Gurus like Robin Sharma and Anthony Robbins are what you can call 24-Hour-Fitness equivalent to Bertrand Russell’s marathon pace philosophy. They offer Schopenhauer-to-go and provide life’s HowTo which can appeal to Myspace generation.

Sample this chapter from Robin Sharma’s latest book - The Greatness Guide. (This one goes out to all family kids. I have been trying hard to get them on 3 book per week diet. It’s not easy.)

There’s a cure for aging that no one talks about. It’s called learning. In my mind, as long as you learn something new each day, stretch your personal frontiers and improve the way you think, you cannot grow old. Aging only happens to people who lose their lust for getting better and disconnect from their natural base of curiosity. “Every three or four years I pick a new subject. It may be Japanese art; it may be economics. Three years of study are by no means enough to master a subject but they are enough to understand it. So for more than 60 years I have kept studying one subject at a time,” said Peter Drucker, the father of modern management who lived until he was 95. Brilliant guy.

Last year, I had the joy of spending a couple of hours in conversation with Shimon Peres, the former Israeli prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was nearly 82 at the time, and I couldn’t help but notice that his eyes actually sparkled as he spoke of his love of books, big ideas and learning. I asked: “Mr Peres, when do you read?” His reply: “Robin, when don’t I read? I read when I get up in the morning, when I can do during the day and every single evening. Most of my weekends are spent reading great books. Books are my constant companions.” He then added with a smile: “If you eat three times a day you’ll be fed. But if you read three times a day you will be wise.”

Too many people never pick up a book after they’ve finished school. Unbelievable. Too many people spend more time watching TV than getting deep inside the minds of the greatest people who have walked the planet. Too many people have closed their minds to new insights and powerful thoughts. One idea discovered in one book can change the way you see the world. One idea read in one book could transform the way you communicate with people. One idea found in one book could help you live longer or be happier or drive your business to remarkable success. Never leave home without a book in your hand.

There is nothing in the above chapter which is unique or truly original idea but I know if I tell my cousins to read books they will just ignore it. So I am just referring them to modern day guru.

On my reading list I have two interesting books right now. Carly Fiorina’s Tough Choices, biographical stuff full of inspirational struggles in corporate America. I didn’t know she started her career as a receptionist at real estate broker firm in Palo Alto. What a success story. Who knows choices she made are now helping HP.

Another one is Frank Luntz’s linguistic self-help on what words to use to succeed in modern public life. Two chapters in this book and I know why GOP is constantly kicking Democrats butt. Luntz-speak is straight talk. Very useful.

On the future of newspaper comics -

The Internet may well provide a new outlet for cartoonists, but I
imagine it’s very hard to stand out from the sea of garbage, attract a
large audience, or make money. Newspapers are still the major leagues
for comic strips . . . but I wouldn’t care to bet how long they’ll stay
that way.

What attributes do you wish were seen more commonly among children? -

Good parents!

Complete interview here.

Here is one paragraph from The Art Of Project Management. Very refreshing book on the essential art of project management. Project management is like any other physical sport where the more you play, the more you keep scores the better you get. It’s good to get external stories every now and then.

 author’s view on simplicity:

The best athletes, writers, programmers, and managers tend to be the ones who always see what they do as simple in nature but simultaneously difficult. Remember that simple is not the same thing as easy. For example, its a simple thing to run a marathon. You start running and don’t stop until you’ve reached 26.2 miles. What could be simpler? The fact that it’s difficult doesn’t negative it’s simplicity. Leadership and management are also difficult, but their nature - getting things done in a specific way toward a specific goal - is simple.

Second chapter into the book, so far author Scott Berkun has done a good job in keeping the tone very fresh. This is unlike other PMP type project management books.

Lot of fresh insights if you are into projects and who is not nowadays !

Update: Well written piece on the myth of “keeping up”. Maybe getAbstract is the answer for fixing my book scanning habit.

After all, what is reality anyway? Nothin’ but a collective hunch  Lily Tomlin

Think big  Daniel Burnham

A removal from one set of people to another…will often include a total change of conversation,  opinion, and idea   Jane Austen

If you want to stride into the Infinite, move but within the Finite in all directions  Goethe

Public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law - Orwell

That’s why it helps to hunt for new writers and their work if objective is to understand new place or new trends in a familiar place.

That’s what I ended up doing and picked up few titles. Collection of stories title “Red Carpet” by Bangalore based writer Lavanya Sankaran, One night at the call center by Chetan Bhagat, Bougainvilla House by Kavita Swaminathan, Shashi Tharoor’s Riot (though chronologically this is slightly old title) and picked up few non-fictions like FC Kohli’s collection of speeches related to the formation of TCS and Gita Piramal’s business historical - Business Maharajas.

Picking in no particular order I found Lavanya Sankaran’s work very close to what I see in Bangalore. Full of collection of thoughts, pot smoking California-dreaming serial entrepreuners, suicidal spreadsheet guru and lot of life’s tough navigational balances in the modern Bangalore setting. Full of subtle commentary on the new Bangalore, it’s a good work considering this is author’s first full novel.

If I have to pin down one paragraph which clearly puts things in perspective the global nature of the happenings in Bangalore. Then it has to be this one where two tech-entrepreuners Swamy and Murthy found themselves back at home in Banglore while chasing better production efficiencies:

For several years in America, they had controlled their overwhelming homesickness; battening it down, beating it down, tying it into knots and leaving it unexpressed, except occasionally, when eating Indian food, or meeting with fellow Indian expats and talking about Indian politics and movies, or attending a sitar concert, or; best of all, on that rare greedy holiday home. There was simply no other choice but to live and work in America- until, suddenly, it appeared, there was.

About the remaining titles I think they are going to gather dust till I figure out when to read them.

This quote from the book:

Father Narciso was accused of baptizing Indians by force. When punished they protested, "Father, it hurts!"

"Of course," agreed the missionary, "but the pains of hell hurt worse."
–Mrs. Fremont Older, California Missions and Their Romances

We all live in this same place and still I know so little about this place and it’s socio-political history. In a queer way this book reminded me of another book which I bought from India but haven’t started reading it. It’s called India’s Silent Revolution written by Christophe Jaffrelot.  Book’s short description from Amazon:

Since the 1960s a new assertiveness has characterized India�s formerly
silent majority, the lower castes that comprise more than two-thirds of
the population. Today India�s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, is
controlled by lower-caste politicians, as is Bihar, and lower-caste
representation in national politics is growing inexorably. Jaffrelot
argues that this trend constitutes a genuine "democratization" of India
and that the social and economic effects of this "silent revolution"
are bound to multiply in the years to come

It’s not surprising at all that the mainstream media hasn’t given as much coverage of these two books as they do to the other topics.

More so in these times when the talk is cheap, its what is not getting discussed is more important sometimes.

From the book : -

“It was precisely the ability to reduce empirical reality to data, to manipulate that data by machines, and then to extract from the output an important new empirical result, that years later underlay the birth of the Info Mesa”

Will post more from this book. I wish I can first finish this book and then do anything else.

Newyork based architecture design firm SHoP/Sharples Holden has come out with
a new model for architecture practice. Its called Versionining -

“Intent on exploring the computer�s capabilities for changing design processes in the act of making, SHoP uses versioning to describe the significant shift in the way technology is being applied to expand, in time as well as in territory, the potential effects of design. This requires rethinking the design process in terms of procedure and outcome in ways that are totally unprecedented in both the construction industry and conventional design methodologies. It also has far-reaching implications on the entire design process and existing design/production partnerships”

Added this book to my list for 2004