Review: Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam M. Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Grant writes a Malcolm Gladwell-ian style book here (or does Gladwell write Grant-ian books?). There are a number of interesting examples of the topics he writes about, and I find myself remembering the examples more than the topics (same as with Gladwell books). And the author is a presence in the flow of the book. A nice look into the difficulties of rethinking an issue or position. There is hope, and a few suggestions along the way.

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Review: Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos by Jeff Bezos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve read a book or two about Amazon, but thought this “from the horse’s mouth” selection of Bezos’ writing would be a different take on his company’s story. Before you get to the business discussion, the book begins with an excellent introduction by Walter Isaacson. This is followed by a collection of Bezos’ letters to shareholders from Amazon’s annual reports as well as various other speeches and transcripts Bezos has given over the years. I found the introduction well written and interesting in providing a biographical background on Bezos. I found his explanation of why he wants to invest in going to space was eye-opening. Being the same age and consuming the same sci fi books as Bezos when young, I strongly identified with his thoughts on this, and you could understand how his thoughts on building an infrastructure also came into play with Amazon. I enjoyed his explanation of how decisions are made at Amazon, and found it very much as I was taught to present cases when I was in business school – concise. And I found the writing style of the shareholder letters and the speeches to government to be very much in line with Trump’s style in boiling issues down into simple terms that anyone could understand. While you could say that this style was the results of using corporate writers, given Bezos’ goal to simplify decision-making through concise communication, it seems to be driven from the top. Overall, I found this a worthwhile read in terms of understanding the business of Amazon, understanding a simple writing style, and understanding the way Bezos thinks.

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Review: Roadmap: The Get-It-Together Guide for Figuring Out What To Do with Your Life Kindle Edition

Roadmap: The Get-It-Together Guide for Figuring Out What To Do with Your Life Kindle Edition by Roadtrip Nation
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve read a lot of career books over the past few decades, and this is another one. It covers the typical kinds of “live your best life” advice with the typical positive, uplifting spin. To the good, I enjoyed most of the many writeups showing how different people approached their working life and career. These have links to a website for additional information and multimedia interviews, so you can really get some background in some of the people and their choices. I found the ones I looked into interesting. To the bad, I read the ebook, and the spacing of the many art and design components that apparently work well in the physical book just get in the way in the ebook. You are constantly scrolling past a multiscreen piece of art. OK for an edgier career book full of examples.

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Review: The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour by Adam O'Fallon Price
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The writing was clever and the characters were memorable, but in a mostly unlikeable way. I say mostly because the main character, an author, is portrayed with an over-the-top personality, always with a pithy quip. When you get tired of the alcohol-driven quips, the author chose to expose a character’s weakness and learning and striving to better, or at least explain himself. I liked how the author handled these transitions. Overall, an OK story.

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Review: Unstructured Data Analytics: How to Improve Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, and Fraud Detection and Prevention

Unstructured Data Analytics: How to Improve Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, and Fraud Detection and Prevention by Jean Paul Isson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have a background working in unstructured content, including analytics. I hoped to learn something new from this book about content analytics. However, the book was more an overview of some of the technology used for analyzing unstructured content and industry use cases. To the good, the author included a number of interviews of managers from various companies using or selling content analytics software. What I didn’t find as useful were the large numbers of lists. The author includes hundreds of lists in this book. It seems the book combed a number of sources for lists and put them together, often covering unrelated aspects of a topic. I also noted that this was mostly about analytics in general, and much of what was covered was analytics of structured data, sometimes combined with analytics of unstructured data, sometimes not. The unstructured data that the author focused on were typical web form fields (think comment fields on surveys) and video analysis, but other sources were mentioned, often in long lists. I’d say this was a good book to introduce the concept to a business analyst in order to give ideas of usage, but the process and technology coverage might be confusing to that audience, and already dated.

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Review: The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well written current science history (if that’s a thing) of CRISPR technology and gene editing. Isaacson writes a very readable story about the development of gene editing technology, focusing on a handful of scientists that intersect the story at different times. What struck me was how current this “history” is – first history book I’ve read describing Skype calls early on. Isaacson’s descriptions of complex science was very understandable. He also ended the book with the use of CRISPR technology to find vaccines for COVID. I believe I know a bit more about the technology and the processes used to create the vaccine now coursing through my veins, so there’s a personal element to this as well.

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Review: Chief Of Staff: The Strategic Partner Who Will Revolutionize Your Organization

Chief Of Staff: The Strategic Partner Who Will Revolutionize Your Organization by Tyler Parris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Early in my so-called career, I was introduced to the executive floor of the company I worked for, in the top 15 of the Fortune 500. They had an opening for what I’d consider an IT gopher for the executives. I was also introduced to a older man who was a Chief of Staff of one of the company executives. His job sounded like a higher class version of the IT job, and something I thought I might be good at. I later worked with this individual on a major project, where he further explained how the Chief of Staff role worked in his case. I picked up this book for more detail on the position, and to help me determine if I should consider looking for this kind of job. This book did a good job of explaining the role in its different variations. While it was focused on helping executives determine if they could use a Chief of Staff, it also explained the different talents and roles the job entailed. Given the descriptions, I think I will opt out of considering this job for future endeavors – political fluency is not something I enjoy. Overall, I found the book met my needs learning about the various versions of Chiefs of Staff, and I believe it would work well for executives or HR professionals hoping to learn what the job can bring to a company and how it can be described. Short and useful.

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