Mid-2008 Bookshelf Activity
Somehow, despite a June where I found myself working an absurd number of hours, I've actually managed to squeeze in some reading of the dead trees variety recently. Even more surprising is that it wasn't all non-fiction.
Part of the reading time came when Shelly started a new job in May that is barely a mile from my main consulting client. Since then, whenever it's made sense for post-work scheduling, we ride together. That, in itself, resulted in a serious of negotiations.
Since her car gets much better mileage than mine, it made obvious sense for us to share her car. That gave us our starting point. However, given how we've both driven to work in solitude for many years, we figured we should probably work out some of the other issues.
First was the radio. Because it's been made clear for nearly as long as we've known each other that I don't like listening to her choice of radio station. That meant that one of us was going to be listening to headphones. A quick discussion later, Shelly offered to do the driving. That put me in the passenger seat for many of the commutes over the last 6 weeks.
That conversation also resulted in rules like "little or no talking". It felt vaguely like Jerry and Elaine trying to figure out how to sleep together and still be friends. We were trying to figure out how we could drive to work together and still keep our relationship working like it already did. However, our attempt seems to have worked considerably better than theirs did.
Much of that time in the passenger seat has been filled with reading. So, what exactly *have* I been reading?
Odd Hours
Because I aim for rational, critical thinking in so much of the rest of my life, I enjoy my fiction, my TV and my movies with a strong dose of the impossible. In the case of Dean Koontz, that doesn't mean futuristic sci-fi, but often does mean granting some rule of nature being bent or broken, bringing a bit of the supernatural to otherwise modern stories.
The "Odd" series is one of my favorites (and clearly one that others like too, given the sales figures). The latest isn't quite as enjoyable as the last couple have been, but was still enjoyable, nonetheless. If you haven't read any of this series, featuring Odd Thomas, the fry cook who sees dead people and hangs out with the ghost of Elvis in Pico Mundo, CA, you should definitely read at least the first one.
If you have been following the series, this one follows a similar story to the others, with Odd falling into the middle of a big mess, relying on his supernatural gifts and the guidance of the silent ghost of Frank Sinatra to work things out.
It's also worth noting that the audiobooks in the "Odd" series are particularly well done as well.
On Intelligence
A while back, I saw an episode of Wired Science on PBS, featuring Jeff Hawkins (he founded Palm Computing) talking about the area of study that's pulled him in repeatedly: neuroscience. His description of the neocortex, including its similarity in size and thickness to a cloth dinner napkin and that thin layer of cells' pretty much *being* the thing that makes us human intrigued me. So, I bought his book.
On Intelligence is the book on this list that took me the longest to actually get through. It's not particularly long or even hard to read. However, every chapter led me to ponder quite a bit. As a result, I tended to read this one in fits and starts over a few months.
The central premise is his theory and the science to back it up focuses on the general algorithm for the neocortex. Oversimplified, every portion of the neocortex just watches for and stores patterns, combining them and replaying them. That goes for sensory input, our own motor control, etc.
Ever since reading this book, I've been seeing more and more in day to day life that fits with this theory. Should his model for how the brain works turn out to be completely right, it will be huge, particularly in the area of computer-based artificial intelligence.
I fully expect to continue mulling this one over for months and years to come.
The Back of the Napkin
Given how much time I spend at a whiteboard, I've often contemplated how to more effectively use that tool. A really well drawn diagram, particularly if it's accompanied by both a good analogy and a good example ends up hitting nearly all of the learning styles in a given room.
The Back of the Napkin was recommended to me as a really good book for how to improve whiteboard diagrams. That recommendation wasn't ill-founded. This approach gives a nicely structured system for how to diagram most common business situations. By focusing on the who/what/when/where/how much types of questions, you clarify your own thinking as well as ending up with things that are fairly easy to draw out.
Fortunately, if you're concerned about your ability to draw, this book should help to alleviate some of those worries. That's because nearly everything he shows could be drawn by a typical elementary school child. So, "I can't draw" is not a reason to avoid drawing in this kind of context.
Presentation Zen
In a similar vein, I've enjoyed the Presentation Zen site for quite a while. So, when I saw that the author of that site had put out a book, I had to take a look.
Like all of the stuff on his site and in conference presentations, etc. I've really found his message to be one that resonates with me. I'm still struggling with how to apply the "zen" approach to Powerpoint in more technical presentations, as opposed to the inspirational and conceptual presentations that dominate the examples, but it's clearly a direction in which to strive.
The book is in keeping with the website content, and bundles it together quite nicely. Much like the presentations themselves, the book makes really good use of white space, vivid photographs and nice layouts.
If you're still using the standard bullet-point layouts from Powerpoint (and the default Keynote layouts aren't really any better, FYI), you should definitely read this one.
Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care
I read this really short book on a flight from Chicago in preparation for an economics book club that I joined this past month. It wasn't particularly engaging (I'm not really as much into the policy and politics of economics as I am the other aspects of the discipline), but did tackle a very timely topic: upwardly spiraling health care costs.
His thesis is that among the tradeoffs we could employ, most, including limiting access to procedures are extremely unlikely and distasteful to Americans. The remaining possibility (other than just living with the higher costs) is to remove the insulation from the costs that plagues the US health care system.
Our current system grew out of wage freezes in the post-WWII era where employers attempted to attract employees by adding perks, among them health care. A couple of generations later, everyone presumes that this is the way it's always been and end up going to the doctor where an appointment resulting in a couple of Tylenol and one where you get an MRI and dozens of lab tests cost exactly the same.
If you remove that price insulation (as you've got with things like LASIK surgery), the market does a bunch of work on your behalf to pressure the prices.
It's an interesting theory and one we discussed on Tuesday at the book club. This is the kind of thing that's interesting if you find that sort of thing interesting. If not, skip it.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Most of the stuff in Fred Brooks' Mythical Man-Month is stuff I've read in one place or another over the years. However, I'd never read all of it in one place and it had been a while. When I heard the audio of his presentation at OOPSLA 2007, I grabbed a copy and read it through.
The details and examples are definitely showing their age, but the underlying principles, including the source of the title still ring true 35 years after he wrote them the first time. There are some myths of software development that just seem to have imbibed the zombie powder. They just won't die.
I've lost count of the number of project managers who seem to think that they're going to be the first to add people to a late project and speed it up. Re-reading these essays invigorates my desire to challenge that assumption more emphatically when it comes up.
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Behavioral economics is a field that interests me deeply. For some reason, I'm drawn in whenever someone gathers data about not only *what* we do (rather than what we think we do), but why we do it.
When those things come together, it provides a model for understanding my own behavior and, when necessary, modifying it. This book hits one right up the middle in that way, as does the author's site.
He examines some of the behaviors we all exhibit that don't mesh with what a purely rational/logical behavior would be in the same situation. For instance, we nearly all have a completely irrational desire to avoid closing off options. We'll go to absurd lengths to keep our options open, even when 1-2 of those options are demonstrably better in every way.
That's an impulse I feel regularly that has bothered me. After reading this book, there's a lot of those kinds of things I see myself doing that bother me. Fortunately, now that I recognize them, I can actually stop and adjust my behavior. On the flip side, I also now understand other people's behavior a little better as well. That can help when you're working with others and need a better model in your head for how they're going to act in day-to-day situations.
Overall, definitely an eye-opening book and approach.
Wrap Up
When I sat down to write this up, I figured it would be a quick post. I had a couple of books that I finished and wanted to mention. As I started writing, I saw how many books were lying around that I knew I'd finished recently and, next thing you know, I've slobbered nearly 2000 words into this post.
A while back, I read a comment that said you should only pass along books worth reading. The person in question thought that if you didn't really enjoy a book, you shouldn't donate it to charity, etc. as it would encourage someone to read an unworthy book.
I don't think I agree with that (too many books are liked or disliked on largely subjective terms), but it does make me think whenever mentioning a book to make a point of being fairly clear about whether it worked for me or not and why. And, for this list, there you are.
