Serendipity and Learning

This year was a bad book year. The year I suffered from readers block . So, taking stock of what I read this year.  Five Seats of Power by Raghu Ananthanarayan Invaders and Infidels by Sandeep Balakrishna Hindu Rashtra by Anand Ranganathan Humble Inquiry by Edgar Schein (re-read) Navigating Polarities by Brian Emerson and Kelly Lewis Trust and Inspire Stephen Covey The Wisdom of the Bullfrog by Admiral William Mc Raven The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd Night sky tells the time by Prof V Krishnamurthy From Manjunath to Manjamma by Harsha Bhatt Four thousand weeks by Oliver Burkeman Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows Seeing Systems by Barry Oshry The Darkening age: Christian destruction of the classical world by Catherine Nixey Build by Tony Fadell I have more books in my to-read list than ever before A translation of the Kumarasambhava by MR Kale Shankaras translation of the Viveka Chudamani Upanishads by Dr. Radhakrishnan The systems thinker by Albert Rutherford The Bhagavad Gi...

Pathless Path by Paul Millerd is a book that, as the title suggests encourages you to get off the beaten path.  What worked for me? The break down of the journey, what might one encounter, what are the freedoms one experiences and how to make the most it. What I liked about it was that I have experienced almost everything the author talks about during the time I pursued the pathless path. My frustrations, my coming to terms with it, my realising that I need to change my success parameters and finally to the point when I realised what I could do with it. Every single experience of mine resonated - and I feel proud in some way to have undertaken the journey, continue to undertake in some shape or form. This breakdown is something I have not seen anywhere else.  What did not work for me? It is a bit too self indulgent - the author talks a lot about himself and moving from a developed country to Asia is well, not exactly off the beaten path considering the hippies did it decades a...

Some of the books I enjoyed in 2022 were: Predators and Prey: An Indian thriller - very well written book that is fast paced and never lets go of the pace. 4000 weeks: A different look at time management in life (something I had known but not in this way) Europe, India and the limits of secularism India, Pakistan - the story of a sandwiched civilization: Both books on decolonialisation of thinking and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  India, Pakistan - the story of a sandwiched civilization - this is the second book of a trilogy in 4 parts. The first as well as this one is a very good compilation - one that ensures that as a reader you begin to see the world from a decolonial lens. The topic of decolonialization is an interesting one itself - a movement that is taking place in India and Africa.  50 things that made the modern economy & The next 50 things that made the modern economy - good, but not that great. Non Bullshit Innovation, How Innovation works: My usual quota of inno...

Over the years, I have been a fan of both Kindle and physical books.  I like the Kindle books because if you are travelling, practically the whole library travels with you. Highlighting is easy. I never lose the page I am reading. The book is practically new all the time. I can read in any light. I especially love it when I have to browse for content (happens when I using book for reference at work) Downside - It is still not easy as reading a book. I cant sleep while reading the Kindle - what if it falls down or on my face.  Paper books - only issue is space. Rest, all good.  And prices points of both printed and digital books are coming closer to each other than ever before (I wonder why though) Now here is my observation: Nowadays I am finding it difficult to finish books I have started on Kindle because it requires an additional bit of "get-ready" time.  The book otoh is easy to get started on. Plus unlike a Kindle, the book is not visibly screaming "read me" as...

A s I read Leadership BS - I found myself agreeing to many of the points raised by James Pfeffer. The first thing was the use of inspiration,  the second is an over focus on charisma (or executive presence); the fact that many consultants are only trainers, not practitioners. For trainings(I have had many clients tell me - I want you to inspire the team) of which I am not a great fan of - I believe inspiration is more a personal journey and people get inspired by different things in different ways. So, if your training program promises to be inspirational, you are probably being led up for short term feel good but long term zero utility value.  For those who of you who know me and have attended my trainings, I rarely, if ever use examples or stories like Steve Jobs (or <insert favourite tech tycoon names>) . The only place I do use is to share an example of say, first principle thinking. Else I believe that those are stories anyone can read in books and you need a traine...

Continuing from Leadership BS  Why do leaders think they are leaders? Once you attend leadership programs workshop, read it, see it, talk about it - you end up believing you are doing all of it - while you are not doing it in reality.  And leaders begin believe their own story. And this happens not just to leaders, happens to athletes, businessmen, artists and so on... And they begin to believe that they are infallible and then boom! So, how to ensure a reality check? 

In Leadership BS - this is the authors  take on what is wrong with the leadership industry. It is 1, well intentioned, values laden. 2, set of prescriptions - lots of shoulds and oughts. 3, that are mostly not representative of most people in leadership roles and 4 are recommendations that are almost certainly not implementable and may be fundamentally misguided.  In which case, what should a training program look like? 1. Assessments, observations, honest feedback (the most difficult part in my view). This is difficult because unless observations are unbiased and feedback is honest (best from peers) this cannot happen. Also leaders are leaders - people do not share honest feedback to leaders for a variety of reasons. Assessments are also expensive - so often they are the first thing that is ditched (second being the next one) 2. Lots of practice. That comees by investing in long term behaviour change (the second most difficult thing) It is difficult because of budgets and tim...

I was reading "How Innovation Works" by Matt Ridley . And in that he asks a question - what came first - the moon landing or baggage with wheels? You will be surprised to know that it was the former. The reasons for baggage not having wheels are many - from the travel pattern to the design of travel areas to the demography of travel - but whatever it is, many a times, there is a particular time that an innovation takes root - and some ideas are simply ahead of their time. This was a fascinating story and there were others from olden to modern times. One of the myths about innovation is the flash of insight that changes everything. While that flash does happen and you might get that insight or that brilliant idea - from there to actually making, selling and creating an impact are a far longer road. And the history of innovation has repeatedly proven that innovation is a long and often difficult process. Innovations and innovators build from each other (and rightly so), jump di...

Probably the best book I read this year - User Friendly by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant. The book traces the journey of how the focus on user friendly interfaces, products, design thinking, watching the user in their natural habit - all of this - evolved.  Part history, part story - it takes us closer to the pioneers of the field, who am sure, most of us did not know. It also takes us into some of the crucial moments that made it happen.  If you are a fan of Design Thinking or work on something for your users (which is true for almost all of us), this is a must read.  Somehow missed posting this when I had read it back in November

 I started this book in December and finished it in a few days. One of the key arguments of this book is that a lot of what we think of as our "desires" are mimetic behaviour. We want something because someone else is doing it. Think of it as imitation.  Most of the phenomenon of marketing is all about subtle or latent imitation. Social media is all about mimetic behaviour -  considering that everybody's lovely lives are put out on display. The author argues that social media has suddenly made the entire world much more suspectible to being caught in this trap.  Think influencer marketing. Or advertisement. That is still in your face - but a lot of other desires are latent - we dont realise why we want what we want. There is a virtuous circle of mimetic behaviour and a vicious circle of mimetic behaviour. The point is to know which of our desires are actual and which of the are mimetic. And there is no good or bad - the very nature of human existence means we display...

User Friendly - easily the best book I have ever read on the evolution of Design Thinking.  Wanting - a fabulous book on Mimetic desire or rather how what we want is mimetic.  What does it mean to be an Indian - really the younger sibling of the magnum opus - The Heathen in his Blindness - is a fantastic short version of the original book by SN Balagangadhara. I finished both of them in 2021.  Out of this world - How NASA created the best team on the planet. Lateral Leadership - this is a book on a different approach to Leadership.  Working Backwards and The Amazon Management System - two books with an insight into How Amazon works.  India that is Bharat - a brilliant deconstruction of de-colonial thinking. Together with SN Balagangadharas book, this book shows us how we are trapped in a colonial thinking "matrix".  Subscribed - a book with some cool insights how products need to change as they move into a subscription model.  Seeing what others dont -...

In the olden days when blogging was a thing, people used to link each others blogs, like this. This is a link to Ravi's review of my book . Thank you Ravi.  So, yes, I did write a book .  The goal was to reach about 35000 words. And as soon as the writing and editing work was done, I suffered from a deep imposter syndrome. The first copies arrived and I could not bring myself to read the book afraid that there would be some error or other in it. When I read it, I was relieved that there were no errors.  And the book sold well, and some people bought copies for their teams and so on. So, thats one thing ticked off the bucket list. Write a real book with an ISBN number.  And yay, I am an author!

 As I reader of non-fiction, some books are just pathetic to read. What makes a non fiction book pathetic? 1. They all look like they are written by the same person. There is a style to it. First it starts with describing what they wore, what they ate, a description, then a few words and then the deep insight (which is neither deep not insightful)  2. They are basically rehashed versions of other (lots of) books .  3. They are repackaged greatness . A set of people appreciate one another and write books cross referencing each other. Almost seems like a insider trading scam. 4. They become more about the author than the topic at hand. I recall a great book that I was a huge fan of and was looking forward to this authors second book and the second book was all about herself.   5. They cash in on a trend (and I buy them). And very soon they are out dated.  Thoughts as I finish a book with a great cover picture, but quite a pathetic one otherwise. This book som...

The added benefit of reading this book was a bunch of good movies to watch out for - Bird box, Icarus, Roma and Mighty Little Bheem. The last one is pertinent since Netflix has really invested in bringing up the quality of animation of Chotta Bheem.  That apart, the book is a fantastic read. Though everything that Netflix has managed to implement - not every company can - like no company can really become another Amazon.  But some parts stood out and can be done for the most part. Candor and honest feedback for instance. Leading by context, not control as a next step. And the innovation part.  But what comes in the way is 1, the existing culture and 2, the investment of time and effort required in moving these existing cultural icebergs. And most companies fail at 2, because the day to day hustle always comes in the way.  All in all a fantastic read for anyone interested in corporate culture and a lot of things we take for granted as "culture". 

Across all my mediums - Kindle and Hard copy, On my list at the start of the year are: The Human Cosmos - where the author takes into a way the cosmos has been mapped and seen by various cultures from the beginning of mankind. A fascinating journey - I intend to savour this book slowly. The Parasitic Mind - This is a thinking book. In a world where everyone seems to have the same, one-sided opinion - I hope this one enables my critical thinking.  Becoming Myself - a psychiatrists journey. I am halfway through this. While it is an autobiographical story, it is also a sort of history of psychiatry and psychology and I like it for that.  Fermats Last theorem - A story of how this theorem was solved - even for those not mathematically inclined. Geometry in Ancient and Medieval India - an exploration of ancient geometry. I got this book after much waiting.  Range  - a book on specialists versus generalists. I am not sure where I fit, so this seems an interesting read for ...

Here is a list of books I enjoyed in this year. Most of the books I liked are here. I generally read non-fiction and do a lot of reading in the course of my work - in fact it is one component where my work and my passion intersects. I read fiction when it is recommended by a few people on whom I rely. So, a shortish list of the books I read in 2020. Note to myself (need to do a better job of tracking this list) To start with, Loonshots is a fantastic read on what it takes to create something truly innovative.  From the Beginning of Time - is a brilliant attempt to decode ancient Indian stories (Puranas) and map them to current day science. The Great Mental Models and Superthinking - something I read when I had to speed up my knowledge on mental models.  On Writing well - a book on writing that lives up to its promise.  Creative Selection - a fantastic book on designing a product/s.  Banaras - the city of Light - a book that makes me want to go back to Varanasi someti...

 Caveat: I tend to suffer from a bit of narrative fallacy .  As I read Upstream, I couldn't help but think how Learning and Development in any organization has to reinvent itself more and more as an Upstream process than a Downstream process.  It is something most LnD professionals know - that LnD has to be proactive, not reactive or that LnD must solve problems before they appear. But alongwith however, one question LnD often ends up discussing is about the metrics and there never seems to be any agreement on what metrics LnD should deploy since most of the metrics being looked at "reactive". Reactive metrics cannot work on Proactive work.  Upstream has many business, social, consumer and other examples of upstream thinking. As someone who is deeply passionate about the LnD process, I felt this is a must read for all of us to understand how to see the Org. And perhaps more importantly enable our stakeholders to embrace the Upstream view of LnD as well.  Would l...

I was attending a session on design and the speaker referred to this book, "Creative Selection". Instantly I ordered it. And promptly finished it over the weekend. This is a fantastic book. If you are in the creative space or in the space of design or product or just want to get a deep inside view of design or creation, this is a must read book. And the single biggest takeaway? Great product or design is no accident. It is a combination of perseverance, diligence, risk, choices and decisions, among other things... Thats all I will say. Read it!

As the books bought list from various people grows -a typical end of the year malaise- I have to admit - any book list usually makes me lose money in a literal sense. In a metaphorical sense, luckily, I have been brought up to believe that books are a great investment and that remains my approach to buying books. So, this year at this point, this is what my list looks like...Some of these books are in the started (it is tough to not start a book right away no?) mode... Behind the Cloud - the story of Salesforce - by Marc Benioff. The story of how a new category was created promises to be a fascinating read. Yes, late to the party this one... Forgotten Indian cities - the story of how the Indus civilization was discovered - by Navanjyot Lahiri. How were Mohenjodaro and Harappa discovered? Who were the people. A story that we dont know about since our history books covered Indus valley civilization in about a chapter while teaching about Aryan Invasion - a story which has now prove...

Non Violent Communication - Rosenberg. I dipped into this book and dipped out of it. But is a promising read for sure, coming from a communicating with empathy standpoint. Trillion Dollar Coach - Eric Schmidt. A breezy read -the story of Bill Campbell who has mentored many in Silicon valley. Read it to know more about different coaching styles. Alchemy - Rory Sutherland This is a great read on market and customer insights and how much of customer behaviour is psychological. The Era of Baji Rao - Uday Kulkarni. A historical read on one of the lesser told and known stories of India. And of course, leadership. Banaras- City of Light by Diane Eck. This one is the best written book on one of the worlds oldest living cities. Written lovingly - I have never read any book on any city in India with such a comprehensive history. Blitzscaling - Reid Hoffmann. I picked this up with great expectations, but I did not find anything that stood out in particular. Atomic Habits - James Clear. Thi...