Steve Jobs

In many ways, Steve Jobs - the book, like the character it's portraying is complicated, graceful, beautiful, agonizing, inspiring, and enlightening all in one. There are so many professional reviews out there so I'll be short. There are three major things that popped out at me.

First, Walter Isaacson is a phenomenal writer. His style is conversational and engaging enough that you forget you are reading a book. You're pulled into the story as he skillfully interjects real quotes wrapped in detailed context. I have not read such a beautifully crafted book since To Kill a Mockingbird. Steve Jobs represents what English is meant to be.

We all knew Steve Jobs is a pretty mean guy, so I wasn't really surprised about anything regarding his personality. Nor do I feel like he was wrong in being so mean. People naturally lean towards one side of the coin: be liked or be effective. Most people find a healthy mix. The only reason Apple climbed the top of the world is because Steve sacrificed the "be liked" portion of his personality. It worked, it's enlightening, but it clearly brings the issue to light: which one is more important to you? As Steve says: "Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change". I'm not advocating being mean, I'm advocating being aware of your choice.

However, the deepest question I kept asking to myself while reading the book was, is it worth it? While on his death bed, Steve kept working at the expense of family and friend time. Walter portrays Steve as a relatively happy guy, deeply proud of his work. But on a personal level, is it all worth it? The hours, the lives hurt by Steve's temper tantrums, the absolute dedication to work at the expense of personal relationships. Is building the iPad more important? Sociologists and happiness reports say that few people wish they spent more time at the office on their death bed. With Steve, it feels like he wished he had more time to work. Alas, one of life's hardest questions with another data point to think about.

I've learned so many things via Steve and I'm an Apple fanboi, yet regardless of how you feel about Steve Jobs and Apple, the biography is a great book that's worth a read. And like the Walter's graceful conclusion, I too shall defer to Steve with my favorite quote: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Delivering Happiness

Delivering Happiness, by the CEO of Zappos Tony Hsiesh, isn't just about Zappos. It's actually a life philosophy thats enshrined and exemplified through Zappos. Tony narrates his life from being an asian kid to the CEO of a billion dollar company.

The stories are pretty entertaining and are in a very conversationalist tone. There is one story where Tony's asian parents tell him that he needs to become a doctor (Very True!), but instead Tony wants to grow a worm farm. Reluctantly, Tony's parents fund the venture only to have it fail, but hey he's a ten year old kid. Each venture becomes a little more successful, until he starts LinkExchange.

LinkExchange was an advertising network like Yahoo in the late 90s which sold to Microsoft for $200 some million. The book details a few executive decisions like how to recruit, why he had to lay people off, etc. But the most interesting thing was what happened when he finally sold the company to Microsoft. Tony simply wanted to sell and leave the company. He was sick and tired of working because something was wrong. Unsure what it was, but it was something.

A few years later, Tony figured it out. The culture of the company sucked his soul. He woke up every morning pushing the snooze button on his alarm instead of being excited to go to work. Thus he joined Zappos with the primary goal of building and creating something different. The motivation wasn't money - it didn't bring happiness. Instead, it was to find a purpose. Slowly, over the course of a decade, Zappos has created a culture that is just a joy to even read about. You can read all about their culture here.

The weirdest part is, that while I was reading the book, I had sudden urges to buy everything from Zappos, work for Zappos, and spread the word about how awesome they are. Tony, through his book, made me happier and made me think about what I want not just in a career, but also life in general. It's a fantastic book, get it.

The Kindle 3 - Epicness Everywhere

I'm an Apple FanBoi, but I found another device to replace that almost zealish love: The Kindle 3. I didn't expect it to be the device I'd really love and take everywhere, but it has taken that position. When I go out, I don't take the iPad or a Macbook Air, I take the Kindle. And I absolutely adored the Kindle 2. I love the kindle because you can't browse the web, there is no color, no social networking, it does nothing but get out of the way and lets you read. When rumors started running around the internet that a Kindle 3 was coming out, I was secretly scared that it would no longer be an ereader, but an iPad wannabe.

Thankfully, the Kindle 3 is better than anything I imagined. It's by far the lightest device by weight, even less than the Droid Incredible. I didn't have any idea how much three ounces mattered, but if you read for more than half an hour, the three ounces are a savior for your wrists. The slow creeping wear that the Kindle 2 had on my hands are gone. The thinness of the Kindle 3 is fantastic, instantly making the Kindle 2 seem thick. And the screen is at least twice as good as the Kindle 2. I was really reluctant to buy a Kindle 3 since I didn't think that the screen contrast would matter that much and the Kindle 2's contrast always seemed good enough. But the Kindle 3 makes reading that much more enjoyable.

If you're thinking about whether the upgrade is worth it, I can safely say that the answer is yes. It does everything the Kindle 2 does and improves upon it in all the places that matter. This revision trounces the iPhone as my favorite device of all time. You know that question people ask: What are the three things you would take on a deserted island? The kindle is #1 on my list.

Good To Great

There are a few management books that keep popping up among the blogosphere. Good to great is one that consistently stands near the top of those lists.

Good to Great analyzes hundreds of companies over decades and looks for the companies that outperform the market by wide margins over the course of at least a decade. After all of their research, they dwindled the list of companies that became "great" down to thirteen. Finally, they looked at these thirteen companies and tried to find the common thread that led them to achieve such stellar results. That common thread is distilled into 200 pages of wisdom.

While most of the details and insights are targeted towards those in management, and therefore I am unable to actually verify any of the results, they mostly make sense. In fact, many of the recent "how to run a start up" articles point to or allude to much of the wisdom Collins finds. For example, find the best people first, then worry about where to take them. You constantly hear about "talent talent talent" as the biggest problem for almost any issue, which become non-issues if you have the right people.

While I'm only starting to get into things like interviewing, recruitment, and some management issues at a very small scale, Good to Great gives an excellent starting post on how to run any organization. Highly recommended.

Talent is Overrated: What Separates World Class Performers

Talent is Overrated argues that in the endless nature versus nurture debate, at least when it comes to traditional definitions of success, is over. Nurture wins.

The book claims that to reach the great heights, to do the game changing work, talent doesn't really matter. Intelligence doesn't matter. Hard work matters. You need about 10,000 hours (or roughly 10 years) of dedicated, deliberate practice before you can even begin to start doing great work. Talent only helps you in the very beginning. In the end, it's all about hard work. Across all fields, across time, no one who ever did great work ever achieved it without at least ten years of practice.

Even though Mozart started composing music at an early age, all of his most famous pieces were created after he turned 19. He only started learning music at an age of three because his father was a musician, not because of some innate skill. He had to work 16 years before anything great was accomplished.

It also doesn't matter if you just work hard. You have to do deliberate practice, specific practice to improve a small portion of the overall picture. Tiger Woods spent hundreds of hours hitting balls in sand, even though it rarely occurs in real games. Benjamin Franklin learned prose by taking an idea, expressing the idea in his own sentence, then comparing that sentence with the same idea expressed in the classics. This is targeted work to practice one small specific skill.

While anyone can do the necessary hard preparation work to do great work, few have the resources to do it. The passion to put in the hours has to be put into someone, usually the parents. The roadmap to start targeted practice has to be developed by a mentor. The support network to actually push someone, to give them the necessarymotivation, has to be built over years before someone can actually start managing themselves.

This notion actually made me start to wonder. When hiring, instead of looking at people in their current state, we should simply look for one attribute: Do they constantly improve themselves? Perhaps if they are constantly getting better, and can articulate what they have done to specifically improve some skill, that person may be able to contribute leaps and bounds more than someone who may currently know more but has stopped improving. This is especially important as hiring is probably the one of the most important things an organization needs to do.

Overall, Talent is Overrated presents an interesting premise, one that invigorates you to start working towards great work.