Xmas 2020 has come and gone. 3.8 millions people passed through US airports from December 23 to 26, down from 9.5 millions in 2019 for the same days. Doing what we can, my daughter decided not to come home.
Thank you to the technology of online meeting . We managed some zoom meetings with friends. We did a Marathon family chat on Christmas Day. On Boxing Day, we got together online to unwrap our gifts together. “Santa” would normally have gifts for children; and this year, that “Santa” donated the gifts to the needy.
Business Adventures
By John Brooks
The book has twelve classic tales from the world of wall street. Published in 1969, John has this gift to turn all kinds of complex happenings into engaging narratives with interesting characters and sustained implication to modern worlds. In doing so, each tale is memorable. The tales of “Xerox” and “the fate of (Ford) Edsel” are insightful for anyone developing a new product. The tale of taxation is super educational for taxpayers esp. how few of us ponder how we get into this mess of complexity. As an amateur investor, I thoroughly enjoyed the tale on insider trading and the devaluation of British pounds. The judicial ruling in the “One Free Bite” tale in 1963 on intellectual property and employment change is still relevant for the millions who are working in technology, innovation and research.
This book is among the best reads for the year. Bill Gates once said, “Business Adventures remains the best business book I’ve ever read.”
Creativity, Inc.
By Ed Catmull
My senior leader(s) at work is reading this book, so am I. Creativity is important in new product development, it is difficult to cultivate and possibly harder to sustain. Steve Jobs acquired Lucasfilms in 1986 and created Pixar, and the journey of Pixar is one of sustained creativity and excellence.
Picking from his presidency at Pixar and later also Disney Animation, Ed Catmull is no doubt a savant in the world of creativity. Drawn from decades of learning and experience, he shared an abundance of wisdom towards sustained creativity and excellence.
Unleashing creativity requires leaders to loosen control, accept some risk, trust colleagues to own/solve problems, to clear path, to discover hidden items, and to pay attention to anything that creates fear.
Sustained creativity is a very complex, active and ongoing process. This book does not offer short-cut or ten set steps to get there. The last chapter “starting points” offers some prompts. As the author said, “the trick is to think of each as a starting point, as a prompt toward deeper inquiry, and not as a conclusion”. I benefit and would like to experiment some ideas, and you would too.
The book would not be complete without this chapter “the Steve we knew” whose vision and sponsorship is arguably the single most important factor for the success of Pixar.
The Diamond Age
By Neal Stephenson
I recently joined a product group to democratize education and inspire learners.
This book has an interesting spin on personalized learning through a super intelligent device based on the environment and experience of the device owner. Through the device, the main character acquired a tremendous level of knowledge on her own, and has become a “heroine” to change the world. That part is interesting and promising.
There are quite a few futurist speculations such as nanodevices for everyday life, material replicators that could fulfil our daily needs, the floating skyscrapers, the exchange of minds and the world organization around like-culture, like-minded “tribes” more so than countries. There could have been potential to develop an amazing story. Yet the plot is rather a mixed pot of many things going on, but not neatly tied together. Together with weak character formation, it is hard to relate to the story nor the characters. Then the plot carries an undertone of tribes stereotypes , such as tribes similar to “high class british”; and some undertone of disrespect to tribes which are more like “the Chinese in the early twenty century”.
All these have left me a dose of bad taste for the book.
oliviatamccue 