Review: Big World

Big World by Mary Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this short story collection. The author puts you into the head of a number of characters. Most, if not all, were women. Most, if not all, had thoughts that were a mix of bizarre, petty, and humorous. Do people really think this way?

I listened to the audiobook version. The multiple narrators were excellent. I only wish I had a good way to capture some of the many pithy lines Miller wrote. Quite fun. I would read more by Miller.


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Review: Your Money or Your Life

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read “Your Money or Your Life” when it first was released in late 1992, based in part on a quick review I read in “Whole Earth Review”. I found it life changing in tying earned and spent money to the time a person uses to earn that money through work and investments. It made me realize that life could be considered an optimization model, and given my propensity to enjoy numbers, I took that message to heart. I recall the simple steps that Dominguez and Robin defined to understand the simple concepts and integrate it into your life. I also recall the author’s dedication to using government bonds as his only investment. Having taken a few finance classes in college, I could see the flaws in that tactic, and lived my life with a much broader investment portfolio than this book originally promulgated. But I also lived my life considering how time equals money.

Here, 27+ years later, Vicki Robin has updated the book. I wanted to reread the new version to see if Robin’s recommendations had changed, and if I had changed. I sensed some of both. Robins rewrote sections of the book to make them sound different and to offer some different specific advice, while maintaining the original short list of steps. The changes that struck me were the broadening of recommended investments to be more compatible with modern “financial independence” thought, focusing more on low cost broad market index funds including stocks and bonds. I also sensed the earlier sections of the book contained more philosophical content than the original edition. Perhaps it’s just my failing memory, but I seemed much more “new age-y” this time around. I also noticed that Robin includes a number of specific things to try to reduce expenses that, after I’ve read dozens of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) books in the past decade, were nothing new.

But those steps still resonate, they are still practical and usable. But I ask myself if I would have taken so much of the books message to heart if I had first read it today to start my path to optimize personal finances, and I believe so. The basis of the book – measuring your real earnings and determining the real cost of things, then deciding if the thing you are buying is worth the time you put into earning the money for it – that’s still valid and key. And the long term measurement of the growth of your assets and the ability to live off of your assets is also the basis of thought of any working person who dreams of retiring, early if possible. As a starter book, this is still one of the best. For those already on the path to financial independence, this is likely just a good discussion about how you already live. I’ll maintain my 5 star ranking as this is one of the handful of books that have greatly impacted my life.


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Review: Why Digital Transformations Fail: The Surprising Disciplines of How to Take Off and Stay Ahead

Why Digital Transformations Fail: The Surprising Disciplines of How to Take Off and Stay Ahead by Tony Saldanha
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author’s answer to the title question is “Because you didn’t plan well enough”. And he lists and goes through some of the steps to plan for transformation coming at it from a top-down strategic perspective. I liked that there were not too many steps called out. I also liked that the author included some reasonably interesting examples of companies that have competed (or failed to complete) steps in a transformation process. Many of the examples revolved around the author’s experiences in a large company with a “shared services” to manage. I didn’t find much new here – these are the same kinds of recommendations I recall from re-engineering books from decades back, adding an essence of Tom Peters. Also, I listened on audio, and found this book was built around some lists. Lists are difficult to follow on audio, and this book was no exception – the author included lists within lists so at times it was hard to determine where in the “stack” of advice the discussion was focused. This also felt very “big company” focused. Most examples and even the advice was aimed at large IT shops. Overall, a good (and not too long) reminder of what “digital transformation” means, with interesting examples – many from the author’s tenure at P&G.

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Review: Sweet and Lowdown: Woody Allen's Cinema of Regret

Sweet and Lowdown: Woody Allen's Cinema of Regret by Lloyd Michaels
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't been a big movie watcher, but I have enjoyed Allen's movies from his "classic" period. And I always enjoy the music. There are scenes in his movies that get etched in my mind, and are memorable years later. I can't say that for most other movies, or for most other directors. And I haven't ever read a book about Allen's films. I enjoyed this one. The author does mostly what you would expect here. He categorizes Allen's films into different styles and periods, then provides some description and some analysis tied to that classification. After you are done reading, you feel you could hold your own in a coffeeshop discussion of Allen movies. Or better, in line for a movie in the city. The miss here was on expectation given the title - Sweet and Lowdown was but one of many films analyzed here and it didn't seem to stick out in comparison to the rest. Another nit to pick is that there are few photos, although the author seems to have sensed that and discussed the few photos he includes at length. Overall, if you don't read many books on film and want to get some of those inside references and see how a career's worth of films adds up to more than it's sum, this is a good book.

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Review: Nevada

Nevada by Zane Grey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm glad I read this one after the first one in this two-book series. In the first book, you learn that Nevada has a secret past, but the book shows he can be a good fellow, not just a devil-may-care gunslinger. Here he comes across as a too-cool-for-school type as he goes undercover to, in effect, right all wrongs in his part of Arizona. It's a kind of spy story in Western garb. On audio, I found it a bit confusing to keep up with the players and the curious plot, but the action, once it got going, kept going. I see from looking at the "inside look" on Amazon that the author uses vernacular with non-standard spelling for some of the dialog. When I read that I usually don't like that it slows me down, but the audio didn't have that problem. It was understandable throughout. I found it interesting in the use of some words and phrases in this book from the 1920s. Those words today would denote a book considered "racy". Use the alternative, dated definitions for highest enjoyment of this (mostly) chaste story (although there is some kissin' -- after all this is a Western).

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Review: Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I get the feeling this is one of those “it’s not you, it’s me” books. I wanted to like this, and expected to like this a lot given the topic and many excellent reviews by other readers. But I found the book different than I expected, less on Buddhism in general, more on psychology and research. It reads like a pop psychology book. I found the writing was entertaining, but the examples where so similar to other pop-psychology and meditation books I’ve listened to recently it did not stand out. I suspect I wasn’t in the mood. I may need to try this again at a later time to see if my focus could be sharper…

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Review: American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China

American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book starts with the background of the author, who writes himself as a character. He’s smart – he gets into an Ivy college, but he’s a free spirit – working on a religion degree instead of a degree conferring money-making skills. He paints himself a bit of a fool, deciding to go to China soon after the Tiananmen Square demonstrations to learn Kung Fu from a school that he doesn’t even know is real. The early part of the trip is a humorous fish-out-of-water story, which did nothing to dispel his image as a bit of a fool. However, as the story proceeds, you get the idea that he is using his head to better understand Kung Fu, treating it not as a religious practice but more a sporting competition. He applies thought into approaching his fighting opponents to look for weaknesses, which appears to be a tactic used only by the best fighters he runs up against. The author makes it quite a way in the sport, and meets a number of individuals in his training, many with unique personalities and stories (e.g. Iron Crotch - just what you'd think given a sport that focuses on kicks). The combination of the fish-out-of-water story with the sports paradigm, and with the display of growth in understanding the sport as well as the culture makes this a doubly interesting book. I really enjoyed the story – I am near the same age as the author and I recall my cousin buying mimeographed Karate instruction books when we were in junior high, planning on using the martial arts to beat up those bullies that cross us. That’s a very similar story to how the author got invested in martial arts, and I suspect many boys had similar thoughts, especially when martial arts movies or TV shows were popular (David Carradine’s “Kung Fu” for me, “Karate Kid” for the next generation.) I found the thoughts of the writer quite familiar, and really wanted to know where the story went. I found myself cheering on the author as he succeeded in his martial arts training as well as his understanding of the Chinese people. Enjoyable.

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