This was, by far, the worst book I’ve ever read. It rambled on incoherently for its entire 300 pages. I just kept reading because it was so bad, and I wanted to be able to say I made it through.

Wilt really should have hired a ghost writer for this one – I’m sure he would have had plenty of great material (even if half of what he said was BS) – For those who didn’t know, he claimed to have had sex with over 20,000 women (that’s 1.14 women per day from the age of 15 up until the day of his death, a rate of almost eight women a week).

Book rating: 1.0 of 5.0 stars

Tags: Book Reviews, Fitness
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While not a literary masterpiece, the story is just incredible. I Highly recommended this book – it will not soon be forgotten.

Book rating: 5.0 of 5.0 stars

Tags: Book Reviews
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Selfish Gene allowed me to straighten out some of my preconceptions – and there aren’t too many books I’ve come across that can make that happen.

Dawkins is exceptionally rational, and calmly convincing in his arguments (a great variance in tone from his later work  The God Delusion). I particularly enjoyed his exploration of Game theory – with “evolutionarily stable strategies” analogous to “Nash Equilibriums”. It will change the way I look at interactions between organisms (including people) for months to come.

The book is not hard to follow, regardless of your background. I would recommend this to anybody with even a passing interest in biology.

Book rating: 5.0 of 5.0 stars

Tags: Anthropology, Biology, Book Reviews, Science
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There are two very different books that I think are relevant to those starting out on their career paths: The 5 patterns of Extraordinary Careers, and The Alchemist. One Non-Fiction, one fiction. One is direct and structured, while the other floats like the suspension on a 70′s Cadillac. Although they are both relevant, I wouldn’t say they are both of the same literary quality.

The 5 patterns of Extraordinary Careers

Generally, the concepts are solid, but I would have preferred more indepth/engaging support.

Looking back, the conclusions of the book seem to be common sense, but the the authors do an excellent job of outlining and guiding you though. With this type of book, most of the value is not in the actual recommendations that they make, but in providing situations where their theories have been put use.

The authors had access to some of the greatest business leaders around, and often used the experiences of those people as support of their 5 patterns. I found that these ‘story’ sections were well-done, and would have liked to have heard more. The stories were typically written from a third person perspective, with very few quotes – It might have worked (and been quite innovative) to use first-hand accounts.

The book ends with the very practical job survival guide (which can be downloaded here). This last guide acts as a nice grounder, after going through alot of strategy and theory.

What were the five pattern? Well, I’ll give a quick run-down:

1. Understand Your Value – They use the ultra cheesy heading of “know the value of you”. Basically, it is understanding what combination of experience/potential employers are paying for when they hire you. And understanding how the decisions you make early on in your career will affect the trajectory of your career path.
2. Practise benevolent Leadership – The identify different leadership styles, and do some interesting attributions with some prominent execs. I think Larry Ellison gets ranked as a Pirate. Also talks about benevolent organizations, and how historically, benevolence wasn’t always rewarded in business.
3. Overcome the Permission Paradox – what is the permission paradox? It is the great catch-22 of job hunting – “You can’t get the job without experience, and you can’t get the experience without the job.â€? How do you conquer it? By understanding Direct and Implied permission. Supporting this, they’ve got a great quote on their website:
   

   “Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.”
   – Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. Using the 20/80 Principal – This is a variation on Pareto’s familiar 80/2o Principal (20% of the effort yields 80% of the benefit/profit). The 20/80 principal states that 80% of our jobs requirements are mundane, and do not allow for differentiation, while the last 20% (what you accomplish beyond your written objectives) is what sets the extraordinary apart. This section of the book is well done – and they provide some great insight.
5. Find the right Fit – This one is almost too obvious. It’s practially all you hear from career councellors and recruiters these days. Know the culture, and make sure you can be passionate about what you’re doing.

The do have more detail on their website, so if you want more, check it out and buy the book.

The Alchemist

This is a great, quick read.

The writing is very simple, but the book relies on that simplicity to get at some universal themes. If you’re used to technical and business books, this book might motivate you to get back to reading some quality fiction.

It’s written by Paulo Coelho, a Brazillian, but follows a young spanish boy on his quest to find a treasure in Egypt. During the hunt, the boy falls in love, loses all his cash, meets a gypsy, joins the military, learns arabic, discovers gun powder (Not all of those things happened – I don’t want to wreck the story for you).

I think the book can be taken at several levels. On one level, the book is all about “obeying your destiny”, or “believing your heart”, and all that typical cheese – But if that is all you take from the book, I think you will be dissapointed by it (and be missing the point). If you look hard enough, the cheese dissappears, and you’re left with a story that you can apply to your own life, no matter who you are.

If you’ve got a couple hours, give it a look.

Book rating: 3.0 of 5.0 stars

Tags: Book Reviews, Career
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I’ve just finished reading a book that came recommended by mkbawa (and winner of the Pulitzer Prize): “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” by Jared Diamond.

The book takes 480 pages to answer question posed in 1972 by Yali, a politician from New Guinea: “Why do the white folk have all the cargo?” (I’m paraphrasing here). Yali was curious as to why all the visiting white people ha such cool stuff, stuff like guns, germs and steel. Actually, he only liked the guns and steel.

Yali’s question had great implications, and the author used the question to launch an evaluation of the development of today’s social and anthropological environment. H explores what he believes are the factors that have contributed to ‘white europeans’ becoming imperialists and ‘ruling’ the modern world. What he found can be boiled down into the following points:

• Geographical diversity means biological diversity, which allows for plants that can be cultivated
• Longitudinally oriented continents allow plants, animals and technology to be spread among cultures
• Large animals suitable for domestication are necessary for success
• Domestication of animals leads to the introduction of diseases. Although diseases can be damaging, the introduction of diseases over time allows societies to adapt, as has occurred in the old world. Conversely, the introduction of multiple diseases to previous unexposed societies is devastating, and has provided a great advantage to old world societies looking to conquer new lands.
• Societies and states within a region must be diverse enough to allow for competing technologies to develop, yet not so different that ideas are not allowed to spread between states.

There are some other points, but you can get an idea of where he is coming from. His aim seems to be to dismiss the idea that any people are genetically inferior, and he attributes much of social development to environmental factors. At times it seems his agricultural focus gets a bit overbearing (which is warranted when you consider the author’s background), but you always have the option of skimming through.

What the book is successful in doing is using small case studies, like Micronesia, to illustrate factors that have affected larger societies and continents. It is great to see his theories in action on a smaller scale – and it brings about the realization of how seemingly dissimilar cultures will natrually adapt in similar ways (and in ways that are reflected in the dominant cultures of today), or face elimination.

Despite the strong anthropological and biological focus, the book has received attention from business leaders, with Bill Gates being among those recommending the book. I personally was expecting more in the book that could be applied to organizational/ managerial practices, but there was some relevant material. Diamond does summarize some of the business applications in the epilogue, but he clearly does not have much of a business background, and states himself that he was surprised at the attention the business world has given the book. The most useful info relates to optimal workgroup sizes, and transfer of information and technologies within organizations.

Overall, I do recommend the book, but I would also recommend skipping through some of the drier material, such as the frequent in-depth analysis of wheat (unless that’s your kind of thing).

Here’s some info on the author:

Jared Diamond, professor of physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine, began his scientific career in physiology and expanded into evolutionary biology and biogeography. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and has received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, a Phi Beta Kappa Award, the Burr Award of the National Geographic Society, and the National Medal of Science. He has published over 200 articles in Discover, Natural History, Nature, and Geo magazines.

Book rating: 4.0 of 5.0 stars

Tags: Anthropology, Biology, Book Reviews
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