a common man ಸಂಜಯ

Category: book

book review

  • book: one minute manager

    In my career, I maintained a primarily technical role, with limited management experience, leading only small groups of people (though I’ve coordinated across much larger international groups). And in this role, I was definitely not the best or any kind of role model, but had a mixture of success as well as shortcomings.

    With this basic background, I had found this book an excellent read and it had made a significant improvement to the way I did this role, so sharing it here.

    Its a very simple book, approximately 50 pages or so with plenty of pages having just one sentence in them.

    Its supposed to have sold some 10 million copies and is extremely popular (guess they say this on almost every book 😉 ) (There was also a follow up One Minute Parent that was nice as well). Not that we need to follow such books word to word, but worth reading as it has some good ideas.

    Depending on your preference you could pick up a copy from a book store or even any footpath in Bangalore. Recently found that its available on the net as well in an online library:

    http://www.nhecburma.org/online_library/PDF/Capacity/The_One_Minute_Manager.pdf

    The following is from an online review…

    The One Minute Manager is an easily read story which quickly shows you three
    very practical management techniques. As the story unfolds, you will discover several
    studies in medicine and the behavioral sciences which help you to understand why these
    apparently simple methods work so well with so many people. By the book’s end you
    will also know how to apply them to your own situation.
    The book is brief, the language is simple, and best of all … it works!

  • total perspective vortex: video?!

    I’ve mentioned earlier in one of the posts, that the first time I came across the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, it was just a very funny science fiction book that I read end to end – a laugh riot! Many years later, had chanced across it and read it again. This second read of this timeless book, I laughed again, but this time, the same books had an astonishing depth I’d never perceived before!

    Scientist Stephen Hawkings says about the author Douglas Adams: “I have seldom met a more congenial spirit. Obviously I knew he would be funny. What I didn’t know was how deeply read he was in science. I should have guessed, for you can’t understand many of the jokes in Hitchhiker if you don’t know a lot of advanced science.”

    Not just science, but a lot of his satire had striking descriptions of constructs in our metaphysical or social structure as well. For example, the total perspective vortex…
    (more…)

  • the ultimate treatise on psychology

    Someone asked about a book on psychology, and I thought of posting my reply here as a post. Here is a good simple book that I’d come across around a decade ago… Games People Play by Eric Berne

    (more…)

  • about douglas adams

    I’d read the book Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy during college days as well and had a laugh riot. But reading them recently after a many years I laughed again, but the books had an astonishing depth I’d never perceived before! I wondered why…

    Found some explanation for it in this article Lament for Douglas by Richard Dawkins which is more than just a lament. Apart from other things, it also reveals some things about the author… for example this part when Dawkins met Douglas:

    > Obviously I knew he would be funny. What I didn’t know was how deeply
    > read he was in science. I should have guessed, for you can’t understand
    > many of the jokes in Hitchhiker if you don’t know a lot of advanced
    > science.

    To “summarise the summary” – if one’s knowledge of science has improved over
    the years, then one should consider reading H2G2 again 🙂 I might consider reading it once more after a few years.

  • a bookshop with a heart

    On a visit to this beautiful book shop – a venerable landmark of Bangalore – found that it might soon be closed. The lease for it is over and the the money-minded owner dosen’t want to renew it. Mr. Shanbag was pretty tranquil about it, he calmly explained that he’s trying to either extend it, look for another place or various other options. He’ll definitely be there till the
    end of April atleast.

    Here are some excerpts from the net… if its too long, just skip to the last highlighted part…

    (more…)

  • astavakra gita

    [some corrections made on 21-Nov-2005]

    The story of Astavakra is pretty fascinating, and sets the background and the context.

    As per what I remember from a seminar I attended recently, I present the speaker’s opinions as I remember them, I hope I do not misquote anything! (more…)

  • book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

    The Alchemist is a beautiful small book that makes easy reading, has simple language and one can certainly relate to it.

    One might be familiar with the word in the title which refers to Alchemy, a process of transformation of a common ordinary substance, which over time refines into a substance of great value.

    Prerequisite 😉 for reading this post … first read his book Alchemist

    Also, I had to look up this word:

    disinter: To dig up or remove from a grave or tomb; exhume.

    Rakesh sent this letter by Paulo Coelho… on why it is so hard to live our dreams, why we don’t have the courage to confront them.

    (The link no longer works so putting in the contents here, which happens to be in the introduction in a later edition)

    “What is a perosnal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something to fill us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.

    Why?

    There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deepy buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there.

    If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.

    Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on our path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.

    I asked myself: are defeats necessary?

    Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

    So, why is it important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?

    Because, once we have overcome the defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and its stays with us for the rest of our lives.

    Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.

    Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.” And it’s true. The mere possiblity of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the tings we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal—when it was only a step away.

    This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.”

    Paulo Coelho
    Rio de Janeiro
    November 2002
    Translated by Margaret Jull Costa

  • book: Book of Pages

    “When Jiriki, a young monk, is sent by his Abbot from his mountain monastery
    to the Metropolis, he finds the modern world a confusing and illogical place; the technology of the modern world, which supposedly exists to make life easier, to Jiriki’s simple eyes only makes living more complicated.

    And as confused as Jiriki is by the modern world, he is even more confused by the Book of Pages that his Abbot has sent him to find – a book of which he has been given no clues as to the appearance, the whereabouts, or even the content…”

    Some extracts (if the Full link dosent work, view Half)

    ———–

    I read this book and found it a mostly funny & interesting perspective of technology. Especially view the excerpt regarding Button 🙂

  • book: The Story of My Experiments With Truth

    Yesterday I went to this bookstall waiting for my sister to pick up some book, and as I strolled through casually glancing at the books, one of the books I passed was My Experiments With Truth… the autobiography by Gandhi. I continued to stroll through and then remembered that a friend had strongly recommended it. Though I thought probably I might not be interested… in the first place, I have never read anybody’s autobiography till now. And in this case, it would probably be related to politics (not my cup of tea) or something like that. But anyway I went back and picked it up and randomly opened some page.

    What I read really gripped me… I had never expected Gandhi’s autobiography to be that interesting!! I flipped through few more chapters, and the simplicity of the man really floored me! His way of thinking is truly excellent!! I bought that book and read a lot of it yesterday night, the chapters were almost like a collection of short stories. I did not feel that I had to read them in strict sequence, though I eventually started doing that.

    He has written so candidly about his everyday life! I expected the book to be about some saintly idealistic man, but he has written about his mistakes as openly as his achievements. He is such an ordinary man that I am sure each of us who reads his book will find many things in common with him. It showed that “greatness” is not a switch that God switched on in case of
    Gandhi… it is very much internal to each of us, just that we need to identify these qualities and focus on strengthening them. No doubt that the difficult part is having the courage and determination to stand for them inspite of circumstances. But that again IMO is not just a switch that can be turned On one fine day, its a matter of time.

    As if to highlight the simplicity, the book cost only Rs. 30. 🙂

    Btw, there are many people who strongly believe that India wouldve been much better off without Gandhi, and others who believe the opposite. I havent done enough historical analysis to argue for either side, but you can surely benefit from this book independent of that debate.

    I dont plan to finish it in a hurry, so thats why I didn’t wait to completely read it before posting this. Anyway, I felt whatever I’ve read already itself is worth mentioning in a post. (I also came across the chapter which was there in my school textbook 🙂 ).

    See also: Mahatma Gandhi Archive & Library

  • book: Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

    You are sure to love this book. Even if you don’t have the habit of reading, nor the time or inclination… I still strongly recommend that as an exception… you read this one book:

    Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

    Its a very small book, but has a lightning bolt packed in it. It dosent have any “moral of the story” or something like that… but can be interpreted in many many ways.

    Incidentally, the first time I came across the book, I flipped through a few pages and felt bored thinking “oh I know what hes probably going to talk about” and put it down and forgot about it.

    I later came across a short story…

    A university professor visited a Japanese Zen master to enquire about Zen.

    It was obvious to the master from the start that the professor was not so much interested in learning Zen as he was in impressing the master with his own opinions and knowledge. The master listened patiently, and finally suggested they have tea.

    The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept on pouring.

    The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself.

    “It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted.

    “Like this cup,” the master said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”

    Though the short story above talks about learning “Zen”, I guess the same could apply to learning anything.

    I eventually happened to come across the book again. This time, I “emptied myself” and read the book, and the sheer brilliance gripped me for the next one hour, and I think many of the points will remain in my mind for a very long time.

    Later update:

    One of the many applications of this book is in software development – it started a long chain of thoughts in my mind in this regard, which I wrote as a story.