Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

Copy - Kindle
Rating - 3/5

Around the globe, Malcom Gladwell is known as a foremost thought leader. The gift that the author has, apart from distinct ideas, is his flair for writing. This is the second book I read in recent weeks that this author wrote & you couldn’t help notice but a similar strategy that he follows- Taking a central idea & wrapping it around in layers of anecdotes that reinforces the central idea.  Here the author uses his now famous “The 10,000hrs rule”. The author puts forth his views that the outliers of this world – the Bill Gates & the Steve Jobs, the ones who made to the top of the Canadian ice hockey team & Europe’s football team et el had undergone more than 10,000hrs of training & educating themselves  in a particular skill.

                                                             

Apart from hard work, the author puts a lot of emphasis on the culture & environment that the test cases grew up in during those 10,000hrs. There is an interesting episode where he details the life of Chris Langan  reported to having an IQ of 190+. Chris has every bit of intelligence as Albert Einstein had but Chris did it not make it to the newspapers for winning the Noble Prize – he now takes care of a ranch in Missouri. The culture & the environment were not conducive for Chris to make the right decisions during his early life.  The passage where this is entailed is called Opportunity.
A similar set of ideas are put forth in the other half of the book called legacy. Here the author takes a view, what in economics is called a macroeconomic view, to reinforce the effect of culture & environment. His dissection of why Asians are good in Maths & why so many plans crashed in Korea in late 1990s makes a very interesting read.

Though the books binds you with the idea that the books brings forth, I couldn’t help notice at some places that the views were flimsy. There is no space of counter argument or an approach mentioned that delivers a different result. In short I felt it was an abridged version of Daneil Kahnmen’s book “ Too fast & too slow” ; it lacks the finer details that Kahnmen’s book provides.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Copy: Paperbound
Rating - 5

Bink is one of those rare books that will make you stop & connect with what the author just said to your personal incidents.  Malcolm Gladwell, one of the foremost thought leaders of our times, wings in a simple concept that we use every day – thin slicing. How do you react in the first two seconds when confronted with a situation or have to make a snap judgement? Early in the book the author introduces us to the part of the brain that leaps into conclusions called adaptive conclusion. The years of experiences in leading a life or pursuing a career helps us in hard-wiring certain aspects which leads to adaptive conclusion.

The author takes us through different cases where these aspects come into play – from a tennis coach who was very accurate in calling the double fault even before the ball hit the racket, to the fire-fighter who instantly knew something was wrong in one of incidents. The author weaves in a series of test cases where snap judgement works  & where it did not. The test cases exhibited in the book ranged from a car salesman in Florida to a head doctor in Chicago. The writing is such the reader will make several pit-stops to think & wonder about those blink situations.

The gold nuggets of the book are buried in the last chapters of the book. It will be unwise to tell it. What will be wise to tell is that reading the book was an experience.

Pearls by the river by Sudipta Mitra

Copy - Paperback 

Rating- 3/5

It seems extraordinary that a character as colourful as Wajd Ali Shah would vanish completely from Bengali consciousness. That is the first sentence in the forward passage of the book – Pearls by the River essentially signifying the forgotten effect of Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh had on Bengali cultural & aesthetic revolution. Whether the author does well to lead us down the road of remembering the deposed King of Awadh as the primary architect of Bengali arts & culture is another thing. The book has many pluses which makes it an engaging read – fast paced, easy & fictionalized way of writing, and chronical in its order. 

However, the book takes a long time to warm up to the actual topic of the King building a mini-Lucknow on the banks of Hoogly. The book quickly gathers pace in the second half when the King reaches Calcutta, and brings his cultural tastes of thumri, kathaks & symphony to the foreground. The author very well exhibits the architectural delights of Metiyaburj. It leads to more of an encapsulated effect of the Shah on the Bengali culture. The brief paragraph on gastronomical benefit & passages on paan that the Shah introduced had a pleasant underlining. There are a few passages on “The Oudh Commission” which, though engaging, leads to a meandering effect to the storyline. The King’s private relationships– his wives & concubines is presented in bits & pieces throughout the book.

 The book overall presents a composite picture of Wajid Ali Shah, but there a few dark spots that makes you underwhelmed.

Losing the Signal -The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry by Jacquie McNish & Sean Silcoff

Rating - 3/5
Copy- Borrowed
Genre - Corporate History

Tracking the market cap of Reseach in Motion, now BlackBerry Ltd. gives you a sense of wonder. The creation & erosion of wealth- from $70B to $3B, in such a short span is remarkable. One can draw parallel to a video that goes viral & goes off your notice when a new video surfaces. Popular opinion is that the advent of iPhone & Android- Samsung led to the demise of the enterprise - the book does well to shatter that opinion.

The book is neatly divided into two sections - one depicts the rise of RIM & the other fall. The author maintains a fast pace taking the readers through the ups & downs, the struggles & victories, the similarities & dissimilarities of the co-founders that serve as the spine of the book.  The author gives a lot of word-time to the villains who brought the company down - a legal tangle with an entity that pushed the focus away of the co-founders from the emerging players, the mobile networks who didn't allow RIM to put up a full browser, backdating options to the executives  - to name a few. Surprisingly the author does not dig much into the lack of corporate governance & the roles of the directors which in my view, could have salvaged the company. The reader gets a fascination account of the challenges in the  launch of the BB10 & the Playbook.  There were bright spots which the author could have covered more on-  BBM & the handset Storm. The book begins & ends in an obituary-like tone which gives an uni-dimensional view of the whole saga. The lack of quotes from the directors & just a few snippets from the co-founders  also did not go down well.

Singularly Blackberry as a company has transformed the way we communicate. Instant messaging got into vogue because of this company. The book does not give enough credit to this cause. The book though lives up the title - it encaptures everything we know about the company, but only a few feet beneath the surface. 

Breakout Nations- Ruchir Sharma

Rating- 3.5/5
Copy- Hardbound
Genre- Economics

Many marketing pundits say that the tagline captures imagination more than the title. Ruchir Sharma’s book – Breakout Nations “In Search of the Next Economic Miracle” does justice to the title. Sharma, a leading economist at Morgan Stanly, brings his wealth of experience in economics in a lucid prose which is extremely engaging for someone who is doing a cursory reading. The unfortunate part that comes across is the lack of depth in the book. Here and there, one gets the feel that the book is made from the footnotes of research papers or made from a string of interviews to a television channel.  By mid-way, you have kind of figured out what a nation must have to be an economic juggernaut

• low inflation
• diversified economy
• export oriented or a big domestic market
• not highly corrupted
• low %share of debt (public+private) to GDP

Added Bonus factors are
• less share of GSE (govt sponsored enterprises) in key market areas
• reform-oriented government
• tier-II level for per capita income (sub-$10,000)
• younger demography

Taking a cue from the above indices, the author paints the economic picture of a county. The author lists few countries to watch out for – South Korea, Poland, Czech Republic & Turkey which he considers to be breakout nations that can be subsets of engine growth to the world economy. He makes passionate cases on why he considers these economies to fare well. The book was written in 2012 when China was leading the economic growth of the world. Sharma questions the high debt the country was incurring & predicted correctly that a bubble will burst soon. His notes on the Russian economy makes a decent read, his warnings to the commodity-oriented economy are well-founded. Russia & Brazil are currently bearing the brunt of falling commodity prices.
Sharma does bring a personal touch to each of the cases he deciphers. The book manages to package an economy but does fall short of expectations to someone who is looking for more than just a cursory read.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rating - 4/5
Copy - Kindle
Genre- Fiction

The plotline of the “The Girl on the train” is based on a woman who keenly observes a family from the train (when it stops at the signal) ; the plot thickens when the woman in the family the main protagonist observes,  goes missing from the suburban town on Ashbury. The plot then takes the usual off-the-mill crime-thriller book we know so well. Is she dead or has she ran away? Was she having an affair? The husband is hot-headed, so he must be the prime suspect. Throw in the missing woman’s messy past to the over-used mixture. The usual questions arise when the news breaks out & the reader wonders what’s different.  

Two things that blew my mind while I was reading the book ( in one sitting I may add!). First – the author has developed the characters so beautifully that you become invested in their journey as you see them sort themselves out. Obviously you would want to know how the story ends, but you aren’t keenly looking forward to the end of the book so that you can close the circle; instead the characters in the book take much of your mind’s space – their current conundrums, their vices & their everyday routine. The situations are described so beautifully so one can picture them. Second – the unusual narration style of the book. The book, from the start to the end, has the POV of three women who are central to the story. The POV’s switches seamlessly from one women to the other without a break or a bump to the story-telling.  It is fair to say that the most of the characters are unidimensional in the way they are portrayed. The ending is a bit of a let-down & as it goes with any thriller – you try to find some loopholes and it is disappointing to say, a loophole is present.     

Land Of Seven Rivers by Sanjeev Sanyal

Rating -3/5Copy - Amazon Kindle 

Sanjeev Sanyal, in a highly readable book that gently takes you through the twists & turns of India’s history from the standpoint of her geographical nature – rivers, mountains, flora & fauna. This book immerses the reader as the book keeps up the constant engagement & does not over-burden the reader with historical facts & meandering stories. Along the way, we pass thought the familiar places & clans that serve as cornerstone to Indian history– the Harappa, the Aravalli ridges, the Mughals, the Guptas the British & their mapmakers. A noteworthy departure from the flow is the passage on the genetic testing which has led to linkages between Europeans and North Indians. 

The book is more on the impressionist survey of India’s geography & how the geography shaped India’s history. The passage on Age of Lions & its connection through decades is a revelation. However, the author meanders away from the Geography & steps into the episodes of power struggle in empires. The book also makes little attempt to cover the agriculture evolution, the relationship between the Indians & their environment. 

Often we come across the passage that offers grandiose but fails to go a step deeper:“The brand new city of Gurgaon, is constructed right next to the Aravalli ridges, the oldest discernible geographical feature. If you look north from one of the city’s tall office blocks, you will see the Qutub Minar, built by a Turkish slave-general to commemorate the conquest of Delhi.” 

From the time the first humans enter India from the Persian Gulf to the culmination of the rise of modern India, the author deftly takes you through the long sweeping history of India. What is lacked in the analysis & insights is made up with an impressive flow of the book. 

Night by Elie Wiesel

Rating - 5/5
Copy - Personal Paperback
“I Have lost faith in everyone except Hitler. He alone has kept promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.”

One of the many instances the reader will come across while reading Elie Wisel’s autobiographical account – instances that sends chill to your bone. The NYT rightly reviews the book when it says - a slim volume of terrifying powers. While reviewing this book, it is difficult not to be emotional . Each word denotes a singular breath of the author. The experiences are described in the most simplest words but carry the most powerful experiences.

“Night” is an unsettling account of daily life in the concentration camp – the never ending hunger, the sadist doctor who pulls out the gold crown from his tooth, the account of his father getting beaten up to the inch of his life. The experience that jumps out of the book is the honesty in which the author faces his guilt. The guilt of not shedding a tear seeing his father beaten up, the guilty relief at his father’s death. 

“Night” raises profound questions about God and existence. The events of Holocaust is decades behind us. In the preface Wiesel explains why he wanted to write this account – “duty to bear witness for the dead & living” He probably exceeded his duty in keeping the tragic memory of inedible dark mark on humanity alive. 

Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Cicero #1) by Robert Harris

Ratings - 4/5
Copy - Amazon Kindle 

If I were to describe this book by Robert Harris in the most simplest terms , a book filled with Latin jargon & Roman innuendo, it will be the "House of Cards starring the revered intellects of Ancient Rome". The events are told from the standpoint of Tiro - the events, the outcomes of those events, the characters in those events are colourfully addressed by Tiro. Tiro is the confidential secretary & something he never forgets to remind the reader, a slave of Cicero.

Apart from the breathtaking political manoeuvring by Cicero, easily the most exciting part of the novel is when the Julius Ceaser makes his maiden appearance coupled with Tiro's off-the-cuff description of him.The book chronicles the journey of young Cicero from the time he sets off to master oratory taught by Demosthenes to the time when he wins the Roman counsel-ship. The book is littered with characters who makes an impression on the reader- from Pompey the Great to Cicero's great rival - Qunitus Hortensius. The book or rather Tiro, does not hold back to describe Cicero's personal relationship with his wife or his younger brother. Cicero stumbles throughout the book, from one seemingly tangled knot to the another. The author ensures that the book does not miss a beat as he neatly weaves one aspect of the story to another. The book is peppered with quotes that still finds relevance today. Sample this: 

" Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them" 

" Words words words. Is there no end to tricks you can make them perform? " 

" No one can really claim to know politics properly until he has stayed up all night, writing a speech & delivering the following day. While the world sleeps, the orator paces around by lamplight..."

"Content does not matter to me. Only three things count in oratory - delivery, delivery & delivery" 

What makes the book more exciting is that the events (rather politics) has taken place in reality - the author ends the book with the caveat " the majority of the event dud actually happen ; the remainder at least could have happened". The book ends on a high making you want to read "House of the Card starring Cicero Season 2"

Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower by Henry Paulson

“It was then and it remains to a greater extent today that China is governed by men and not by laws” – one of the many no-holds-barred statement by Hank Paulson in his memoir of China. Hank Paulson had an unprecedented access to the top leadership of Communist Party of China (CPC); an access that caused an envy even among the Government Officials in China. The book divided into 3 parts – 1/3 on his experiences from putting a foot of his firm in China to his firm getting synonymous in any deal related to China; 1/3 on his experiences as a Treasury Secretary and the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED); 1/3 on general commentary which revolves around the Political Leadership and the Way Forward for China.

As the head of Goldman Sachs and then as the Treasury Secretary during the Bush administration, Hank Paulson seamlessly switches track from “doing specific deals “to “Policy specifics” in the course of the book. The book is peppered with instances related to the culture and mannerism of the Chinese officials. Paulson is credited to opening the doors of China to private enterprises and he takes us through the deals of IPO’s and strategic investments his firm had conducted during his tenure. He manages to give a reader a top-level view on how China has pivoted from a trade-outsider to a backbone of world economy. The fight for economic reforms, bank loans & corruption cleansing are well documented. I got a sense of Déjà vu while reading about bank loans gone rotten; a fight that the incumbent RBI Governor is undertaking for Indian Banks.



A nice side-track is Paulson’s involvement in developing a Management course in Tsinghua university. Upon the request of then Premier – Zhu Rongji, Paulson used the expertise of deans in HBS and INSEAD, and host of leaders in Global Enterprises to make an executive course . In typical Pauslon style, he points to the Cultural Revolution during Mao’s regime that prevented a generation of men & women who lost their education during university shutdown. 

Paulson takes the sensitive issues head on - freedom of press, censoring of internet, censoring of dissent, pollution & environmental concerns. The book gives you a balanced view point of China but after finishing the book , I felt underwhelmed . The top view approach remains a top-view. The author does not really dissect the issues to deep-down level. If the author had written the views of his junior colleagues who would have dealt with the Chinese Officials at a different level, the actual workings of China would have been in display. 

Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

Near to the end of the book, Peter Thiel remark on Elon Musk summarizes Elon’s contribution to the world. He said – “Elon has gone so far as to give people hope and renewed their faith on what technology can do to their lives”. Musk, in more ways than one, is one of the makers of modern America, and the author Ashlee Vance does justice to this point with a free-flowing account of his exploits in making Tesla and SpaceX as a typical Silicon Valley Company – exciting, ambitious and far-fetching in its goals. Probably Elon Musk’s greatest contribution is bringing manufacturing back to America – SpaceX’s rockets are made mostly in America, and with the jumpstart of Gigafactory in Nevada – it does justice to this point. 

The book runs deep in Elon’s exploit of SpaceX and Tesla and with Paypal story playing a distant second fiddle. The author does well in keeping the reader engaged; he peppers the account with Musk’s remark on various issues. The reckless attitude to keep Tesla alive in the middle of the Financial Crisis well documented and it shows what Elon was willing to do to keep his vision alive. Like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk has shattered the cosy club of monopolies in big industries by introducing game changing products. The last successful American automobile company before Tesla was Chrysler – in 1928. By introducing electric cars, Musk is shaking every vertical of the automotive industry. Tesla’s success is a frightening prospect to the car industry – it turns the service of a car on its head. Tesla is rewriting the rules of the game and all the car industry is following it. The same can be said about SpaceX. 





Somewhere as a reader you get the feeling that the author is idolatry in his approach. “SpaceX is Elon Musk” moots this point. One of his other ventures – Solarcity doesn’t find the space in the book to a good extent. By far the golden account is the birth and the struggle of SpaceX which brings the reader a lot closer to Elon Musk - the book is unputtdownable.