My 2010 Books Roundup

-

1 & 2. Dune and Children of Dune by Frank Hebert

The first part - like all movies - is the best. Truly unputdownable - best science fiction I have ever read. Second part is little tiresome.

3. Flow - Psychology of Optimal Experience. How to find joy in everything you do. This book helped me in my running and car washing! Amazing book - will give a new perspective to how you view little chores to big tasks.

4. Outliers - By Malcolm Gladwell. Reasearch is boring - but reading the interpretation of such research is fun. The figure - 10,000 hours got drilled into my head.

5 & 6. Goal 1 & Goal 2 - By Dr.Eliyahu M.Goldratt. This book is a must read for everyone in any profession. It has got nothing to do with Agile or Lean - it will shake you up and make you think. I have heard multiple times about out-of-the-box thinking - this book has enough examples to trigger the out of box thinking process. Also it gives a whole different view point to dealing with constraints and inefficiencies - it is an opportunity waiting to be exploited.

7. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. I picked this book because cover said Nobel Prize winning author. And what a ride it was - Traditionalist vs Modernism. I think I missed most of the deeper philosophies ingrained in it - but what I grasped it was intriguing. Highly recommend this one.

8. Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg. We live in a an interesting social networking era. This book will be defunct in another year or two ( Ning is already on a downward spiral - and this book glorifies Ning ). With MySpace going down the drain - Facebook is not far off. This book covers the journey of all these startups.


These are the 8 books I read in 2010. Just finished reading a mind blowing book this year already - but hey - to know about it you have to wait for my 2011 Books Roundup !

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shahul Hameed still lives...

-
Today I was listening to Thiruda Thiruda - A.R.Rahman's 3rd movie which whenever I listen transforms me to the slogging days of 12th Standard. However, I was listening to Raasaathi en usuru ennuthilla and remembered the voice - Shahul Hameed - the unfortunate singer who died so young in a car crash near Chennai in 1998 or around that time. I was appreciating the intense song the way Shahul Hameed had song with so much passion and life - I felt sad. How unfortunate - he could have been a great singer with his high pitch and powerful voice. However, he still lives on. 10 years down the line, a soul thought about him. Isn't that wonderful. Very few can leave a mark on the world they lived - it is easy for artists - musicians, painters, singers, dancers, actors,writers. What will people like me leave behind? Anyway, Shahul Hameed - your voice is immortal. Thanks for the great song. 
Read more

How to become a Java Developer?

-
Who is this post for? Anyone trying to switch careers ( I was in mainframes, asp then php developer then a swing developer before I switched to this web-app java development), or who is already in Java and wants to get to the next level. What this post is about? Few years back I was slogging on a swing app without knowing what the market was all about - though the swing app taught me the good and bad about Java - it did not help me in getting a job. This post is a guideline for that directionless soul... this.post : Heres some philosophy of mine. Ask yourself - how much did you spend last year on books on technology? If technology is your livelihood, think of it as an investment. You need to invest a lot ( and read a lot ) to get good returns. So do not hesitate to buy books, magazine subscriptions - its worth every penny/paisa/rouble. Lets start. Step 1 : Get to know Java's strength. Assuming it was me years ago, happily coding php in dreamweaver and nodding along with the posters...
Read more

Who is lifting the world on their shoulders?

-
Image
Who is lifting the world on their shoulders? Politicians? Philosophers? Writers? Philanthrophists? None of the above. The right answer is - entrepreneurs / business folks - they are the ones lifting the world. They create new markets, promote new ideas, blaze new paths by fighting the system, fighting stereotypes, taking risks against all odds. In this post I will introduce you to "Atlas Shrugged" - a magnum opus by Ayn Rand.  This book glorifies the entrepreneurial spirit. The key players : Looters These are the scum of the society - apparently holding top positions. The top brass in the Government, the industry lobbying heads - they do not produce anything but they loot - from the business and from the public. They know only to take and not give anything. They outnumber and control the producers. Producers The producers are the entrepreneurs, the inventors, the innovators. They are the ones fighting the system to introduce new ideas and keep the world ticking and moving for...
Read more