general theme of the whole book is nice but the contradictions can frustrate you.

Overall: 6.5/10: This is a good book with a different perspective on how we look at talent. It will provide you with inspiration and sufficient guidelines to make you more talented in your fields. The Deep Practice part of the book is simply invaluable. The other two parts are not bad but some unclear messages might hold you back.

]]> http://www.tedded.net/2009/05/31/book-review-the-talent-code-daniel-coyle-2009/feed/ http://www.tedded.net/2009/05/25/book-review-influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion-robert-b-cialdini-phd-2007/ http://www.tedded.net/2009/05/25/book-review-influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion-robert-b-cialdini-phd-2007/#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 07:34:52 +0000 Viriya Taecharungroj http://www.tedded.net/?p=411 “Click and the appropriate tape is activated; whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of behaviors.”

“Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini is a book about psychology and how people react to the weapons of influence. The book has been published numerous times and the first edition dated back to 1984. The good point is that, despite dramatic changes in lifestyle and technology, human psychology does not change much. We are still the social animals and the weapons of influence is as effective to us as ever, if not even more. The book is arguably one of the best selling psychology books ever (although we can classify it as a business or self-improvement book).

Contents

(Actually, to explore the contents, you can easily google “Influence, Cialdini” and there will be a lot to read. So, I’ll keep it very brief.)

Intro: Weapons of Influence

1. Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take … and Take

The rule of reciprocation is that when you give someone something, it is almost obligatory that the person who took it has to return the favour. This rule is very effective that you feel you need to give back even though you are not satisfied with the whole situation.

2. Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind

This is the shortcut of human beings. We tend to do what we set our mind to without thinking much. It reduces time spent but sometimes consistency without careful consideration can be disastrous.

3. Social Proof: Truth Are Us

When you are thinking and doing one thing, it might be true or false. When too many people are thinking and doing that thing, our human mind tend to believe that it is true just because so many people do and believe in it. It might sound insignificant and Cialdini told us stories that the rule of “Social Proof” can lead to tragic deaths.

4. Liking: The Friendly Thief

It is not as simple as that you will do something if you like it. The author wrote different perspectives of liking such as that salesperson often pretend to be similar to us in one way or another to trigger the sense of association and similarity that can deceive our judgment or sexy ladies in the ad can stimulate the “liking” and alters your perception towards the product.

5. Authority: Directed Deference

We are born to obey authority from parents, teachers, etc. When we are adult, this same trait is still with us and we tend to obey and rely on people who we believe have higher authority. Authority comes in different forms such as titles, or even clothes.

6. Scarcity: The Rule of the Few

People always perceive that less is more valuable. Not having something is more tolerable than losing something. We always fear losing things or desire rarer things that sometimes it clouds our judgment.

…

I would like to compare this book to an ideal business book; the book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is structured nicely into 6 weapons of influence and each of them are explained sufficiently with many interesting researches. Those researches are not filled with complex statistics but common senses in everyday situations like a choice of cookie, car salesperson, poster ads, etc.

Distinction: 9/10: It is a matter of then and now. At the time the book was first published I doubt that there were many book that explored into our mind on how we make decisions. The findings are eye-opening in how they explain the reasons why we do what we do. Currently, there are many similar books on this topic but it is likely that “Influence” has influenced most, if not all, of them.

Practicality: 7/10: This book offers solid guidelines on how these methods work and how to avoid them. However, implementation is a different story because in many situations, there will not be enough time for you to implement it perfectly unless you are a natural born influencer. Nevertheless, this book is very useful if you have time to think and make decision.

Credibility: 7/10: Each method is supported by many researches; they are very credible. Moreover, those methods are pretty much common senses and self-explanatory but most of the time, we are not even aware of them because they are built-in our behaviours and they are often triggered subconsciously and involuntarily. The points are taken because some researches might still be just coincidence because despite having many researches, some are not deep enough.

Insightful: 9/10: This book is a great compilation of psychological researches about persuasion. There are more than “200″ references in the bibliography section in a 280 pages book. Some of them might be shallow but that number of researches is intriguing and you will learn a lot from the book.

Reading Experience: 2/10: I have been objective throughout my review, I need a place to be subjective and sentimental. You can ignore this completely but I do not like this book at all. Some remarks of the author has “influenced” me totally negatively. I will give you some examples.

Regarding the mass suicide in a jungle settlement in Guyana, South America led by the Reverend Jim Jones under the name of The People’s Temple. Approximately 910 died in the incident; people took strawberry flavored poison. The author suggested that due to the rule of “Social Proof”, when people are uncertain of the situation, they follow others and all of them died in orderliness. “When viewed in this light, the terrible orderliness, the lack of panic, the sense of calm with which these people moved to the vat of poison and to their deaths, seems more comprehensible.” [emphasis mine]

On the other hand, when the author explained people who are sport fans who refer to the team they support “we” when the team win. For example, when the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, 11 million people - in a city of 1.5 million - crowded the streets to shout “We’re Number 1″ as their heroes passed in a victory parade. And when the team lost, the sport fans rather refer to the team as “they”. Cialdini wrote

“Unless I miss my guess, they are not merely great sports aficionados; they are individuals with a hidden personality flaw - a poor self-concept. Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment.” [emphasis mine]

It continues “No matter which form it takes, the behavior of such individuals shares similar theme - the rather tragic view of accomplishment as deriving from outside the self.” [emphasis mine]

In the later chapter, there is an analogy of a shopper and fish; I find it very insulting to many people. It’s about shopping. He explained that commercial fishermen use loose bait to attract a large schools of certain fish. When water is full of fish snapping mouths competing for the food. Fishermen drop unbaited lines and catch fish because it crazed food and will bite at anything, including bare metal hooks. He stated that a “Bargain Sale” sign is a loose bait and you, shoppers, are craving fish.

“If the bait, of either form, has done its job, a large and eager crowd forms to snap it up. Soon, in the rush to score, the group becomes agitated, nearly blinded, by the adversarial nature of the situation. Human and fish alike lose perspective on what they want and begin striking at whatever is contested.” [emphasis mine]

Hence, while I felt terribly sorry for those in the mass suicide, we can imply that Cialdini sees them as psychologically normal but under a bad circumstance. While passionate sport fans (a majority of men) have poor self-concept and a rather tragic view of accomplishment. And girls fighting for clothes on sale (most female, obviously) are nearly blind food craving fish. Next time when you are going to support your sport team, take a look at a mirror and tell yourself how great you are instead. And ladies, alway buy full price.

Overall: 7.0/10: Despite the fact that I detest some remarks and the general know-it-all egotistical attitude of the author, this is an excellent book. It will teach you how to beware of the influence from everywhere in every social setting. The six methods are very clear and the number of researches are remarkable if you decide to use them or to prevent them from influencing you. Unfortunately, the author has totally influenced my negatively but when thinking of it sensibly, I still recommend everyone to read the book.

“The Ten Commandment for Business Failure” by Donald R. Keough, a former president of the Coca-Cola company, is a small book that, if you follow the instructions, will guide you to be a very successful loser. If you do not want to be one, this book is a must read and take those lessons as a cautionary tale.

Coca-Cola is one of the most recognisable brands on the planet but it was still vulnerable to failures. In this book, Keough tells you stories of Coca-Cola, among other companies, on how it became successful and how it failed at times. When you read the words “failure” and “Coca-Cola”, I bet the word “New Coke” sprang to your mind. Despite all the stories from any business book or textbook, in this book, you will have a chance to know it from the former president of Coca-Cola himself.

Contents

Commandment One: Quit Taking Risks

“It’s reasonable to think that because when you achieve something, even very little, there is the great temptation to quit taking risks.” Apart from telling you the reason that quit taking risk is a sure way to failure, Keough wrote briefly about Xerox and how they quited taking risk.

Commandment Two: Be Inflexible

Keough started this chapter with a story of Coca-Cola bottlers in 1940s-1950s and how they almost brought the company down because of the inflexible practice. This chapter also has the examples of IBM and Ford. All in all, “when the conditions around you change, remain inflexible. Keep on keeping on. Stand firm, You will fail.’

Commandment Three: Isolate Yourself

This chapter targets at those who get yourself a great big office in some remote corner of the most remote executive floor and the shut the door. And also put out a sign: “Don’t make the boss mad. Bring me no bad news.”

Commandment Four: Assume Infallibility

“If something seems to be heading in the wrong direction, cover up, better yet, wait until you have a full-blown crisis, then blame it on some external force - or blame it on somebody else.” Keough wrote about a brief ignorance of Coca-Cola that damaged the reputation dearly in Belgium. There was also a story of Coca-Cola in Germany that Keough admitted he was wrong because he somewhat assumed infallibility.

Commandment Five: Play the Game Close to the Foul Line

He wrote about the problem with the Wall Street that made CFO the rock stars of business instead of being the guardians of the transparency and the fiscal integrity of the corporations. “There is no such thing as business ethics. Just ethics. It’s not separated from the rest of your life.”

Commandment Six: Don’t Take Time to Think

Keough wrote that we are in the generation that is obsessed with technology. People said we are in the ‘information age’ but he disputed that we are in the ‘data age’ with all the ICT (Information and Communication Technology). We need to think and Keough tells you the vice of not thinking.

Commandement Seven: Put All Your Faith in Experts and Outside Consultants

This chapter has the popular case study, New Coke, not on how it failed but how it was caused. There is also a nice anecdote on Coca-Cola wine business.

Commandment Eight: Love Your Bureaucracy

“The bureaucrats who control these (bureaucratic) rituals guard them with their lives because any change undermines their own power or authority.” He also mentioned that bureaucracy in one of the main reasons talented individuals left the company. There are some short stories of Coca-Cola, Dell, NASA, etc regarding love of bureaucracy.

Commandment Nine: Send Mixed Message

“It doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll be rewarded.” is an example of a mixed message that Keough wrote about. Mixed messages create confusion. He wrote about Columbia and how Coca-Cola purchasing it sent a mixed message to everyone.

Commandment Ten: Be Afraid of the Future

The pessimists will not push anything forward be it corporations or a society. This chapter, Keough hit on the faces of those with pessimism.

Commandment Eleven: Lose Your Passion for Work - for Life

This is the bonus chapter and Keough wrote on how it is the most important one.

…

Next, I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book or a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 9/10: It is a little book written in a plain language and all the commandments were beautifully in sync. You do not have to fret with statistical data or figures, everything is easy to learn and absorb.

Distinction: 4/10: The major difference between this book and others is that it is written by Donald Keough. All the commandments and stories in this book are not new, just from an opposite perspective.

Practicality: 8/10: It is somewhat confusing to define ‘practicality’ of this book. Following the book will definitely lead you to failure and this book is written in a sarcastic tone. Thus, do the opposite and use the commandments in this book as a caution.

Reliability: 9/10: It is very hard to dispute his commandments. Look at the ten (eleven) commandments and try to tell which one will not lead to business failure. I can’t, and I don’t think anybody can. Although his experience alone is great enough, Keough put together different and interesting (albeit indifferent) stories of other companies and industries.

Insight: 5/10: This book is small and the stories are short. I wish stories, especially Coca-Cola ones, are longer with more insight and details. However, another thing I love about this book is quotations from various people. They are not numerous but I like every single one.

Reading Experience: 9/10: You will finish the book in no time. It is a pleasure to read. The tone of the book is sarcastic, casual, and joyful. I have never and will never have a chance to talk to Donald Keough but from the experience I have from reading the book, I come to think that the foreword by Warren Buffet might be true that “Don talks such sense and offers such inspiration. Don can tell you to go to hell so wonderfully you’ll enjoy the journey.”

Overall: 7.3/10: Get this book and you will like it. There are some flaws because it is very short but I truly believe that you can find much use of it. Hang this book it front of you office to remind you what you must not do in your business and you will shut the door to failure. By the way, I rarely pay attention to the praises and foreword but this book probably has one of the best compilations; Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jack Welch, and Rupert Murdoch… well… and George W. Bush!