Book Worm

A few years back, I wrote an essay on the mental model of Redundancy. In that article, I mentioned how Bill Gates reasoned using Redundancy that saving lives in Africa will contain the country’s population growth over the longer term. One reader pointed out that Gates’ insight originally came from another guy named Hans Rosling.

A little bit of research revealed that Hans Rosling had a decisive impact on how Bill Gates thought about his philanthropy work in African countries. No wonder, when Rosling’s book came out, Gates was among the first to publish a review. He wrote —

Hans, the brilliant global-health lecturer who died last year, gives you a breakthrough way of understanding basic truths about the world—how life is getting better, and where the world still needs to improve. And he weaves in unforgettable anecdotes from his life. It’s a fitting final word from a brilliant man, and one of the best books I’ve ever read.

[Read more…] about Bookworm: Factfulness by Hans Rosling

Warren Buffett in his 2012 annual letter to investors, recommended William Thorndike’s book The Outsiders. Buffett called it an outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation. The eight terrific CEOs that featured in the book have generated exceptional results across a wide variety of industries and market conditions. We had written about Outsiders in April 2016 as part of VIA bookworm series.

Saurabh Mukherjea’s book is the answer to The Outsiders. Mukherjea writes —

The book [The Outsiders] changed the way I perceived and analysed companies which have been successful over long periods of time (we are talking decades here). What Thorndike helped me grasp was that the truly great companies take the surplus cash flows created by their sustainable competitive advantages and then either return those to shareholders or reinvest those in their core franchise, or — and this is the litmus test of greatness — reinvest those successfully in new activities or markets. It is in those latter set of investments outside the core franchise that a great company assures its future regardless of how economic circumstances and customers’ tastes pan out. Without that insight from The Outsiders, there would be no The Unusual Billionaires.

[Read more…] about Bookworm: The Unusual Billionaires

It was ten years back when I was first introduced to the field of human behaviour and psychological biases. Having read a couple of dozen books on this topic, it has now become hard to find a volume with information which is not familiar to me. However, what continues to amaze (and entertain) me are the examples and case studies of people (including my own adventures often pointed out by others) that confirm the statement — We are not rational beings. We are rationalizing beings.

This aspect of human irrationality — that it can’t be overcome and keeps us mired in a behaviour similar to a kid with her hand stuck in the cookie jar because she refuses to open the fist — is what makes this subject so much fun. Once you’ve learnt enough about the broad spectrum of cognitive errors, it affords you a lifetime of entertainment content, provided you pause and watch your own actions and the way people around you make decisions.
[Read more…] about Bookworm: You Are Not So Smart

The problem with Taleb is not that he’s an a**hole. He as an a**hole. The problem with Taleb is that he is right.

Those are not my words. It’s from one of the blurbs for Taleb’s book Skin in The Game. And among many other surprising things about the book, one is that all the blurbs that appear on the jacket aren’t from other famous authors. Taleb took the testimonials from ordinary readers and printed it on the back of the book. Not because other famous authors weren’t willing to offer their testimonials — many of them would be honoured to do that — but it’s because Taleb doesn’t care.

Those who have read his books agree on one thing — Taleb is idiosyncratic and he is a genius.

In out bookworm series we have already reviewed Nassim Taleb’s earlier books — Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, and Antifragile. Skin in the Game is Taleb’s latest book. It came out last year (2018) and I had been sitting on it for quite a while. Last month I finally managed to finish reading it. Like all Taleb’s books, this one also needs to be read at least twice (perhaps thrice) to be able to absorb all the wisdom in a meaningful way.
[Read more…] about Bookworm: Skin in The Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In today’s world, we’re all designers. Whether it’s creating a powerpoint presentation, designing a website for your startup, creating a flyer for your kid’s school event or even taking a decision about your home interiors — we’re always dealing with design problems.

Most people believe that design skills are reserved for the creative lot — those who have a talent for art. But it’s not commonly known that a lot of aspects of design are actually rule-based. There’s a science to it; a formula if you will. And one doesn’t need to have an “eye” for design. Knowing the rules is good enough for us civilians.

Let me give you a few examples to make it more concrete what I mean by rules.

The L-shaped Layout

If you talk to landscape designers, they will tell you that it’s better to put three of the same kind of vertical structures — they could be pillars or trees — in your land, rather than four. Odd numbers just look better in that context. Now, why is it so is a matter of deeper investigation of human perception, but if you know this rule, you can instantly become an above average designer.
[Read more…] about Bookworm: Universal Principles of Design