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Naturally, a Manuscript
"You get the picture. For my twelfth birthday, he bought me le Carré’s collected works. I can still remember what he said about them. They’re made up. But that doesn’t mean they’re not true."
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Saturday, July 2, 2022
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
A Short Update
But I don't want this blog to decay. So I'll sporadically write short updates on what I've read and add them here for general interest. Here's what I've read this autumn. The books are in reverse sequence (newest first), and perhaps the sequence itself says something of my changing routines.
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling) - The best in the series so far. Explores complex themes like power, class and camaraderie in the frame of a murder mystery. What's more, there is a fun and unexpected left turn midway that takes the story in an exciting direction. Much better than the HBO adaptation.
A Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling) - The weakest link in Rowling's detective saga. Too long by half and repetitive in its delivery. Feel free to skip this one and move on to Lethal White. The Goblet of Fire is the most apt comparison. Luckily Rowling has been able to make up for plodding narratives in later entries to both series.
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith - The second outing for private eye Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott. The first (The Cuckoo's Calling) was set in the world of high fashion. In a twist as good as any, The Silkworm is a macabre fantasy murder that revolves around a scandalous roman-a-clef. You'll have to read it to know what I'm talking about. It's as if Rowling decided to push the boundaries of detective fiction just to see if she could pull it off. It works well enough.
Range by David Epstein - Epstein makes the compelling case that specialisation is damaging to the modern world. Generalists are needed to bridge knowledge between distant domains, but generalism itself is rarely rewarded. Range is an easy target for criticism - it makes broad claims about diverse topics like sports, science and business - but personally, I consider it a study in being specifically wrong but generally right. An excellent read if you have the patience to look past some obvious weaknesses in its arguments.
The Premonition by Michael Lewis - I enjoy Lewis's writing as much as the next reader, and the Premonition doesn't disappoint. But it does show the limitations of his approach. The characters are, again, the heart and soul. Yet, The Premonition is not the definitive story of the pandemic like The Big Short was of the financial crisis. It's a character driven drama focused on a few aspects of the defining global event of the decade. I'm still waiting for an equivalent to Too Big to Fail to come out for COVID.
Behave by Robert Sapolsky - A masterpiece and probably more useful than a Bachelor's degree in Biology. One of the first chapters starts with the remark that those who haven't studied neurology should turn to Appendix 2, a 45 page introduction to the brain. That's more or less all you need to know. Comprehensive, intellectually titillating and almost unending in length. I hope to add a full review some time in the future.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - I'm embarrassed to admit that I had not read The Lean Startup before. It's a central work in understanding modern companies (or perhaps emulating them) and I sort of hope my boss doesn't read this blog (Slack me if you do!). Eric Ries lays out many of the principles that I need in my day-to-day work in a tech company. Much of the content is familiar from work that came later - and the general zeitgeist! - so The Lean Startup is not as mandatory as it used to be.
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Press Reset by Jason Schreier
Friday, July 23, 2021
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Saturday, May 1, 2021
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Friday, April 23, 2021
Pintaremontti by Miika Nousiainen
Monday, February 22, 2021
Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough
Saturday, February 13, 2021
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
High Output Management by Andrew Grove
So what made me read High Output Management? First, it’s almost required reading at work; some managers gift it to new employees and I wanted to find out what the fuss was about. Second, Grove and this book are still highly regarded in startup land, even though most of the material was finished pre internet bubble and Grove himself has since passed away. Later I found out that Grove isn’t your average CEO either. He fled communist Hungary to study in the United States and was the first employee at Intel. In his early work, he focused on research and development and was proficient in the actual engineering of microprocessors to the point of contributing to a college textbook on the topic.
High Output Management isn’t a memoir though. It’s best described as a mix between a college lecture series and a Harvard Business Review article. The first third uses a breakfast diner to explain the birth of the modern manufacturing economy. It’s quite clever and well presented and wouldn’t put off someone who only has a passing interest in what a critical production path is. Imagine you are the owner of a small restaurant that serves eggs and bacon. What steps would you need to take to grow that business into a national chain? Grove walks you through each step and slowly builds a compelling argument for the existence of factories, supply chains and ownership structures. I wouldn’t mind if it was the basis of Introduction to Industrial Engineering at my alma mater.
The rest of High Output Management doesn’t hold up as well. Some parts are hilariously out of date with vague references to how the Internet will revolutionize office communication and possibly upend the fax machine business. Grove, of course, is right in principal but the passages serve no other purpose today than to remind us how difficult prediction is. Some time is wasted on introducing the novel management term: ”task relevant maturity”. No one would guess from the term alone that Grove wants managers to understand that employees need different kinds of support depending on how experienced they are. Junior employees, who don’t have a lot of ”task relevant maturity”, need more regular and explicit guidance from their supervisors. It only sounds clever due to the inscrutable name and dubious acronym TRM. High Output Management is exactly what it says it is: a (somewhat distinguished) guidebook for (somewhat self-serious) middle managers.
Sunday, December 6, 2020
Because I Said So by Ken Jennings
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Friday, August 28, 2020
The Last Leonardo by Ben Lewis
Monday, August 10, 2020
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Thursday, July 23, 2020
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Samsung Rising by Geoffrey Cain
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Dead Lions by Mick Herron
Senior spies at MI5 have made contact with a Russian oligarch who might be willing to spy for the British in exchange for political support. The mission is expedited, a meeting is set up - in what absolutely sounds like The Shard, but is not identified - and the intelligence community salivates in anticipation of the coup of the decade. Yet something is amiss. A retired British spy is found dead on a country bus. A long-disbanded Soviet spy ring may be rearing its head. The synopsis would fit any number of John le Carre's novels, but the result is fresh, funny and exhilarating.
The best trick in Herron's arsenal is something that can only be described as an inverse Ocean's Eleven. (Look away now if you ever intend to read Dead Lions). Ocean's Eleven is an elaborate heist movie, where the protagonists trick Casino owners out of their money. The viewer is fooled too, the crux of the plan is hidden until the very end. Dead Lions imagines that scenario from the casino owner's perspective. They must realise that something nefarious is going on. However, they are not privy to the plan and must wait for the crooks to reveal themselves. It's an ingenious way to build suspense. You know you've been had and you desperately try to understand how.