Review: Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess

Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I figured that this would be similar to other organizational books that I seem to read every couple months. I maintain this somewhat regular diet of such books in the hopes that 1) I get some new ideas, 2) I get some reminders of what I already know, and 3) I get some motivation to clean and organize and reduce my clutter. This was different in that instead of focusing on organizing clutter, it was more focused on relationships and the impact of others on where and how one lives. There are also some other sections about habit forming, cleaning, and digital life, really a hit or miss mix of topics. I wasn’t expecting the focus on relationships, and I didn’t get much out of this topic. The other topics were covered in short chapters, and I didn’t get much out of these either. There were some specific recommendations here, for instance how to organize papers in your desk, there were lots missing. This tended to the higher level, and much more aimed to the mental aspects. While not finding any useful new ideas, I did appreciate the different topics discussed in relation to “rules for living”, and I’m feeling a bit of motivation – so for that aspect it worked.

This is another of the many recent books that contain 4-letter words in the title, and that are written with a regular sprinkling of cussing throughout. While cussing in print was novel and lent an edgy feel a few years back, this practice seems very tired now. In particular, this book felt like the author had to exert effort to find places to put cussing into the text, and it results in feeling like a book by a marketer (or even a committee of marketers) meant to manipulate the reader into feeling that this was current and young. Instead it feels more shallow, and given that this is a short book to start with, that’s a very bad thing. (I’m sounding like my parents now.) At least they didn’t try to add Zombies.

I listened to the audio version of this book. This was fine for my purposes of hoping to glean some new ideas and to build some motivation. But as I check the "Look Inside" at Amazon for this book, it seems like there are more details than I remembered from listening. It looks like you may get a different take on the book if reading it given the topics seem to be better organized in print. (In other words, there are lists and subheaders and checklists that don't work as well in audio.)


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Review: The Choice

The Choice by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has dozens of glowing, 5 star reviews on Goodreads. This isn’t one of them. When I finished the audiobook version, I wondered if that was all there was. I was expecting another “The Goal”, with a fictional story explaining some concepts. You get a bit more personal take on that here – the story is told from Goldratt’s daughter’s perspective, having a kind of Socratic give and take on aspects of the theory of constraints and optimization, aspects relating to how each player frames the problem they are having and how providing a new frame can change the group’s “goal” from impossible to easy. In the examples, this is what Goldratt does. But the way it’s told was quite different than his previous books. At times, the audiobook reminded me of when I listened to “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” in how the conversations went. This was less deep than “Zen…” but had that feel, and I suspect the target audience would be those who enjoyed “Zen…” and were into business problem solving and manufacturing (actually, more distribution) problem solving. I’ve read many books about framing recently. Compared to these recent books, this seemed a bit dated and theoretical, given the apparently fictional examples. But it does provide some definition of the issue and walks through some examples of possible solutions and ways to think about those solutions that may provide the right kick for your own thinking.

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Review: The Seas

The Seas by Samantha Hunt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's a strange, little story. I found the writing to be interesting, the story quirky. It was fun trying to map the story being told with what could actually be happening. I appreciated the brevity, since it paid to think about the story as you went along. A week after reading, I'm still feeling the creepy mood that this book brought on. I don't read much horror, but it felt Gaiman-like, lighter than Lovecraft.

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Review: Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech

Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech by Sara Wachter-Boettcher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Given the title of this book, I assumed it would focus exclusively on the problems of bias in software and machine learning. This has been in the news for quite a while, and on top of the news recently. While most of the book provides stories about bias as I expected, a large part of the book was about various other behaviors, sexist, racist, illegal, and just bad. (Think hiring at Uber.) If you have kept up with these kinds of issues in Wired/Fast Company magazines and their ilk, you get many more examples here, but not much by way of solutions. Despite that mild disappointment, I found the writing kept my interest, at least up until the end, when it felt like the authors were reaching for things to write about. Good for helping an ITer, data scientist, or a tech company exec to think through how these issues may touch on your own company, products and practices.

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Review: The Captain Class: The Hidden Force that Creates the World's Greatest Teams

The Captain Class: The Hidden Force that Creates the World's Greatest Teams by Sam Walker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you believe that great teams need great leaders, that leaders are more likely the normal Joes than the superstars, that leaders earn their position by working harder than the other teammates and paying attention to each teammate, then this book is strong confirming evidence that you are correct. It’s not wholly subjective in choice of teams and in choice of measurement criteria, but it is pretty subjective. The author describes the rules he sets to choose the right kinds of teams for his analysis, but he doesn’t let these choices stop him from repeating any good, related anecdotes from teams that don’t make the cut. That’s actually what I most liked about the book, the many anecdotes, a majority from sports I don’t follow very closely, often from seasons in the now distant past (think rugby, women’s and men’s soccer, hockey). After having read dozens of business leadership books over the years, I didn’t find much unexpected here. But the many new-to-me stories made it very entertaining. I chose to read this based on reports that various professional sports teams had asked their players to read it, and I can understand the possible implications of putting these ideas into the heads of players. The examples and classifications may be translatable to leadership in business, but the book isn't written to focus on that use.

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Review: The River

The River by Peter Heller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Heller’s “The Dog Stars”. I found the end-of-the-world story compelling and the writing and characters memorable. When I saw this one pop up on the library’s Overdrive service, I hoped that Heller could maintain the depth of writing despite not having that creepy end-of-worlder storyline. I think he succeeded. But what surprised me was that the storyline, while about canoeing in the wilds of Canada, covered characters and a story somewhat similar to “The Dog Stars”. The canoeists are mostly alone, and dealing with life and death situations requiring quick thinking and the use of deadly force. A study of character. The story can at points get too involved. But the book is quite short, and the ending was shorter, and quite a bit different, than I expected.

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Review: The Couple's Retirement Puzzle: 10 Must-Have Conversations for Creating an Amazing New Life Together

The Couple's Retirement Puzzle: 10 Must-Have Conversations for Creating an Amazing New Life Together by Roberta K. Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've read a lot of retirement how-to books over the past few years. I'm always looking for things to think about that I might have missed. This was not one of the few books to provide entirely new insights. However, I did find the focus on communications with your spouse/partner to be rare. The topics were broader than many books, more on how to live, from sex to separate vacations, less on money, money, money. Nicely done.

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