Book Review: Myth=Mithya by Devdutt Pattanaik

-Akshay Ranganath

I keep looking through the top sellers list on Flipkart and almost always notived the book 'Myth = Mithya: A Handbook Of Hindu Mythology' by Devdutt Pattanaik. I'd seen his video on TED about 'East meets West' http://www.ted.com/talks/devdutt_pattanaik.html. I was impressed by his presentation as well as his depth of knowledge on Hindu traditions and mythology. So I lapped up the book and after reading it, I can say that it was one of the best reads in quite some time.

This book is a very quick exploration about Hinduism, the Gods, the gods (small case 'g'), the Asuras and the Rakshashas - and how they all inter-play. Very profound implications of the Hindu mythologies and deities is presented in a very easy to read fashion. Being a Hindu myself, I felt so illiterate about the religion when I read the book. Our dieties are everywhere, the mythologies are told to us regularly. Despite this, the real reason for something like the meaning of Ganesha's head or the symbolical meaning being told via Brahma's 4 heads or abundance of snake is something that had never intrigued me. Mr Pattanaik brings forth their meaning as well as the reason for significance of each aspect of such symbology.

I was very impressed with the presentation where the author brings differences between two forms of the same thing. For example, between the Devas and Asuras, Kali and Gowri, Krishna in Bhagvatha and Mahabharatha, Lakshmi and Alakshmi and finally, Shiva and Shankara. The stories of Hindu mythology are gripping by itself. When interspersed with the hidden meaning the philosophical significance comes forth.

The other aspect that I liked is the non-partisan presentation, if you can call it so. Most of the books of Hindus have a tilt towards Advaita or Dvita (monism or dualism). Mr Pattanaik presents both points of view and presents a case and its interpretation by Shaivites and Vaishnavites without getting embroiled on which form of Hinduism is better.

After I bought that book almost 4 of my colleagues were intrigued and they too told me it was an impressive book. Now it is my dad's turn :-) A very highly recommended book indeed!

Book Review: India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha

I used to browse Flipkart weekly and kept noticing the book, "India After Gandhi" for quite a few months. For some reason, I thought that this was a boring tome on history and scholarly book talking about greatness of Nehru and Gandhi. However, the reviews appeared to be different and when the price came down below Rs 400, I thought of buying the book and I feel that it was a great investment.

In this story of India, Gandhi dies within the first 10 pages. Considering the book is 750 pages, this is a great achievement. We're so used to our school history books that appear to close India's history with independence. However, this book starts where the other books end. And that makes it all the more interesting.

Guha has managed to do a tremendous research and pull information and woven them together into a tapestry of an engaging story. The book evolves by showing India as a baby taking baby steps towards democracy, right after a horrendous pain and followed by an exodus of humankind unmatched at no point in time. This book gives a personalty to each person that we just see as postage stamps and passport size photos in our text books: the ever optimistic and wordly Nehru, the principled and at times quixotic Gandhi, the resolute and stern Vallabhai, the pragmatic intellectual in Ambedkar as well as the scheming and opportunistic leaders of various sectarian populace. These are the personalities who have been elevated to god-like status in the current traditions of India. This book potrays them as genuine humans, fighting and struggling to keep a nation together, a nation that most historians from West and East considered unnatural and impossible.

I liked the way the initial days of India is so well detailed: the formation of states, the first war with Pakistan, Indo-China skirmishes that leads to war, the rise and fall of Nehru and the constant struggle of early nation builders to impart the democratic structures into the Indian tradition culmiating in the constitution.

The subsequent section is about the daughter, Indira and how she schemed and systematically dismantled the democratic principles, the market competition and introduced the systematic corruption that we still see today. It's amazing in that her resoluteness to stay in power could not overwhelm the institutions of democracy that her father had help build. Her emergency backfired and she had to rise back only by winning back the popular support.

Throughout, the book unfolds the other skirmishes, the Hindi language and North-South divide, the Green revolution and the Milk miracle. It brings out the achievements of Indians that has hitherto been never highlighted as it was not related to Nehru-Gandhi. The amazing beuracracy that handled the near impossible task of settling the immigrants, the refugees of war and the humongous task of census & polling as well as the non-partisan & disciplined military arms that ensured India was never under threat of a revolution or dictatorship.

It also talks about Rajiv, his policies of appeasement that still degraded the system and then moves on to the modern issues of terrorism and the Hindu-Muslim communalism and politics of populism. It dwelves into the psyche of Hindu-fundamentalism, the worries of Islamic terrorism and the cost of such division in terms of lives lost and opportunies passed by.

The book ends with a beautiful description of India. Guha compares India to sphagetti. It is a mix of different things; never managing to stay uniform, and yet it is the whole gives it its distinct taste. India is not a state of any one religion nor language. Pakistan tried to build a nation with religion as its core and ended up as a nation marred by political upheavel. Sri Lanka tried to build a nation of a single language and ended up with a deadly civil war. India just amalgamated the differences and ensured that these differences contributed to development. Although slow and corrupt, India as a nation survived all the naysayers and set an example of a free world. And this makes it a wonderful place and one of the most fascinating countries on earth!

Book Review: Inside Wikileaks by Daniel Domscheit-Berg

Last week, a friend of mine happened to lend me the book "Inside Wikileaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website". It is written by a person who worked very closely with Julian Assange, the man potrayed at times as being mystical being and at times as a laschivous wominzer.

The book however is more of a timeline of what the Wikileaks did for a 2 year period and less of a biography of the founder. Of course, there is a lot of details on how Julian managed to win support, of how the Wikileaks found funding and the way in which they moved to Ireland. However, if you are looking for a book on the technical nitty-gritties of how this so called unbreakable website was built then, you will be left a bit sad. There are glipmses of how the site was setup and a bit on how the encrypted data was handled. However, that's about it. There is no clear mention on how the hosting was procured and how the sensitive information was backed up and distribited to ensure it can survive the forced shut-down in any one geography.

I liked the easy flow of the story. It has been translated from German but, I never felt that it was so. The story-telling mode of narration is nice to follow and visualize.

All in a all, a book worth reading to get a glimpse into the people who built a site that scared the governments and intelligence organizations of the world. Read it for the details on the mentality of heackers and power of groups rather than to get details on Julian or the tecnology behind Wikileaks.

Price comparison from Indian sites

Book Review: John Grisham, The Street Lawyer

Last week, we had the Jan 26th holiday and I thought of spending it by indulding it by reading 'The Street Lawyer', a novel by one of my favorite author Joh Grisham.

The story is about a big shot law firm, about to be a partner lawyer who leaves everything behind to answer his calling: his calling to help the helpless and the homeless people of Washington DC. There is a twist to the story in terms of an impending lawsuit being filed. This lawsuit if against wrongful doing by rich people that rendered a group of people homeless.

Unfortunately, the story just doesn't pick up pace at any time. It promises a mystery and then just fizzles out. There is the unexplained hostage drama that appears to be the real plot but, nothing more happens beyond the first chapter. The broken marriage and mid-life crisis of a rich but directionless lawyer appears too repititive.

The story does raise pertinant quesions on the magnitude of the problem faced by the homeless people. It does make you twinge at the thought of how people can just stay out in freezing nights during winter. It almost sounds like a book related to awaken the social conscious person in the reader than a novel of fiction.

If you are looking for a pot-boiling thriller with twits and turns and leagalesse that would leave you breathless, then this is not the book for you. It is a bit depressing so don't carry in when you want to lighten the mood during a travel.

Overall, I'd say this is a novel you can give a miss, if you only looking for the thrill of regular fictional book.


Price comparison from Indian sites

Book Review: Don't Make Me Think

Don't Make Me Think is a book on usability by Steve Krug. It has on all time favorite list of many usability experts to a long time now. However, the book was not available in paperback Indian edition until a few months back.

Now, the book is available from Flipkart at a very reasonable price of Rs 256 and that made it all the more interesting for me to try! With the cash on delivery option, it was a breeze to buy with no fear of online fraud.

About the Book
This book covers the topic of Usability from a common sense perspective. There are no jargons and no complex explanation on the science of usability engineering. If you are anyone who is associated with Web based development, this book is useful. Be it a developer, a designer, a project manager or the CEO of an organization that is planning has a presence on the web, this book will help you to appreciate the importance of simplicity.

What I liked
In very simple terms, the whole concept of usability is laid out in the initial chapters. The 'see for yourself' tests are very innovative. The points that the author makes look so obvious when you re-look sites with a usability perspective.

The testing strategy covered in the penultimate chapter too is extremely practical and very helpful for any organization.

What could be better
This book was last updated in 2005. So the whole world of Web 2.0, Ajax and Social Media picked just about after the publication of the book. There isn't much coverage about how to use the new features like overlays and Ajax calls.

However, the book explains the fundamentals. So, any technology that comes up can always be viewed based on these common sense approaches. For example, the importance of 'You are here' or the 'breadcrumbs' etc is very well explained.

Maybe the author should have a blog or a twitter feed to make things more interactive!

More resources
Author's website: http://www.sensible.com/index.html
Further Reading list: http://www.sensible.com/recreading.html
Usability in-depth: http://www.usability.com/

Price comparison from Indian sites

Advance Delivery

Book Review: Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion And Purpose by Tony Hsieh
-Akshay Ranganath


On June 7th, the book 'Deliververing Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose' written by its CEO, Tony Hsieh releases. In an experiment of a different word-of-mouth strategy, the author has embarked on a new experiment. This involves sending out complimentary advance copy of the book with the only condition that the blogger blog and tweet about it. I managed to get hold on a copy via Raj(http://niranjani.wordpress.com/) and here I am reviewing a book that is yet to be released!

What I liked?
Unlike many of the books by other CEOs who employ ghost writers, Tony wants to be direct. So, he makes a genuiune attempt as an author. The honesty pays off since most of the points are written as it happened without any jargons that typical management writers would have introduced. What comes across is that the focus on the your customer service, a long term vision and an ability have a bit of fun along the way is what makes Zappos such a great place. There is an abundance of stories on how great the Zappos customer service is (they helped finding nearest pizza outlet when someone tried to test their patience!) The whole book is sprinkled with anecdotes on the fun aspects - it almost makes like the stories could have been part of the book 'Fish'.

The other thing that I liked was the stress on the core competence. In this world of outsourcing, people tend to go overboard. Zappos too tried to have a tie-up with a firm called eLogisitics. With no alignment of objectives, the marriage turned sour and customers were unhappy. The lesson Tony draws saying 'warehoursing is a core competency' in the eCommerce world is quite intuitive and yet not followed so often.

What stood out is the focus on the long term. At one point, Zappos was burning cash and had no prospects for future investment but, Tony and his team were planning on what next as shoes may not be able to provide them all the growth they wanted! It was quite funny to read since Zappos, at that time had no idea on its survival for the next month but, the management was planning on growth and expansion 10 years down the line.

The core value section where Tony explains the famed culture of Zappos is the real gem of the book. It is made more interesting by adding the opinion of various other Zapponians. True to the communication policy of Zappos, the pieces have been written keeping in mind 'be real and use your best judgement'.

And of course, the 'human' face of the company was a very pleasant read. In times of downturn where all we hear is the hush-hush down-sizing, and movies like 'Up-In the Air', the way Zappos seemed to have addressed the issue of reducing workforce is refreshing. The guts of the team to call a spade as a spade and be done with it is laudable. The lack of any pretentious rationalization and open email to the whole company too is a big departure from many other organizations.

Things that could have been better
The lack of a professional help in writing means a few glitches. The core values, although very important have been repeated verbatim multiple times. Maybe, the space could have been saved and more could have been written on the other aspects of Zappos. Although the prime focus is customer service, Zappos has a great platform for online ordering and fulfillment. Not much is written on the software aspect on how the system came into place and what makes the Zappos site so special.

Poker did help Tony in re-thinking his philosophy for life. However, I felt that it consumes more pages that it should have. The lessons from poker were important in the context of the book but the fact that Tony used to prepare, the casinos he used to visit, etc are probably not too relevant.

Finally..
Francis Bacon had said that 'some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.' I am sure that this book falls in the third category, if you are:

• an entrepreneur and want to understand the amount of sacrifice necessary to stick to your dream. At one point, Tony sold off everything he had to invest in an idea that he firmly believed while the whole world conspired against him.
• a manager trying to recharge the work atmosphere. 
• a call center executive. Although compaines tend to think call center as a back-office uninteresting job, Tony provides a very different perspective of why that exact opposite is true. This should keep you motivated!
• a short sighted executive. Zappos made a choice for long-term benefit of customer over short term profitability multiple times. And this paid off. So if you feel like short-cuts, think again.

And for anyone else who just wants a bunch of quotable quotes. I'll posting my favorite collection soon!

PS: I attended a session by Amazon, the company that has taken over Zappos in 2009. Although the two companies run as seprate brands, the alignment of what both say was quite amazing. In his talk, Brian kept repeating about the importance of customer service, the need to build and maintain customer trust and the need to provide a better customer experience at the cost of potential expansion was truly amazing. The long term approach of Amazon (they have 25 year plans!) was something that literally made my jaws drop!!

Links you can use:
Book Website: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/
Advance copy: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/contact/apply-for-an-advance-copy/
Buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048
Buy the book in India: http://isbn.net.in/0446563048
Follow on Twitter: @dhbook
Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results: http://www.amazon.com/Remarkable-Boost-Morale-Improve-Results/dp/0786866020/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275193697&sr=1-1.
Future of eCommerce talk by Brian Valentine, SVP at Amazon: http://rakshay.blogspot.com/2010/05/future-of-ecommerce-seminar-by-brian.html

Book Review: Two States by Chetan Bhagat

-Akshay Ranganath

Last week, I ordered the book "Two States" from Rediff Books. Amazingly swift, they delivered it to me in two days. And I managed to finish the book in about the same time :-)

This book, although a work of fiction is supposed to be partially true. The book explores the hypocrite behavior of Indians - our banal talk of "National Integration" and a racist attitude towards each other. All such serious matter explored and explained in a very humorous manner - in a love story. That in a nutshell is what this book is about.

From my perspective, it is a typical Chetan Bhaghat novel. It has the humor, the standard depressed soul who plans/is planning to commit suicide, lots of thought on sex and finally, a dig at the Indian culture and society. However, what I like in this book is the cultural aspect, especially, the North-South divide is so well written that it you can almost feel the characters come alive. For most part, you can visualize every one of the character as someone you know in your family.

The book quite very well raises interesting questions on the mindless belief in 'fair girls', 'purity before marriage', dowry, mutual distrust between cultures and the insensitive nature of our communication. For example, considering that all South Indians as dark and being in awe over a fair colored 'madrasi'.

Despite raising all such socially relevant questions, the book stays clear of becoming a book preaching anything and sticks to the narrative of how you manipulate around these prejudices to get what you want - to marry the one whom you truly like, and overcome the barriers imposed by the traditions and culture.

Its a very readable book - at just under 200 pages and costing just Rs 95, it is definitely worth a read.

Buy Book: India Only

Quotes: A better India, A better Wolrd - N. R. Narayana Murthy

Some of the best quotes from N.R. Narayana Murthy's book, 'A better India, a better World':

Buy the book, India Only


I believe that the only unchanging attributes of a successful corporation will be openness to new ideas, meritocracy, speed, innovation and excellence in execution. (p19)

Self-esteem flourishes when discussions can be held in an environment of civility and courtesy to everybody. That is why we at Infosys believe in the adage, ‘You can disagree with me as long as you are not disagreeable’. (p20)

Meritocracy is not letting personal preferences or prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual’s performance. (p52).

Successful leadership today is about dealing with the contemporary and the future issues of development. It is not about fighting for relics, icons and ideas of the past. A nation is judged by its contemporary status and not by its past. A confident leader looking at what he/she can do in the future to better the lives of people rather in digging up the past. (p75)

A leader is first and last, a change agent. Progress is his agenda. His responsibility is to raise the aspirations of his people to make them more confident, energetic, enthusiastic, hopeful and determined to seek a glorious future for the community and for themselves. (p158)

As long as you constantly ask the questions, ‘Can we do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, ‘Can we bring better ideas to the table today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, ‘Can we execute those ideas with a better level of excellence and quality today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, I believe you will create a learning organization and will succeed on a sustainable basis. I strongly believe that these attributes are extremely important for the enduring success of a corporation. (p164)

If the wealth of the world is equally divided among people throughout the world, there will, of course, be no rich people any more. But everybody will still be poor. You cannot distribute poverty. Socialists often forget that we have to first create wealth in order to distribute it. (p212)

Our success at Infosys depends on our ability to recognize, learn and assimilate changes quickly, and in bringing business value to our customers by leveraging the assimilated knowledge. Learnability is critical for us. We define learnability as the ability to extract generic inferences from specific instances and to use them in new, unstructured situations. (p233)

The biggest challenge for a knowledge creating company like Infosys is to recruit, enable, empower and retain the best and the brightest talent. We realized long ago that we had to make a compelling value proposition to our employees, much the same way as we did for our customers. (p253)

We have realized over the years that solution to most of our problems lie within ourselves. Rationalizing failure is simply a sign of weakness. The easiest way to escape from accountability is to blame reality. (p234)

The best form of leadership is leadership by example. In a knowledge company whose core competencies include human intellect and learning through a process of observation, data collection, analysis and conclusion, leaders will have to walk the talk. Any dissonance between rhetoric and action by leaders will hasten the loss of credibility. Leaders will do well to heed the words of Mahatma Gandhi who said, ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world.’ (p234)

In a typical globalized corporation, product development takes place where human talent and innovation are best; production takes place in factories situated in countries where it is most cost-effective to produce; and sales take place in countries with high disposable incomes. (p248)

Quotes: A Better India, A Better World - NR Narayana Murthy

- Akshay Ranganath

General Quotes

Valuable advice can sometimes crom from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors (p4)

'You cannot build reputation on what you are going to do', Henry Ford (p 32)

'science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind' Einstein (p 42)

'It is very easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.' (p51)

'Some people have so much respect for their superiors that they have none left for themselves.' George Bernard Shah (p266)

We have realized over the years that solutions to most of our problems lie within ourselves. Rationalizing failure is simply a sign of weakness. The easiest way to escape from accountability is to blame reality. (p234)

If the wealth of the world is equally divided among people throughout the world, there will, of course, be no rich people any more. But everybody will still be poor. You cannot distribute poverty. Socialists often forget that we have to first create wealth in order to distribute it. (p212)

Issues with India

In France, everybody acted as if it was their job to discuss, debate and quickly act on improving public facilities. In India, we discuss, debate and behave as if the improvement of any public facility is not our task, and consequently, do not act at all. (p10)

Another bane of our thousant-year-long enslavement is apathy. The main reason why India is still very backward is our unwillingness to take proactive action even when the solution is staring at our face. We escape from the responsibility to solve our problems by blaming destiny. (p14)

Regarding constituents for success

Learning from experience .. can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our proior actions. (p6)

..we need high aspirations. Aspirations energize us to overcome limitations posed by the context we are in. They engender and sustain hope, the main fuel for progress. (p12)

Objectivity & Discipline

Being professional and efective in our work helps us optimally utilize resources – human talent, raw materilas, domestic and foreign investment and infrastructure.. This is because a professional individual owes allegiance to his profession and not to any organization or person. Accordingly, he does not let personal relations interfere with his profesional dealings. He is fair and unbiased and starts every transaction on a zero base, without bringing in any baggage from prior transactions.. (p15)

..important aspect of professionalism is implementing meritocracy. Meritocracy is not letting personal influences or prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual's performance. (p52)

Discipline in thought & action: Discipline in thought is about objectivity, about using data and facts for arguments, and about supporting an idea purely based on merits. Discipline in action is about doing the right thing without being influenced by money, power or any form of self-interest. (p58)

I believe that the only unchaning attributes of a successful corporation will be openness to new ideas, meritocracy, speed, innovation and excellence in execution. (p19)

..'In God we trust, everone else must bring data to table'.. (p 15)

The most important attribute of a progressive society is respect for others who have accomplished more than they themselves have, and the willingness to learn from them. (p51)

Leadership

A leader is first and last a change agent. Progress is his agenda. His responsibility is to raise the aspirations of his people, to make them more confident, energetic, enthusiastic, hopeful and determined to seek a glorious future for the community and for themselves. (p158)

Demonstrate leadership by example. Most EE [Emerging Economies] have hierarchial culture. The best way to obtain compliance in such a context is through leadership by example. Demonstrate this through committment, hard work, simplicity and a focus on excellence. (p277)

Learning Organization

As long as you constantly ask the questions, 'Can we do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', 'Can we being better ideas to the table today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', and 'Can we execute those ideas with a better level of excellence and quality today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', I believe you will create a string learning organization and will succeed on a sustainable basis. I strongly believe those attributes are extremely important for enduring success of a corporation. (p164)

..Our success at Infosys depends on our ability to recognize, learn and assimilate .. changes quickly, and in bringing business value to our customers by leveraging the assimilated knowledge. Learnability is critical for us. We define learnability as the ability to extract generic inferences from specific instances and to use them in new, unstructured situations. (p233)

The biggest challenge for a knowledge company like Infosys is to recruit, enable, empower and retain the best and the brightest talent. We realized long ago that we had to make a compelling value proposition to our employees much the same way as we did to our customers. (p233)

In a knowledge company whose core competencies include human intellect and learning through a process of observation, data collection, analysis and conclusion, leaders have to walk the talk. Any dissonance between rhetoric and action by leaders will hasten the loss of credibility. (p234)

Book Review: The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini

-Akshay Ranganath

Last week, I'd been to Jayanagar and there was some sort of a basement book exhibition. In there I saw this book, "The Kite Runner". For some reason, I had this vague feeling that I'd heard about it before and picked it up... and it turned out to be one of the best books that I've read.

The Kite Runner is more like an episodic story - it shows the childhood of an innocent boy, the brutal face of reality in a war torn religiously oppressive regime while contrasting it with the daily life of some real people eking out a living.. and miraculously still praying and having faith in God.

The book is a depiction of how the geo-political realities of the world shatter the simple life of people who simply are on the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a testimony to the fact that cold war may not have been a real war between the giants of USA and USSR but, it did take the sacrifice of powerless countries who just happened to be at a strategic point.

Starting with the innocent life of a boy born in a well-to-do family, the book chronicles the story of the boy turning into a youth and an adult while fleeing from war-ravaged Afghanistan to returning back to a hate-filled, depraved and violent place ruled by religious fanatics. It also talks about tender emotions like inexplicable relationship between the boy and his servant's son - a relationship that's not exactly friendship, nor is it of a master and slave. Yet, this is the relationship that forms the bedrock of the entire book, and of the author's confusion and his journey from Afghanistan to USA and back.

It is a beautifully written book with many harsh realities sprinkled in. There is unbelievable violence coupled with such tender love that it makes you cry. The book is also about relationships, defined within the strict masculine culture of Afghanistan - a culture where emotions are not shown and yet, the author makes you feel every bit of it all along. This book is not for the faint-hearted. It has violence, it has rape and cruelty. At the same time, it has hope and a message that somehow with a firm belief good always wins.

Best line from the book - '..lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of certainty'. I can't write the context - or I'll break the plot! :-)

Hope you too enjoy the book…

Book Review: Mike Wilson – The Difference between God and Larry Ellison

Inside Oracle Corporation

-Akshay Ranganath

The title of the book “The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison*” piqued my interest. The asterisk at the end which was explained as “*God doesn't think he's Larry” sort of convinced me to buy the book. Yes, it explains why God doesn't think he's Larry. But, what it doesn't tell very well is – what does Larry think, apart from the fact that he's God?

Frankly, I was trying to get a book on what is Oracle and how it came about as one of the largest software companies in the world. This book explains the history and the beginning of Oracle but, from a perspective of how Larry went about doing it – his personal life style, his girlfriends and so on. The place where I felt a bit let down was that the book delves more on the personal aspects of Larry's life, rather than on how he built Oracle. The author feels that Larry is not a great business leader – rather he's a very good opportunistic person who happened to come across the IBM's papers on SQL standards and converted into a product. What the author never really explains is how did Larry think that this could be a big product. It does not say anything about how the engineers at Oracle do their research, how they develop the product and how they test it. It devotes a lot of pages on the salesmen, the sales debacles and the revenue dressing up but, never explains anything on the product development cycle at Oracle.

A big aspect that has been over looked is the mergers and acquisitions done by Oracle. Assuming Larry is just a plain opportunist. He still needs some acumen to spot the ripe companies to buy. Considering that Oracle kept buying others by a dozen until a year back, the book is woefully unclear on this aspect. It has a passing description of the Oracle Financials business but makes no mention of how important it went to become for Oracle – nor does it mention Larry's war on Peoplesoft. However, it devotes a full chapter and half on lawsuit filed by a spurned girl friend of Larry.

The place where I was disappointed was that this book reads more like a page 3 article. The book seems to present Larry as a hopeless womanizer, an unprincipled opportunist, a ruthless owner and a reckless rich-man. What it totally fails to bring out is the finer aspects of Larry that made him one of the richest men on earth.

I'd suggest that the book is a good read – more like a novel, rather than a business book. If you are looking for sleaze in Larry's life, go for this book. If however, you are looking to gain insights on Oracle Corp. then this book is not for you.

What do you feel? Please do tell me.

Quotes: The 12 Habits that hold Good People Back

Some of the best quotes from the book, "The 12 Bad Habits that hold Good People Back"...

Everyone is afraid at times of a particular assignment, a new responsibility, a new environment. The key is not to allow that fear to leak out, in unintentional ways, into your performance or behaviour.

Think of people who are full of confidence. They do things slowly.

Meritocrats have a naïve reliance upon a certain king of authority, the authority of objective, measurable facts.

In the real world, you need patience, the ability to compromise, and the willingness to accept an occasional defeat.

Remember, life is a long campaign, and if you risk death in every battle your chances of fighting on and winning the war are pretty slim.

Anger and its resolution are an essential part of human experience. Peacekeepers can't accept that reality and thereby learn and master the process.

One of the hallmarks of a successful marriage is the ability of both partners to face up to the conflicts they have with each other and resolve them. The same is true with any kind of relationship, whether with siblings, parents, children, or close friends. If you recognize that you instinctively avoid conflict in relationships, think about the effect it has on you and those close to you. Do you genuinely stay closer together because of your ability to avoid conflict? Or does it, as we suspect, in the long term prove to be a wedge that drives you apart?

..people who know much less about a particular topic can offer wonderful suggestions and ask important questions, precisely because they stand further away from the issue.

The old paradigm “If it ain't broke, don't fix it” has gone by the boards. The new paradigm seems to be “If it ain't broke, break it before somebody else does, and see what else we can make of it”.

(Helping naysayers and helping in decision making)

Make a regular practice of considering the positive aspect of the change – the opportunities it presents – as well as negative, whether in your career, your job, a a project, or a strategic direction. Instead of a single list with the negatives of a new idea, draw lists of both the “positives” and the “negatives” as well as the merits and dangers of instituting “change” and “doing nothing”.

Jobs are like sailbots: unless we are actively trimming the sails and making course adjustments, they tend to drift. Our job can slowly migrate into something that is less attractive. Moreover, at the some point we all want to take our skills and interests to a new level by learning more and doing different things. It is important to remember, however, that our capacity to act to change our circumstances rests with ourselves.

Our potential is not the potential of anyone else. Our path can be traveled by no one other than ourselves. Yet we spend a great deal of time envying the position, talents, and accomplishments of others. We see our career from their perspectives and imagine how they would judge us. None of this will bring us closer to knowing our unique potential for contribution or our particular genius. Imitation is an important part of learning, but it is an early form of learning that must be internalized and made our own. Early on, we may need heroes, but later on heroes can get in our way.

To reduce a career decision solely to a process of maximizing compensation, and to design adaily schedule accordingly, is an invitation to alienation and dissatisfaction. On the other hand, not being honest with yourself about the importance of money can also lead you astray.

The search for a career vision is an ongoing one, cycling unpredictably through the experiences of renewed vision, alienation and finding our way back. The steely career focus that seems to characterize successful business professionals does not come once and for all. Genuine career change and progress begins not with a flash of insight or with a great idea; it begins with a sense of alienation and discomfort, and a period of frustration and uncertainty, with no guarantees as to the outcome. But it also provides an opportunity for learning, if we can give it attention and let it speak to us. It can tell us of the hidden potential in us that has been shut out because there is no way for it to act in our current world of work. We may get frightened, because there is no obvious path in sight and we are afraid of losing ground and esteem in the eyes of others. We have trouble recognizing and connecting with what our heart of hearts says about our life and out work at that moment. But rescue can come only from determined attention to our unique circumstances and with the bit of courage necessary to act.

Primary causal elements for 12 habits:

-         having a negatively distorted self-image

-         not being able to understand the world from other people’s perspectives

-         not having come to terms with authority

-         having an inability to use power comfortably, skillfully, and effectively

Successful people in business know that there is no such thing as an autonomous career. People can achieve maximum success in their careers only by working effectively with other individuals, individuals who have their own needs goals, and agendas. They learn that they must achieve goals within organizations that, similarly, have their own objectives.

Empathy.. not only leads to insight and greater appreciation for others, but is a competitive advantage as well.

Understanding others’ point of view can help you use whatever power you have with greater reserve, precision and finesse. The ability to restrain yourself is just as important as taking action directly and strongly.

You are the one ultimately responsible for your career. People with a positive, engaged attitude toward authority are more likely to see their managers as wise and powerful because they want to see them that way. We see this eve in very mature individuals. This is always accompanied by a subtle abrogation of responsibility for personal choice and career and direction, which is then left in the hands of the person with authority. Mentors can be helpful in the development of career, but you cannot rely on them to know what you should do. For one thing, your best next career move might well be outside your current business unit or organization and thus in conflict with the interests of your manager. Even when this isn’t the case, no one can know the path that will bring you the greatest career satisfaction.

In order to maximize your success in your career and to be as effective as possible in whatever role you have, you must be – or become – comfortable having and using power. You have to learn to be comfortable enough, just as you need to be a good enough swimmer to be safe in water or a good enough driver to be trusted on the road.

Resources flow naturally to people who demonstrate good sense and good use of the power they are given. Empires are expensive to build and maintain, so build one only if you need it.

Each time you hold yourself back from doing something, each time you go home saying, “I wish I had..” or “Why didn’t I just ..?” your self-image tends to worsen even further.

In the end, the process of healing negative self-images is a process of acceptance: accepting our own particular history, accepting our poor judgments and others errors that have caused pain to ourselves and to others.

Book review: Social Intelligence

The revolutionary new science of human relationships

Book: Social Intelligence - The Revolutionary New Science of Human Relationships
Author: Daniel Goldman

Review
In this book, Daniel Goldman, author of Emotional Intelligence and Working with Emotional Intelligence explores a closely related area of Social Intelligence. Basically, Goldman breaks new ground saying that the brain of a human being is programmed to interact and pick up emotional cues from others. On picking the cues the ability to adjust our behavior is what signifies as the social intelligence.

Citing various research papers and some really interesting examples, Mr Goldman presents a very beautiful case on what we usually used to hear as grandma's saying - things like "smile and world will smile with you". The book is interesting to read but lacks one thing - actionability.

Unlike the book "Working with Emotional Intelligence", this book does not provide too many practical tips on improving one's Social Intelligence. Although, it does provide some indirect pointers, it cannot be called as a self-help book. Yet, I'd say it's a very nice book to read - at least once.

Following are some of the best quotes from the book. Hope it proves useful..

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Quotes from Social Intelligence: The Revolutionary New Science of Human Relationships

But in a romantic relationship, “power” can be roughly assessed in practical terms like which partner has more influence on how the other feels about him- or herself, or which has more say in making join decision on matters like finances, or in making choices about the everyday life, like whether to go to a party.

When we mentally rehearse an action – making a dry run of a talk we have to give, or envisioning the fine points of our golf swings – the same neurons activate in the promotor cortex as if we had uttered those words or made that seeing. Stimulating an act is, in the brain, the same as performing it, except that the actual execution is somehow blocked.

..laugher may be the shortest distance between two brains, an unstoppable infectious spread that builds an instant social bond.

Simply paying attention allows us to build an emotional connection. Lacking attention, empathy hasn't a chance.

..self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts, our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller and we increase our capacity for connection – or compassionate action.

Even though we can stop talking, we cannot stop sending signals (our toneof voice, our fleeting expressions) about what we feel. Even when people try to suppress all signs of their emotions, feelings have a way of leaking anyway. In this sense, when it comes to emotions, we cannot not communicate.

Empathic accuracy seems to be one key to a successful marriage, especially in the early yeas. Couples who during the first year or two of their marriage are more accurate in their readings of each other have higher levels of satisfaction, and their marriage is more likely to last.

Our experience of oneness – a sense of merging or sharing identities – increases whenever we take someone else's perspective, and it strengthens the more we see things from their point of view. The moment when empathy becomes mutual has an especially rich resonance. Two tightly looped people mesh mingles, even smoothly finishing sentences for each other – a sign of a vibrant relationships that marital researchers call “high-intensity validation”.

The three major systems for loving – attachment, caregiving and sexuality – all follow their own complex rules. At any given moment any of these three can be ascendant – say as a couple feels a warm togetherness, or when they cuddle like a baby, or while they make love. When all three of these love systems are operating, they feed romance at its richest: a relaxed, affectionate and sensual connection where rapport blossoms.

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Importance of a secure base
Caregiving between romantic partners comes in two main forms: providing a secure base where a partner can feel protected and offering a safe heaven from which that partner can take on the world. Ideally, both partners should be able to switch fluidly from one role to the other, providing solace or heaven – or receiving it – as needed. Such reciprocity marks a healthy relationship.

We provide a secure base whenever we come to our partner's emotional rescue, by
helping them solve a vexing problem, soothing them, or simply being present and listening. Once we feel a relationship offers a secure base, our energies are freer to tackle challenges. As John Bowlby put it, “all of us, from cradle to the grave, are happiest when life offers us a series of excursions, long or short, from a secure base.”

The sense of loneliness, rather than the sheer number of acquaintances and contacts a person has, correlates most directly with health: the lonelier a person feels, the poorer immune and cardiovascular functions tend to be.

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In a nourishing relationship, partners help each other manage their distressing feelings, just as nurturing parents do their children. When we are stressed out or upset, our partners can help us re-think what's causing our distress, perhaps to respond better or simply put things in perspective – in either case short-circuiting the negative neuroendocrine cascade.

The best bosses are people who are trustworthy, empathic and connected, who make us feel calm, appreciated and inspired. The worst – distant and arrogant – make us feel uneasy at best and resentful at worst.

People who feel that their boss provides a secure base.. are free to explore, be playful, take risks, innovate and take on new challenges. Another business benefit: if leaders establish such trust and safety, then they give tough feedback, the person receiving it not only stays more open but sees benefit in getting even hard-to-take information.

Even having just one person who can be counted on at work can make a telling difference in how we feel. In surveys of more than five million people working in close to five hundred organizations, one of the best predictors of how happy someone felt on their job was agreement with the statement, “I have a best friend at work.”

The leader need not necessarily agree with the person's position or reaction. But simply acknowledging their point of view, then apologizing if necessary or otherwise seeking a remedy, defuses some of the toxicity, rendering the destructive emotions less harmful.

Technology makes it easier and easier to disconnect from other people, and from ourselves.. Civilizations is in the midst of a vast singularity. What was once meaningful has been wiped away. Lives are lived sitting in front of a computer screen, getting personal connections at a technology. But the issues that matter most are families, community and social responsibility.

Book review: Lexus and the Olive Tree

Today, I was reading a book, the Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L Friedman. It’s a book about the spread of globalization and the repercussions felt by various countries, cultures and the people all over the world.

In it, he has raised a very nice point. Globalization is being spread at a rapid rate because of two factors:

• Rapid technological growth
• Gigantic economies of America, the Western Europe and Japan

He says, just imagine what will happen if the economies of US, Europe and Japan suddenly stagnates. One fine day, the engine of globalization is just shut off!

It is a scenario that is quite hard to even imagine. Countries like India have benefited hugely by the fruits of globalization. IT is not the only thing that has come in. Just look at the manufacturing sector. Toyota has outsourced its components to Bharat Forge. Many well-known fashion chains in the West source the clothes from factories in Coimbatore. The result is a rapid increase in the standard of living for Indians.

Just 10 years back, I remember an India where the socialistic stamp was present everywhere:

Want a telephone? Book and wait for three years.
Want a Maruti (Ambassador and Premier Padmini were getting out of fashion)? Wait for two years.

See the difference now:
Want a telephone? Give the address, next day, telephone will be installed. If not, buy a SIM card right now and start talking.

Want a car? Come to the show-room. Take a test ride. If you like it, take it right now. Pay later!

Yes, India as a whole has improved a lot. Yet, most of the change has been driven by the growth in the Americas, Europe and Japanese economies. If suddenly they were to stagnate, what will happen to the growth in India?

It’s a rather gloomy thought. Companies like Infosys, Wipro and TCS would overnight find that they have no new clients. The existing clients too could stop starting new projects. What will happen to the thousands of engineers who are passing out of the assembly line of the Engineering Colleges in India? What will happen the banks who were behind the life selling loans, house loans, car loans? Guess they will go back to the mode of being the stingy Shylock that they generally were.

The second point though was a real eye-opener. Globalization is spreading, not because labour is cheaper elsewhere, but, due to rapid growth in technology.

In the book, the author says, a receptionist was fired in his office. She was fired because a voice-mail system was used as a replacement. But, the poiliticians out there would never raise a slogan, “Throw out the voice mail! Boo to technology”. Instead, they would target Mexican immigrants. Mexicans are responsible for the job losses! Extradite them all. Build higher and higher walls.

Why was this done? Because targeting an intangible high technology is not a good campaign policy. Mexicans are a lot more tangible.

Similar thing is happening now when it comes to the question of Outsourcing. Low labour is being blamed. Indians and Chinese are being projected as leeches sucking out the jobs from the affluent markets and driving them to joblessness and poverty. Is this the only reason why such a mass exodus of the jobs is happening?

Isn’t the fact that these nations have got used to a system of social security and other free lunch programs left them lot lazy to work? Hasn’t the excess indulgence in “good education” made them phobic to technical subjects, letting the Asians take advantage of the better higher education standards in the same counties?

Well, these some of the points that just came to my mind. I know I’ve not put in any solutions to the issues. Still, I just thought I had to put all my thoughts down somewhere – so here it is on my blog!