Review: Эшелон на Самарканд

Эшелон на Самарканд by Guzel Yakhina
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Очень сильная книга. Это повесть о начале 1920-х, массовом голоде на Поволжье и множестве детей, которые гибли из-за этого. Это повесть о результатах кровопролитной войны (гражданская война в России), о том, то делает с людьит голод, но также о человеческой доброте, целеустремлённости и детском доверии и непосредственности.

Хорошо суммирует посыл книги цитата доктора-фельдшера Буга: "Неправильная она, твоя доброта, внучек. Шиворот-навыворот." Это о людях, которые помогали эшелону поезда из Казани в Самарканд, везшему детей, оставшихся без родителей. Эти же помощники - чекисты, белые казаки, разкулачивающие коммунисты - до этого воевали, грабили, убивали. Доброта на фоне зла. Надежда на фоне потерянности.

Запала в душу трагичная история Загрейки, ребенка, который обрёл "брата" и слепо следует ему везде и всегда - даже когда "брат" уже не в своём уме.

Review: No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am always fascinated by the stories behind a success. Yes, there is often luck involved - which successful entrepreneurs and leaders tend not to mention. But there is certainly something to learn from the company which revolutionised the way we watch films and series - globally.

This book reveals some "secrets" of the way Netflix is run. Some of them are rather obvious: hire talented people and pay them well, encourage a lot of (actionable) feedback and be transparent. Some other methods are more intriguing. For example, encouraging yous employees listen to recruiters and ask what salary can be provided - and then match it to make sure your employee doesn't leave because of money. Or so-called live 360 sessions - where all members of the team are openly giving feedback to each other during a 3-5 hour session.

A lot of learnings from the book are not new. Many of them (being transparent towards employees, nurturing your talent, culture of learning from mistakes) are actively practiced (especially in a tech sector). It was still interesting to read how systematic Netflix seems to be regarding these principles. For example, their official feedback guidelines:
#1 give feedback with positive intent
#2 give actionable feedback
#3 appreciate feedback
#4 accept or disregard feedback.

And there is this oh-so-hard-management-truth that one needs to remind oneself time-to-time:

“If a person on your team were to quit tomorrow, would you try to change their mind? Or would you accept their resignation, perhaps with a little relief? If the latter, you should give them a severance package now, and look for a star, someone you would fight to keep.”

The book is well structured and easy to read. Good anecdotical stories to support.

Review: The Value of Everything

The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy by Mariana Mazzucato
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What is value? What is valued? What is more valuable than something else?

Is it as simple as value = price that market pays for it?

The book takes a provocative stand against the way the value of goods, services, GDP etc is calculated.
For example, a resource that is destroyed by pollution may not be counted as a subtraction from GDP – but when pollution is cleaned up by marketed services, GDP increases. An obvious paradox it is.

One notorious example of where creating and extracting value has been mixed up in the recent decades, according to Mazzucato, is financial sector. If before it was mainly about financing 'real' economy, then most of finance today is about trading between various financial institutions.

"Finance is valuable simply because it is valued, not because it creates that much value."

One of the main arguments of the book is that much of valuable investment that fosters society is done by public / government (schools, universities, basic science, roads, radical innovation such as Internet) - but its role is routinely seen as mostly a 'regulator' that should not intervene in an otherwise free-standing market economy.

Although well researched and making one to think critically, the book does not really offer a solution of how to measure real value of anything - what shall and what shall not be considered when saying that something is of value X and not Y. It is also somewhat idealistic about the value-creating nature of the state. In many cases having government investing into common good is indeed desirable - yet in many other (more?) cases around the world it tends to lead to cronyism, corruption and nepotism.

Review: Ramon Pons: Count of Toulouse

Ramon Pons: Count of Toulouse by Michael A. Ponzio
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A tale about the Count of Toulouse (the region in South Western France) in the early medieval times. This not very long book depicts his life as it "could have been", including his political manoeuvring, fighting with Saracens, Hungarians and others, building the monastery, serving the king in Paris and more.

The historical background of the book is well set. It was interesting to learn that Hungarian tribes reached as far West as Catalonia. The Roman heritage and deep religious influence of Christianity in all aspects of life in medieval France were depicted very well too.

However, overall, the book is quite one-dimensional: plain characters, plain language, not very realistic dialogues (where characters explain to each other history of the places etc) and all these references to Pons / Pontus and origins of the surname. The latter might be exciting for the author (imagining where his surname might originate from and where it has left all its traces), but was just too repetitive to encounter again and again.

Review: Why We Sleep

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is a passionate book about a very impassionate part of everyone's life - about sleep. Matthew Walker walks us through numerous studies, experiments and analogies to prove the point - sleep is essential for our wellbeing. However, being members of the fast-pacing modern world, we tend to cut on sleep.

It is enlightening book, based on the years of research and it is spiced up with a good dose of humour. Easy to read, but really makes you think - a wonderful combination.

At some point, I felt somewhat overflow of all these studies and examples to prove one point - that sleep helps against many maladies we experience. Still, a worthwhile read - it goes deep into the whole essence of what sleep is all about and what impacts it (and vice versa).

Some selected passages I found particularly interesting:

Our sleep cycles tend to be different during different periods of life. But our society is often not supporting them (in particular, teenagers whose natural sleep cycle would start and end later than what the school day requires of them).

"You do not know how sleep-deprived you are when you are sleep-deprived". The low-level exhaustion after just too little sleep chronically becomes our accepted norm, or baseline.

We need to sleep enough to reach the REM (or dreaming) phase of sleep. That makes us remember what we would like to remember from the day before - and provides emotional healing to cope with the difficult events in our lives. Moreover, the REM sleep literally creates new connections in our brains - allowing for greater creativity.

"In this fast-paced, information-overloaded modern world, one of the few times we stop our persistent informational consumption and inwardly reflect is when our heads hit the pillow. There is no worse time to consciously do this. It is difficult to initiate sleep when we worry about things we did today, things that we forgot to do, things that we must face in the coming days, and even those far in the future."

One of the worst offenders of our sleep in the modern world are ubiquitous electric and LED lights. "Artificial light in our indoor worlds tricks us into believing night is still day."

Another backside of modern civilisation apparently is regularised temperature. We are wired to sleep in the night when it is naturally colder. The room temperature should rather vary to reflect this natural pattern too.

Walker himself stresses that "If only adhering to one advice each and every day, then it is: stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time of day no matter what (even on weekends)."

There are many other valuable pieces of advice. Some are rather well-known like avoiding caffeine and alcohol before sleep. Yet others are less obvious, although very well explained like removing any visible clocks from the sleeping room (not to feed sleep anxiety)or not lying awake in bed for a significant time period (rather get out, do something relaxing, get sleepy and go back to bed).

I can definitely recommend it.

Review: The Whole-Brain Child

The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive by Daniel J. Siegel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book.

Every parent has likely faced tantrums, outbursts of anger, outrage or resentment on behalf of their children. This book explains why these happen - and what are possible strategies to help your child - and yourself - to cope with them. It does it all through the explanation of child's brain development.

It is wonderfully illustrated book, supplemented by many stories and examples. It has many tips and tricks for parents to use in various situations (I have actually used some and found them useful). It has even illustrated comic strips to look at and discuss with your child. Easy language. Pleasantly short (about 150 pages).

In essence, it is about helping your children to understand what happens inside their heads - and heads of the others around them. Here are just some few learnings:
- Name an emotion or a feeling so that we can tame it
- Help to show a big picture - a feeling is only a part of you, it is not you.
- Help to show that feelings are temporary, they come and go
- Help a child to replay memories to understand what happened
- Gamify your common experiences

The most difficult part is to indeed stay rational, considering and thoughtful parent (as this book teaches you to) in most of the situations. Also, when you are tired, sleepy or distracted. :)

Review: Leading Professionals: Power, Politics, and Prima Donnas

Leading Professionals: Power, Politics, and Prima Donnas by Laura Empson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A semi-academic book based on more than 500 interviews with professionals working in professional services (such as management consulting or law).

It gives a conceptual structure to what leaders in such professional partnerships experience. And the quotations and case studies arising from various interviews help to visualise that.

I found several of the concepts there novel and intriguing. And something I could very much relate to.

The authority in a professional partnership is contingent on your success as a partner, it is not given.

The leaders in professional partnerships need to build consensus using political skills - yet without being perceived to do corporate politics.

The leadership in professional partnerships is very much plural (a so-called leadership constellation) as opposed to traditional strong CEO archetype.

A leadership dyad (two leaders collaborating on top management) can be surprisingly effective.

Organisational dynamics between management professionals (such as Heads of HR, Marketing, Strategy, CFO etc) and partners requires careful equilibrium.

A professional partnership has its own lifecycle. It can experience development from one stage to another: from a founder-focused through collegial and delegated to corporate / federated / dispersed.

Facilitating post-M&A acclimatisation of two merged cultures requires leaders to be like the organisers of the school dance: you set the stage but never decide who dances with whom.

Overall ambiguity in roles, hierarchies and structures can function surprisingly well in professional partnerships. Order and structure is not always desired as in the regular corporate way.

Recommended to those building or working in professional partnerships, especially if substantiated research is appreciated.

Review: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author is a former hostage negotiator - and brings interesting illustrating stories from that dramatic past. The objective of the book is to shed a light on how to be more successful in negotiations (in reality, in any communication situation which involves arguing over some issue).

The central concept to me from the book was a tactical empathy. That is, how to use good communication tactics in order to understand another person's wishes, desires and fears - and make that person more predisposed to be listening to you. These tactics are fairly simple (but way too easy to forget when we want to get OUR point through):
- Listen, hold on talking
- When talking, slow it down
- Mirror (rephrase what another person has said in a form of a question)
- Label another person's emotions/fears/desires ("It seems like you...")
- Don't push people for "Yes" - understand the reasons behind their "No"
- Don't get stressed and create additional stress due to deadlines
- Do an accusation audit (list the reasons another person might dislike what you are offering)

Sometimes it all felt somewhat cynical and manipulative. On the other hand, many of the communication practices described there are actually helping to build relationships - either with your negotiation counterpart, a child, a colleague or anyone else. Everyone wants to be listened to and understood. If we play along with this for ultimately good reasons, it's not that bad communicative manipulation after all...