Review: The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present

The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present by Eric R. Kandel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interesting book starting with a review of “the scene” in Vienna prior to WWI, describing the art scene and Freud and his research. After this overview, the book turns into a somewhat pop-science review of brain science and psychology. It concludes using the learnings of the Viennese to illustrate the science, and to further discuss creativity. I found the first part, the history, quite unexpected and interesting. The author described how artists discovered new ways to present their art using new thinking about human perception. These perceptual cues are then described from the perspective of brain science and psychology. Quite deep. There have been quite a few books that covered the science that this book covered in the past year, and it seems I’ve read more than a handful. This came across as a deeper technical discussion than those pop-science books, and it had a unique angle of relating it to art and early psychology. It was still quite readable.

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Review: Habeas Data: Privacy vs. the Rise of Surveillance Tech

Habeas Data: Privacy vs. the Rise of Surveillance Tech by Cyrus Farivar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this a fascinating and well-written book. I work in IT dealing with eDiscovery, records management, and archiving. I have an interest in how the laws on privacy impacts the electronic traces we leave behind in the world, often hidden in the corporate repositories I work with. And, I have some history reading mysteries and watching Perry Mason, so there’s an interest in the law. “Habeas Data” provides details on the issues I face at work, and does it in an approachable style, a mix of “Perry Mason” and Malcolm Gladwell. The author discusses a number of legal cases in the history of privacy and surveillance in the US. Some I had heard of, some not, but all are told as stories. Also, because the issues in privacy are being caused by the indelible march of technology, the author describes the technology of the time of each case, and also reflects on how that technology has changed since the original case. The oldest cases covered are a few decades old, the newest just a year or two – relatively fresh out of the headlines (think 2016 elections). It seems that a big issue, perhaps the biggest issue enabled by this march of technology is the incredible volumes of information we now routinely carry. Court decisions that allowed, say, search of the photos in the pockets of a suspect back in the 50s now don’t (or may not) allow search of photos in an iPhone in the pocket of a suspect, in part because there’s just too many photos for a person to consider searchable, and too much of their life enclosed in that piece of metal, plastic, and glass. While the increasing issues of privacy are troubling, “Habeas Data” provides the background to understand how changes in technology have driven changes and new definitions in law. If you have an interest in the topic of the legal aspects of privacy and surveillance in our modern world (from the American perspective), this is an excellent book.

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Review: Stories for Work: The Essential Guide to Business Storytelling

Stories for Work: The Essential Guide to Business Storytelling by Gabrielle Dolan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"These days, employees want fewer facts and less information, and more emotion and meaningful connection."

Ah, the post-fact world...This seems very true in my experience, for many employees, at least for employers that don’t have a history of not telling the whole story. And that is just one target audience (employees, especially those in a corporate change program or being “indoctrinated” with company vision and values) Dolan describes in “Stories for Work”. Dolan teaches how to find personal stories, how to tell those stories, and how to use them for presentations, sales, coaching, job interviews, and basic getting-to-know you conversations, in addition to the change and vision uses previously mentioned. Dolan’s suggestions are relatively concise and useful. There is more ink used on examples than on the procedures she’s recommending, and the examples are useful and interesting to show the format of stories and the emotional content. Key learning: make ‘em short – stories should be two minutes or less. I was concerned that this would be one of those books by consultants that are just an advertisement to sell her services, but this appears to be useful without hiring Dolan. Note that she really wants you to hire her, as most of the examples are from former students of her classes or from her consulting clients. And she includes many mentions of her consultancy throughout the book. Despite the advertising, I found the content useful and interesting, and I would consider reading another book by Dolan.

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Review: The Feather Merchants: A Novel

The Feather Merchants: A Novel by Max Shulman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For me, Max Shulman’s “The Feather Merchants” was a trip to the past. But not the past you’d expect, given this is a satire about a WWII soldier on leave. The trip to the past for me was back to my own younger days reading National Lampoon magazine in the late 70s or early 80s. This book has the style of writing I recall from some of the Lampoon stories, and it could easily fit into the magazine. Typical of some of those stories, “The Feather Merchants” include dozens of goofy, made up names, a far-fetched story line, and a bit of a sudden ending. For this kind of heavy satire, I find less is more – I’d rather read a short story than a short novel. But this was interestingly written, and I thought worth the effort. As I’m a Dobie Gillis fan, I’ll be reading more by Shulman. Note not PC for this era, but pretty common for its time.

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Review: All That Is

All That Is by James Salter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this on a whim, having never before heard of the author. I hoped to find something of interest, something that grabbed me. This both did and didn’t. In the details, the sentences, the book was very good. I remember reading, or rather listening to sections and realizing the descriptiveness was very well done. As to the overall message of the book, I didn’t think as much of it. I write this a week after finishing it, and I realize the overall plot didn’t really lodge in memory, and neither did any of the vignettes that this consisted of. Sometimes this happens based on the mood I’m in instead of the writing. I admit to lazy reading at times. And sometimes this feeling is because of the writing – being depressing. This was, quite often, depressing. So I’d read more of this author, counting on the sentences being good and hoping that there was a reason behind all the writing, or at least one more obvious.

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Review: Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System

Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System by Michael Summers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This short science book really tells a story about the planets that exist, or theoretically exist, in the universe, and describes the science behind the descriptions and the history of the discovery of these planets. Two signs of a good pop-science book are vivid descriptions and analogies that simplify the story for lay readers. Both happen in this book. I will remember “hot Jupiters” and how they came to be the first kinds of distant planets discovered. And I will remember the description of diamond worlds, with diamonds thrown from volcanoes. This is a great read about planetary science advances over the past ten years or so.

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Review: The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership

The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership by Martha Heller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At one time I was a voracious reader of CIO Magazine, to keep track of the corporate IT industry in my role as a new technology introduction analyst for a large company. I learned from the stories and especially appreciated the many sources they quoted, often CIOs in a variety of industries, from companies large and small. There was always something to learn about this role that I aspired to. Although my career took a different turn, I read “The CIO Paradox” understanding that the author was a writer for CIO Magazine, and likely had the kind of style I found easy to learn from, and easy to consume. That is true here. The topics are taken from columns written for CIO by the author. I was able to compare the many tactics and suggestions mentioned in the book to the IT management of companies I have worked for, and could see good and bad. The author comes from a background of recruiting for high level IT jobs, and this informs her book. There are plenty of examples where the author brings in anecdotes of her history of recruiting to describe the types of paradoxes faced by CIOs. My favorite paradox, one that reflects my recent career is illustrated as "As CIO, you are your company's futurist and its archivist." Heller goes on to illustrate this paradox with examples, anecdotes, and at times provides tactics.

The author includes a rather large section on CIO membership on boards. I assume this has become a prominent topic for CIOs related to recruiting, hence this author’s focus, but I didn’t see the obvious relationship to the other paradoxes Heller described. Other than that minor nit, I enjoyed the writing style and most of the topics. This would be a good read for people wanting to become CIOs and for those already there looking for some new analogies they could use in their discussions with business leaders and upper management. I also think this would be a good read right before interviewing for a CIO position for the fresh take on the role. I would gladly read more by this author.


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