My Book Reviews

Posts

Woke, Inc - Vivek Ramaswamy

- December 04, 2023

ISBN: 978-1800750937 Verdict: 👍👍 👍 I was drawn to this book after watching Vivek on the American GOP Primary Debates, where I felt he performed very well, so wanted to know more about this ‘America first’ candidate. I was hooked until I got to the last bit and his promotion on views on ‘civic service’ which has both pros and cons. The book is targeted, as one would expect, for an American audience and references US laws and examples throughout, however the underlying principles are worth of noting. Some bits from the book that I found interesting; “Basically, being woke means obsessing about race, gender, and sexual orientation. Maybe climate change too.” – p5 “When companies use their market power to make moral rules, they effectively prevent those other citizens from having the same say in our democracy.” p19. " Maintaining the appearance of virtue becomes more important than the virtue itself” p156. “That leads to a classical error made by professiona

Red Teaming ( Transform Your Business by Thinking Like the Enemy) - Bryce G Hoffman

- September 30, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-349-43146-6 Verdict: 👍 👍 👍 👍 I picked this book up in a charity shop in London’s Portobello Market and after reading it I felt guilty for not paying the full price as this book is definitely great value in terms of both information and advice provided. As you may be aware I judge a book by the number of insights I highlight as I read a book and in this case the book was ruined by my highlights – Thus, I would strongly recommend reading this book. The core concept of Red Teaming is nothing new, i.e. the role of the devil’s advocate , however what this book promotes is structure and how to provoke as opposed to formal assessments of strategies, plans, assumptions etc. I will not , as my usual pattern, share some quotes from the book as having purchased this at a charity shop I want to encourage others to get a copy and look at it - It will be very much worth it !

The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness - Morgan Housel

- June 13, 2023

I SBN: 978-0857197689 Verdict : 👍 👍 👍 I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it. The author starts by stating the premise of the book where “ doing well with money has a little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave ” which if you really think about it ~ is so true. He then goes on to explain this premise throughout the book. There are some brilliant quotes in the book e.g., Voltaire’s observation that “history never repeats itself, man always does ””. and again my highlighter ✏ was well used. Below are just a few quotes from this book but there are so many more; “ There are a million ways to get wealthy, and plenty of books on how to do so. But there’s only one way to stay wealthy: some combination of frugality and paranoia” p57. “Anything that is huge, profitable, famous, or influential is the result of a tail event” p73. “A hyper-connected world means that the talent pool you compete in has gone from hundreds or thous

Let’s Talk – How to Have Better Conversations (Nihal Arthanayake)

- June 05, 2023

I SBN: 978-1-298-7022-6 Verdict : 👍👍 The title is slightly misleading, as it’s not so much ‘let’s talk’ but more let’s get other people’s experiences, views, and reflections then share with the audience - which worked for me , as the author introduces some interesting individuals. The book is a nice read once you get past page 31 . Then on page 33 the author Introduces us to Johann Hari’s book Stolen Focus (which I subsequently bought) and then we had ‘lift off.’ And the book became an enjoyable read. The book is not a self-improvement type book i.e., presenting frameworks or rules but presents a set of lessons and experiences which were shared by third parties, and I did find myself highlighting some interesting quotes and conversational strategies. Below I list some of the bits I highlighted and who the quotes can be attributed to; P34 [ Johann Hari] - ‘ If you’re interrupted , it takes you on average twenty-three minutes to get back to the same level of focus that you had b

Prince Harry - SPARE

- May 08, 2023

I SBN: 978-0-8575-0479-1 Verdict : 👍👍 👍 This is one of those books that one must read in full to fully appreciate the whole story, ignoring the constant British tabloid reportage and thus truly understand the subsequent decisions the Prince has been forced to make. In the book the Prince discusses his Mother, his Military career and passion, his grandmother HM the Queen Elizabeth , his relationship with family. A constant theme in the book is the Prince's dislike of the British Media, who attack him and now his wife over years and used by the staff to remove bad press from other members of the royal family. Below are some of the snippets I highlighted while reading; P 94 ‘ unlike so many girls I met, she wasn’t visibly fitting herself for a crown the moment she shook my hand’ (re his girlfriend Chelsey who on p 156 who ‘ wasn’t up for a lifetime of being stalked? ’ ) P121 ‘The paps had always be grotesque people’ , ‘more radicalized’, ‘Their mullahs were the

The Missing Crypto Queen - Jamie Bartlett

- December 09, 2022

ISBN : 978-0753559581 Verdict : 👍👍 This is an overwhelming story of an ex-McKinsey Consultant who executed, what could have been biggest scam ever, selling the concept of getting in early and becoming rich to a product that just didn’t exist - a block chain is miles away from a centralised SQL Database As someone who has a genuine interest in distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrency and the hype around the narrative which promotes a replacement of traditional currency to a single independent global digital currency. In my opinion it would have been great to move the first paragraph on p148 to earlier in the book i.e.,’’ One -Coin was technically three different scams rolled into one.” A Ponzi Scheme, Pyramid Scheme, and a fake cryptocurrency Page 35 for me highlighted a key aspect in that “ Ruja instead contracted a Bulgarian IT firm, who in turn outsourced some of the work to some Indian developers, who ’forked’ the original Bitcoin Blockchain (in other wor

Buy, Hold, and Sell!: The Investment Strategy that Could Save You from the Next Market Crash - Ken Moraif

- August 08, 2022

ISBN : 978-1-118-95149-1 Verdict : 👍👍 👍 Recently, whilst working on an consultancy assignment, I was asked by the CIO to classify the application estate using a ’Buy ,Sell Hold’ set of tags, so when I saw this book I thought it would make for a good read and I was not disappointed. The book provides great value . For me it provided quite a lot to consider especially as I am of the age where I am considering my retirement options. In this book Ken sets the context in Chapter 1 where he starts with “ You can’t take the risks you did when you were younger. You’re not in the game for growth anymore; you’re in the game to protect your principal ” p3) and continues to follows this through. The following quotes from the book got my highlighter to pause and think.; When you have a strategy, you can make a plan without being driven by your emotions – p81 As investors, we have to distinguish the battle from the war and make sure we don’t deplete our resources to the point

Capitalism and Slavery -Eric Williams

- June 26, 2022

ISBN : 9976-01-241-548616-5 Verdict : 👍👍 👍 👍 Two of my favourite topics - History and Economics provide the context for this exceptional book and hence my 4 thumbs up 🏆 This is one of those rare books one must read to fully understand the creation of wealth during British Empire period and what laid the economic foundation for many organisations that exists today. This book was based on Eric’s doctoral dissertation submitted to the Oxford University in 1938! Hence well researched and fact based, which due to the nature of the time would have undergone strict scrutiny. This book does not seek to discuss the slave (the person) but slavery (the business model) and the underlying economic model which is the premise used to justify some disgusting actions. This book discusses the ‘economic’ model and presents interesting facts, the kind of facts that really should be taught on all history courses. I learnt a lot reading this book about the triangular trade betwe

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou

- February 28, 2022

SBN : 978-5098-6808-7 Verdict : 👍👍 The book tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes - Who conducted a 'massive' corporate fraud endangering many lives and someone who managed to get some high profile individuals to join her board - "She might be young, but she was surrounded by an all-star cast" p4 The vision, a machine that would use a little sample to run multiple blood tests, unfortunately just couldn't be realised with their faulty Theranous devices. However, she managed to raise hundreds of millions in funding -This book is definitely worth reading. Here are some snippets from the book, but limit the context unless one reads the book but worthy of mention ;; "I ll drink your wine but I won't ask you for advice the very field that paid for the wine " p57 " They wanted to control the narrative of her departure " p80 " Wallgreens suffered from a severe case of FoMO -The fear of missing out " p89 "Sunny put it more blu

My Secret Brexit Diary: A Glorious Illusion - Michel Barnier

- February 13, 2022

ISBN : 978-1509550869 Verdict : 👍👍👍 As with most things, actions, or events there is always an alternate viewpoint, so as a Brit, when I started reading this book, I was expecting some bias,However, I think Michel kept his emotions intact when writing this and I didn’t spot the bias I was expecting despite the odd odd comment which may have been justified. Irrespective of your political posture, you really have to admire Mr Barnier who is seasoned politician and a great choice by the EU to represent their representative to negotiate with the UK and someone who ‘ prefers transparency to leaks ’ p55) which with the quote on p69 “ Clearly, in negotiation we will need to pay as much attention to the language of gesture as to that of words ” sets the tone of the diary. I did highlight great chunks of this book so I can’t replay all the key bits – but below are some small snippets for certain days from the book that either made me think or just left me disappointed in our UK) n

The Pay Off: How Changing the Way We Pay Changes Everything - Gottfried Leibbrandt and Natasha De Terán

- January 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-78396-606-6 Verdict: 👍👍 👍 What got my attention when I was scanning this book, before diving into it, was a statement on page 13 ; “ Cash aside, all payments today are therefore digital debt entries recorded in a ledger system that was invented centuries ago; an antique practice made modern by dancing bits and bytes that animate digital ledgers deep within computer systems .” The statement spoke volumes and set the tone of the book which explores the current and future payment systems and the entry of digital enablers. While reading this book, my highlighter was not spared especially as it provides several snippets of valuable information all wrapped below the trade-off between liquidity, risk and the convention which acts as theme through the book around payment systems. My favourite section was chapter 14 - How to steal a billion: fraud and theft. Below are some snippets from the book which I found valuable. “ But then money and cash are bot the same thing –

Search This Blog