Review: Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company and Career

Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company and Career by Andrew S. Grove
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Andrew Grove, the former long-serving CEO of Intel introduces the concept of Strategic Inflection Points. These are the times in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change and the curve of development of a company will either grow or decline.

Grove brings an example from the 1980s-1990s when the computer industry went from full vertical integration like IBM before to strong players specializing in horizontal parts of the industry (like Intel in chips, HP in computers, Microsoft in OS etc). The onset on PC was a strategic inflection point for all the players in the industry. Some has become irrelevant, while other thrived.

Intel had its own strategic inflection point. They were founded as memories company in 1968-1969. But in the 1980s, cheaper and higher-quality Japanese memory chips manufacturers became large and took more and more market share. Intel had identified itself with memories business, and the transition was hard. It took three years of being unprofitable. In the end, they transformed themselves into a microprocessor company and won the world with its 386 processor.

The Strategic Inflection Points can be caused by various so-called 10X Force - the onset of the new competitors, the new regulations, the changed behaviour of customers. But the most deadly of all for a company can be the change in technology. Something can be done that could not be done before, or something can be done 10X better, faster or cheaper than it would have been done before.

Grove gives a direction on how management should deal with the Strategic Inflection Points. First, Let Chaos Reign: encourage debate and experimentation. Then, Rein in Chaos: define the new strategic direction and rally the company to it. Do it while the company is still profitable and has resources for the transition.

As one the managers working in the tech industry, there is no doubt the generative AI is a Strategic Inflection Point for many companies in our industry in 2026. So, the book has been very relevant for me, 30 years after it was published.

As a bonus, the book is relatively short and easy to read.

Review: Naviger Digital Transformasjon

Digital Modenhed - strategi, teknologi, organisation og lederskab i 5 generationer by Pernille Kræmmergaard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

* Actual book: Naviger Digital Transformasjon: 4x4 kapabiliteter som ruster din organisasjon og styrker ditt lederskap. Unfortunately, it was not on Goodreads and it was therefore not possible to add the review under the right book.

Any organisation's digital maturity and ability to do a digital transformation can be thought of in the framework of a 4x4 model: 4 capabilities x 4 areas:
1. Strategic capabilities (digitally visionary, focus on the end client, thinking in ecosystems, ecological fitness)
2. Technological capabilities (technological foresight, IT orchestration, data-driven, cybersecure)
3. Organisational capabilities (ambidextrous, agile, meaningul frameworks, comptence-aware)
4. Leadership capabilities (tech and data leadership, transformational leadership, multiplicity leadership, maturity leadership).

Each one is well explained in the book, in a meticulous, academic way.

In particular, I liked the concept of the ambidextrous organisation, one that needs to constantly think of exploration (to be looking for the new important trends, new ways to service the customers, new useful technologies) and exploration (to be expoiting exisiting technologies and capabilities in a smart and sustainanble way).

A well-balanced holistic view on the leadership in the organisations which need to undergo transformation.

Review: Catch-22

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An American anti-war novel set in Italy in the last years of the World War Two. It shows the absurdity of the war, with all its ranks and commanding logic. The main character, Yossarian, doesn't want to die but is forced to fly more and more missions. He tries to get out of it, but is stuck in Catch-22: he can be sent home if deemed crazy - but he cannot be called crazy if he wants to get out of the war.

The writing style of the book is very peculiar - the narrative jumping back and forth, at times extremely long sentences and absurd dialogues. With time, you as a reader start appreciating it, as it is really rather unique.

The characters are rather one-dimensional - either sympathetic or not at all. The absurdity of the situations depicted is at times over the top. But the message of the book is powerful.

Review: Blankets

Blankets by Craig Thompson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A 500-pages long graphical novel, an autobiographical visualisation of adolescence and partly childhood of the author in Wisconsin in the beginning of the 1990s.

Beautifully drawn, sentimental and as deep as the emotional life of a 16-year old can be. First real love, grappling with what is right and wrong, understanding own values, understanding what one really wants - this is probably all too familiar to many who have gone through it.

And gives an excellent picture of what a life in a deeply Christian family living in a small town in the U.S. could have been back in the 1990s.

Review: The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend

The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend by Rob Copeland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant journalism turned into a book by Rob Copeland. It felt like reading the script for the famous "The Office" TV series - with its megalomanic boss, inappropriate jokes, mistreating colleagues and endless office gossips. Just less humour.

When I read Ray Dalio "Principles: Life and Work" some years ago, I gave it a 4-star review, appreciating many of the pieces of the management advice from the book, but wrote following:

I cannot agree with all of these principles. Many of them felt too stretched and reminiscent of "the brave new world" of a perfect organisation of corporate soldiers where everyone is expected to work 60-hours weeks. The praised idea meritocracy (the best ideas win) at times reminded autocracy (in the end, the big boss still decides). "Sorting" people according to their psychological personas felt too stretched as well.

This book by Rob Copeland basically explores these dubious principles put in practice at Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates. As a result, you get a pretty toxic workplace.

Great financial results, great salesmanship, many useful management lessons - but at what cost?

My advice would be to read both books and decide for yourself.

Review: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An engaging story of how a restaurant in the New York got to the award of the best restaurant in the world - and the work which preceded this title. Will Guidara is focusing on the service part of the restaurants.

The management lessons of the book are rather trivial. The inner life of organising service in a superb fine-dining restaurant was very interesting to read. After reading it, you cannot help not noticing small details when dining in a good restaurant.

In particular, I liked application of the Rule of 95/5: Manage 95% of your business down to the penny; spend the last 5% “foolishly”. That last 5% has an outsize impact on the client experience.

I also found interesting the principle of “It’s important to me” card in the partnership. In the case of disagreements, the only way to proceed in pursuit of a good partnership is to decide that whoever cares more about the issue can have their way. You can agree on “It’s important to me” card to be pulled in certain situations. But this card should not be abused by pulling it too many times.

Most of all, it was interesting to read about all the examples of how they applied small gestures of extraordinary hospitality in their restaurant.

Review: Petserimaa: Petserimaa integreerimine Eesti Vabariiki 1920-1940

Petserimaa: Petserimaa integreerimine Eesti Vabariiki 1920-1940 by Kalle Lõuna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hästi uuritud populaarteaduslik ülevaade Petserimaa eluolust esimese Eesti Vabariigi ahal. Sisaldab huvitavat statistikat ja mälestusi. Natuke kuiv, oleks tahtnud rohkem pilte ja elavamaid kirjeldusi. Kuid annab hea ülevaate selle vaesema ja muust Eestist (usuliselt, rahvastiku koosseisust ja tööstuslikult) erineva regiooni eluolust.

Review: The Brain That Changes Itself

The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the book about the plasticity in the brain. Our brains are not static - and we are able to impact how we think, react and feel ourselves.

I found some of the claims in the book to be too strong like the good benefits of the psychoanalysis or negative impact of watching pornographic content on brains. But when taken to the extremes - both good or bad - there are very interesting stories and personal anecdotes that exemplify how our brain is impacted.

Take love for example. Anyone who has been in love, will probably not argue that it changes one's brain. Two brains in love go through a period of heightened plasticity, allowing them to mold to each other and shape each other’s intentions and perceptions. And if we get separated from our love object, our brains undergo unlearning process - a hard and time consuming adaptation of the brain to the new reality.

Sometimes, our brains maps can merge two separate phenomena into one, counterproductively. For example, associating sex with violence. Or relationship with abusive behavior. Solving it requires rewiring brain maps by psychoanalysis or similar.

Or take pain. The brain decides how much endorphins to use to quell pain we experience. Soldiers during the war report of not feeling any pain when they are seriously wounded until they are out of battlefield. Their brains only allow the pain signals when the immediate threat is gone. Mother soothing her hurt child helps the child’s brain to turn pain volume down.

Although many experiments, studies and stories in the book are negative per se, I liked the overall positive message of the book. We are able to influence our brain plasticity (which is deteriorating with age) by providing a constant challenge to it. Studying foreign languages, solving complex puzzles, mastering new physical activities, acquiring a new career, having a regular physical exercise, learning new dances - have all shown to have a positive effect on people having statistically less Alzheimer, sharper memory and better focus in older age.

Not a news really, but obsessions and worries are also possible to target - by literally "rewiring" the brain, making it focus on something else, something positive and pleasure-giving. Anyone working on any personal obsessions or worries can attest that it is, at times, very hard - but possible, with dedication, practice and discipline.

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