www.pluck.com

”I think I have done pretty much everything I can within my control. Most of it is out of control. For those of you that are spiritual or religious, I am asking that you take time to pray for me during the next 24 hours. It would mean a lot to me. I want this really badly & I can do a lot of good if I can succeed here.” (Mike)

Good luck Mike.

August 28, Syria.

August 18, Tibet + Guangzhou.

July 14, South Africa.

June 4, Peru.

Anyway I can.

Kristof Responds : a weblog by Nicholas Kristof, the famed NY Times Columnist.

Alright Kiddos, here's another batch of book reviews. It'll be a terser review this time around.

1. More Balls Than Hands by Michael J. Gelb.

This book is practically a self-help book in juggling myriad tasks and demand put upon you in your life. Bland and predictable.

Not worth your time. Skip.

2. Global Woman (Nannies, Maids and Sex Workes in The New Economy) by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild.

This is a very informative and engaging book about the phenomena of global woman workers, it's benefits and troubles (abuse).

Read.

3. Near A Thousand Tables (A history of food) by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

What a delightful book. I love food and this book engage you and makes you think because it brings multi-dimensional perspective on food. There are so many interesting nuggets of knowledge that you might not know about the concept of food in the book. Do you know that Cannibalism actually comes from the word Carriba because Colombus misheard Carriba (later become Carribean) as Canniba.

Read. Run.

4. Secret Justice (James W Huston)

Stupid military thriller book.

Skip. 

http://www.earthday.net/

My cell phone rang 34 times yesterday, covering all non-frozen continent that exist in this world. Thank you all. 

My Birthday Pantone : African Violet (imaginative, emotional, hard working)

Venti Sei

From NYTimes : ”In their pleas, the executives depicted a broad conspiracy at the company during the last two years to lie to prosecutors and Computer Associates' own lawyers about the company's past practice of backdating sales to meet Wall Street forecasts for its revenue and profit.”

From NY Times :”Mr. Bush told Mr. Woodward that he did not ask the secretary's opinion on whether to go to war because he thought he knew what that opinion would be: "no."”

Alright Chicas, there's plenty of books listed today. Let me make it quick.

1. Passages by Ann Quin.

You don't know Ann Quin ? Pick this one up.

2. SurPetition by Edward De Bono.

The king of lateral thinking wrote this compact 'lateral thinking' for business by commanding people to move from a mere competition (to just barely survive) to create value monopolies to move ahead. This is practically a creativity book. It's a breeze to read and offer useful insights.

Recommended. (compact book)

3. Embedded by Bill Katovsky and Timothy Calrson.

This is a meta media report consisted of interviews and pieces of writing by journalists embedded/non embedded with the military during the Operation Iraqi Freedom last year.  The interview wit John Burns, New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief (and the second person to win two Pulitzer prize in international reporting) is my favorite.

Recommended.

4. The Inside History on AIDS by Set C. Kalichman, PhD.

This is a sobering Q & A book on AIDS which takes you through various topics on AIDS (what is it? etc). It's a good refresher book to return to the topic again because AIDS is on the rise again (and still the biggest killer in sub-Saharan Africa).

Recommended.

5. Thinking for a living by Joey Reiman.

Another easy to read compact book on creativity. The author is a successful serial entrepreneur that in 1994 decide to leave his advertising company and decide to start yet another on based on simply selling ideas.

Recommended.

6. Special Blend : Fusion Management From Asia and The West by Lynette Lithgow.

This book does a survey coverage on Asian business practice and contrast them with Western practice in several places.

The message is interesting, but the methods of delivery sucks.

Skip. (didn't complete reading it. Snore past page 2)

7. More Than Courage by Harold Coyle.

This is a Tom-Clancy wannabe writer on military mission.

B-o-r-i-n-g.

8. Simplify Your Work Life by Elain St. James.

Self improvement book. This one can use a good one real real badly. Just as bland and sugary as two tricks blond from a Midwestern sorority.

Go read dodysm  if you want real and useful advice.

Skip. (I read page 1, 50 and 80 and bzz)

””VI FACCIO VEDERE COME SA MORIRE UN ITALIANO”

The Italian who was the first civilian hostage to be killed in Iraq was today hailed as a hero who defied his captors and told them: "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies." (The Guardian)

Sorry folks, I need to cancel my trip to New York this weekend. Yeah, I am dissappointed as well. But I got sucked into drama with transport last night so it's just not possible this time.

New York Times

“Infosys Technologies, the bellwether of the Indian software services industry, has posted more than $1 billion in annual sales for the first time and it celebrated the news on Tuesday with a giant party, a special dividend of $2.28 a share and a distribution of three shares for every one held.

A crosstown rival, Wipro, is also expected to exceed $1 billion in annual revenue when its fiscal 2004 results are announced later this month. Satyam Computer Systems of Hyderabad is also closing in on the $1 billion mark.”

I have been craving the touch and sound of a typewriter lately. I am thinking of buying a vintage typewriter so that I can type on it for my idea session.

In the meantime, I just install a small software utility that produce a sound of typewriter keystroke everytime I type my keyboard. So from now on, my working space is decorated with the sound of typewriter.

I love it.

This weekend I raided the Chicago Public Library for Accounting, Finance  and Monetary system book.

I have always been a fan of using numbers to measure progress and this month I am starting to research and implement business metrics that can be easily accessible for small business (first client, my company)

It's probably come a shock to people that know me in the US as I has always been known as the techie. That has been the case for almost 10 years but in my previous life, I am a pure number person.

I learnt my first accounting lesson when I was 11. Yes, 11. I took an accounting night course (7 - 9 pm) in my island. I was definately the youngest student in the room, by far. The next youngest was 24 years old. We were still using pen and ruler back then, trying to create a balanced general ledger manually.

Definately a weird childhood :)

However both my parents are entrepreneurs  (in fact, my whole extended family are) so the business world is close at home.

In my senior year at high school, I had a choice of going to Medical School, Oceanic Biology, Business School or IT. I chose IT because I can't wait studying for at least 6 years to get medical degree, I don't see any value of going to business school, and for Oceanic biology I need go to the US (which my mom wouldn't let me). So I pick IT.

Anyway, I completely walk away from the finance/money world when I left Australia for Italy and returned again just this month. In Australia I was keeping myself busy understanding the stock market environment in the country (and other financial instruments to make capital investment) and my 3 years flat mate (and teach/guru) hammerred me everyday with his message, internal control, internal control, internal control. Yeah, he's an ex CFO :)

In Italy I switched to art, life and cooking. In New York, it was human networks and creativity. Singapore, efficiency. Chicago, music and back again to business.

Welcome to another round of Saturday Book Review (not to be confused with NYTimes' Sunday Book Review; duh)

1. Martin Luther (The Christian Between God And Death) by Richard Marius.

This is a scholarly treatise on the life of Martin Luther. More than just re-telling the story of Luther's life, Marius ponder about the philosophy and mind of Luther at any key point of his life (such as Luther's fear of death) and provided the context and environment that makes Luther, Luther.

It's a very fascinating book but it's fuckin' hard to read.

2.  What is Gnosticism? by Karen L.King. This is THE book to read and understand Gnosticism. King pretty much busted the traditional notion that Gnosticm as some sort of “heretic version of Christianity”(and other variation) to a pre-Christian belief system that influence the organizing values system in Christianity.

Well recommended (still tough to read though;)

3. Sony (The Private Life) by John Nathan.

This is a story about Sony from its founding years up until late 90's. Nathan wrote the story of Sony from select perspective of key individual in Sony. And their story make a compelling read. The book is good until it starts exploring Sony's 80's decision to buy Columbia Pictures.

One main flaw of the book is it barely mention the development of Sony Playstation and its impact on the company.

Read the first 6 chapters. Discard the rest.

4. Time's Eye (Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter)

What if time shift happens and you end up with different period of human civilization at the same time.

This sci-fi book is a joy to read. Fun, rich of imagination, and interesting plot.

Recommended.

5. Bullets (Steve Brewer)

This  is one a  more interesting crime thriller I've read centering on a female hired killer and a Chicago cop (no they don't have sex or fall in love) much set in Vegas. There are more twist and turn in this thin book than people in a Tokyo's residential square mile.

Recommended. 

I found myself spending more time thinking nowadays especially the disconnect between good ideas and good implementation.

Here's the curiousity. Our logic allows us to determine which one makes sense and good for us, however, there are very few follow up on those logics.

Take a look as an example of bad habit. You know one of your habit is bad for you and logic dictates that changing that habit will bring an improvement to you. However, most of the time we are keeping those bad habits. Smoking comes to mind (the obvious one), or eating junk food or exercising less.

This is one of the most fundamental problem we as human being need to ably solve in order to progress. Some people I suspect have nailed this down and had great success  in their lives.

A synchronization between good ideas and good execution. Our behaviour do not directly corellate with our mind as if our 'self' is out of control or our mind is powerless to control our impulses.

Are we so powerless in getting stuck in our pattern that we are unable to get ourselve to change and follow what our rational logic demand?

Is it a question of discipline? Or are we a creature of survivor so we won't change until we are threatened?

This fundamental weakness translate to business as well. The fundamental logic in a business demands that you know the state of your business at any time. The bottom line.

Have you been in a company that has their financial bookkeeping in order?

I am more and more incline to believe that behavioral pattern change is critical in terms of realising the good ideas we have in our mind.

The critical thing is how do you go about changing our pattern? The highest goal will be to have this pattern change be done as painless as possible in the most transparent way.

Changing your pattern without realizing it.

Evolution of behavioral pattern. Evolution, not revolution.

Shifting of behavioral pattern. Shift, not pursuit.

Blazing the path for new behavioral pattern. Blazing/mold, not follow.

Sensory thinking.

Have dozens even hundreds of little feedback to nudge and transform our pattern into a new one, on a daily basis. Relentless and unpredictable micro increments.

Stretch our fixed mind. Pursue flexibility.

Nudge. Pull. Break.

Fit it to our natural tendency to preserve energy (survival).

The ultimate goal lies in transform ourserlve so that constant change is our comfort zone (which is our natural state;we are getting older by the second).

I'm on week Three of my 6x6 training program. So far so good.

Suzanne's birthday is today. Mine will be 13 days from today.

And yeah, I've been awake for more than 24 hours now bloody working for an urgent assignment.

And oh, 'managing' a friend's emotional roller-coaster over the phone.

Managed to steal time with Andrea on Sunday.

“maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me“.

1. The Five Faces of Genius (Creative thinking styles to succeed at work) by Annette Moser-Wellman.

I have a bias against any book that boast the word 'genius' in its title. I don't know. The word sounds pretty cheesy to me. This book uses the word to frame several ways to look at personalities and angles to look at the world. 

Annette put forward the idea of genius in five stereotypes (or faces) such as:

1. The Seer.

Or the visualiser. The ability to see or imagine a solution or inspiration.

2. The Observer.

Or the spy. See, look, hear. Attentive to details. Connect the dots.

3. The Alchemist.

Or the bartender. The ability to mix and match different type of domains in creating creative ideas.

4. The Fool.

Or the naive. This type of personality can be described in one sentence "he doesn't know what can't be done"

5. The Sage.

Or the simplifier. Simplify, streamline, reducing parts.

What's the verdict? Although the five faces are interesting, the book is  such a bore. How can a book about creative thinking be boring? That's a paradox, isn' it?

Stay away.

2. The Exceptional Individual by Peter Engel.

The author starts the book by challenging and making fun of the premise of "In search of excellence by Tom Peters".

He is against the idea the process, structure and organization are the ones that make or break the potential for a company to grow and prosper. None of that, he wrote.

All the big business stories and legends are created by individuals. The rebels, misfits, enlightened individuals that you can find in every single enterprises. The ones with ideas and determination to carry it through. The exceptional individuals.

People makes company, not structure.

He argues that the best structures can do is to tolerate, encourage and foster those individuals to do their thing, allowing them play and tinker.

So that's the message of the book. Exceptional individual, not structure, makes a business.

Verdict? I like the idea because it is aligned with my view of organization. Structure and process are essential but they are infrastructure, not the engine  of a company. People is  the core of a company, not an organizing method.  Read in a boring day.

3. Reinventing the Bazaar: The Natural History of Markets by John McMillan

"
A workable platform for markets has five elements:

information flows moothly,
people can be trusted to live up to their promise,
competition is fostered,
property rights are protected but no overprotected,
and side effect on this partes are curtailed
"

Oh, I looooveee this book. A must read. The best book (and probably the only book) about the nature and essence of market. So insightful, fun to read and inspiring.

Thru MetaFilter:

“Ghosts of Rwanda
10 years later, FRONTLINE delivers one of the most powerful episodes in their excellent series of reports. Also covered in The Economist last week, and a couple years ago in The Atlantic in a sublime article: "Bystanders to Genocide". When you first heard about the tragedy did you wish you could have done something, if you had only known more?
”

For the sake of your humanity, read the article “Bystanders to Genocide” and check out the Frontline documentary.

I'm sorry for the surprise news but I'm moving back to New York next month. I have been in negotiation with Aiesec to become  a salesperson for New York City area filling Deven's old position (he left Aiesec yesterday).

I've been out of Aiesec for a year, so I know I'm a bit rusty but I'm confident that I can start my new job without any difficulty. I'm confident that I will  deliver the three digits number target assigned to me.

"
Hey Dody,

I checked our list of co-workers, and, indeed
Amanda Dunn is a Coach Coordinator in NY. How
funny! What a small world. She will be coming
out here for our all company meeting soon!

Fun times bowling last night.
We should be friendsters....
"

Believe it or not, I'm actually doing something good tonight.

A friend came to me with a decision making problem (as usual, can you spell r-e-l-a-t-i-o-n-s-h-i-p ?) through email and I wrote back,

"Bring your gear. Come running with me tonight and we'll talk"

So we did. We stopped at my usual thinking spot near at the Shakespeare Theater on the lake. We talked on the (my) sacred rocks amidst the angry waves stirred by freezing Chicago winds. Occasional splash of lake water added excitement to our conversation.

No decision yet. So we walked back along the empty shore and continued.

At one point  I told her "You need to go beyond deliberation right now and decide. More time isn't going to help."

So she did, midway from our walk back to the 'hood.

And we just moved on to other topics.

After dinner she said goodbye and told me "I think I'll sleep well tonight" with a huge smile.

Problem solved.