From Cubicles 2 Cabins: A survival guide to your first job by Sanket J Danatra

Hi Friends

This book, is as it name suggests, Lots of Good Gyan to survive during first year of Job, by this IIM A passout. And, I think the contents are relevant not all to rookie but to all the professionals.

The book has been written in a very informal manner, covering most of the broad pointers that a rookie should know about. But I think, its too brief to grab a permanent RAM share of Reader’s Hard Drive J. So, I anticipate this won’t be the first book, but first of the series that will follow.

On the flip side, the book needs more structure, and should make better use of Bold, Italics and Frameworks, which definitely involves reader more.

So, in nutshell, I will recommend this book to all the rookies, irrespective of the field they are in. And, hope Sanket after his debut book, will share more Gyan in coming series.

The Art of Deception by Kevin D Mitnick

Reading this book reminded me of movies like 'Catch me if you can!'

Well, this book is written by one of the most notorious hackers Kevin D Mitnick, who is now acting as Cyber Security Consultant to many companies.

While reading this book, I came to understand, doesn't matter how hard we make Cyber Security, but in vain. For Cyber Security, has at its heart humans to operate it. And human is the weakest link in the security.

The book is written in very unconventional method, giving the insight to the mind of a hacker. And points out, how corporate professionals, unintentionally invites hackers and viruses to their company, opening the whole maze in front of them.

Though its related to Cyber Security, but this book is not technical. So any common man with the normal knowledge about internet and computers, can gain a lot from it.

And, I think, this book should be made mandatory in every organisation where heavy dependence on IT is there

Ambani & Sons by Hamish McDonald

This is another book by Hamish McDonald, the author of 'The Polyester Prince'

The Polyester Prince was banned or is still banned in India since its publication around decade ago. But, you can easily find the pirated copies of it on road side in all the metro cities of India.

Anyway, this sequel has made it easy for the readers to buy the story of Ambani's legally. According to readers, the story is 80% the story of The Polyester Prince, with 20% addition.

The earlier book was focussed on rise of Dhirubhai and covered it till 1998. While this book covers till mid 2010. The new chapters focus more on now two seperate empires of Anil & Mukesh.

And after reading it, I can very well understand why the earlier book was banned. And I think, Hamish is in habbit of writing such open and provocative books, which are banned in the focussed countries.

But, if you want to understand evolution of Business in India post Independence, this is must read

Business@Speed of Thought

By Bill Gates

I picked this book recently, though written around 10 years back.

During the first few pages, I thought that I did a mistake by buying this, as most of the things or technologies mentioned in it are already in place. But, at the same time I was really surprised by the Bill’s forecasting of the future, much of it has come true.

When I further read the book, I was more than amazed. I used to think Microsoft to be only Windows and Microsoft Office. I used to think, that soon it will be cannibalized by more innovative company like Google.

But I was wrong, what Microsoft has done around 10 years back, it will take other companies around a decade from now to catch up.

The book talks about Digital Nervous System in any system, organization, society or nation. It gives a fabulous examples in industries like Healthcare, Governance, Aeronoutical and what not.
Bill claims that this book is for CEO’s of this century. But, I disagree with him on this point. This book is for any and every person living at this point of time. As we can see, the impact of Information Technology is so great on our present lives, that it has become as essential in education as arithmetic. So, I recommend this book to any and every person who wants to educate oneself on how Information Technology has and would fundamentally change our lives forever.

YOU CAN NEGOTIATE ANYTHING

By Herb Cohen

Regardless of who you are or what you want, you can negotiate anything, promises Herb Cohen, in his masterpiece YOU CAN NEGOTIATE ANYTHING. Herb Cohen has been a participant in thousands of negotiations, including every situation imaginable, from mergers and acquisitions to hostage and terrorist negotiations for law enforcement agencies. Herb Cohen was a consultant to some of the largest corporations in North America. He has advised presidents on everything from domestic policy to hostage crises to combating international terrorism. In addition, he traveled internationally to conferences and conventions, where his entertaining and informative style made him a sought-after speaker. Successful is the right word for Herb Cohen.

Every day, you negotiate for something: from mergers to marriages, from loans to lovemaking; this book proves that prestige, money, security, justice, love - it’s all negotiable. This straight-talking guide shows you how to get what you want by dealing successfully with your mate, your boss, your children, your best friends and even yourself. As Cohen counsels, "Power is based upon perception - if you think you've got it then you've got it. Be patient, be personal, be informed - and you can bargain successfully for anything."

“Wow” is what most people would say first, after Cohen's book is finally put down. Because of his remarkable effectiveness in delivering the point of effective negotiating you feel that negotiating is not some hidden art or that ‘Harvard or INSEAD’ education is necessary to be effective in the everyday occurrences that we deal with on a regular basis. There are as many techniques and methods of negotiating as there are people and cultures in the world, but this book focuses on simplicity as well as effectiveness. The methods are hilariously portrayed and the terms are easily grasped by the reader without the necessity of classroom discussion or instructor evaluation. Guys…this is real stuff! Use this book daily and change your life forever. These are home truths on negotiating tactics from one of America's professional corporate negotiators. You are unlikely to learn much you haven't heard many times before and many of the examples are very "homely" as opposed to corporate. His writing style is casual, with a conversational tone, and his applications of techniques are presented in a down-to-earth manner that the average reader can easily relate to.

The book is divided into four sections. It begins with defining the term ‘Negotiation’- what is it, why do we need it, where can we use it etc. According to him this real world is a giant negotiating table, and whether anybody likes it or not, he or she is a participant. Herb then went on to describe the term by giving a real life personal experience. The first section, furthermore, introduces the three basic components of negotiation as the perception of power, time investment and constraints, and the balance of information between the parties. The author discusses tactics that employ these three components to control negotiations.

The second section of the book gives an in-depth description of power, time, and information. The power chapter, 40 pages long, brilliantly outlines fourteen specific types of power essential to understand when negotiating with others. Cohen effectively addresses the psychological element of power. The information in this chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

Different negotiation styles are discussed in the third section. Win-Lose and Win-Win negotiations are described in detail, to include countermeasures to avoid being victimized if involved with a Win-Lose negotiator. The examples provided in this section are both interesting and informative.

The fourth section is a short collection of additional illustrative stories. If the author had excluded anecdotes, this book would have been a twenty-page booklet instead of a 255-page awe-inspiring piece of writing, but the extensive examples effectively clarified the pertinent points of negotiation, serving as an amusing, yet effective teaching method.

This book is an excellent introduction to negotiation for the causal reader, but is not appropriate as a quick reference guide because of the illustrative nature of the text, with information buried within stories. It is not that after reading this book one will become master in the art of negotiations, rather this book will initiate one's journey in the world of negotiations. This book really gives a great launching point for those who wish to carry out successful win-win negotiations in every facet of their lives, be it at home, with suppliers, at your favorite shop or at work.

This is an absolutely fascinating book. I recommend the book to anyone interested in successful and fruitful negotiations. We all have the potential to negotiate, and this book unleashes that power. It’s a rare work of sublime genius.


NISHANT SINGH

Powerful Sleep – Secrets of the Inner Sleep Clock

By Kacper M. Postawski

Do you sleep for 8 to 10 hours only to wake up with the feeling of tiredness, dizziness and sleeplessness ?Do you experience insomnia on Sunday nights ?Are you one amongst those who think that longer hours of sleep is more important than shorter quality sleep ?Do you want to seriously consider doing something to fix this problem and not sure how to start about ?

If the answers to the above Questions are correct I would strongly suggest you to read this book and religiously implement the suggestions in book.

Powerful Sleep – Secrets of the Inner Sleep Clock by Kacper M. Postawski (aka The Insomnia Terminator) is an excellent source. Just imagine what radical changes you could create, and what things you could accomplish in your life if you were able to sleep just half as much as you do now !


Sleep is actually quite a complex mechanism that can be OPTIMIZED, by taking some simple measures in your life to reduce your sleep by hours and have more energy in your life than when you slept longer .Here are just some of the powerful realizations Kacper points out in his book:

• The four most important elements, which your inner sleep clock relies on to determine when to sleep, how long you sleep, and how energizing your sleep is. Discovering these principles will allow you to gain a firm understanding of how to gain control over your sleep and daily energy level.

• How to optimize your Inner Sleep Clock so that it's possible for you to reduce your sleep by up to 3 hours, and increase the quality, and power of your sleep (If you don't do this, you will do more damage to your body than good by sleeping less.)

• What really happens to your body while you sleep? While most people think sleep is just "sleep", your body is more busy when you're sleeping than when you're awake. The inner sleep system is a complex mechanism which is affected by many things you do on a daily basis.(Most of them you're not aware of). This is a key understanding to optimizing your sleep.

You can find anything and everything related to sleep on the website http://www.wonderfulsleep.com/ .

This book is a wonderful tool for anybody who wants his life to be better. I highly recommend it .In case you want a copy of e-book do write me at ritz,voguish@gmail.com

Manjunath

Leaving Church, by Barbara Brown Taylor

NOVA Dad: This review was originally posted on my blog on June 27, 2006 and is an exact reprint of that post.

After just two days, I finished reading Barbara Brown Taylor's latest book, Leaving Church, and I was so amazed and overwhelmed by what it contained that I felt I should make an attempt at a review. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had read a review which included the statement that this book should be required reading for someone considering the ordained ministry. With the reading done, I can say that I agree wholeheartedly with that thought -- but I would take it a step further and say that it should be required reading for anyone who is in the midst of their own spiritual journey. Already, my copy is marked by many of those colored page markers, and I know that every subsequent reading is only going to provide me with the opportunity for more underlining, more highlighting, and more reflection.

The book appealed to me on many different levels, and unfortunately there wouldn't be any way that I could possibly try and cover them all -- it truthfully is something that is best discovered by taking the time to read it yourself. However, I do want to try and touch on some of the ideas and thoughts that jumped out at me. On one of the most basic levels, the story appealed to me because the church where she was rector -- Grace-Calvary Episcopal Church in Clarkesville, Georgia -- reminds me in so many ways of the small country church in Virginia I attended in my teen years. Several important components were there: a small and tightly-knit congregation -- in fact, more of a loving family than a mere congregation; a historic old building; and a rich history and presence in the community. More than that, though, Rev. Taylor's description of her time there -- from her first Sunday to her last -- displayed vividly that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all present and constantly moving through the church and the lives of those who attended.

As someone who has only recently been introduced to Rev. Taylor's work, I approached the book with an enthusiasm based solely on the positive comments that many others have made to me about her writing. However, nothing could have adequately prepared me for the powerful emotions I felt from the first page to the last. I could relate on such a deep level with so many of the emotions she experienced and feelings she felt, particularly as she completed seminary and came to the realization that the ordained ministry was for her. Reading about her experiences brought even more focus and clarity to the call I am feeling now: my desire to share my gifts and talents with a vibrant, growing, changing faith community; my desire to be a companion, a teacher, a friend, and a support for a congregation of people engaged in their own journeys, great and small; and my desire to come into a closer relationship with God, a deeper understanding of the life of Christ, and a greater awareness of the power and beauty of the spirit.

There are several sections where she discusses her great love of the outdoors -- remembering her childhood experiences and, later, relating the extreme pull to the property that she and her husband Ed bought outside Clarkesville and where they made their home. For three very important years of my early life, I lived on a 200-acre farm, and I cannot think of any time in my life where I was happier than having the freedom to explore the woods, wander the fields, and just enjoy the solitude and the sights and sounds of nature. I didn't realize it at the time, but it is impossible to get a full sense of God's presence in the world unless you are out in the world and experiencing every bit of it (sucking the marrow from life, as I believe the line from "Dead Poets' Society" went).

At its very core, though, the true power of the book -- aside from the power of the Spirit -- comes from the power of her words. Again, it would take a thorough reading to understand both the meaning and the context of what she has to say, but here are just a few examples of the beautiful, powerful, instructional, and loving words of Rev. Taylor:

"I did truly love helping people. It was not only chief among the reasons I had decided to seek ordination; it was also, I believed, why I had been born. To help lift a burden, to help light a path, to help heal a hurt, to help seek a truth -- these struck me as the sorts of things that human beings were created to do for one another...." (p. 47)

"I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them." (p. 107)

"Those who became ordained were not presented with Moses or Miriam as our models, so that we could imagine ourselves as flawed human beings still willing to lead people through the wilderness. We were not presented with Peter or Mary Magdalene as our models, so that we could imagine ourselves as imperfect disciples still able to serve at our Lord's right hand. Instead, we were called to fill in for Jesus at the communion table, standing where he once stood and saying what he once said. We were called to preach his gospel and feed his sheep." (p. 150)

I really feel that this book is a love letter in the truest sense of the word: a love letter to her husband, Ed; a love letter to her parishes in Atlanta and Clarkesville; a love letter to her students at Piedmont College. Above all else, though, I think it is a love letter to God -- the God who was patient through her own faith journey and her joyful acceptance of the Episcopal Church, the God who nurtured her through seminary and the ordination process, the God who guided her through many years of active ministry, and the God who held her hand and put an arm around her shoulders as she came to grips with the difficult decision to leave the smaller church and live more fully in the larger, more universal church.

Buy this book, read this book, and share this book!! You will be blessed beyond measure, be taught by an extremely talented and wonderful writer and minister, and be moved to the point where you yourself feel like you have taken the journey with Rev. Taylor and have come out the other side having grown and become a stronger and more aware Christian -- both self-aware and aware of the power moving through the world.

Future Shock

by Alvin Toffler

When you go from geographical area to far away geographical area, you find difference in conduct of almost everything. You don’t know that how to act. There yes means no and no means yes. This is a shock- The Culture Shock. There is always a possibility of coming back to your original geographical area. But, if you can’t come back and the culture or environment you are habitual of is past or can’t be brought back, then what do you feel? Guess!!! I think you got it. It’s Future Shock.

Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communications revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. A former associate editor of Fortune magazine, his early work focused on technology and its impact (through effects like information overload). Then he moved to examining the reaction of and changes in society. His later focus has been on the increasing power of 21st century military hardware, weapons and technology proliferation, and capitalism. He is married to Heidi Toffler, also a writer and futurist. They live in Los Angeles. They wrote the books credited to "Alvin Toffler" together.

Accenture, the management consultancy, has dubbed him the third most influential voice among business leaders, after Bill Gates and Peter Drucker. He has also been described in the Financial Times as the "world's most famous futurologist". People's Daily classes him among the 50 foreigners that shaped modern China.

There no. of books written on future but what joins all these—in the book as in life—is the roaring current of change, a current so powerful today that it overturns institutions, shifts our values and shrivels our roots. Change is the process by which the future invades our lives, and it is important to look at it closely, not merely from the grand perspectives of history, but also from the vantage point of the living, breathing individuals who experience it.

The acceleration of change in our time is, itself, an elemental force. This accelerative thrust has personal and psychological, as well as sociological, consequences. In the pages ahead, these effects of acceleration are, for the first time, systematically explored. The book argues forcefully, I hope, that, unless man quickly learns to control the rate of change in his personal affairs as well as in society at large, we are doomed to a massive adaptational breakdown.

First, it became clear that future shock is no longer a distantly potential danger, but a real sickness from which increasingly large numbers already suffer. This psycho-biological condition can be described in medical and psychiatric terms. It is the disease of change.

Second, the author gradually came to be appalled by how little is actually known about adaptivity, either by those who call for and create vast changes in our society, or by those who supposedly prepare us to cope with those changes. Earnest intellectuals talk bravely about "educating for change" or "preparing people for the future." But we know virtually nothing about how to do it. In the most rapidly changing environment to which man has ever been exposed, we remain pitifully ignorant of how the human animal copes.

The purpose of this book, therefore, is to help us come to terms with the future—to help us cope more effectively with both personal and social change by deepening our understanding of how men respond to it. Toward this end, it puts forward a broad new theory of adaptation.

It talks about death of Permanence or in other words strengthening adhocracy day by day. We can feel so in our real life. I very well have seen the lives of generation of our parents. The life was routine-one company, one work, one family, one neighborhood…….. But is it so now. I myself have changed three companies in 3 years. And I know people who have changed 3 in a year. I myself have changed 4 houses in one year but have seen people who change it every fortnight. I have never changed my familyJ. But, have seen increased divorce rate. Few years back I went to the place where I was born. The things were intact, same hospital, same surroundings, same…….. But now, hospital has been turned into Mall, surroundings have been given landscaping required for picnic and parking. And what I can see is that change is changing very fast. Just imagine, the biggest invention in the early ages was fire. Further imagine how many millenniums it took to the second most important invention of mankind wheel. Further imagine, our ancestors were riding horse carts 300 years ago. 30 years ago in India most of the common men were riding bicycles. A decade back most of Indians were riding scooters. 5 years back, most of them started using motorcycles. 2 years back due to economy boom leading to steep rise in disposable income, they started using cars. Now, car is no more a status symbol. It’s a necessity. And now, even the lower middle class people have started using airplanes for short distances. This is the change, which is changing very fast.

Then he talks about standardization. It rose from assembly line concept of Henry Ford. Even today its being interpreted as “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black". And there is clear cut evidence that standardization has increased in last 3 decades and will keep on increasing at a much more rapid speed. The most ardent followers of standardization are Japanese. The critisism against standardisation is that it constraints degree of freedoms of mankind in every aspect- job type, innovation, ………. But let me ask you one think, if this is the case then how come we are seeing ever increasing number of models of vehicles of electronic goods, of computer packages, types of jobs, types of services. So, this criticism stands thwarted.

These are just few of the arguments present in this masterpiece. Owing to the revolutionary ideas written in the firy language, it was banned in more than 70 countries, where underground organisations printed and circulated it. The second half of the book mentions the sort of life, that even I can’t imagine. But I m sure that is future. Only, relief I m having inspite of chill running down my spine, after reading Toffler is that I hope I won’t live that long to see that second part happening.

I recommend this book to anybody and everybody who dare to imagine in future.

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME BY STEPHEN HAWKING

This book review from my stable friends a bit from Science. Friends i personaly feel that reading should be diverse so a manager can't narrow his focus to only 1 or a few type of reading. This is an ocean, the ocean of knowledge the more u read the more is the benefit & yes stream doesnt matter in reading! Hey i am trying to review a work from the stable of a genius - so forgive me if its not up to the mark or doesnt give justice to the topic.

NOVICES:

This book is a tough one to get through because of the deep subject matter but it tells the fascinating story of important scientific advances during the last century. It chronicles the work of Einstein, Heisenburg, and Hawking. If you are looking for a good explanation why most scientists believe in the Big Bang this is your book. In addition, Hawking describes his no boundary proposal which attempts to do away with an absolute singularity in the beginning of time which reduces the role of God as the immediate cause of the universe. This book is very good and a must read if you are interested in origins

EXPERts / with science Background :

Stephen Hawking is known to the world for both what he can do and what he can't do. What he can't do is most of the things you can. He suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a nerve disease that has left him with little more motor function than a rag doll. He can move his hands a little and talk only with the aid of a voice synthesizer. His mind is apparently unimpaired--to put it mildly. Despite his handicaps he is considered one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. The man who can't use his body to scratch an itch uses his mind to explore time and space, to explore quantum mechanical particles and the shape of the universe, to see back to the Big Bang and forward to the death of the universe.


Well now coming to the point.

Its a small book.

Its comprehensibility is spotty.

It uses some questionable philosophical points. It seems he is building explanation for why you know universe might not have no boundry in space & time. The anecdotical references he gives complecate the stuff. It may well be that with the mathematics his heuristic arguments would be more convincing, but without it much of his reasoning is most unconvincing.

Seeing his genious & busy life some times i feel he might have delegated the job of bringing these theoritical perspectives to masses to someone like us.

The book has a useful glossary, though incomplete and also some definitions sound confusing.

Though i feel it s a readable book, but fundamentally it seems flawed. But we all know that people can only relate to what they understand & he also points that out in the book so still its a decent book if not great.

Ultimate Conclusion: A read once.

regards

RISHI KOTHARI

Black Friday - S Hussain Zaidi

Black may or may not be a beautiful colour but when used to describe a day in the lives of people it will be anything but beautiful.
One day that changed the way not just a city but an entire nation thinks. The catastrophe that struck Mumbai then has not been matched & hopefully will not be matched.
This book describes the events leading upto the day, the things that happened & the consequences of it. The kind of detailing that has gone into it would make any investigating officer worth his/her salt proud.

This book starts with the blasts that happned on that infamous day 12th March 1993 the places that it went off. It then goes back in time & tries to find out the reson why someone would plan something so ghastly for the unsuspecting public. It takes into account the exact reason why Bombay was bombarded! It also very boldy names the people involved in the blasts how they met where they mey & the kind of plans they made .

It also has fascinationg information about Indain terrorist visiting Pakistan for training without appropriate documents. It also details the kind of training they went through.

Where this book scores the most is how after the blast the police put every piece together to find the people responsible for the blasts.
The kind of detailing that has gone into the making of this book is really commendable & the writer has also explained the Sanjay Dutt angle in the book without any bias.

All in all a wonderful read for all those who want to know why their beloved city was attacked.