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.


View all my reviews

Review: Xenocide

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

With this book in the Ender series, it feels like Ender has jumped the shark. The action of the first part revolves around some philosophical arguing over dealing with alien species, especially when to save one, or humanity itself, you may have to destroy another. Here, we see the various permutations of 4 sentient species working for or against each other. It gets to be quite involving. Trekkies know “the Prime Directive”, and episodes that dealt with this rule on dealing with alien civilizations involved the most philosophical pondering and actions based on this belief. This Ender story is of the same family. The story concludes with some truly odd occurrences that seem aimed to extend the story, and these events appear to the be basis of the next book in the series. While it seems a pretty weak step in the storytelling, akin to “magic happens”, the next book does seem to have an interesting basis built in this book.

View all my reviews

Review: The Life of an American Slave

The Life of an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like many of the reviewers of this book, I found this quite a chilling story. I was pleasantly pleased by the simple and very readable writing, not as flowery as other writers of the times. And the story of Douglass’ resourcefulness in working his way to freedom was really key. The part of the book that really struck me was near the middle, where Douglass is describing the first of his masters to be mean. He repeats the word mean many times over within a few pages in his descriptions of this master and his behavior. I have teen daughters that over-use the word “mean” to describe the many other girls and boys that have slighted them, and the word had lost meaning to me. But the repetition here tells the story of a master that permanently scarred Douglas, and the way he told this really made the story hit home and to bring back the strength of the word “mean” to me to include the truly heinous. Looking forward to reading other Douglass books.

View all my reviews

Review: An Event in Autumn

An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mankell wrote this for his Dutch readers as a promotional giveaway. It’s relatively short, with a short essay by the author about his detective in the edition I read. I found the book was nice as an example of a Wallander story. Wallander stories are known for their description of location and the feeling of dreariness. This had that in spades, taking place in a dark autumn. I got cold shivers when reading this, and it’s the first day of summer for me now. Books in the series can weigh on you. And as Wallander ages, he is getting more curmudgeonly. Here, he is downright grumpy throughout, and to excess. There’s lots of gruff complaining. If this was the first Wallander you read, you probably wouldn’t want to spend more time with him. I don’t recall any description of food or (non action related) illness or injury, other hallmarks of the series. But as I check Amazon’s Look Inside for this book, I see coffee is actually mentioned 17 times, or about once every 10 pages. That’s about right. You need warm fortification for dealing with the approaching Swedish winter and a historic murder. The mystery itself was a little weak.

View all my reviews

Review: The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company by Joseph A. Michelli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another excellent case study and analysis by Dr. Michelli of a high-service company. Here, the author documents the Ritz Carlton hotel chain. While listening to the audiobook, I did not remember the “5 leadership principles” mentioned in the title, but when I reviewed them on the Amazon “look inside” peek at the book’s contents, I can see why I didn’t remember them – they are pretty obvious. The 5 principles are define and refine, empower through trust, it’s not about you, deliver wow, and leave a lasting footprint. As I review this list, I can recall examples of all of these principals at work at the Ritz through Michelli’s descriptions. This book seemed a lot like the last Michelli book I read, about the Mercedes Benz US sales operations. Both of the subjects have a lot of employees and take the high end of their marketplaces. They both charge high prices and can afford to implement methods that may not be cost efficient, but that can increase goodwill of the customer, aiming for repeated sales. From these books you learn that both companies use relationship building as a key to their business. There are great anecdotes throughout this book, including stories about the creation of Ritz’s external training center and curriculum, employee empowerment to fix customer’s problems, and having all employees understand and live the company credo. There were many memorable examples, but the one I will likely remember most is a story about a Ritz restaurant being called out of the blue by a community member asking for recommendations for where they could buy an allergy-free cake. The Ritz employee made the cake himself.

View all my reviews

Review: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great book on negotiations. I’ve read a lot of negotiating books. This books actually reviews many of the negotiation books of the past and describes how and why they were written and where they fail given current research and practice. The author is a hostage negotiator, and describes the book’s title as something that you tend to do with common business negotiations – splitting the difference – but that is something you can’t do when trying to free hostages – where “give me two and you keep two” is not a successful outcome. I really appreciated the way this book was written – going through the state of negotiation practice and theory during the author’s career. There were many changes in tactics, some quite drastic, and these are all explained. In a way, the reader grows in knowledge along with the author. In addition, the author provides long, detailed, and in some cases thrilling examples of his work with law enforcement, and mixes in examples from his students from the world of business, such as negotiating for salary. I listened to this on audio, but I will likely acquire a summarization of the book for reference. The concepts taught here would require practice to effectively use in your day-to-day negotiations, but they appear quite worthwhile.

View all my reviews

Review: 10-lb. Penalty

10-lb. Penalty by Dick Francis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another enjoyable Dick Francis story. Here, in addition to learning about horse ownership and amateur jockeying, readers learn about the election process for MPs in England in the 70s. This is the first really political story from Francis that I’ve read, and I liked the description of local campaigning and rising political fortune, including some descriptions of 10 Downing Street written by someone who must have visited. (view spoiler)[ In most all Francis books I’ve read (and I see I’ve now read more than half of his mysteries), the protagonist faces pain and torture as a major part of the narrative. Overcoming pain is a common feature of Francis heroes. I was pleasantly surprised to see the protagonist in this book, a college-aged son of an up-and-coming politician, to only be injured two or three times throughout the book, and only facing life-or-death injuries on the last two pages (shot). Beside that episode, the only other violence in this one is a fall and concussion, a lady punched and violently saved with a drastic tackle, and the only death in the book, a steeplechase horse injured and destroyed. There may have been a couple other tackles and punches and threatening machinery, but this is by far the least violent Francis book that I can remember! And only attempted murder and libel in this one, a minor set of indiscretions compared to the normal mystery. This one really focuses on a political campaign, and I enjoyed the change of pace. (hide spoiler)] A fun read, especially if you are interested in “retail politics” in England a half a century back. And occasional digressions into steeplechase.

View all my reviews

Review: Weird in a World That's Not: A Career Guide for Misfits, F*ckups, and Failures

Weird in a World That's Not: A Career Guide for Misfits, F*ckups, and Failures by Jennifer Romolini
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am probably not the audience Romolini had in mind for her book. While I believe I would certainly fit the title and subtitle callouts, I am an older male. The author, and quite a few of her stories, are aimed at women at work, generally young women at work. How can I tell? The book includes advice and anecdotes on working while nursing and on when to wear a bra, among other things. But I still found this a fun-to-read book, filled with stories of a unique person as well as some advice on working and careers. I didn’t find the career advice sections all that earth shattering, but there were bits that were aimed at untraditional advice relating to career, such as sleeping with co-workers. These kinds of advice really just made me feel old, but helped me to understand the generational changes in the approach to work and careers. I most enjoyed the stories of Romolini’s life including her work history with a series of low paying jobs before she got serious on getting a career. There’s a definite turning point in her work life, and this could have been further analyzed. Quite interesting.

View all my reviews

Review: The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I thought I was pretty well rounded when it comes to the use of social media for my work, I realize after just a few minutes of listening to this audiobook that I’m just a layman. I learned a number of things, and only ran across a few things that were obvious. There’s a mix of content that is evergreen and content that might have a shorter shelf life, including lists of companies offering content. I will find value in both. I am torn over how I feel about the audio version. There is good list-based information and plentiful web site links, and I feel that having a paper or digital book for reference might be of more value, but the audio is a quick way to understand what you don’t know. Overall, I really enjoyed this and may be looking to get the paper version.

View all my reviews

Review: You Don't Have to Drive an Uber in Retirement: How to Maintain Your Lifestyle Without Getting a Job or Cutting Corners

You Don't Have to Drive an Uber in Retirement: How to Maintain Your Lifestyle Without Getting a Job or Cutting Corners by Marc Lichtenfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m getting to the age and having the right mindset for this book to capture my attention. The author plays on the nagging suspicion that fully retiring from the workforce and living off of savings might be too risky, and alternative forms of income or cost savings might be useful. The author provides a number of ideas for income generation and cost savings that are relatively current. Topics covered by the author regarding income are: long-term dividend stock investing, covered calls and puts, personal and peer-to-peer lending, buying tax liens, working for Uber and the like as a contractor, optimizing social security, and funding health savings accounts. The cost saving ideas are: optimizing Medicare, medical tourism, pharmacy discount programs, rarely used tax deductions, using discount brokers, buying cheaper cars, and travel discounts and points programs. There’s also a chapter on small ideas for cost savings which includes discounted gift cards, rewards purchasing sites, and cheap or free classes. The author concludes with a few pages on why annuities and life insurance besides term tend to be bad ideas.

I really liked the mix of topics. But understand that this is a short book, and most ideas are discussed with only a few pages of text. This is more of a tickler – if you find good ideas look into them yourself. Also, although this is quite current, I noticed a few sections were not. Some of the points programs described rules that changed years ago, for instance. I also noticed that in the authors paring down of content, he often spent time talking about the pros of an idea and disregarded the cons. For instance, buying gift cards from third parties is rife with fraud, including at least one of the services he recommends. I suspect the author hasn’t actually tried every service he touts here. Again, caveat emptor. Another glossing over of cons was his discussion of reinvested dividends. His quick economic comparison to other savings options failed to take into account required taxes on dividends, but did take taxes into account in the alternatives. Taxes made appearances only when it furthered the basic tactics he was suggesting. Keep an open mind that additional research will be required.

Overall, I liked the mix of topics, hitting income and costs with many different ideas. You don’t often see, say, covered calls mentioned in the same book as buying discounted gift cards and peer-to-peer lending sites. The author hit on a good collection of what I’d call “retirement money hacks” that didn’t include some of the traditional ideas, like selling stuff on eBay. And I appreciated the understanding he provided about driving for Uber, despite the title. This is written in a conversational style, and is easy to read. But I would recommend if you find an idea you want to incorporate into your financial life that’s more involving than, say, signing up for MyPoints, do additional research.


View all my reviews

Review: World's Best Life Hacks: 200 Things That Make Your Life Easier

World's Best Life Hacks: 200 Things That Make Your Life Easier by Sara Devos
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you've been on Facebook at all over the past couple of years, you've probably seen a video showing you non-obvious uses of toilet paper rolls, or binder clips, or something else. This is a series of pages with 200 "life hacks", short write-ups with an illustrative, and often amateur, photograph to illustrate. I was able to go through this while sitting having lunch at McDonalds -- it's not a long nor an involving book. I'd say I have seen a majority of these suggestions previously, often on Facebook or other sources like the LifeHacker website. Most of the new-to-me suggestions were not of use to me, perhaps involving entertaining young children. You can tell this was written by mothers of youngsters. But the value here is if you find a handful of things you could immediately put to use. I did find a couple of suggestions that I might try. I'll give this 3 stars as I think it may be more useful to others with younger children, but for me it was probably more a 2 star read.

View all my reviews

Review: Yestermorrow

Yestermorrow by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Many of the essays in this collection are about urban design, mainly written in the 70s and 80s. Bradbury is lobbying readers to recreate old, Midwestern town centers in new towns and in different districts of large cities. He writes of promenading, and visiting bookstores and tiny movie theaters, and town fairs and farmers markets. He dreams about the people watching opportunities this would enable. He complains about cars and traffic, and determines that his urban centers would ban vehicles to the outskirts. This reads like an advertisement for Disney’s Celebration, Florida development and EPCOT. And as Bradbury worked with Disney, this might actually be the case.

The concepts are interesting, but are told in multiple essays written throughout the years. Bradbury’s of the Henry James school - his writing is flowery and excessively metaphorical. And he even writes about metaphors in this collection. The writing makes this a difficult but illuminating read.

While I enjoyed the multiple essays on urban planning, I understood the concept from books I read in the 70s and 80s. I most appreciated his essay on Bernard Berenson, an early mentor in Bradbury’s writing career. Unlike all the other essays about bringing humanity to a city, I most appreciated the story Bradbury writes about himself, looking for acknowledgement and wisdom, and finding it in a mentor turned friend.


View all my reviews

Review: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One of the prompts in the Read Harder Challenge for 2018 is to read a children’s classic from before 1980. I had recently completed reading Ian Fleming’s Bond series, so his “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” came to mind. I always liked the movie, and I wanted to see how far from the book it was. Ends up, quite a bit was changed. The first obvious change I noticed in the book was the lack of Truly Scrumptious. Truly could have been the name of a Bond girl, and she was inventor Pott’s love interest in the movie. But in the book Potts is married. Also missing in the book was the grandfather and his iconic potting shed. Another difference was the memorable dance number at Scrumptious Candy. I figured this would not be in the book, but that dance number was actually described, rather succinctly, in a paragraph or so.

And then came the adventures. Chitty on the sandbar was pretty much identical between book and movie, but after that early episode, the movie had the adventurers in a Bavarian kingdom with child snatchers and robot dolls and such. But the book had a more basic adventure involving a British gun runner and a little kidnapping. This was totally different and quite a bit underwhelming when compared to the movie.

Between the book and the movie, I liked the movie much more than the book. But the book does its job of introducing the characters and setting up the adventures, and made Chitty more of an independent, magical being, one capable of smiling and blinking, and some kind of ESP. And there are additional books in the series which might capture the magic of the movie. I may give them a shot.


View all my reviews

Review: Another Place You've Never Been

Another Place You've Never Been by Rebecca Kauffman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to this on audio, and I found the stories washed over me, enjoyable at the time, but ultimately, they left little impression. That’s not bad, especially if that’s the feeling you are looking for. I enjoyed the vignettes of interrelated stories, although I found myself looking for the relationships as much as listening to the story. The first story, about the swimmers, was the most intense. The rest were more tame. I suspect this one is better read than listened to. I would consider reading more by Kauffman.

View all my reviews

Review: Draft Animals: Living the Pro Cycling Dream

Draft Animals: Living the Pro Cycling Dream by Phil Gaimon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gaimon explains how he reached the second tier of bicycle racers but didn’t quite reach the top. His stories are humorous, covering his life and his racing over a four year period, with expected anecdotes and plenty of behind-the-scenes looks at the best racers of our time, their sponsors and support staff. Gaimon’s story is personal and first-person. You learn as much about what makes him tick as about the racing crowd. And he writes about the business of bicycle racing on big European teams as well as smaller North American teams, but from his perspective, quite a ways down the totem pole. I enjoyed most of the humor in his voice, which wavered between self-deprecating and just a bit creepy when focused on drug use. And there’s a lot of that covered here. Gaimon has opinions on performance enhancing drug use, and this is his soapbox. And he likes to name names. But you also see some growth here, as he spends time with performance drug users who have been punished. A very human story.

View all my reviews

Review: Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Shuttle and Her Crew

Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Shuttle and Her Crew by Michael D. Leinbach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great story about what happened immediately after the Space Shuttle Columbia’s breakup while re-entering earth's atmosphere, from the actions of NASA, first responders throughout the country, federal, state, and local government officials, and citizen volunteers through the accident investigation. This is what I would call a “got their hands dirty” story – the work being described was mostly the hands-on, in the field variety, not so much the stuff happening back at the office. And by in the field, you are literally talking about fields, and forests, and underbrush, and lakes that searchers had to traverse in their efforts to locate pieces of the shuttle, its contents, and its crew. The book culminates with the description of the warehouse used to hold the found pieces and to reconstruct the shuttle in order to determine what caused the critical failure of components. This process is also well described.

On the face of it, this doesn’t sound like there’s enough compelling material to make a book. There wasn't a lot of mystery about the failure that caused the accident to the shuttle in general. This book describes that issue, but there's more here. There were a few things that set this apart. First, this is about NASA. NASA has a kind of cachet, and for those like me who have grown up dreaming and studying about space flight, the astronauts and NASA employees are American heroes. The term “heroes” is overused, but to me NASA represents the American loner ideal, as well as the “can-do” attitude that Americans want to be known for. And NASA also embodies the ability to think things through smartly – another ideal. The books is interesting in that you get to see NASA react to this disaster, and from the book you understand that NASA accorded itself well. For example, within a day or so of the accident, astronauts were on sight when human remains were found and collected, and provided a simple religious service incorporating the religions of all lost astronauts. I found this quick thinking, respectfulness, and sense of duty to set the tone for the rest of the book.

Another aspect of the book that I found enlightening and that provides some hope for our future is the way the various communities and organizations banded together to handle this mission. The physical search for artifacts was incredibly extensive. The search protocol required in effect a person to step over every square foot of land covering an area the size of Rhode Island. The land itself was in a remote area in Texas and Louisiana that was not heavily populated. Many volunteers and first responders from across the country were housed and fed in these communities during the search, which took a few months. The anecdotes and examples of communities pitching in and working together, despite the huge variety of entities involved, was heartening. The authors, NASA employees, were quick to point out the various times that there could have been an issue over who was in charge – was it NASA, the NTSB, the Defense Department, FEMA, local FBI, etc. etc.? In this case, there was no contention, many agencies deferred their normal “emergency” leadership. I suspect the lack of contention was not normal for different agencies working together, and here it seems the NASA folks were expecting contention but didn’t get it. To find this kind of feeling of “we’re all in this together” in the US you may have to go back to WWII. This ends up being another reminder that people can pull together when the situation requires it.

Overall, I found this an unexpectedly good book, exploring the state of readiness in our country to respond to a disaster, but from the human perspective, not a system perspective. I read this book a week ago, and I continue to think about the examples it provides. If American readers want a reminder of what America can do right, this book provides an answer.


View all my reviews

Review: The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds

The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A well-told story of friends, not at all what I was expecting. I figured the book would be similar to many of the other books covering the topics that Kahneman and Tversky studied. I’ve read quite a few books that have referenced these studies, and I’ve read Kahneman’s book on these topics, so I expected to be a bit bored. But given that it’s Michael Lewis writing, you have to give him a chance. He delivered. He covered the findings of the two scientists, but interspersed the science with the story of the two friends, how they lived their lives, met, and worked together. These personal vignettes were substantial in this book, and they were well written and interesting. They really made the book for me. The subject’s professional partnership was the unique hook for the story, and Lewis used it well.

View all my reviews

Review: Retirement Reinvention: Making the Most of the Next Stage of Your Life and Career

Retirement Reinvention: Making the Most of the Next Stage of Your Life and Career by Robin Ryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite a few suggestions/ideas/examples of what people have done with their retirement. As is the current trend, the acknowledgement that retirement often includes a “retirement job” is thoroughly discussed here. The oxymoron of our times. After having read quite a few retirement books over the past few years, I find this one has a very good set of examples, and an interesting set of topics. These included housing, the transition process, hobbies, volunteering, travel, maintaining social connections, etc. This does not really cover finances in retirement, beyond the normal reminder that retirees can still work and need to plan. And the author struck me as having a distinct opinion on some topics, one which I did not always agree with. Nevertheless, I found this quite a good survey covering how retirees can spend their time, and I got some new insights into what I may want to do in the future.

View all my reviews

Review: What the Future Looks Like: Scientists Predict the Next Great Discoveries and Reveal How Today's Breakthroughs Are Already Shaping Our World

What the Future Looks Like: Scientists Predict the Next Great Discoveries and Reveal How Today's Breakthroughs Are Already Shaping Our World by Jim Al-Khalili
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this somewhat interesting. The book covered a good number of topics, and included near-future as well as far-future possibilities. If you read a lot of science non-fiction books and magazines like Wired, you’ve heard this before, especially the near-future concepts. I most liked the sections where the authors “let it ride” and speculated on the far future. You usually get those kinds of ideas and discussion only from science fiction books, and the prognostications are used to push the plot forward, usually without context. It is good to get a scientist’s take – not just of what may happen, but why. This book does a reasonable job of that.

View all my reviews