Review: How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been consistently reducing my meat consumption for several years now - mostly for ethical reasons (I don't find mass-breeding and mass-killing of animals any appealing - and choose not to close my eyes to it simply because it is happening "somewhere else" and not close to my freezer with that frozen piece of beef well packaged in a plastic).

After reading this book I have a much more egoistical reason to reduce meat consumption. There is a whole lot of scientific evidence showing that eating meat is bad for my health, is highly correlated with the risk of heart diseases, several types of cancers and other common causes of death due to illnesses.

The situation seems to be especially worrisome in USA with less regulations as of animal breeding conditions, more gene modifications and more feeding of antibiotics to animals that are then fed to humans - compared to Europe. But the eating habits of a big part of population in Europe is not much better than in the U.S.: a lot of fatty and processed food filled with sugar, a lot of animal products and way too little of vegetables, berries, lentils, nuts and fruits.

Reading this book can at times get you thinking if any possible malady in the world can be shown to be related to meat. It is indeed one-sided. However, there is a lot of uncontroversial advice in the book as of what needs to be more of and less of on our dining tables. A 1/4 of the whole book (more than 100 pages) is filled with literally thousands of references to scientific research - quite impressive.

I liked the way Greger explained that the goal of this book was not to promote vegetarianism or veganism - it was to promote healthy food.

Several decades of relevant research combined with witty and intelligent writing style - a worthwhile reading.

Will I stop eating any meat, fish, eggs and diary products after this book? No. I am not going to be religious about it - and won't say 'no' to a good dish now and then.

Will I reduce consumption of all above? Definitely - even more drastically than before.

Any other choices I will take more of? Even more organic and more whole foods (as opposed to processed salty-sugary-junk "kindly" offered by food industry).

Review: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is a sweeping and thought-provoking book by Harari - an Israeli historian and philosopher who has become a sort of a global celebrity.

Harari covers the whole range of the global challenges that we as a humankind stand against - the possible prevalence of the AI and giving up on personal privacy, the illusionary threat of terrorism (if you think in numbers) and the real threat of war, the challenges with religious and nationalist dogmas, our outdated education system, the problem with so-called fake news and more.

Harari writes in broad strokes. He is highly intelligent, skilfully uses history to back up his arguments - and there is a very healthy dose of wit in the book. There is a lot of interesting arguments in the book - for example:

• If we trust AI too much, it can eventually put many people out of jobs - and out of necessity for the society;
• Do we want utter convenience in life - or do we cherish our personal freedoms (including our freedom to think for ourselves) more? How much freedoms are we OK to give up to get just another level of convenience?
• Online social networks never substitute the real, geographically related communities
• Religions come and go. The need to have a religion as something that makes people obey some desired behaviours stays.
• All religions, nations, communities are based on some stories. People like to think in stories - we have always done so. But stories are always simplifications. Life itself - and solutions to our problems are never that simple.

There is really no specific focus in the book. 21 chapters are loosely related to each other - it can rather be read as the collection of the essays of one bright and consequent global thinker.

It is interesting that Harari did not mention global pandemic as one of the threats to the humankind when the book was published back in 2018 :)

Review: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you are uncertain in the choices you have to make in your life, if you lack self-confidence and feel you waste your life, this book might well be helpful and eye-opening. If you feel there is too much feminism, liberalism and disregard for religion and tradition in your country, this book might well reinforce your views.

Since I do not feel I belong to either category of people, this book was a disappointment. A lot of words, a lot of citing Bible, a lot of stories to explain rather straight-forwards truths.

These 12 "rules" makes a lot of sense: do not overprotect your children, select friends carefully, be humble, do not lie, wish good to yourself, benchmark your performance against your past as opposed to others and so on. But there are so many other - better - books you can find good illustrations for these "rules".

The only parts of the book I enjoyed were the anecdotal stories of Peterson's childhood and teenage years in rural Canada, with its harsh winters and plentiful booze to be cheered up. In that regards, Peterson is a good story-teller.

Review: The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book from 1966 - and is said to be a founding book for self-help management literature. It is not an exciting book to read (a bit dry and academic, albeit witty style), but several of the advice here is timeless for any manager.

Some basic truths that a manager betters asks himself/herself time-to-time:

• Does my time tend to belong to everybody else?
• Does the flow of events determines what am I doing as a manager - or am I leading my own time?
• Am I focusing on the inside of my organisation (structures, politics, reviews, audits etc) - or on the outside, my clients?
• Do I have time available to me in comparatively large chunks, without constant interruptions and time-wasters?
• Am I being busy - or do I do things that contribute to achieving results?
• Do we as an organisation do something that we would not start over if we had chance to do so now? If yes, why are we still doing it?
• What are my “posteriorities” - that is, tasks not to tackle?

...and this reminder is worth contemplating over:

"The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it and no marginal utility curve for it. Moreover, time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back. Time is, therefore, always in exceedingly short supply."

Review: Зулейха открывает глаза

Зулейха открывает глаза by Guzel Yakhina
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Главная героиня романа - татарская женщина из деревни в 1930-х годах. Татарская деревня не идеализируется - в романе показаны все стороны консервативного склада жизни. Но жизнь деревни - и Зулейхи - переворачивается с раскулачиванием и ссылкой в Сибирь.

Очень реалистично описано строительство нового поселения в сибирской тайге с нуля, со всеми препятствиями и трудностями начала новой жизни в Сибири.

Сильная и увлекательная книга. Описывает тяжелые реалии советской жизни в 1930-1940-х годах, в то же время сохраняя надежду и определенный оптимизм.

Review: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of the young visionary American woman Elizabeth Holmes and her start up which in its height in the 2010s received incredible positive reception - and valuation. It had many prerequisites for success: an innovative idea, a driven and passionate founder, many smart employees having very good education, clever sales and marketing. It just did not have a functioning product. Worse yet, it operated in the healthcare area, putting people's health and even lives in danger.

The book exemplifies the worst of the hype of Silicon Valley / the start up world in general. Lack of maturity and responsibility, focus on raising capital as opposed to making good for your customers, fake-it-until-you-make-it approach to running business... This is not to say that the entrepreneurs in technology start ups should be discouraged from risk-taking. But this quote from the book is a good warning:

"Elizabeth had wanted all those sweeping claims to be true, but just because you badly wanted something to be real didn't make it so."

This story is the result of brilliant investigative journalism by John Carreyrou. It is well grounded and well written. A worth read!

Review: The Road Less Stupid: Advice from the Chairman of the Board

The Road Less Stupid: Advice from the Chairman of the Board by Keith J. Cunningham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is a book full of advice for business owners / managers. Not many stories, not many examples - just calls for action.

I found many of them useful. One of the cornerstones of the whole book is the concept of "Thinking Time": planning an interrupted time for thinking over important questions that your business is facing. A leader / manager needs to plan time for thinking - otherwise he/she will just be "doing" stuff. I liked that there was a rich menu of questions to pick from - and to ask yourself in one of those "Thinking Time" sessions.

The metaphor of multiple hats that a leader has (Artist, Operator, Owner, Board/Investor) - which he/she can pick in different situations - is also quite interesting. There are many questions in relation to these different "hats" you can ask yourself and challenge your status quo as a manager.

There are also useful tools for risk assessment, strategic options thinking as well as planning in this book. I intend to use at least some of them in practice.

The book is obsessed with focus on a customer - and that is a good thing. As an example of a question to ask yourself: "What has to happen so the customer will say ‘I’d have to be crazy to do business with someone else!’?

Another obsession of the book is on finding a focus, finding a core problem to work upon. Again - simple but invaluable advice that can best be utilised when honestly asking yourself something like "What one meaningful, specific outcome, if I achieved it, would have a significant positive impact on my business?

The book itself is no fun read. It is not difficult, but should probably be taken literally as a manual for action. The author's style is often obnoxious: "Go try yourself. You will thank me later". There were also those numerous annoying references to "bumper stickers" (high-sounding slogans) and "how not to be stupid". Overall, a lot of the theses / questions of this book are rather obvious.

Nevertheless, I am looking forward to go through many of the questions designed for the "Thinking Time" sessions and to reflect on them in relation to the business line I am running - on my own and with our leadership team.

Review: Метро. Трилогия под одной обложкой

Метро. Трилогия под одной обложкой by Dmitry Glukhovsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Пост-апокалиптическая дистопия о выживших жителях Москвы, укрывшихся в метро. Каждая станция метро - как отдельный городок. Городки объединяются в альянсы, торгуют, воюют, сотрудничают друг с другом и объединяются против общих врагов. Там есть и коммунисты, и фашисты, и воры в законе, и бордели, и фермы, и библиотеки. Все эти образы довольно трафаретные, но история довольно интересная.

Фон - мрачный и посыл книги пессимистичный. В первой книге много мистики, во второй больше экшна, а третья - довольно прямая карикатура на Россиию 2010-х годов. Жизнь в Метро 2033-2035, описанная здесь, показывает гнилую сущность авторитарной власти.