M7 Book Blog

You Are Not So Smart

2012-01-31T20:58:00.000-06:00

Forget everything you know about...everything you know. :)

David McRaney's book, based on his very interesting blog, is a great reality check on just how awesome we humans are in the brain department. Backed with a busload of psychology studies, he shows how the mind can deceive its host in a variety of ways. You unknowingly and unwillingly fall victim to many tricks every single day.

From wishful thinking, to invented memories, to groupthink, he covers a wide variety of topics. If you tl;dr'd his blog entries because it would take a few minutes and some critical thinking, you're missing out. Here are a couple topics I thought were very interesting. (I guess this is meta-meta-psychology or just meta-journalism.)

Confirmation Bias
You look for things that confirm your beliefs, you subconsciously ignore things that don't match your beliefs. "I was just thinking about that the other day!" This is a great sign of confirmation bias. If we read an article (fictional of course) about the small LED lights in electronics contributing to eye fatigue, we would suddenly notice them a lot more often. When something is on our mind and supports a belief we have, we're more likely to see it. If you have a hatred for welfare, you are more likely to catch the article on a person caught abusing the system when scanning headlines. We see what we want to see.

I ran into this a lot working on a project at work. There's a post on the DPL blog about how our Applied Mathematician, Josh, helped us catch ourselves doing this. As with a lot of these, it's nearly impossible to "not fall for it". It's how your brain was wired. What you can do, is catch yourself succumbing to these and take action.

The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
My favorite fallacy is based on a story of a man from Texas sighting in his pistol by shooting at the side of a barn. He's a pretty bad shot and basically peppers the barn with bullet holes. After he's done, he finds the tightest grouping of holes and draws a bulls eye there, making him look like a good shot. McRaney's promo video for the book shows this with awesome narration. Here's a picture with random white pixels. Don't you see some patterns? Can you make out the face? Catch the snail on the left side? No you don't, these are random dots. But, you want so badly to see a pattern!

This book is a really fun read. It makes you realize just how susceptible you are to your own flaws. Can you fix all of these flaws? No. Do you need to in order to have a happy life? No. You can make yourself a bit more aware, but in the end, You Are Not So Smart.

Outliers: The Story of Success

2011-10-18T09:31:00.000-05:00

Malcolm Gladwell takes a look into the eternal question of nature vs. nurture in his book Outliers. Looking at what makes successful people successful isn't a new idea, but his conclusions are very strong. Rather than "raw talent" as a key measure of success, he puts a huge emphasis on opportunities when we are young, chance things like birthdays, and hard work.

Hard work is an understatement. For Gladwell, 10,000 hours is required to successfully master a skill. Whether it be hockey, music, or computer programming, you've got to practice a lot while you are young. I loved his example of the Beatles "practicing" in Hamburg by playing ~8 hour shows 7 days a week...or was it 7 hour shows 8 Days a Week...I don't remember. :)

Many things out of our control can also effect our future. Being born on the right side of a cutoff date can mean everything to a kid in sports. If the cutoff is January 1st and you are older, bigger, and more developed than most of your peers, you're more likely to be picked for a higher caliber team. Playing with these higher caliber kids helps, but the main thing is that these teams practice much more than "lower" leagues.

Having parental support is also a huge factor. The kid whose parents drive them to soccer practice, enroll them in summer camps, and take them to the zoo or other learning experiences help their kids out in the classroom. Kids that watch TV all day because they can't really do anything else come back to school at a disadvantage.

A great part of this book is that "good enough" is usually good enough. Harvard and MIT don't spit out every single Nobel Prize winner. People with a "good enough" IQ can go on to do great things. Richard Feynman's IQ in high school was a supposed 125. I don't know anyone who will argue with his intelligence. Superstars need much more than a high IQ to perform. Many "genious" kids will go on to have ordinary lives. The ones that get the right opportunities and put in the work will succeed.

Gladwell receives ample criticism for his book and for good reason. Be careful to read this book with an open mind, but not with closed eyes. He chooses his stories to exactly fit his theory and quickly dismisses any other "outliers" with a quick kill. Just read with a good amount of thought and don't just blindly follow. He has a lot of great quotes to use at parties, just don't abuse it. :)

Chance: A Guide to Gambling, Love, the Stock Market, and Just About Everything Else

2011-08-29T22:17:00.002-05:00

Amir Aczel has found the mathematical formula for love...and apparently one for a good read. His book takes a normally dry subject, statistics, and puts it to use in some of humanity's greatest quests: gambling, the stock market, and love.

The book is divided into several short chapters devoted to a subject. One may be on the odds of roulette, the other on the probability of sharing a birthday with someone in a room. All are interesting problems.

I found it interesting that Bold Play is your best strategy rather than betting the minimum every time. Another common strategy is to bet double what you lost. When (if) you eventually do win, assuming you aren't out of money, you will win exactly 1 dollar. Not bad, until you realize the casino has deep pockets and you can't win any game against the house.

If this sort of stuff interests you, pick up the book. It's only an hour or two read and is tough to put down.

Me? I'll stick to craps.

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

2011-08-08T22:44:00.001-05:00

Charles Petzold has put into 382 pages of text and images most of what I have learned in 5 years of an engineering education. To read this after the fact is a great adventure through the world of computing. It all starts (and ends) with Code.

He starts simple enough, planting in your head a simplistic memory of signalling information to your friend across the street after bedtime. He explains the need for encoding schemes such as Morse Code and Braille.

After a bit of a foundational lesson on physics and electrical engineering, he introduces the bit. Ooooh....ahhhh. The bit, it turns out, is one of the most important paradigms in the modern world. Without it, we have no computers, cell phones, land phones, HDTV, or Netflix!

The next journey he takes you on truly took my imagination by storm. You go through the complex, sometimes tedious process of building a computer from scratch. Along the way you will start from a simple switch, use some gates, build a microprocessor, and end up with a fully-functional, graphical computer. At each step he allows you to abstract some away. Switches (relays) make up gates, ok? We're just going to deal with gates now. Gates make up a microprocessor, ok? We're not going to worry about gates anymore. It's an exciting and logical progression.

Petzold mesmerized me with this journey. I could completely imagine and picture this computer we were building, even though it was no more complicated than a simple 4-function calculator. The amount of emotional attachment to this fabled machine was...probably unhealthy. That's what draws you in though. That's what makes it real.

This is an excellent book for people who have a computer background as well as those who don't. Experienced nerds will breeze through the examples and concepts, but more novice readers can gain a lot from taking time to fully understand things in the book.

All this from a guy with a Windows tattoo :)

Check out Spencer's post on our company blog.

Total Recall

2011-06-30T22:12:00.006-05:00

"Total Recall" is the concept of being able to "recall," on demand, anything that we have ever learned or been exposed to.

Gordon Bell, a Microsoft Research employee, initially embarked on a project to lead a paperless life. He and his secretary began to clean out his office: scanning old documents, taking pictures of old belongings, digitizing old video; pallets of material were thrown away (a prized family quilt was photoed and passed on to relatives)--think of this as the ultimate spring cleaning. Gordon then began to gather and store anything feasible; he set out to capture everything and discard nothing.

This project morphed into MyLifeBits, a software system that stores and organizes Gordon's "LifeLogging" data for future reference. This, Gordon shows us, is the real challenge: how can we usefully recall this data once it's been stored? The MyLifeBits story is a great read for any person looking to lead a more digital lifestyle. Between this and a "Getting Started" guide, you can consider "Total Recall" an excellent LifeHacker article on how to LifeLog.

The book also explores a future where the concept of "Total Recall" is realized. How will we use it at work? At home? How will it revolutionize health care? How will it change the way we learn? All these questions are answered, though not in spectacular fashion. Any person who closely follows technology may find themselves a bit underwhelmed.

The answers to the future are not the significance of this book, however. Instead, this book serves as a milestone, as a battle horn sounding to the industry: we have passed the point of asking "is this feasible?" Gordon Bell is able to record almost all data worth recording today. We have conquered the challenges of information gathering (using phones, cameras, scanners) and storage (with cheap, multi-TB disks) and find ourselves posed with a new set of challenges: structuring, organizing and securing these data and weighting they societal implications they have. I, personally, am excited to see what we come up with!

Beyond the Final Score

2011-05-30T10:48:00.000-05:00

Dr. Tom Osborne's book strikes a good balance between autobiography, history book, motivational book, and advice book. His unique (and continuing) journey through life has allowed him to see and learn some interesting things. His faith has allowed him to take that journey.

The book is broken up into chapters that relate to family, running for governor, football, mentoring, and a few others. Each of these chapters are broken down into digestible 2-3 page essays about a particular subject. His speaking is direct and is full of stories about the subject. It was a quick and fascinating read.

One of the things that struck me was his true caring about his players as a coach. He wanted to develop them as people as well as athletes. I'm sure every college institution will say that, but I'm not sure everyone means it. Sometimes it feels more like South Park's CBAA.

His taste of Washington while in Congress was very interesting. The time and travel commitments didn't sound like a lot of fun. He definitely got some changes through during his time, but the size and number of them were pretty low. Our government does move at a pretty slow pace though.

So far, he's been doing a fine job as Nebraska's Athletic Director. He certainly understands the program and tradition and has the experience to help differing opinions meet. Hopefully he can make an even larger impact in the office as he did on the field.

Sidenote: This book was given to me from Tom's daughter, Suzanne as a gift for helping with the TeamMates Design Studio Project. The project itself was enough of a gift and I was grateful to have helped such an awesome organization. Thanks Suzanne!

Why Business People Speak Like Idiots

2011-02-21T23:11:00.001-06:00

In my deep dive into the players with skin in the game of expansive and dynamic vertical space of the verbal aptitude of knowledge-based champions of driven, change-leaders, I ran into some bullshit...a lot of bullshit. This book is fighting on our side.

There are four simple ways to avoid jargon-speak:

Avoid the Obscurity Trap by informing, not impressing.
Avoid the Anonymity Trap by crafting a message in your head to focus your passion.
Avoid the Hard-Sell Trap by having something valuable to say.
Avoid the Tedium Trap with some humor.

It sounds easy, and it is. Here's a shockingly sad stat: The average 4 year-old smiles 400 times per day. The average 35 year-old only smiles 15 times per day. People want to be entertained. They want to enjoy life, work is part of life, they want to enjoy work.

Look at this teaming presentation I gave for Design Studio. It's entertaining, memorable, and hopefully informative. It turns out that it doesn't matter how informative your stuff is if no one is awake to see or hear it.

Page requirements are a sad remnant from high school. Do you really need to be told how long things should be so it looks like you did x pages of work on it? This is the beauty of twitter and of the eval system. 140 characters. Say what you mean.

Keep it short. Keep details for appendices and let people google it later.

Always tell a story. Stories trump facts. It's sad, but true. One personal story from a disgruntled customer will overshadow all the graphs and charts PowerPoint and Excel can create.

There is actually Bullfighting Software. A plugin for Word that checks for jargon.

This post:

Bull Diagnosis: Diagnosis: Congratulations - you rely upon standard words to explain concepts. Most concepts will be clear and understood. Keep clean.

Flesch Diagnosis: Diagnosis: Clear. You get to the point. Short sentences describe key thoughts concisely. Readers of all levels can focus on the message rather than finding their way through difficult text. The good Dr. Flesch would be proud of you.

Einstein's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit

2010-12-28T23:22:00.000-06:00

Krista Tippett's book is really a commentary on her award-winning radio show Speaking of Faith (now called Being). where she would interview people about religion. These weren't always "religious people", which brought up interesting discussions about the relationship between science and religion. Both "religious" and "non-religious" people often skirt around these questions, but Krista and her interviewees addressed most of them directly.

Here's a short list of the people interviewed and what stuck with me from the interview:

Freeman Dyson & Paul Davies - Einstein's God - Religion, faith, and belief aren't simple and can't really be applied as a broad category. Many agnostic scientists believe in numbers and have a faith in the laws of math or nature.

Sherwin Nuland - The Biology of the Spirit - People are more alike than you think. Be kind to everyone you meet.

Mehmet Oz - Heart and Soul - Reinforced the idea that there is more to healing than just the physical aspect. Meditation, prayer, or even acupuncture can have an impact on your health.

James Moore - Evolution and Wonder - The newly rekindled evolution/creation debate isn't as black and white as it seems. Maybe God created a world that could evolve life?

V. V. Raman - The Heart's Reason - There are some interesting tidbits about Hinduism and, like poetry, you can analyze the universe to understand how it is structured, but you may never know the meaning or purpose behind it.

Janna Levin - Mathematics, Purpose, and Truth - Studying the philosophies and styles of Gödel and Turing. Both are interesting.

Michael McCullough - Getting Revenge and Forgiveness - Revenge and forgiveness are in our nature. We want to retaliate to those who hurt us, but understand how forgiving those close to us can be beneficial.

Esther Sternberg - Stress and the Balance Within - Stress is a fairly new word for an ancient feeling. Stress can make you sick...easy enough.

Andrew Solomon, Parker Palmer, & Anita Barrows - The Soul in Depression - Depression isn't what you think it is. It was best described as the opposite of vitality. It's not just being blue, rather it's not doing the things you enjoyed.

John Polkinghorne - Quarks and Creation - Models are broken. The model of the atom was broken down into quarks. No one has seen these, but we're pretty sure they are there. Both the scientific and religious communities must be ready to look again at old models to seek understanding.

This book was great in that she really did a great job reporting. At no time did it seem like she was pushing an agenda or attacking ideas. This allows you to look at your beliefs and the beliefs of others to compare and contrast. If any of these peaked your interests, these interviews and many more are available free online.

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

2010-12-11T13:30:00.000-06:00

Paul put it best: "Girls flip through a fashion magazine saying, 'Oooo...This outfit would go well with my ____'. I flip through a design patterns book saying, 'Oooo...This pattern would go great in my ____ application'".

Design patterns are incredibly important, not only from a code quality perspective, but for communication as well. Using common conventions for naming parts of the system can cut down on possible communication problems or confusion. If one coder calls something a "checker", "grabber", or even "wrapper", it can cause confusion.

This book is incredibly well put together and useful, even at 15 years old. These patterns are in use and will be for quite some time. The patterns are grouped into logical sections based on their usage. About 10 pages are used to describe each pattern, explain when it should be used, explain advantages and trade offs, and show example code. This makes the patterns very easy to pick up. Sometimes the code explains it, sometimes the UML explains it best, sometimes it's a combination of everything.

Most of the examples are written in C++, but some are actually in Smalltalk. I was a bit weary of this at first, but began to appreciate it. It's incredibly helpful to take a step back from the code syntax and specifics in order to really understand what is going on.

I'd highly recommend this book for any programmer who might consider themselves an architect, even if only slightly. If you want to write good, reusable code, you need to have a lot of tools (patterns) in your toolbox. Only then can you really chose the best one for the job or mash a few together to make one.

Also, I wish I had read this before Compilers class...I might have passed it :). <3 Visitor Pattern <3

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

2010-11-28T21:22:00.000-06:00

Levitt and Dunbar's look at the world is a little different than most. Taking economics to the eXtreme, they try to draw out patterns and conclusions from not-so-ordinary parts of life by looking at the numbers.

They tackle issues such as real-estate agents with a sellers best interest not at heart, cheating in sumo wrestling, crime, abortion, and parenting. Trying to factor out each hypothesis into an independent cause, while not basing everything on correlation. If you took a statistics class, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Just because there are more butterflies outside when it is warmer, doesn't mean you can have eternal summer by releasing a bunch of butterflies.

It all has to do with the bread and butter of economics: incentives. Most of the time we think of financial incentives, but often moral, social, or other incentives mean more than we think. For example, most people vote because they want to be seen voting, not because they care. How do they prove this? Looking at election data where mail-in ballots are introduced can get you the data you need.

Another point is about "experts". Financial advisors, mechanics, and other "experts" use their information to raise their rates. This isn't usually best for the consumer, but because of a lack of knowledge, it's often their only choice. Fortunately, things are changing: "The Internet has accomplished what even the most fervent consumer advocates usually cannot: it has vastly shrunk the gap between the experts and the public."

The book was a great example of being bold. The authors definitely said some controversial things, but always backed it up. They didn't support or disapprove of these things, they merely stated what the data told them. It was also an example of why you should collect data first, worry about what to analyze later. Many of the datasets they were using were accidental. A large testing push in Chicago wound up being used to find cheating teachers.

Finally, I liked the story of the author's journey through academia. He read everything which allowed him to talk about anything. He also didn't need a "theme" as a researcher at a young age. Too often people get locked in to what they think they want to do or be, which only closes doors to other possibilities.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

2010-10-13T23:02:00.002-05:00

Free on Kindle

This is a book about a great and interesting man in our country's history. It stops before the heart of revolutionary times, but is still a great read.

Franklin's life wasn't the most exciting, but was definitely interesting. Not often outspoken with the pen, his sagely advice spills out of nearly every page.

"A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps thro' fear of being thought to have but little."

He was also in a group called the Junto. This was a group of his friends that would discuss relevant matter of the time. Anything from science to politics was presented and discussed. This is a great reminder of how we can learn a lot from others...especially those not like us.

I think he was a pretty solid GTD'er too:
"I drest plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion. I never went out a fishing or shooting; a book, indeed, sometimes debauch'd me from my work, but that was seldom, snug, and gave no scandal; and, to show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchas'd at the stores thro' the streets on a wheelbarrow."

Here are his virtues:

TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

"I was surpris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish."

I owe him a bit for helping establish the first public library in America. He brought up some great points about the benefits of printed text."...reading became fashionable; and our people, having no publick amusements to divert their attention from study, became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observ'd by strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries."

This is a vastly underrated asset we've had here in America. Knowledge is everywhere and nearly free. You don't have to pay for a college degree to become an expert on something. Go out to the library, read everything you can find, and get to it. You'll end up beyond most college graduates. With the internet, this can happen even more easily. There is a lot more knowledge online than any one person could ever learn in their lifetime.
"Look round the habitable world, how few Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue!"

Free Agent Nation

2010-09-14T22:15:00.000-05:00

My first Kindle book! (We won them at TechEd...among other things). I used the notetaking feature pretty heavily. This isn't a place for a Kindle review though. My first purchase was Dan Pink's first book, Free Agent Nation. This book is almost 10 years old, but many of its ideas still apply.

My first thoughts on the book were that it felt like @garyvee's Crush It. It's really a book about how you can do what you want. You don't have to be tied to a big company or traditional way of life to succeed, you just have to work at it. A main theme in the book is that life isn't one size fits all, it's My Size Fits Me.

The best part of this revolution is how we are right in the middle of it. Much of it is enabled and driven by technology, specifically, the internet. It makes barriers and costs to enter markets dirt cheap, so anyone can compete. Competition is good for everyone.

Also important is the every buzzwordy networking. It's more important to have many loose ties than a few strong ones. Having a Facebook friend that can find you a job has become a big deal.

Finally, I like the idea of education when you need it. I firmly believe that you can learn much more on the job than in the classroom. Unfortunately, the education system and supporting agencies are in no way ready for this. "Even though living in France might be a more effective way to become fluent in French and prepare for a career as a translator than taking a year’s worth of language courses at Harvard, you could never get a student loan to hang out in Paris for six months."

It is a little outdated, in almost a nostalgic way (it mentions floppy disks) and it jumps around a bit (retirement, homeschooling, tax policy, etc.), but it's a great quick read. You'll think about people, businesses, and potential customers differently.

Business Model Generation

2010-09-12T21:39:00.000-05:00

This book was recommended to me by Joseph Knecht of Vipa Solutions through Eric Dinger of Thought District. He suggested we read "the Gupta book", but since that didn't come up with anything, we got clarification. The book he was referring to was Business Model Generation, a community supported book about creating business models.

Its primary focus is on the canvas. It's a set of areas that a business model should cover ranging from customers, to value, to logistics and support. It's a great way to make sure you really have all your bases covered, and might even help you find a new way to improve your business.

Its a beautifully designed book and follows its idea of drawings over text very well. It was really a joy to read. In actual content, it was well structured and informative, with each section having multiple examples and usually activities.

It covered everything from creating the model, to design, patterns, strategy, and actually fleshing out the "completed" model. The design stuff was great. Any book that references Bill Buxton is a winner.

I'd highly suggest this for anyone looking to start a business, write a business plan, or both. Those types of things can be very hard to get started from scratch. This gives you a great way to get conversations flowing and to pull out ideas.

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

2010-08-29T16:56:00.000-05:00

This review is a long time in the making, but it's a great story. I was reading the book on a flight to Dallas when I struck up a conversation with the lady next to me. It started on iPads (which I quickly changed the subject from) and moved onto this book and its subject. She was currently in a Ph.D. program looking at the importance of meditation and self-awareness in medical treatment. It was an awesome discussion about the mind, the soul, and the body.

She mentioned a desire to read this book, and I said, "I've only got 20 pages left. I'll just give it to you when I'm done." I finished it, took my notecard, wrote my name and email on it, and handed it over. It was my first MindSpread :).

The book is awesome. It talks about why we do things that don't make sense. A lot of it has to do with perceiving things differently than they actually are because we want to.

A huge part of the problem is loss aversion. All to often, we're afraid to throw something away that we've invested time or money into. This is a huge problem in the computer field. "I worked for 2 weeks on that code!" Well, we found a better way to do it that will only take 1 day. Most people won't change because of a perceived "loss". I always approach problems with a "throw-it-away" mentality. I don't (try to) write trashy, worthless code, but after-the-fact, I always try to accept the fact that it might get the boot.

We are also influenced by perceptions. If we are told that someone is cold and hard to get along with, we'll see that even if they aren't.

This book shares many concepts with Dan Pink's Drive, but has more psychology than motivation. For example, if you get a flat tire on a trip, rather than try to patch it and take a shortcut, just accept that you are going to be late. If you're not hauling a woman in labor to the hospital, being late probably won't hurt anything.

I'd highly encourage this book to not only understand why other people make illogical decisions, but to look at your own life too.

Wrong Sway

Emotional Design

2010-08-19T00:15:00.001-05:00

My latest adventure into Donald Norman's book about Emotional Design is a great addition and complement to his other, The Design of Everyday Things. This one focuses less on usability, safety, and practical design and more on aesthetics, emotional appeal, and attraction to products.

Much of the book is based on the different levels of our thinking that can be effected by the products we use:

Visceral - Appearance, gut-reactions, attractiveness
Behavioral - How you feel using it. Is it enjoyable? Does it accomplish the task well?
Reflective - Looking back after the task is complete, was it satisfying? Will you tell stories about it? Is it more than just a thing?

Different types of products must excel at each level differently, but they all effect the way we chose and use things. The rollercoaster is a great example. On the visceral level, it scares the crap out of you. You dread it in line, scream, and swear. At a reflective level, however, you think back at how you conquered your fears and actually got on the ride and survived. The same goes with guitars. Some may play better than others, but sometimes a guitar just "fits" your image.

The guitar is lucky to be played by Paul

An important thing to remember is that designers and developers really don't understand what a product needs. They are too close to the idea to really see it. Why do people like that kind of beer? Brewmasters and taste testers can tweak all they want, but it's not because of the taste. It's because of the packaging.

The last third of this book is all about robots. It's got some crazy, but decent ideas that robots will need emotion to be effective. If you're into robotics at all, check it out. If not, skip to the end.

In the end we are all designers. They way you arrange your desk, take notes, or even serve food is making a choice in design. Keep practicing and keep improving.

Rework from 37signals

2010-07-26T22:34:00.000-05:00

Rework is the recent page turner by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founders of 37signals. The book is 288 pages, but every other page is either a drawing (not a diagram, a drawing) or a blank page. This made the book read exceptionally fast. Check out theexcerpts or the trailers.

My initial reaction to the book was positive. I am a fan of their other book, Getting Real, a series of essays on software development. Rework had a much more broad appeal than Getting Real. It is 37signals’ fresh take on business and their unique philosophy on starting, running and growing businesses.

I respect the fact that the authors take an opinion in the book. I did not agree with everything in the book, but having an opinion and offering evidence to why that opinion is right is something to be applauded. Initially, I was taken aback by their approach, but have grown to like their upfront style of writing.

One of passages from the book that I enjoyed was their explanation of the real world. People immediately assume that new ideas will never succeed in the real world. Things like scalability and user adoption are common arguments to why the real world will crush your dream. Rework makes the counter argument that you don’t have to live in the real world. The real world problems are just that, problems. Waiting for solutions.

The book is full of interesting observations. Like the prison weapon approach, where prisoners are able to craft weapons out of virtually nothing. Just like taking an idea and turning it into a business out of thin air. Another idea in the book is Hero Mode, where an employee grinds on a task for hours until they reach hero mode and solve the problem. Everyone is guilty of overdoing a task. Most of the time, that 4 hour task can be solved in 20 minutes with outside input or taking a different approach.

Definitley read the book. It will only take a few hours, and they will be very thought provoking. I read the book as a result of a book sharing idea from this blog’s really cool post. Check them out.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2010-07-26T15:53:00.001-05:00

Douglas Adams' classic is a short, fun read that I would recommend for anyone. The story is quick, witty, and full of fun and adventure (funventure).

The plot follows earthling Arthur Dent's quest to figure out just what the heck is happening to him. After being saved from Earth's destruction by his friend Ford Prefect, he ends up on an adventure explaining most of the universe. All this in only about 200 pages.

My favorite part of the book is how he can balance ridiculous with acceptable. The story will follow a small detail through to a completely unexpected end. The fate of a whale that was generated by the improbability drive, the dolphins' last ditch attempt to signal humans, and the tale of Zaphod Beeblebrox are all followed through, leaving nothing to question. The explanations might not make much sense, but they are explanations.

It really is British humour in textual form. If you can read this book without the British-accented narrator in your mind, you are better than me.

Originally a radio program, the series now includes the book, TV series, and a $100M worldwide movie. The movie wasn't bad, but I enjoyed the TV series much better.

The Color of Water

2010-07-12T22:03:00.002-05:00

After hearing about this book in a couple sermons by our church's pastor, Dr. David Lux, I decided to give it a try. James McBride's book is a great look at adversity, diversity, and an incredible person.

To prove it's more than just a nice read, it held a spot on the New York Times Bestseller List for over two years. The way it was written was very appealing. It usually alternated with a chapter of his mother's story followed by a chapter of his childhood. It was cool to see how racial conditions had changed throughout the years, but also how prejudices can effect others as well. She was judged as a white person in a black community, a former Jew to here old family, and in many other ways.

Ruth McBride Jordan was an incredible person. Mother of 12 kids that came out of the projects to become successful people, often with multiple degrees. She started a church with her husband, ended up getting a degree at age 65, and helped out with many charities around the world. This all started with nothing. She was disadvantaged as a youth, young woman, and adult, but she triumphed above all of it.

Often full of straight-forward, direct wisdom, she instilled wholesome values into all of her children and really had a positive impact on the world. There is a list of her kids' accomplishments in the book. Even one of these kids would make most parents proud.

Unfortunately, Ruth passed away a few months ago. She was 88 and had an incredible faith. The title of the book is from a conversation had with her son. He asked if he was black or white. She responded, "You're a human being.". He asked, "What color is God?". Her response, "God is the color of water."

I'm lucky enough to have an equally awesome mom and dad that helped raise two incredible kids while having a great impact on many, many peoples' life. They may have had it a little easier than in this book, but I'm sure my sister and I made it tough enough :).

Crush It!

2010-06-19T18:37:00.001-05:00

Of the many inspiring talks at BigOmaha this year, Gary Vaynerchuk's was one of the best. I've never seen someone with more passion. I've never seen someone so in control of their own destiny. I've never seen someone not put up with the generic 9-5 so much. His book Crush It! pretty much sums it up.

His three principles are dead on:

Love your family
Work superhard
Live your passion

"Skills are cheap, passion is priceless" - Education is important, but shouldn't keep you from doing what you want to. A lot of people can go to college or get an MBA, but why do only a few really succeed? Without passion, no amount of skills will get you very far.

He's huge on storytelling. It's one of the most important skills you can have. You can have a billion dollar idea, but without selling and explaining it to people, it will be the billion dollar idea that never happened.

One of his great uses of the storytelling idea is shown his approach to WineLibraryTV. He wanted to "take the mystery out of wine buying and make it fun". People are looking for simple, fun ways to go about their world. Can you do something like this for a different industry?

Many people get scared when he mentions you need at least 50 blog topics to write about. It seems like a huge number, and for those of us that have blogged, seems impossible. Like anything else, it gets easier over time. I'm at 125+ posts on NonGenre and this is post #34 for the book blog. Practice makes perfect. 30:30:30 was painful at times, but it was one of the best exercises I've done in a long time.

He loves his share badges (see below). Someone at TechEd or Mix mentioned that those are going to be the mullet of the internet. Based on Wonder-Tonic's research, I'd compare them to web counters and animated gifs.

One thing most people don't see about him is his patience. It seems like he made his way overnight, but it takes a while. Businesses, bands, photographers, DJs, etc. are never really overnight successes. Many people don't have the drive or patience to really do something great. It takes both.

There are lots of great blogs out there, most we probably haven't heard of. The successful ones are often good at monetizing too. Why haven't I monetized on the gazillions of hits I get each month?

That's not why I do this.
It would start to feel like a job.
It would look bad.

That said, I've thought about trying the Amazon Affiliate Program for research, but I'm kind of lazy.

Overall, the message is great. Do what you love, be genuine, be happy. If everyone took steps toward doing what they actually want to do, we would be in a much better world.

Get a Grip on Philosophy

2010-05-26T13:33:00.001-05:00

For the past two weeks I've been complaining about this book and struggling to get through it. In the end it has been quite the read. Neil Turnbull's book in this fun series reads a little more like a textbook with an opinion than an informational, coffee table book, but it's definitely worth a look.

First of all, anyone can be a philosopher. It doesn't require a Ph.D (Doctor of Philosophy) or any formal training. All it requires is for you to think and ask questions. You don't even have to be crazy enough to jump into an active volcano.

Questions are good. Socrates (from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) believed that "the unexamined life is not worth living". Going through the motions and never questioning what is happening or why is a terrible way to live.

Side note: This book might have drawn Mohammed on pg. 86 before it was "cool".

It's interesting to me as a "math guy" to see some of the rationalist thoughts on reality in mathematical terms. Descartes, inventor of the Cartesian (x,y) plane was a philosopher concerned about mind and matter.

These questions about life and one's being aren't easy to answer. Some philosophers had great goals though. Hume wanted to be the "Newton of the Mind". Having a role model in an entirely different field can be a very viable goal.

Many situations require tradeoffs. As engineers we deal with this daily. Speed vs. Space, Reliability vs. Cost, etc. These also surface in moral and ethical situations. Many great movie plots include these tradeoffs. Think of the boat scene in The Dark Knight. Hegel suggests that history itself will end whenever all of these conflicts are resolved.

What are we to do about this? Nietzsche suggests that we create our own values. Escape in to your own world that you create. Make Yourself if you will. He also believed that there were a few "great men" that were able to "rise above" the rest of the world. This doesn't sit well with me because I think anyone can be great, but it's a nice goal to be one of these "great men" or "great women".

Many of the things we do or say have no meaning out of their context. For example, 'time' in "What time is it?" is much different than in "What is time?". It's important to not get caught up on things like this that are completely different in different situations.

Franz Kafka's book "The Trial" paints an interesting picture where a man is arrested for a reason he doesn't know and must first find out what he is accused of before defending himself. It's an interesting point that we need to know the situation and our surroundings before taking action.

Many pessimists feel that the world is a "social hell" where people are always out to get each other and want the worst for everyone else. I don't think so. As Gary Vaynerchuk put it, with web sites like pleaserobme.com why isn't everyone getting robbed all the time?

A great point from Heidegger is that we only come to appreciate reality through an awareness of death. I completely agree. Things like skydiving or roller coasters are safe, but still make us think of our own lives because of the possibility of death. Without these, we would have no sense of urgency, take things for granted, and more importantly, take people in our lives for granted. Most people don't realize this until they are older and it's "too late". Realize it now.

Philosophers need three things:

An open mind.
A sensitive imagination.
A willingness to listen.

With these three you can choose your own adventure on philosophy and life.

Sorry this is so disconnected and hard to follow. My notes weren't very organized.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

2010-05-18T00:45:00.002-05:00

Another great, quick read from Dan Pink. Billed as "The last career guide you'll ever need", it's a nice reminder of how you should go about "planning" your career. It's written in Manga (Japanese comic form) with some excellent artwork from Rob Ten Pas.

You should be able to get through this book in about an hour, but if you don't have time, here's the summary:

There is no plan. Do what you want to do for you. Don't just blindly listen to the guidance counselor or company talent developer. You won't enjoy doing things for external rewards, you need intrinsic motivation.
Think strengths, not weaknesses. Don't focus on what you can't do, focus on your strengths and how they can best be used. Are you good with sketches? Draw out ideas for others to better understand.
It's not about you. You're working to solve someone else's problem. You aren't boosting your resume, showing off sweet skillz, or impress your boss.
Persistence trumps talent. Really talented people who aren't dependable aren't great people. Persistence pays off in the long run.
Make excellent mistakes. Learn like crazy from your mistakes. Often the consequences of a mistake aren't as bad as you think.
Leave an imprint. Do something that matters. We're ultimately here on earth to make someone's life, business, day, etc. better.

It's an entertaining and informative read. Has some good inside jokes too. Let me know if you catch them. Also, make sure to watch this video again after you read it.

Reworking Rework

2010-05-15T16:09:00.001-05:00

JP (Techneur) got us a copy of Rework and I read it just in time to see Jason Fried speak at BigOmaha. Jason covered 10 of the books chapters, JP covered his favorite ~20, so here are my additions:

Make a Dent in the Universe - Do something that matters. Don't throw sheep unless people really need to throw sheep.
No Time is No Excuse - No one has any more time than you do.
Be a Curator - This follows 37 Signals' minimalist approach to software, but it can apply to everything. Great museums aren't the ones with the most art. They have a great flow, layout, and appealing, well placed art.
Long Lists Don't Get Done - Reading lists, shopping lists, TODO lists, etc. are much easier to accomplish if you break them down into smaller lists. 1/100 things doesn't make a dent, 1/5 does. It doesn't kill your motivation like the endless lists do.
GPAs Don't Matter - Thank goodness! Sorry to break it to you, but Academia != Real World...at all. Here's a great list of misguided lessons (I fail all of them):

The longer a document is, the more it matters
Stiff, formal tone is better than being conversational
Using big words is impressive
You need to write a certain number of words or pages to make a point
The format matters as much (or more) than the content of what you write

Own Your Own Bad News - React to "disasters" quickly and sincerely. "No comment" doesn't work.
Decisions are Temporary - Don't make up "What if" scenarios as an excuse not to make a decision. Even if you make the "wrong choice" you'll still, more than likely, be able to recover. Make the decision, watch/live the results, correct if necessary. This one is a personal pet peeve.
They're Not 13 - Treat your employees like kids, they will act like kids. If they have to get approval for everything they do and have rules beyond compare, don't be surprised when they don't get their work done and say they were "blocked". Let them set their own schedules of getting things done, give them authority to make decisions, don't baby them.
Send People Home at 5 - This one is interesting. It's definitely not for everyone. People need a good work/life balance, but there's often work to be done after. Jason's idea was if it took extra time, you're doing it wrong.
Inspiration is Perishable - That spark of energy when you get that good idea will burn out if you let it. The idea will be there, but you won't have the will to do it anymore. Why start a diet and workout regiment January 1st? Why wait to write that novel? Start now! Don't have time? See above and, in the censored words of Gary Vaynerchuk, stop watching Lost.

It's a great, quick read. I'd highly recommend it.

Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Welfare

2010-04-26T12:01:00.000-05:00

From the Kent Kubie led discussion group, comes Alan Axelrod's look at General George S. Patton and how his leadership could be applied to the business world. It seemed like a quick and easy book-between-books for me. I was very impressed.

The way things are organized in the book really helps. After a short introduction to Patton's life, the "lessons" are organized into 9 themes. These include facts, people, mentoring/motivation, efficiency, planning, and others. These sections are divided into 15-20 small, 1-2 page points. They have a title, a quote, and a paragraph or two of the author's thoughts on how it applies to business.

It makes this book easy to pick up as you can jump to any section at any time. Trying out Nick's technique, I read it in two sittings in less than 4 hours.

A few sticking points with me:

Difference between a Strategy and a Tactic. Eric Dinger from ThoughtDistrict helped us figure this one out in our marketing book discussion. The Patton explanation helped solidify that. Strategy is big-picture with goals, tactics are steps toward them.
If it 'aint broke... Naval officers will actually wait one bell (1/2 hour) before making any changes. Too many times new managers try to push their "new, better ways" before really understanding where they are and what needs fixed.
Facts, facts, facts. These are what you need to make decisions and the only things that should influence your decisions. Facts eliminate fears.
Be visible. Go up to the front lines to show support and courage to your "troops"
People matter most.
Let people solve the problem. Basically what Dan Pink's Drive says about motivation.
Give credit and praise often and in public.
Don't overlook the back-office people that keep things running. Seriously...don't
"L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace." - Audacity, audacity, always audacity.

Along with being a great book, it certainly has put the movie on my list. You'd think I'd have seen it already...

Beethoven's Anvil

2010-04-21T19:01:00.000-05:00

William Benzon's book is said to answer the question "Why does the brain create music?" on its back cover. While I'm not sure it does quite that, it definitely has some great insight into music & the mind. Written by a congative scientist slash jazz player, it has many unique views on the subject.

His focus is on a few main areas of musicking (his word, awesome):

The experience, usually out-of body, of getting lost in musicking. His story of Leonard Bernstein would "become the composer".
Music's role in the evolution of humans, and vise-versa. From music-based rituals to using dance as a method of physical activity, music is a huge part of our heritage.
Collective Dynamics: the coupling of people's brains while musicking. Not only are your thoughts of you coupled, but your mental perception of everyone else is coupled. Music is the great timekeeper.

That last point really struck me. Anything* with a steady timing has rhythm. You can slap your knee to it. Anything* with rhythm is music. Would there any other way to measure short (less that could be measured by the sun/moon) periods of time? People estimating musical performance times in their head were within 1.5% of actual time on average. Those who were asked to estimate a 10-second interval had an average error of 28%.

The emotional section on blues had some interesting points. We use music to relive past pains and losses. At the time, the loses leave us worried and grieving, but expressing them through music allows us to be comfortable, safe, and intimate with "no worries of the future."

Writing is interesting both in word and music because the author is forced to "generate a language without any of the customary cues about how your words are being received."

One of the issues I had with the book was the amount of speculation and the ways they were expressed. He had a lot of "Imagine if..." sections that seemed to be a big part of his arguments. It was great for mental scenery, but made it hard to imagine any other way. There was also something about holograms...

He also explains how hip-hop and rap are used by the black community to confront things like racism, channel anger, and take ownership over their trade.

The ending talks very briefly about the role technology is playing now in music. Anyone can record music and the internet is a great way to distribute. I'm excited to see how music can really evolve when we take out record companies and let people decide what they want to hear.

Music is a great thing in our society and musicians are truly skilled individuals. I remember a guest conductor telling us to sing a piece of music. We did just fine. He then reminded us that we were reading the words and notes. Next, he had us try to read two lines at a time out of our history book. It was obviously impossible. Musicians = Magicians? :)

Crush It - Keep It Real

2010-04-09T01:35:00.000-05:00

Chapter 7 of Crush It stood out to me as being a very meaningful chapter. Hence the chapter name, "keep it real ... very real." This is the gut check chapter of the book. I would wager that people reading this book would be completely optimistic to quit their jobs and start making their living online - until this chapter.

Gary bursts everyone's bubble that Crushing It will not be a half-time, pajama type job. To accomplish any kind of success through the methods mentioned in the book, your new boss (yourself) has to be a slave driver. That is what differentiates yourself from the rest of the competition. That is why there is not 1000s of Gary Vaynerchuks running around.

He mentions a specific point in the chapter that I can relate to - Investing in the important stuff. He gave a great example of investing in the important stuff with the scenario of someone asking him what kind of equipment he uses to record his videos? His response - "Does this really matter?" Why would someone even worry about that.

It is like learning to golf. $1200 clubs are not required for a novice golfer. A novice golfer cannot feel the difference between those and a $200 set. Grab the $200 dollar set and get to work. When a golfer can make the ball sit, stay, rollover, and play dead with the $200 dollar set, then it might be time to upgrade the gear.

Get a Grip on Astronomy

2010-04-06T01:28:00.001-05:00

Double Post

I can't get enough of these books. They are perfect for flights, weekends, or any other time when you have a couple hours to read. This one particularly sparked my space interest. What better day to blog about it than the day we sent our Nebraska astronaut back into space?

Author Robin Kerrod is actually a children's science author, but this book still explains many non-child ideas. There are even some easy-to-learn astronomy terms to impress your friends at parties.

Aside from the science and ideas, there is bit of history in this book. It's fascinating to see the early thoughts on the universe, telescope designs, and mythology behind constellations.

The midsection explains each planet and stellar landmark in a few pages. It also includes facts, stories, and exploration notes. These will be nice as a quick reference. Yes, faster than wikipedia.

Finally, it addresses some "Mysteries of the Universe" involving the beginnings of and search for life. These are some fun things to wrap your head around and are much better than your random conspiracy theories.

Six Pixels of Separation - Viral Marketing vs. Viral Expansion Loops

2010-04-05T20:11:00.001-05:00

In Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel outlines several themes to create a winning online strategy. Early on in the book, Joel goes into detail about the difference between Viral Marketing and Viral Expansion Loops. This difference requires the reader to understand the "how" behind wildly successful online marketing.

We all know what Viral Marketing is - hilariously explained by Wondertonic. The goal of viral marketing is to create spontaneous word of mouth advertising (we all have our own definition, I pulled mine from Wikipedia).

Viral Expansion Loops take viral marketing one step further, because they routinely replicate the effects of viral marketing. It is sustained viral marketing. The viral expansion loop is when a human participates in something that cannot, in itself, be sustained without participants. For example, trading Beanie Babies in the late 90s is a viral expansion loop. People were trading toys that could be bought for $5 and resold for hundreds. There was no hard value there (they were not made of gold) but the popularity of the toy created a viral expansion loop. People buying the toys then trading them would complete the loop.

A more realistic example of a viral expansion loop is the social network. Joel mentions Ning, a software company that allows users to create their own social networks. The value created in a social network is the participation of more users sharing their ideas. This draws more users in and completes a revolution of the loop. The added users will bring more ideas to the social network, which opens up the possibility for even more users to join.

The viral expansion loop is a powerful thing. It is principle behind the rapid growth of content on the internet.

Read about Ning and the original explanation of the viral expansion loop.

Six Pixels of Separation - Quick Review

2010-04-05T10:16:00.001-05:00

I recently read Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel for my Raikes School Design Studio Discussion group (Check out the Raikes School!). Joel is the President of Twist image, a digital marketing agency, and the writer of the Six Pixels of Separation Blog. The book and the blog present insights on how to reach customers on the global level through online strategies.

His blog is updated regularly with well-written posts around 500 words. The posts tie back to several of his main themes which he details in his book. A few examples of his themes are Engaging your Online Community and the concept of Digital Darwinism, where businesses have to evolve their online strategies to keep users coming back for more. He also has a podcast with nearly 200 episodes and does speaking events.

Six Pixels was Joel's first book, and I feel that it was missing some polish. The book is quite long, weighing in at 287 pages. Reading it in two separate sessions (I normally try to read cover to cover) confused me about the point he was trying to get across. The book does not have a main theme to communicate to the user, it has many. This makes trying to keep track of all of them difficult, especially when the book is so long. Each chapter has a central theme that it communicates with backing examples, but the chapters do not flow together as well as they could.

I would add a "how to read this book" section in the beginning of the book. Reading it cover to cover does not make sense, but reading it a chapter at a time does. I think the book would work better as an online strategy reference book than as a normal book. I feel this way because of the abundance of content presented in the book. It could be split into multiple books, with more supporting (and non-supporting evidence) to make the topics more realistic.

The content of the book is great though - I will be going into detail on that in a few future posts. I would recommend this book to anyone who is marketing online, but remember that it is not a silver bullet. Only Silver bullets are silver bullets.

Crush It - Storytelling

2010-04-02T02:35:00.000-05:00

I recently buzzed through Gary Vaynerchuk's 2009 book, Crush It. The book covers a wide array of topics related to social media, and how you can quit your job right now and start doing what you love for a living. I was quite skeptical when I sat down to read the book but I slowly warmed up to it and was able to see some key ideas that he meant to convey in the book.

For those that have not heard, Gary is a co-owner of his family's wine retail shop in New Jersey and the host of the Wine Library TV webcast.

The book goes into detail about Gary's childhood, which is the most entertaining part of the book. He recounts stories of the seven-year old Gary hustling lemonade stands around his neighborhood at age 7. He talks about his passion for baseball cards and how his business education comes from card shows. This is where I was really drawn into the book - the story of where he is coming from sets the tone for the rest of the book.

He is really practicing what he preaches before he even mentions it in the book, and that is to tell a story. I was sold to read the rest of the book after hearing the entertaining story about how he lost all his money at a Baseball card show when he was a teenager. Quoted directly from the text - "Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill in business."

Being able to tell a story will leave a customer with a positive attitude. It might even be so positive that they will come back and do business with you again. They might tell their friends.

Storytelling does not have to happen in person, and that is a theme in the various means of connecting to customers that are described later in the book. Gary mentions that providing content (Blog, Tweet, Podcast, etc.) should be telling a great story. This is a convincing reason as to why Woot is so popular. They could just be a shopping site that only sells one item per day. But they are so much more than that - they are a blog that personifies the items that they are selling. They have other posts that are games that the Woot team likes, or interesting headlines with one-liners mixed in.

That is why I continue to check Woot. I like the stories that they are telling. It is entertaining and is a great way for the company to draw my business in.

If you do have a few hours on your hands and are looking for some light reading material, do check out Gary's book. Definitely check it out if you are a fan of social media.

Drive!

2010-03-08T21:23:00.000-06:00

Dan Pink's incredible look at human motivation is one of the best books I've read in a while. Not only does it appeal to us artsy right-brainers, there is even logical evidence of why these techniques work and the old ones don't.

One of the best parts of this book is the back material. It has:

A Twitter Summary: 140 characters or less
A Cocktail Party Summary: 100 words (1 minute) or less
One Paragraph Chapter Summaries

Read those and tell me you don't want to jump into the entire book. It's a very quick read.

I got to present this and A Whole New Mind to some lucky ducks in Design Studio last week. My slides are lengthy and wordy, but I think the session went well.

I'm really excited to apply some of these techniques in Design Studio and get out of the students' way toward success. There has yet to be a challenge that my teams haven't met. These students can do anything...if they want to.

Thanks for suggesting it Kevin.

Shop Class as Soulcraft

2010-02-21T23:09:00.006-06:00

In the past few years, I have gradually grown a distaste for how some businesses are run in the new millennium. In particular, the lack of accountability and solid standards frustrates me: I want to be in sync with my superiors on precisely what my output is expected to be so that neither of us is surprised when evaluation time comes.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, by how well Shop Class as Soulcraft has sold. It examines the psychological and social contexts involved in the author’s choice to leave his doctorate-bearingknowledge worker job to return to being a mechanic.

At the heart of the first part of the book is education – in particular, learning by doing. I feel like this has been a big part of what I have enjoyed in my education – at first, learning about computers by breaking them, then my time at Summit Tech, and my time in the Raikes School.

One thing I’ve learned in Design Studio is that there is more to a successful project than meeting the listed requirements: there are implicit expectations about the internal quality of the delivered product. This doesn’t, however, mean that success is immeasurable. These two notions of craftsmanship and the ability to objectively evaluate success are explored in the first few pages of the book.

Another key skill in software is problem solving, but as the author points out, often times in the real world we are tasked with problem finding. In other words, it is one thing to understand how to implement recursion or how stacks work, but identifying when a problem suggests recursion or when a stack will cause criminal inefficiency is the actual crux of the issue. In his words,

“… in the real world, problems don’t present themselves in this predigested way; usually there is too much information, and it is difficult to know what is pertinent and what isn’t. Knowing what kind of problem you have on hand means you know what features of the situation can be ignored.”

‘Scientific management’ is also examined as the force behind the replacement of thought and autonomy with process. The replaceability of labor in such a system is both its benefit and drawback: while it drastically cuts costs of labor, the employee is now a commodity burdened with anxiety. That anxiety is increased by the societal promotion of debtedness as normal and desirable. Marketing messages are based on the idea that to solve a problem, we must buy the new rather than fix (or accept) the old.

Towards the end of the book, ways to examine oneself are explored. The “process” of the author is noteworthy for its name – I’ll let you discover that on your own. The reflections on the problems facing gifted students are particularly relevant. To name a few pieces of bad news:

GPA is poorly correlated with success in your career

externally generated self-esteem can make you more easily manipulable

children praised for being smart are more risk-averse and dependent on others

More generally, here are a few of the qualities noted as undesirable that are present in most modern workers:

Dependent

Risk-averse

Relies on extrinsic rewards

Views education as an expectation to be met

Believes success can only be measured relatively

I see authors’ reluctance to include extensive personal experience in non-fiction books as a flaw. For that reason, this book was brilliant for me: the story and the facts are mixed in a way that is congruent enough to follow, but not so homogenous that it’s boring. I strongly recommend it to anyone who plans to work for someone, or have someone work for them, at some point in the remainder of their life – hopefully, everyone who reads this.

Crossing the Chasm

2010-02-01T14:38:00.005-06:00

Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm is a little dated (written in 1991, revised in 1999), but its lessons still apply. It specifically is targeted to high-tech products and has a bit of flavor for the entrepreneur.

The first thing to understand is just what the chasm is. Traditional business materials show the product life cycle as a nice, continuous curve starting with Innovators and Early Adopters then ending with Laggards. As cool as the word Laggard is, the focus of this book is on the gap between the Early Adopters and Early Majority.

A lot of high tech products fall into the chasm between these two phases. It is partially a product of technology being slightly confusing and intimidating for some people and businesses.

The main way Moore addresses this gap is with a focused, "D-Day" approach. Pick out a single market segment and "attack" it. Don't try to spread out and cover every possible segment, because you won't have enough resources and won't be effective. Get a win in a very small segment, become the leader, then move on to others.

This really tripped us up at our business plan competition a couple years back. We though our idea would "trickle in revenue from a lot of places", but really we didn't have a single solid market for our product. Unfortunately, the judges didn't tell us that specifically, but it's never too late to learn.

Finally, the book discusses personnel involved in new projects and mainstream projects. It has a surprisingly accurate view of entrepreneurs and how they prefer to work. There's a great paragraph on page 192.

This is a nice book for potential product managers or marketing folks. It's also useful to think about roles/positions you may be in when applying for jerbs!

To Engineer is Human

2009-10-04T14:52:00.004-05:00

I'm an engineer. I am human. To Engineer Is Human.

This book has a great explaination of several well-known failures in Engineering. Failure isn't a good thing, but learning from that failure is a great thing. We could live in a world with no screw-ups or disasters, but there would also be no improvements or achievements.

The first chapters are more abstract and give examples of kids growing up. You learn how to walk by falling down. Not only do you think about how to walk, but your body learns to memorize the "right way" to walk. Also, learning your language isn't something you can be "taught". You learn by listening to adult "experts", making similar sounds, and looking for feedback when you use the "wrong word".

The middle content of this book mirrors the content I've used for the Initiation Presentation for the Order of the Engineer. This is an organization with an essential mission for engineering graduates:

Always think about safety in your designs
Iterative emprovement is essential

The book is also the basis for a short video series that has some great footage of these disasters.

This would be a great, quick read for anyone that tries to innovate or solve problems. Check out a copy from the library or go through the nearly full preview version on Google Books.

Understanding Comics

2009-06-18T10:35:00.002-05:00

You may recognize Scott McCloud's comics from the Google Chrome Introduction. Think about how simple and well explained that was. Now apply that to (meta) comics.

The book is written as a comic book. Don't think you can learn like that? Think again. You won't be able to put it down. The order of information is well planned and executed, the examples are numerous, and the jokes are funny. What more could you ask for?

He obviously starts with the history of comics, but really does a great job explaining just how they work. What are we thinking (subconsciously) when we see a comic? How does a good comic artist use these things to improve their work? Why does the space between panels matter?

All of these and more are answered in this book. There is a really nice TED video to give you an idea of what the book covers. His presentation style is fast, fun, and interesting. His comic writing is much the same.

Read this book. It's a quick read and really can help you think about your writing, reading, and the world in general.

The Design of Everyday Things

2009-05-18T22:59:00.002-05:00

This book is from Donald Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group, the usability consulting group. Note: I would also recommend the other half.

The main point of this book is to get "designers" in any profession to look at things from a different perspective. Don't just design things that you understand and you can use, make sure others can too. The terribly overused buzzword is "intuitive", but sadly that is the best word. Make things natural. People should never question where they are in your system, how to get to their destination, and what actions are available to them.

The overused analogy found throughout this book is the door. Usability in doors not only saves hassle and embarrassment, but can also prevent injuries and deaths. Unfortunately, as he points out, many of the design award winning "non-life saving" doors are terribly hard to use.

I would suggest this book for anyone that works with anything that may be used by others. Don't let the "design" word make you feel unqualified. It is a quick read, very interesting, and has many simple and sound practices.

Capitalism and Freedom

2009-04-05T23:40:00.000-05:00

Over winter break, I was doing some pre-spring cleaning and noticed I had a Barnes & Noble gift card. While looking for something interesting, I stumbled upon this book. I balked a bit because it was written in 1962, but the description hooked me.

Milton Friedman's look on government and freedom is incredible. It was of course written in the midst of the cold war, so the first chapter relates political and economic freedom. It shows how communism just doesn't work and has some insights as to why capitalism does.

Even though the book is almost a half century old, it addresses problems with ideas of government and the economy, not just specific parts. He draws many insights from the years up to the Great Depression and the New Deal. You can fill in the equivalent programs or positions. There are great, bite-sized sections about monetary policy, education, discrimination, monopoly, licensure, welfare, and poverty.

The best part of this book is its timeliness in today's world. In a world of bailouts, packages, and stimulus, his points are extremely valid. Government should not make such a large impact on the economy. A great example he gives is that citizens should establish a set of rules for individuals to engage in private contracts. The government should be like an umpire, simply enforcing these rules. Government spending, tariffs, and general involvement in the economy is detrimental to the cause. Even if you don't agree with the ideas, it is interesting to look at the author's insight years before we entered this "crisis". Next on the list is his later book Free to Choose.

True North

2009-03-08T20:02:00.006-05:00

First!

This is required reading for Chris Howard's visit this week, but it actually turned out to be a good book. It is also a quick read and only 200 pages. I'll let someone else post details if they want, but there were a few themes in the book that really hit me.

The book has a very general and subtle "agenda". The author, Bill George, wants you to be an authentic leader by knowing and improving your purpose, values, motivations, relationships, and life. The way he goes about it is by taking bits from interviews of successful leaders in the world. He chose a diverse set of leaders with a good variety of backgrounds, situations, and views. The book is essentially a collection of stories around a common theme.

This is where the book can interest about anyone. The stories are a paragraph to a few pages long, so you are bound to like/identify with one every 10 or so pages. These aren't your average stories about just getting lucky or being handed power. They are stories of family, death, loss, war, failure, planning, hope, and about everything else imaginable.

A couple particular stories that really struck me were those of Charles Schwab's Dave Pottruck (left) and Starbucks' Howard Schultz (right). These two have incredible stories of overcoming huge failures and really leading with a positive purpose.

I would highly recommend this book. Most of it seems like common sense, but the stories allow you to actually see how leadership is applied in life. Hopefully you can apply them to your life as well.

Peopleware Part II - VI

2009-02-26T11:37:00.006-06:00

Part II

Part II covers the environment for programmers. It reiterates over and over the importance of large, private work places for software developers. Several studies cited by the book show that successful programmers and programming teams have a large amount of dedicated workspace. Between 75 and 100 sq. ft. should be the minimum per person. The offices of these programmers are also quiet and private, and allow developers to turn off distractions such as the phone.

Another important point it made that people should be free to rearrange and customize their office. Most developers don't need to go all google on their workspaces, but some definitely appreciate the option.

The last bit of advice from Part II:
If you ever say, you can't get anything done around here between 9 and 5, it's time to start looking for some place where you can.

Part III

Getting the right people into you organization, or under your management is the next section of Peopleware. If you have the right people, your company, division, team, etc will produce higher quality results, faster.

Peopleware's success formula:

get the right people

make them happy so they don't want to leave

turn them loose

One piece of advice to point out is the opportunity cost of hiring a bad programmer is different than you might think. When hiring, it is much better for you to not hire a good programmer than to higher a bad one. Passing up people who look like good programmers is hard, but you have to do it.

Part IV

Part IV is title "Growing Productive Teams." It is rare for a programmer to not work on a team, so building highly effective, "jelled" teams is incredibly important. Doing so is incredibly difficult, but when a team jells, life is good.

An example of a jelled team is The Black Team from "a company in upper New York State that made large blue computers." This team started out as group of programmers who were a little better at testing than the rest. The team eventually evolved into a single consciousness of testers who would do the dirtiest and meanest things to your program breaking it ways never thought possible. The Black Team members even wore black to work, to help keep their image up. But an interesting thing happened with this team. As team members moved away, the identity of the team remained the same. Eventually, the team no longer had any of its original members, yet it was still feared just as much as it ever was. The team had jelled so well, and every new member to the team jelled too, it was able last well beyond the span of most teams.

Part V

Work should be fun. If it's fun, it's not really work. As a manger do what it takes to make your workplace fun for the developers. Remember bullet two of the Peoleware successful formula? Do it.

Part VI

Part VI was a new addition to the second edition of Peopleware. It revisits a few of the points made in earlier chapters and stresses the importance of them, and adds new insight that the authors have gained over the years since the first edition.

A good chapter is on making change in your team or department. The best way, is to pick one and only one thing to change. If you attempt to change to much at once, you will spread your own resources too thin. Once you have chosen what to change, get some back from team members. The more support you have, the better. Continue your grass-roots effort, slowing pushing higher and higher. If your change is compelling enough, it'll happen.

Thoughts

Peopleware is considered one of the classics that is great for both software developers and their managers. It is a quick read, so you will have plenty of time to reflect on your management style as you go through the book. Thumbs up.

Man's Search for Meaning

2009-02-26T11:28:00.009-06:00

Viktor E. Frankl's classic is highly respected in many business, educational, and religious circles. It's story is far reaching and can apply to many. He actually started writing it before he was arrested and thrown into the camps, had it confiscated, and re-wrote the entire book in only 9 days.

The book is divided into two parts: First, he talks about his time in Nazi Concentration Camps and how it effected and changed him and the other prisoners. It also goes through the different stages of a prisoners time in the camps. The second part is more academic than story. It tells of his "logotherapy", or meaning-driven therapy from a high level. He notes that it is 20 volumes of text condensed into 20 or so pages.

A main theme that is mentioned in the foreword, text, and afterword is a saying by Nietzsche: "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How." He shows examples of how prisoners in the camps that had a why, a spouse, children, a purpose for their lives were much more likely to survive. Many authors mention his theme that even when you have no control of the situation, you can always control how you react to it.

Man's suffering acts like a gas, filling a person no matter how small. Even with a primate being 99.9% the same as us scientifically, try this thought experiment: If an ape was choosen to do drug testing for a cure for cancer or AIDS, with some harmful side effects, would it know why it was suffering? Could it understand that there was a cause, a meaning, greater than itself? Frankl points out that this is one way that suffering can make us human. Even when treated like numbers in a prison, with a meaning and cause we can get through it.

When we can't change a situation (terminal illness), we are forced to change ourselves. He strongly supports the need for a strong sense of humor and even suggests it as a way to help OCD patients overcome their disorder. If you turn the things you are nervous or concerned about into a "joke" they really won't bother you anymore. It isn't intuitive, but it seems to work.

He puts a twist on the "meaning of life" question by relating it to asking a chess master what the best move is. I all depends on the situation, timing, and even "opponent" in life.

Even back when the book was written, he could see the coming "existential vacuum" in our society. People are looking for something to make their lives worthwhile. We are now to the point where "No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism)."

The book is a very short and easy read. It's story of survival is impressive in itself and the theory at the end is interesting and simple enough for even engineers to understand. I would highly recommend reading it and thinking a little about the meaning in your life.

Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.
And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting x .75

2009-02-22T21:54:00.006-06:00

Note: I am only 3/4ths through this book, but the end doesn't really apply to non-writers.
This book is definitely true to its name. It is filled with great stories. You may think, "Why would I read a book on stories?". The key is that stories are all we have as a human being. You are born, you live, you die. Only your stories will live on. Have you ever seen a great movie with a great story? (<soapbox>Chances of it being made in the last 10 years are slim.</soapbox>). Why was it a good story (Special effects != Good story)? Chances are you didn't even know why, I sure didn't.

McKee starts out by telling us about the very basics of story and screenwriting. A huge point is about creativity. No one want to see cliches. "Creativity is five to one, perhaps ten to one...if a colleague has arrived at a beautiful moment, it's because in rehearsal the actor tried it twenty different ways, then chose the one perfect moment."

After this, he goes into more detail about specific part of story. He explains different type of plots, and genres and how each can be used effectively. The audience is the most important judge of story and he really nails what they want: Every scene should change something, from love to jealousy, hatred to civility, etc. These shifts should all build to an act, then a story climax. These should all be built on a central idea that the story teaches us in the end.

Some other parts he takes from other famous story people. "As Aristotle tells us: "For the purposes of [story] a convincing impossibility is preferable to an unconvincing possibility."

Some other interesting points is that the story must have only one way to end. The audience should not imagine it any other way. This bugs me when I think, "Why didn't he just ____?". Good writers research and deliver their works so well that there is no other way. "In an effort to satisfy its curiosity, the audience rushes back through what story it's seen so far, seeking answers. In a beautifully designed story, these answers have been carefully layered in." You want the "O yea" moment of realizing earlier foreshadowing, but you never want it given away or unbelievable. "Insight is the audience's reward for paying attention"

The last section talks of crisis, climax, and resolution. Three obviously important parts to a story. It's interesting to hear examples of movies with down endings. They won't prove as potent at the box office, but often will have a better value for the audience. "The depth of our joy is in direct proportion to what we've suffered." He then mentions Holocaust survivors and how they don't avoid negative films. (Foreshadowing post)

Another main theme in this is that story writing is tough. It is not a slacker/lazy profession and takes a lot of research and time. I can't remember the exact number, but I think he said expect to throw away 10-20 pages for every one that makes the cut. Seeing example ~~code~~ scripts make those numbers very large. It will however help you understand good movies, books, and even songs. The lessons here aren't radical or new, but simply understood and told very well. It is a pretty thick read, but the content is definitely engaging and it will give you a large list of movies to watch! Link to the book.

Founders at Work, Getting Real with 37signals

2009-02-20T22:27:00.001-06:00

Over the Holidays and a little bit into 2009, I read Founders at Work. It has some really great points and some other things that should be taken with a grain of salt. Founders is organized as a series of interview transcripts, which was refreshing.

One chapter of Founders At Work interviews David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals. David has made several big contributions to online development over the past few years; most notably, 37signals and Ruby on Rails.

37signals is a small web-application development company based in Chicago. They make simple, effective, and highly usable software such as Campfire, an in browser chat program and Basecamp, communication driven project management software. 37signals originally started as a web design contractor but has since moved completely into web-app development. Although they are independently owned, they did receive a private equity investment from Jeff Bezos.

Over the past 2 years, Ruby on Rails has experienced rapid adoption by web-app developers. It is used by Hansson's company in their products, as well as Twitter and YellowPages.com. Rails has influenced several other frameworks (my favorites being Grails and Django) and has also solidified the MVC pattern as the defacto-standard for web-apps (For example, .NET MVC).

Now that we have the introductions out of the way - The founders at work interview goes into detail about various topics that make 37signals revolutionary and unique:

Signal Vs. Noise (svn), the impressive company blog.
Using their own software - Eating your own dog food.
More or less making their own rules with Getting Real - more on that later.
Working alone.

I particularly liked when he went into detail about working alone. In the early stages of 37signals, developers were spread across multiple time zones. This was advantageous because they never stepped on each others feet when developing. In certain situations, this is the best way to get things done. If a feature requires a lot of upfront research, it is better to lock one programmer in a room to figure it out, then relay the information back to the team. Other situations require more direct teamwork (like interface design).

Getting Real is a book (more like a collection of essays, blog posts, and articles) that was published in 2006 and is available for free over the Internet. The book is organized in a few logical chapters like Priorities, Feature Selection, and Process to name a few. Each chapter consists of 5 or 6 articles that are loosely related. The articles are short and sweet, and provide a key points and examples relating to how 37signals develops software - basically what works for them.

The book was a breath of fresh air for me. It was a quick read (2 hours max) and I felt motivated to work when I finished. I think the idea of saying no to features and preferences is the most important advice I will take away from the book. Instead of having hundreds of confusing features and giving users a myriad of configuration options, 37signals software is clean and easy to use. The same principal can be applied things we use in our everyday life - like the standard 2 button, scroll wheel mouse. There could be more buttons (adding features), but this would make the mouse less usable.

Some portions of the book are tough to relate. 37signals develop their own products - they are not working in a consultant role. This is hard to wrap my head around because most all of my experience has been in a consultant role. So the practices of ignoring feature requests and endless iterations are hard to implement as a consultant (unless you're quite good).

I would definitely recommend Getting Real to anyone who likes software development - check it out, it won't take long. It's a treat to hear about companies like 37signals. They are doing what they like to do (and they get paid for it) - something that everyone can appreciate.

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

2009-01-25T23:26:00.002-06:00

If nothing else, read the introduction to this book. Most of it can be seen here. It has some neat, scientifically based info on how the brain works and how the left and right side work differently and together.

This book obviously appeals to Right-brainers (like me), but the way in which he goes about proving his points are designed to win over his Left-brained readers as well. His Logical (get it, capital L) List of reasons Right-brainers will succeed in the future is simple:

Abundance - Think Walmart. You can get 1000 different kinds of almost everything. Why do we buy one set of cheap widgets over the other? Subliminal advertising? Mind controlling? Top-secret stuff? No! We buy it because it looks better, seems to fit its setting better, or just appeals to us. You have to be able to differentiate your product. More later.
Asia - After the Agricultural Revolution and Industrial Revolution, we outsourced most of our manufacturing jobs to Asia. It is cheaper, plain and simple. Now that more of our Asian friends are getting degrees in business and sciences, these jobs that we were at the forefront of are being pushed over there. Data processing and other "office"-type jobs can now be done cheaper.
Automation - Think about how robotics has revolutionized manufacturing. These same techniques are being applied to the jobs mentioned above. Computers can't do every job, but they are not getting any less capable.

Now that the author has ruined everyone's plans for a happy and prosperous life, he reminds us that we can still survive if we add to our Left-brained ways. He is even so nice as to offer a glimpse at some of the key principles that will hold in this new age. These ideas are extremely simple to understand and practice. Improving at these aspects of your life will prepare you for a successful place in the workforce of the future.

Design - Being able to truly understand the design of something. This is the architect's view. See how the pieces fit together to make something that looks appealing.
Story - Do you think it's a coincidence that this is in Agile? People are made for telling stories. Our time here on earth is really just a collection of the stories we hear, tell, and create. Telling a good story is not only a good way to pass on knowledge, but a way to inspire and motivate others.
Symphony - LOTUS!!! I can't exactly remember this chapter, but I'm pretty sure it is about people working together. The basics of project management.
Empathy - Understanding people's situations and problems. Note that this is not Sympathy, feeling bad for a person. Sometimes people are put in situations that cause them to fail or succeed. As a manager or co-worker, you need to put yourself in their shoes. A lot of Raikes students and grads talk about how the Business majors can "feel" for the programmers they work with or manage. They know how it feels to have a tricky bug or a looming deadline. These workers will be more willing to work hard to a manager that can feel for them. Sympathy, however, might just breed complacency and create an atmosphere of acceptance of failure.
Play - Having fun doing whatever you are doing. People want to escape from their normal work lives.
Meaning - This chapter mentions a book I'll soon be getting and reading by Viktor Frankl (right) called Man's Search for Meaning. It was written while he was in a concentration camp and really shows how having meaning in your life can give you drive to get through any situation.

This isn't a grave warning to Left-brainers or a call for supremacy of Righties. It is simply one mans opinion on where the world is going in the next era. Regardless of whether you believe him, the suggestions he presents for improving those six skills are incredibly important. These skills apply from software development to life and everywhere in between. The book reads quickly, so I'd be interested to hear some comments on it.

Get a Grip on Dreams

2009-01-12T08:17:00.005-06:00

If you sleep and can stand reading recycled paper, THIS BOOK MAY BE FOR YOU!

This is an interesting short read I picked up in the bargain isle of B&N. It talks about the science behind dreams, dream research (both past and present), and presents a number of common dream themes.

The introduction to sleep and dreams was very interesting. We all know about the different stages of sleep and some of the effects. This book does a good job explaining all of the theories of why we sleep. It goes through everything from evolutionary survival to ancient mythology.

The main researchers in dreams were Sigmund Freud (B&W) and Carl Jung (Color). While they researched in the same time period, their ideas on dreams are radically different. Freud seems to always take the more perverted of explanations any chance he gets. I'm not sure if it was on purpose, but the book seemed to make him out to be the crazy, old, pervert. It worked pretty well as a reader to have someone you liked and were interested in or someone that disgusted you. Either way, his theories were memorable.

The chapter about lucid dreaming, is very cool. In lucid dreams, the dreamer is aware of the fact that they are dreaming and can control these dreams. This is a life skill I could live with. Kevin and Dan tried the technique to develop it for a while with little success. They did find a crazy guy who does online though (JDEk article).

Over half of this book is devoted to common dream themes. These are dream themes or ideas that show up regardless of location, culture, etc. These include exams, nakedness/sex, death, flying, falling, attacks/chases, and many more. They give a short 4 page analysis on each theme.

This book reads very fast and is broken up well with side comments, cartoons, and definitions. It does fall short on some completeness and closure. Most of the theories are just that, theories. If you are looking for complete and definite answers to your dream questions, science doesn't have them let alone this book. I would suggest it as a quick and fun weekend read. You'll probably learn something about some dreams you've had and maybe even get to relive some childhood memories.

The Numerati

2008-12-31T18:47:00.003-06:00

This is straight out of a book report for coaching basketball, so excuse the terribleness.

About the Author

Stephen Baker is currently a writer for BusinessWeek, and has written at the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. He writes in a blog and has started a handful of websites related to his writing. He was a history and Spanish major in college, hoping to become a foreign correspondent. He worked in many Central and South American countries and finally received a position in Mexico city with BusinessWeek. He has just recently become interested in technology because, "it has the power to change history. In fact, it always has."

About the Book

The book begins by introducing just who "The Numerati" are. They are a group of scholars, business people, and others who use information to improve something. He also talks about the shear amount of information that we leave in our wake on a daily basis. We use our credit cards, cell phones, and even drive our cars right into the information gathering places all around us.

Next, he breaks up their tactics and ideas into personas. He starts with the worker. Some workers are more productive at certain parts of the day, in certain locations, and even with certain team members. Companies like IBM are using this data to value their employees and put them in places where they can succeed. Next is the shopper. Everyone who uses a customer loyalty card has provided a great deal of information to that grocer. They can track spending habits, product trends, and even target impulse buys. He discusses the need to better differentiation to determine if purchases actually reflect the person making the purchase. If I were to buy a purse or women's jewelry, the system may not know that it is a gift.

Voters are the next target. He talks about how Obama used email and text messaging to reach out to his supporters. He also mentioned how candidates can use demographic and even purchasing information to enable more targeted advertising and calling, saving campaigns money and saving non-interested voters' time. Bloggers are also mentioned because they put a large deal of their life on the web for all to see. Companies can tell what products are being discussed, who is discussing them, and even what their opinion of it was with only a computer.

Next on the list is Terrorists. He talks about how law enforcement agencies can use social networking principles to narrow down suspected terrorists and catch on to any suspicious activities. The next persona is patient. This tells about how constant monitoring of health through questions, monitors, and even floor sensors can help the spot possible conditions in the elderly. Last is lover. Sites like Match.com, eHarmony, and Chemistry.com use statistics and user profiles to determine the best "match" for a person. The author and his wife tested these sites and created separate profiles, after only a few days, they were at the top of each other's list.

Overall Idea

The author does not want to scare people into thinking their privacy is being invaded because most of this information is already available. He is trying to get the reader to understand the importance of "The Numerati" in the future and make sure people appreciate what they are doing for society.

My Opinion

I really enjoyed the book. With parents near retirement, their health is an issue I have always had in my mind. I am encouraged by the advances in the medical field. I also am interested in how I can use this type of information in any future career I may have.I would recommend the book to someone who likes puzzles, numbers in general, or technology. It is interesting to see what people are looking for in your data and also just how much information you leave behind everywhere, everyday.

Book web site

REST

2008-12-27T21:44:00.003-06:00

Practical REST on Rails 2 serves as an introduction to the REST philosophy of system design. It begins with a description of REST and moves along into a specific implementation of a RESTful server (a MovieList application) using Rails 2. The book then walks through the implementation of a number of clients to this server (using JavaScript, JSON, PHP, an iPhone Client, and Facebook) before wrapping up with tips on scaling and using REST and Rails in the "Enterprise".

The most interesting part of the book, for me, was the introduction to the REST philosophy (I’m only halfway through the book; the advanced implementation walkthroughs are too specific to be incredibly useful). I’ll summarize the introduction here.

The REST philosophy was first described by Roy Fielding, a coauthor of the HTTP specification. It should come as no surprise, then, that REST is a step closer to that specification than its forebearers (SOAP, XML-RPC). Specifically, RESTful servers make proper use of HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. I’ll get to that in a moment.

What is a RESTful server? REST places these interesting constraints on a server (there are other, less interesting, constraints):
1. Stateless - Every request from the client must contain all the data required to complete that request correctly
2. Uniform Interface - The Web 2.0 interface, basically

Statelessness is a powerful property, one which requires a different sort of thinking in system design (For example, it throws server-side sessions out the window, as the client must provide all the information). Once accepted as a constraint statelessness can GREATLY reduce the complexity of a system, for obvious reasons. In Rails this statelessness is achieved by using standard CRUD methods while leveraging HTTP’s given methods in the way they were intended: Create – POST, Review – GET, Update – PUT, Delete – DELETE.

The book describes a Uniform Interface as another set of constraints:
1. Each resource must be independently addressable - /movie/dark_knight and /user/pb/favorite_movie both map to the same movie, but because they are different resources (a movie object and a property of a user object) they must be independently addressable
2. Transformation of resource state is done via representations of that resource - For example, to update an object you issue a GET request to the server, receive and modify that object, then send the entire object back to the server with a PUT request
3. A server response should contain access to other available states - Links to create, review, update, and delete on every resource, as appropriate

At this point in the discussion, Rails and the Web 2.0 “look” clicked for me. Rails is an opinionated framework, its creators are of the opinion that REST is best. Currently Rails makes all these constraints easy to manage, frankly it makes working outside of these constraints difficult (or at least it feels kludgy). The look of Web 2.0 sites have always seemed bland to me, but with the argument of a uniform interface (the interface looks and behaves as expected, which is all you can ask of a user interface!) it makes more sense to me.

The book goes into some detail regarding how Rails makes REST easy, I'll leave that to a possible future post. Overall, this book is very useful to a beginning Rails programmer. I recommend it.

Peopleware Part I

2008-12-26T16:57:00.002-06:00

Peopleware Part I is titled "Managing the Human Resource" and is devoted to explaining the difference between software developers and parts of a manufacturing machine. The book compares software developers to employees at a fast food restaurant. The developers are not interchangeable pieces of a factory production floor like the fast food employees are. Those employees can be rotated in and out and forced to do more work with looming deadlines, but software developers don't work like that.

The function of a manager of a software team is "not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work." This involves removing blocking issues and saying no to upper management who wants the project done three weeks earlier than scheduled.

Another important point made is about software quality. Developers only enjoy building software when they can build it to their own quality standards. Developers are unhappy and lose their vested interest in the software they are developing if they are not allowed to complete a project to their own standards.

Don't Make Me Think

2008-12-26T16:17:00.002-06:00

Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug can be summed up in two words: "user testing". The book covers a relatively wide span of topics including accessibility, testing, and Krug's laws of usability and focuses mostly on e-commerce websites, but what you learn from the book can be applied to any website. Krug never lays out any hard and fast rules because he understands every situation is a different. However, every point Krug does make always points back to user testing.

Krug suggested method of testing is simple. Get a few (3 or 4) users, give them a brief explanation of what your site is supposed to do, and then watch them use the site. To get better results, give the users specific tasks that they might have a vested interest in completing.

Once the tests are complete, discuss the results over lunch that day, and figure out exactly what needs to be fixed. By the end of the day, your team will have fixed the most important problems, or will be well on its to fixing them. No "big honking reports" necessary, no time wasted in endless meetings between the wrong people, and no more arguments about what people think "average users" will do.

To make testing even more simple, Krug says you don't need to test users from your target audience. If it is possible to do so, go right ahead, but it is not necessary. Almost any user should be able to find the glaring flaws in your site's design.

The book is an extremely fast read, one could easily read it in an afternoon. When building a site, reading through this book once or twice during construction will help bring some important issues to the front of your mind.

Founders at Work

2008-12-17T00:55:00.003-06:00

After a sprint to the finish, and an easy dead week, I managed to finish Founders at Work. Each story only convinced me further that I want to be an entrepreneur. Several stories included founding teams are more than two or three partners, and several more included stories of pure bootstrapping companies.

The book also reaffirmed the notion that the original idea is of relatively little importance to the success of the founders. We have a team of highly intelligent, highly motivated, and highly awesome people and the sooner we get the ball rolling on any idea, the better.

Up next Peopleware.