THE PHOENIX PROJECT

 

Thanks to my boss and best buddy HARI SHANKAR for recommending this book. It's a wonderful read for IT Professionals in general and those involved doing DevOps in particular.

This book is like an Ayn Rand novel in which the protagonists Howard Roark or John Galt are giving lectures and work on DevOps, ITIL LEAN MANUFACTURING. Well, Ayn Rand is my favorite author hence the reference.

This book is about the most important project named PHOENIX PROJECT in PARTS UNLIMITED company

Below figure represents the cast of the company in which the protagonist BILL PALMER has become the VP of IT Operations much against his will and this book is about how he manages daily activities and with the help of his colleagues and bosses brings the culture of DevOps into IT Operations and helps the company and turnaround from a hopeless state back to a profitable state.

Also to mention that the cover of the book gives each character an avatar

Takeaways : 

1. The concept of a work center that is made up of four things and each are equally important:

• The machine 
• The man
• The method
• The measures

2. THE FOUR TYPES OF WORK

When Bill is struggling to understand what is going wrong within his organization, he is taken under the wing of what appears, at first, to be an eccentric mad-man but ends up being a voice of reason (represented by a character named Eric). He explains that Bill doesn’t truly understand what work is. Furthermore, Bill doesn’t understand that there are four types of work. What are these four types of work?  

Business Projects

These are initiatives that directly add value to the business, such as adding new features to increase growth or capture market share. This “work” comes as a result of the organization defining its objectives and thinking about what it takes to accomplish those objectives.

Internal IT Projects

These projects are those which are needed to either support or enhance the business projects mentioned above, such as the internal management dashboard.

Changes

Changes can be projects in and of themselves and are generated as a result of working on the two kinds of work above, that is business projects and internal IT projects.

Unplanned Work

While the 3 kinds of work above are types of planned work, there exists a fourth category of work called unplanned work. This work results due to operational incidents and issues, or due to the unforeseen or unplanned consequences of the first 3 kinds of work. Working on unplanned work comes at the cost of working on planned work, and is sometimes referred to as “anti-work” because it prevents us from working on meaningful tasks. 

3. THE THREE WAYS OF WORK

Once the types of work have been identified, they can be minimized and mitigated by following The Three Ways.

The first way is about the left-to-right flow of work from Development to IT Operations to the customer.

The second way is about the constant flow of fast feedback from right-to-left at all stages of the value stream.

The third way is about creating a culture that fosters two things: continual experimentation and understanding that repetition and practice is the prerequisite to mastery.

Identifying the kinds of work we do and implementing the Three Ways to elevate how we engage with our work is the key takeaway of this book.  

A book is hard to be justified in a tiny blog post, but I’m hoping you see enough wisdom in The Three Ways and how they apply to you. 

A grouse if I had any was that the time spent on the overhaul of the ways of working is too less. The change that they're able to achieve in the book in the given timeframe is, well, quite unrealistic. Most companies don't face extinction and are not forced to relook at the way services are delivered. And if they do, changing the whole value stream and culture of a company is probably something that takes years and not weeks and months (if we talk about a normal mid-sized company). Having said that, I very much like and appreciate the thinking model behind the novel, as expressed in The Three Ways was startling.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK: 

“Improving daily work is even more important than doing daily work.”

“In any value stream, there is always a direction of flow, and there is always one and only constraint; any improvement made anywhere besides the constraint is an illusion.”

“A great team doesn’t mean that they had the smartest people. What made those teams great is that everyone trusted one another. It can be a powerful thing when that magic dynamic exists.”

“repetition creates habits, and habits are what enable mastery.”

“Left unchecked, technical debt will ensure that the only work that gets done is unplanned work!”

“As the saying goes, if your colleague tells you they’ve decided to quit, it was voluntary. But when someone else tells you they’ve decided to quit, it was mandatory.”

DEAR IJEAWELE

AUTHOR: CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH


Before I review, I am putting the fifteen suggestions as extracted from the book (reworded accordingly but mostly verbatim).

1. Be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by
motherhood
2. Do it together (Mom & Dad)
3. Teach her that the idea of ‘gender roles’ is absolute nonsense. Do not ever tell her that she
should or should not do something because she is a girl.
4. Reject this entirely  the idea of conditional female equality
5. Teach the child to read. Teach her to love books
6. Teach her to question language. Language is the repository of our prejudices, our beliefs, our
assumptions. But to teach her that, you will have to question your own language.
7. Never speak of marriage as an achievement. Find ways to make clear to her that marriage is not
an achievement, nor is it what she should aspire to.
8. Teach her to reject likeability. Her job is not to make herself likable, her job is to be her full
self, a self that is honest and aware of the equal humanity of other people
9. Give the child a sense of identity. It matters.
10. Be deliberate about how mom engages with her and her appearance
11. Teach her to question our culture’s selective use of biology as ‘reasons’ for social norms.
12. Talk to her about sex, and start early. It will probably be a bit awkward but it is necessary
13. Romance will happen, so be on board
14. In teaching her about oppression, be careful not to turn the oppressed into saints
15. Teach her about the difference. Make difference ordinary. Make difference normal. Teach her not to attach value to the difference

These 15 suggestions are absolutely doable if a mother determines to implement. Having said that, it's upon the mother and mother alone to determine what she wants for the girl child. Although there is a huge role of the father in running the family, it is emotionally confined as a mother can understand the emotions of the girl child better than a man. I say this because, before becoming a  mother she had been a daughter and she understands, what girls go through emotionally.

This essay is a letter Adichie wrote to a friend who asked for advice on how to raise her daughter as a feminist. It touches upon different aspects like the role of fathers, beauty, sexuality, empathizing with child and societal view of a being girl,.

It is definitely an easy read that is simple accessible and yet very emotional and powerful. The language is very simple while the tone is strong, it is assertive I must say.

It is indeed very accessible who understands compassion and is sensitive at heart.  Yet, if I look at the book from a guy's perspective (of a current husband and probably a future-father of a girl child), I doubt if all the suggestions are practical enough. I have reservations in few of these while I agree to most.

This essay really affected me personally and moved me definitely and I felt touched although, I am not a girl. So, for that I give this book a must read rating. 

THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS

AUTHOR: AYN RAND

ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

“The Virtue of Selfishness” begins with these lines in its introduction

The title of this book may evoke the kind of question that I hear once in a while: “Why do you use the word ‘selfishness’ to denote virtuous qualities of character when that word antagonizes so many people to whom it does not mean the things you mean?” 
To those who ask it, my answer is: “For the reason that makes you afraid of it.”

Ayn Rand wrote those lines and this book is not about selfishness in the conventional way “we” use or think about the word— selfishness. I must agree that we as humans have a high judgmental tendency to form and adapt things according to "us" that is our way of looking at things, perceiving them and applying them and in a similar vein, we applied this to language and thus I believe the word "selfishness" became an antagonizing word.

We live in a world where we love labels. A girl and boy cannot be together without being labeled as "couple" yeah they either have to be boyfriend-girlfriend or get married, without which the world is confused. The society is actually like a kid who is shown a fruit and if the fruit is not given a name, then he is confused. So we got to be labeled "single" or "married", "Hindu" or "Christian" or some other religion or even "atheist". Yeah, the world loves labels and when someone questions the existence of labels the world freaks out. Thus, when the book is named as "VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS" I heard many people asking me the question why I am reading it in the first place and some suggested I should keep myself away from such demeaning thought process and for that very reason, I read the book. 

I am recently hearing a lot of religious factions propagating their own things and in all ways and means, I am afraid that I do not seek nor heed to the conventional thinking of practicing idol worship or any symbolism per say. Although, I do perform some minimal rituals I do not do them for any ritualistic orgasm more so for the people who feel happy when they get to know I do it. So I am "selfish" but not "selfless" as per my ethics, my happiness lies in others happiness and not in any ritual. So there lies the answer to the need for ethics. 

The book began wonderfully with the chapter "The Objectivist Ethics" and explains why ethics are an objective necessity against a subjective luxury. 

I quote from the book 

The avowed mystics held the arbitrary, unaccountable “will of God” as the standard of the good and as the validation of their ethics. The neo-mystics replaced it with “the good of society,” thus collapsing into the circularity of a definition such as “the standard of the good is that which is good for society.”

Also, I subscribe totally to this paragraph

It is not men’s immorality that is responsible for the collapse now threatening to destroy the civilized world, but the kind of moralities men have been asked to practice. The responsibility belongs to the philosophers of altruism. They have no cause to be shocked by the spectacle of their own success, and no right to damn human nature: men have obeyed them and have brought their moral ideals into full reality.

So, the world that we live in is filled with the terrorist of all sorts and they are not amoral but their morals are different and challenging and the responsibility lies with the philosophers than the executors of the acts. 
Thus, I believe this book although written in 1964 resonates even today and I firmly believe that Rand's philosophy is applicable to the current times.

In the next chapter that is "Mental Health versus Mysticism and Self-Sacrifice" that is written by Nathaniel Branden, he totally condemns the thought of self-sacrifice. When a mom says "I sacrifice my time to get my kid ready", then the question that triggers is does she want to be a mom who readies her kid or is she forced to do so?

From the book, I quote 

Do mystics declare that all they demand of man is that he sacrifices his happiness? To sacrifice one’s happiness is to sacrifice one’s desires; to sacrifice one’s desires is to sacrifice one’s values; to sacrifice one’s values is to sacrifice one’s judgment; to sacrifice one’s judgment is to sacrifice one’s mind—and it is nothing less than this that the creed of self-sacrifice aims at and demands.

Okay now I will stop quoting from the book, I already gave away 3 paragraphs and giving away anything more would not do justice for a book that is worth not just buying and reading but also keeping and referring frequently.

Ayn Rand is ruthless is making her point from start to end. She never gets carried away from the context and makes her point firmly and that is what is amazing about this book. Never did I feel out of place or context. 

The essays “Psychology of Pleasure”, “Man’s rights” are sheer genius. Although the former was by Nathaniel Branden and the latter was by Ayn Rand herself, they are extremely well written. Every essay has its coveted place and overall flow of the book is terrific.

Despite the bluntness, if read with a rational mind, this book would be acceptable and will be appreciated as one of the finest books on philosophy and selfishness along with Rand’s another book “Philosophy: Who Needs It”

She is one of the best writers of the 20th century and by far the most influential in my life. 


A 5/5 for this wonderful book.

My review of "Philosophy: Who Needs It"

https://braddugg.blogspot.in/2017/09/philosophy-who-needs-it.html

PHILOSOPHY WHO NEEDS IT

AUTHOR: AYN RAND
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

This is a powerful book and there are few books that question our own faith and also give us an alternative way of thinking, this is one such book. A collection of essays by Ayn Rand edited by Leonard Peikoff, this books has all it takes for a must read book.

I was introduced to Ayn Rand with her novel "The Fountainhead" and in my exploration of Ayn Rand and her thought process, I supposed that this book "Philosophy: Who Needs It" would help me know more about Ayn Rand and her philosophy and also try and see if I can drive few principles that I can implement in my own life. That was 2006 when I first read this book. Even today, that is 11 years later it stands tall and has almost got a divine place in my mind. There is too much to say and how much ever I review I cannot complete the substance enough.

Ayn Rand seems to be a mix of many contemporary and also the oldest philosophers. For me, she is a mix of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and one of the one earliest philosophers, Aristotle. Also, she rants against altruism. Rand made altruism the root of all evil in the existing world and that was a radical approach and the thoughts are put so very objectively that I could not help but heed to her words in the book.

The book begins with the chapter "Philosophy: Who Needs It" and in this, she strongly puts the need of Philosophy and also giving examples that everyone indeed has a certain philosophy of living that makes his/her own way of life. In "Philosophical Detection", she conveys that every man ought to have the eye for discrimination to understand the difference between the "fundamentals" and "derivatives". It is the fundamentals that form the core philosophy for a human.

Then, she moves onto differentiating the metaphysics and the artificiality of humans in "Metaphysical Versus The Man-Made". In the "Missing Link" she gives examples to help us understand the method by which mind habitually deals with the content in the mind. Also, I encountered a beautiful term "Psycho epistemology" which I cannot explain in a blog but is worth reading about in the book.

Then, my favorite and perhaps a powerful chapter "Selfishness without a self" arrives and here, she talks about the herd (collective mankind following faith and beliefs with irrationality). This herd has a basis for what they do and they believe what they do is right. "I did this based on an existing and well-accepted principle, so it is right" is what herd (referred to as a pack of wolves) says in the real world. Personally, this stands as my favorite in the book.

In the chapter, "An Open Letter to Boris Spassky", she writes a letter to the Russian chess champion explaining her views on Capitalism and why real world rules in soviet union are unbearable if it had to be chess game

In, "Faith and force: the destroyers of the modern world", she attacks Mysticism, Collectivism, and Altruism brutally and also reasons out how Immanuel Kant wanted to save altruism through mysticism. "From the horse's mouth", gives examples of modern philosophers who disagreed with Kant and also debates with the existing "Kantians". Again, in the next chapter "Kant versus Sullivan", she debates on how many people in the current world need the help of "Annie Sullivan" (Annie Sullivan is the teacher of Helen Keller). This chapter takes reference from the play "The Miracle Worker"

In perhaps, the most talked and rather the most controversial chapter "Causality Versus Duty", Rand kills the conventional concept of duty and says "Duty cannot be for self-interest or virtue; driven by parents, church, and government". She goes on saying that life or death is the fundamental alternative. The only obligation that matters is a personal promise as per Rand.

"An untitled letter" conveys how the ability is the biggest challenge of man. To understand whether one is "able to do" or "not" is the biggest challenge for a human being. She gives a good number of examples to put the point. Although I could not relate to many of the examples, I could understand what she was trying to convey. In "Egalitarianism and Inflation" Rand talks how these two words are tough to understand and are more often than not misconstrued and misinterpreted.

In "The Stimulus and the Response" she talks about how power/muscle without consciousness leads to destruction. In "The Establishing an Establishment" she talks about how funding through government bring an enforcement and how only a few exceptional men can withstand and break through censorship. In the chapter "Censorship: Local and Express", she gives lot more details on these points.

"Fairness Doctrine for Education" conveys that fairness cannot be applied justly. Fair in itself is a perspective and what doctrine means a set of beliefs by an Orthodox organization. This is not justifiable as per Rand. There should be fairness in teaching all ideologies as against set principles and ideologies.

In "What can one do" Rand conveys action items of which I am listing a few which I believe in doing

• Develop own convictions
• Speak on any scale you can
• Express views on issues

In "Don't let it go", Rand tells to have conviction, fight for reason and to have a sense of existence and also be responsible for what we do.

To sum it up, this is a powerful book. Ayn Rand has been of great influence on me. She made me question the existence of GOD. She made me believe that above all "What we do" matters. How selfishness is the root of all good things that we do.

This book helped me shape my character and I owe some part of me to the books by Ayn Rand. A 4/5 for this. A must read for all those who believe in reason, selfishness, and objectivism.

THINKING FAST AND SLOW

AUTHOR: DANIEL KAHNEMAN
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

A bible for those who curiously ask themselves "Why we think, the way we think"

Although, my friend Raghuveer made me acquainted with this book, my colleague Raghav put forth a question from this book that intrigued me and pulled me into reading it. It took me two weeks to complete and it may take many more years for me to completely comprehend what this book meant. Here I am trying to just summarize from my perspective.

This book is a masterpiece on thinking itself. The first of its kind book in my reading experience.
The book begins by specifying the systems in the mind as System 1 and System 2. Few lines from the book itself

"System 1 - It operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control
System 2 - It allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex calculations"

There are some wonderful examples of this system and explaining how the mind works. Also, the book is filled with some clear and at times simplified, mundane examples of mental activity.

The book is filled with experiments that the author along with his friend Amos Tversky performed over the years and their learning from them. The book ignited hidden ambiguity within the mind and gave some strong reasoning. I was astonished by few answers and how these are related to statistics too.

PART 1 deals with the two systems mentioned above. To summarize this, I could say that while System 1 is driven by reflex, emotion and comfort and some cognitive bias, System 2 is takes it's own sweet time that is - it's lazy and also trying to control the thoughts. System 1 is prejudiced and hasty while System 2 is deliberate and lazy.

PART 2 gives and elaborated patterns and effects with numerous experiments. It was interesting to learn how by default mind plays the guessing game. It looks for patterns in persons, nature and almost everything in the universe. Based on the patterns it tries to guess what next or tries to help visualize the mind what is going to happen next. This is itself was an amazing insight among many other insights given Also, the book conveys the idea that gutting or trusting your intuition always may not be a good idea as intuition derives cues from previous experiences (see how pattern seekers we are).

PART 3 is named OVERCONFIDENCE and it places various factors for the same within the mind. From overlooking reality due to the effect of System 1 (prejudice) to having illusions manifested with previous consequences or by trusting the intuition. More or less, we tend to trust our senses and try to go with them and only when it does not give the desired result we are shattered and then the typical existential questions like "where did I go wrong in the first place?" pop up. The chapter "Expert Intuition: How Can We Trust It?" elaborated many aspects and throws light on some fine nuances in the thought process too.

PART 4 is where the author took Bernoulli's hypothesis (I hardly understood the technical aspects of this) and built and alternative model called "Prospect Theory". While Bernoulli's theory stated that there is the same amount of emotion involved in happiness or sadness, the "Prospect Theory" begs to differ and says the level of emotion involved in each circumstance may vary.
Simply put - find $10 is not as same as losing $10. There are many parameters that have to be considered here.

The author spoke at length about "Endowment Effect" wherein he says a person feels owed more to what he naturally possess over being owed to those that are either acquired/given/ inherited. This is a great thought I would say and this was another surprise element for me.

The chapter "Bad Events" helps us understand how the mind gives a lot of weight to the end. A movie might have a great beginning but if the climax is not good (as per our satisfaction levels) we tend to term the movie as bad. Also, another chapter "Rare Events" deals with why the mind acts in a specified manner in case of certain events. Example, people affected by Tsunami tend to be away from beached for many days.

The chapters "Fourfold Pattern", "Risk Policies", "Keeping Score" elucidate the responses of the brain in risky situations and how is risk considered understood and what it takes the mind takes to mitigate the risk.

PART 5 deals with two Selves of the mind, the experiencing self, and the remembering self. More often than not. the remembering self-dominates us. For the remembering self, it is the end that matters whether it's an abyss or peak. Experiencing in itself is a time-consuming process that demands it's own bandwidth and space within the mind and acts slowly.

So that was a summary of how I perceived the book. It was a great experience for me. For few aspects, I could map them to some aspects of Hindu Philosophy and even spiritual thinking too.

I am sure that those who have seriously read the book once would mostly have a changed rationale in thinking and also their perception towards individuals may be affected too. This book is strong, to say the least, but indeed it only makes us realize how much more powerful the wonderful mind is.

THE POWER OF HABIT

AUTHOR: CHARLES DUHIGG
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

A book that overwhelmingly talks about the power of a habit.

There are numerous examples of people who have a habit and what did they accomplish with that habit. Also, there are stories of people who have a less valuable life because of their habits.

Habit is defined in English as below

Habit(n): an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary

Now with that definition of habit, it's a pattern. Habits are consistent as consistent as doing brush daily. Our life is actually consumer by habits for 70-80% what we do for the remaining part is actually a luxury. So if we have good habits, then we shall be successful and we have bad habits we shall be a failure in life.

This book did not tell about how to correct bad habits in detail and almost followed a similar pattern for each of habit that was explained. Be it drinking a coffee, eating a choco chip or brushing teeth. Also, organizations mentioned in the book are told to have benefitted with habits. The examples given in the book depict reality and I appreciate the author Charles Duhigg for his research work.

After reading through the first two chapters I got a hang of the context of the book and started skimming through the pages. I did not find any great value add I must say by the end. Although,
in Appendix I found something of huge value, I thought the rest of 250 odd pages were filled with stories that were reasoning more on habit formation and sustenance.

The book though gives a scientific explanation, it evolves from stories and studies. It's like trying to sell a thought process providing examples. That's one of the main reasons, which did not make me involve as a reader. I cannot buy or read through books whose intent is to sell a thought. Those are preachy books and this book I felt is preachy too. I am not sure if I can call it self-help too coz I could not get any great help from the book.

Yet, I got to know an understanding of habit and the cue-routine-reward loop.

Also, the framework for reshaping a habit was well put.

Identify the Routine
Experiment with Rewards
Isolate the Cue
Have a Plan

Though for me it was an average read, I got some insights and am thankful for that.
The best paragraph for me in the book was actually a quote of William James.

"All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits - practical, emotional, and intellectual - systematically organized for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be"

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY

AUTHOR(S): W. CHAM KIM & RENEE MAUBORGNE
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

A book that focuses on how we can create markets by disrupting the prevailing markets and have our own space.

For me, it was a good read with many insights. I was actually amazed that if I were a marketing or sales head of a company how much valuable this book would be. This should be a must-read book for many entrepreneurs and marketing managers. There are so many case studies and each is derived from a strategy. If the strategies are understood, applied to the organization, and executed using analytical data then I am sure more often than not, a blue ocean (a disruptive market space) can be created.

The book is divided into two parts with the chapters as mentioned below.
Part One : Blue Ocean Strategy

Creating Blue Oceans
Analytical Tools and Frameworks

Part Two : Formulating Blue Ocean Strategy

Reconstructing Market Boundaries
Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Reach Beyond Existing Demand
Get the Strategic Sequence Right
Overcome Key Organizational Hurdles
Build Execution Into Strategy
Align Value, Profit and People Propositions
Renew Blue Oceans
Avoid Red Ocean Traps

All through the book, there are tons case studies and many types of industries are covered. Example, from Circus Industry which is disrupted by the formation of Cirque De Soleil to the Computer Industry, disrupted by Apple. From the evolution of Automobiles from Ford to Mercedes-Benz to Southwest Airlines Tagline changed the Airlines Industry, there are overwhelming examples.

This is one of the most relevant business books now and there is no doubt it is one of the best sellers too. Of the plethora of concepts given, I loved the Reduce, Raise, Eliminate, Create concept. Also, the path of creating a strategy and implementing at strategy level in an organization is superbly documented.  I would refrain to explain concepts in detail here, as that would be like giving away some insights which are worth knowing by reading the book itself. The way the concepts are presented in the book is commendable.

Though I found some disconnect in few aspects as I was not well versed with certain examples, yet I could understand the thought process behind the need of expressing the same. The logical flow of chapters is nice and so the English. In this book, I expected a language that would be tough to comprehend. For my surprise, it was in a professional's language (a person who has some kind of work experience to understand his own work sphere) and I could thus understand without any assistance.

Also, there are diagrams and some of which are graphs. It took some time for me to get the vision of graphs and how to read them. If looked at in isolation, they did not mean mush, but in the context, those were well done.

I thank the Harvard Business Review Press and the Authors. They published this book so that public at large, especially entrepreneurs are benefitted. 

STONER

AUTHOR: JOHN EDWARD WILLIAMS
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Every human being has a story, every story has its own interesting aspects.The biggest takeaway from the book is this.

After the third chapter in the book, I stopped expecting anything above than a typical ordinary man's routine and I fell in love with the narrative from then. Stoner lives an average person's life. What the big fuss then, one may say. Yet, the essence is to remind us to value life as it is. "I am just a little person, one person in a sea" - Lyrics of a song that I love. Yet, that little man in the world is world to many people. For his family, he is a sea, for his wife or kids he is an ocean.

John Williams put up a normal story and the style is also pretty normal. Fiction, though this book may be categorized into, but there is not even a page that is unrealistic. Not an event, that may not have happened or heard in any of our lives. Yet, to celebrate each of those and understand that it's okay as long as lessons are learned and reflected upon. Mistakes are meant to be made by humans, nobody is perfect they say. But strife for perfection should never be stopped. I am learning new things and unlearning old things. There are few things I carry and few things that I realized to have learnt the wrong way.

Life gives us choices, rather time gives us choices and we pick what we think is right at that point time. Is that the right choice or not, shall again be decided by time. Also, nothing is like a love for eternity. Those who find their true love are lucky I must say. But for most, life ends searching for true love. This book about one of those many lives, which ends in pursuit rather than fulfillment.

I loved the book for its simplicity and authenticity. Stoner avoided the World War and he avoided many wars in his life. It's a book that I can relate to and am connected. It's a beautiful find in my life.

SIDDHARTHA

AUTHOR: HERMAN HESSE

ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: GERMAN

TRANSLATOR: HILDA ROSNER (translated from German)

An important book on the potential of a human being. 

People are privileged in much more ways than perhaps I can comprehend and write here. I am blessed to be hale and healthy and have my senses working and organs intact. Many like me are around, and I am sorrowful when I see them while away time and fade away without reaching their potential. But before that, there is a pertinent question that bothers me, have I realised my potential. Have I at least understood what is my potential? What I can do in a day, if I can stick to a regime and perform the activities? Have I ever experienced or lived a day to my full potential yet? I have passed days, months, years and reached this point. Is it too late to realise that too much of time wasted? Is it the right time to reflect and see, what are the good things that I can continue, and what are the things I need not keep and things where I need to change? Oh, too many questions and I am privileged again to be in space, where I am with people I want to spend time with. Privilege if taken for granted culminates into death (the purpose of existence will be defeated). After I read the book, I am more grateful for the privileges that I have.

I read the book two times, I must confess. First time when I read, I took it for a story of a boy. Siddhartha, the eponymous boy who is contemporary to Buddha (referred to as 'Gotama' in the book), travels a path like that of Buddha, yet when encountered, he decides to go his way and find peace and bliss on his own. The second time, I read with few questions in mind "What does the book tell? What is the author's intention behind writing the book and telling the story?" Answers enlightened me. It talks about life, human culture, beings, river, flow. I am amazed by the insights. The book is indeed a spiritual journey and thus triggered the questions as I mentioned in the above paragraph.

Among the chapters, I especially loved "The Ferryman". Life is like a river. Patience, listening, and perseverance; characteristics that I took from the chapter.

The style of the author is lyrical, it flows like a river and culminates beautifully. The journey, the transitions, the learnings are well put and are precise. There is preach certainly, but more than preach, I call them dialogues. In conversations, there is a lot of understanding on life.

I quote from the book

"Did you," so he asked him at one time, "did you too learn that secret from the river: that there is no time?" 

Vasudeva's face was filled with a bright smile. "Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "It is this what you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"  

Also, I loved many verses as below. Here Siddhartha has a conversation with his friend Govinda (worthy one)

"When someone is seeking," said Siddhartha, "it happens quite easily that he sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking,because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, because, striving for your goal, there are many things you do not see many things that are under your nose."

I am happy to have found and read this. A recommended read. I need to find my voice now not to share with others but to find internal tranquility; it can be an Om, a Song or it can be mere silence. I need to have my voice.

THE SECRET OF LEADERSHIP

AUTHOR: PRAKASH IYER

ORIGINAL LANGUAGE:ENGLISH

Before I began reading this I was skeptical with the title “Secret of Leadership” I have rarely found secret associated with the word leadership. Secret refers to a mystic characteristic while Leadership is an evident characteristic. So I was doubtful before I began as to what secrets it would tell me. I have found some wonderful points. These are told hundreds of times all through the life and re-emphasized in this book.

When I am down in life, I need something to pull me up. Although, I am not low still it’s good if something pulls me up. This book is one such thing that happened. I was told to read this book by my boss and my boss is right all the time. There are many insights on leadership and it is a pretty easy read.  

Cricket, is something that we as Indians relate easily. In this book, there are many cricketing stories and many memorable ones and they are in a unique leadership style. The author Prakash Iyer I am sure is a huge cricket enthusiast and thus the cricket references.

As an example, the VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma Partnership of Mohali 2010 against Australia showed how entrusting responsibilities on less capable team members might work wonders.

There are numerous examples as mentioned above. Rahul Dravid giving the foreword is add-on and overall this is a book that is worth a read.

Lessons worth noting from “The Secret of Leadership”

•   Find my mountain that is worth the climb.
•  Become Passionate, Have Hunger, Practice Discipline
•   I need to run my race
•  It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up
•  Develop the habit of perseverance.
•  Perseverance pays.
•  Always find what works for and go with it.
• Stop focusing on obstacles and start focusing on opportunities
• To achieve something in this lifetime, wake up early.
•  Hope is not good enough. I need to take responsibility and action.
• Learn to forgive. Don’t carry grudge.
• Whatever I am, must be a good one.
•  Be careful what I say when I am angry.
• Writing down goals is the first and most significant step towards achieving success
• Excellence is an attitude.

Write down things to do for the day each morning and do them. This is the simplest mantra to success but the toughest thing to do. Those who practice such work ethic and discipline become leaders. Now, this is just a start and there are many other characteristics that we shall acquire once we have discipline in place.

It’s a push I need and I hope to write things down and accomplish them each day. 

A 3/5 for a good book.