Came across this series while browsing bookstores in India. Thanks to vacation time, I could polish off the first and second parts in four days, just like old times! The first book is titled “The Immortals of Meluha” and the second is “The Secret of the Nagas”. I can’t remember the last time I’ve finished books any faster. Probably during my undergraduate years.

In this fictional twist on history, there were in 1900 BC two main kingdoms established in the Indian subcontinent — the Suryavanshis in the west, in the region we know as the Indus valley; and the Chandravanshis in the valley of the Ganges in the east. South India was home to a civilization of outcasts — the Nagas. In the Himalayan tribes dwelling near Mansarovar lake is born a man — Shiva — who is destined to become a God, the prophecised “destroyer of evil”. The Suryavanshis, whose kingdom and way of life is under attack from mysterious forces, discover Shiva and look to him to be their savior, even as he remains unsure of how exactly he is to fulfill his destiny.

The action and events of the plot are fast paced, even though the descriptions are somewhat threadbare. However, after the travails of going through never-ending series like the Wheel of Time (I’m still struggling through it), I was rather happy to trade verbosity for a plot that actually moves. The first part of the first book feels a little too predictable but the plot soon develops a number of very interesting twists. Through the two books, the focus moves to the fundamental question Shiva was born to answer — what is meant by “Evil”? It is simple to destroy an object, a person, a civilization or a species, but how does one destroy the abstraction of evil?

The book is most interesting for its parallels to, and interpretation of, Hindu philosophy and lore. The question of ‘what is evil’ of course is one such parallel, but there are plenty of others — the nature of Shiva and his family — wife Parvati and son Ganesha; the caste system; the legend of Kashi. Amish Tripathi has managed to spin a fabulously interesting tale, and I look forward to the third part of the trilogy which is probably coming out sometime next year.

I hadn’t read fantasy fiction in quite a while and decided to give this book a spin based on many recommendations.

The first of a series, the novel is about an accomplished but world-weary magician, Kvothe, who has all but retired and become an innkeeper in an insignificant little town, to all intents and purposes just an ordinary man. Two people know better though, his apprentice, who lives with him; and a story-teller, a Chronicler who comes to seek him and hear his story. Although times are bad, evil is afoot, and dark forces roam the world, most of the book is in fact a flashback, the tale of how young Kvothe was separated from everyone he knew and overcame many a challenge to go and study at the University, a place where many things are taught, including science, history, engineering and magic. Like many fantasy stories, the plot is a variation on the hero’s journey, and our hero makes his way from humble beginnings, has many talents, fights personal enemies and evil forces, struggles with love, exudes a noble spirit and is blessed with friendship.

Told from the point of view of an older man who seems to be incapable of world-saving heroics, however, the story is put in startling perspective. It’s clear that there is no happily-ever-after ending here (not yet, anyway). Young Kvothe’s reminiscing story remains unfinished in the book and will presumably be continued in the next.

Rothfuss has a nice, easy, writing style that really shines out occasionally. The prologue is beautifully written and sets the mood of the novel perfectly. And he’s brilliant at telling stories within stories. Of course, his book is about someone telling a story of his past, but although that story has a very everyday kind of feel and flow, within that story there are characters that tell stories in a dramatic, epic style that is delightful to read. I wished there were more of those, I’ll admit.

Looking forward to the next book.

There are ten chapters in the book, all of them focused around a specific idea or myth. Many of these ideas are interrelated, however and here are the central ideas that I took from the book.

Innovation is a result of much hard work, not a random epiphany. This is the first chapter but the point is made throughout the book. The ‘epiphany’ to which innovation is often attributed (apple falling on Newton’s head, Archimedes’ eureka moment) is at best the final piece in a large jigsaw puzzle in which assembling the other pieces was hard work, and the puzzle would never be complete without any single missing piece. This goes beyond one person; the book makes a compelling argument that many innovations are the result of the labors of many people who contributed to the field before (standing on the shoulders of giants), as seen so often in science where many revelations were seemingly simultaneously arrived at by people working independently. Moreover, many breakthroughs are often the result of teams rather than individuals.

Seen in the bigger context, innovation follows a densely branched structure rather than a linear path. The histories try to conveniently explain away innovation by means of a simplistic story, but the reality is much more complex. Many innovations happen by accident — Flickr was started originally as an MMORPG before it’s creators realized it would make an amazing photo sharing service by itself. There were many designs for the automobile before Henry Ford’s, running on everything from electricity to steam to gasoline. There is usually a multitude of ideas around a problem that co-exist before one idea wins out and history marks its inventors as innovators. Sometimes, the best ideas don’t win. Adoption of an innovation is subject to cultural, political and economical forces; the QWERTY keyboard is far from the most efficient way to type yet it doesn’t look likely to be replaced with any so-called “better” alternatives.

“Creativity is the child in the park.” One of my favourite quotes from the book, it makes the point that innovation is about experimentation, playfulness, and willingness to examine ideas and throw them away without tiring. It’s important to be broad-minded rather than narrow-minded, to be wiling to adapt and change. One of the hardest-hitting points that Scott Berkun makes is that former innovators are the least likely to recognize innovation in their field even if it’s staring at them in the face, because they believe in their own way so much that they’re blinded to new possibilities. Which is why, time and time again, behemoth-sized companies are regularly beaten by nimbler startups, (think Barnes and Noble vs. Amazon, Nokia vs Apple, Western Union vs Alexander Bell).

The arguments made in the book, though by no means foolproof, are nevertheless compelling, and more importantly, thought provoking. If nothing else, the book gets different circuits buzzing in your brain, and that’s worth every page.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” — Goethe

Last week’s New Yorker (the May 16th edition) has a couple of delightful articles related to the tech industry. One is “The Creation Myth”, written by Malcolm Gladwell, which uses the evolution of the computer mouse from invention to commercialization as the backdrop for a discussion of how inventors (Douglas Engelbart), researchers (Xerox PARC) and entrepreneurs (Steve Jobs) contribute to the growth of a product. The other is “The Fun Factory”, which is about life at Pixar; probably the best place to work on the planet. Animation movie-making, history and technology are discussed but what I came away with was just how much these guys love their work and the incredible attention to detail that goes into it. I recently went to a Pixar exhibition and picked up this book on Pixar and I’d highly recommend that as well. Sadly, neither of the New Yorker articles is viewable subscription free.

Who could resist reading a book called Less by an author called Lesser?

The book’s subtitle is “Accomplishing more by doing less”. The focus is to try and resolve what the author calls the “busyness” problem — having so much to do in life that we do none of it deeply enough or satisfyingly enough. We end up chasing to-do lists without acknowledging any meaning in our tasks. This can potentially leave you with a fragmented mind and a vague lack of direction.

Typically these issues are addressed using time management and/or prioritization techniques; like those described in the famous “Getting things done” book and method. This book is different in the sense that it leaves the solution rather open ended but describes a mental model to describe the problem and offers corresponding structural solutions. The model is described in five categories.

Fear is the first category; it is explained as the reason one can end up not attacking a challenge head-on — and hence end up being unproductive. Fear of failure, of looking foolish, of not having chosen the wisest path, of doing something new and so on.

The second category is assumptions. Our brains are great at learning and hence make a lot of potentially harmful associations automatically. For me, a classic example is meetings. I generally dislike meetings and am wired to assume they’re a waste of time the moment they’re set up. Yet there are productive meetings and unproductive ones; having a pre-conceived judgment that any meeting is a waste helps nobody.

Third is distractions. We live in a world constantly interrupted by e-mail, tweets, texts, which is bad enough, but because of that our minds have lost the habit of focus. Checking my RSS feed is no way to “take a break”, because it keeps my brain spinning and offers little in a the way of relaxation. Yet there’s just so much input these days, thanks to the Internet (more on this in an upcoming review of The Shallows by Nicholas Carr), that we think it’s a good idea to fill every waking moment with processing information; which in a long term disaster for our ability to concentrate.

Fourth, resistance. This could be a book in itself (and is, check out “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield). The tendency to let an inner critic add a set of limiting beliefs to one’s identity that prevents venturing out to unknown and unfamiliar territory — the place that spawns creativity.

Finally, the book talks about tackling “busyness”. I’ll describe this one with an example that Lesser quotes from “Extraordinary Golf”. Studies show that amateur golfers have a demonstrably better swing when they’re asked to swing without having to actually hit a golf ball. We limit our performance simply by being overly conscious about our performance. This, of course ties in all the themes from above and is meant to.

The strategies offered to deal with these are a combination of psychotherapy, lifestyle suggestions and spirituality. I feel that having this model in your head, however, is half the battle. And certainly the few strong suggestions that I try to do regularly in my life, like physical exercise and meditation certainly help exactly as suggested. Other suggestions include tactics for self-awareness, such as writing out or reflecting on our fears, assumptions and habits.

There’s a lot of food for thought in this surprisingly small book — around 150 pages. Of course, not everyone faces these problems in the first place; but I certainly found it very useful. Marc Lesser is also a business coach / consultant and I was fortunate enough to be in one of his classes, and I love how he makes his point with simplicity yet laser-like clarity.

The main thrust of the book is that contrary to popular capitalist beliefs, markets aren’t efficient at pricing everything. Although believing that markets are in general a good thing in many areas, he proves by way of theory and example that applying capitalism to every area of society and life leads to the old adage of people ‘knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.’

The bit that stayed with me was that in a capitalist system, the price of an entity is linked to its marginal returns and not its long term value. Limited natural resources are an excellent example. Take natural freshwater, for example. Water is cheap (for now) because there are places where its abundant and the market determines the price using supply and demand — a business entity in a competitive environment can make a profit by extracting and selling it cheaply. Whether there is a millennium’s worth of freshwater in a particular place or only a decade’s worth actually makes little difference to the price. The fact that the depletion of freshwater might threaten an entire community’s survival is irrelevant to the market economy, as long as it’s viable to profit from the resource in the medium term.

This discussion leads directly to the book’s central thesis, the importance of the “commons”. Entities that are essentially public goods that should be publicly regulated and not opened to the free market. A classic example here is the fishing industry, which in many places was severely threatened by overfishing until government regulations mandated limits. He goes further, though, and talks about how a huge class of poor peasants was created by the handing over of public lands to private owners. People who earlier could forage, hunt and fish for their own livelihood now had no choice but to sell their labour in exchange for resources to survive.

Yet another contribution of the book is examples of how commons-based systems are actually working in today’s world, like Via Campesina, Participatory Budgeting and the Deccan Development Society. The book also mentions the Kingsnorth Six case, in which a British Court acquitted six people who had substantially damaged a coal-fired power plant; and pleaded not guilty by basically saying they were saving the planet.

Patel takes fascinating dives into subjects like the theories of Keynes and Marx, and the principles behind the Magna Carta and English common law. All of it is eminently readable, and I’d love to sometime go back to the book and imbibe the details more thoroughly.

A young Indian born American marine biologist, Piyali Roy journeys to the Sunderbans to study their unique marine life. To help her navigate the rough seas and terrain, she engages a fisherman, Fokir who doesn’t speak English but has an almost mystical knowledge of the lay of the land and sea. She also runs into Kanai Dutt, an urbane, suave and witty character who happens to be visiting his aunt in the Sunderbans and goes along with the mission out of a sense of intrigue and a personal interest in our heroine. The interplay between the three is masterful, but the story is set on two levels. Kanai’s widowed aunt has found old documents that describe events three decades earlier, a struggle between Indian authorities and settlers in the Sunderbans region. The tale of the refugees fighting for their political rights years ago interspersed with the storms that Kanai, Piyali and Fokir battle make this a truly breathtaking piece of literature.

I don’t read much fiction these days, but I picked this book up and was floored by it. I heartily recommend a read.

A marvelous story told in (almost) classic British comic style by Hugh Laurie, who played Bertie Wooster in the “Jeeves and Wooster” TV series. A review I read before reading the book spoke of this as a mix of P. G. Wodehouse and Fredrick Forsyth and I didn’t believe it. I won’t say I buy into that description, but I understand what they meant.

The book tells the tale of retired British military serviceman Thomas Lang, who accidentally gets involved with a dangerous crowd involving British politicians, Middle Eastern terrorists and the American military-industrial complex. The plot is actually not too bad, and certainly hangs together; even if there are a few somewhat incredible parts to it. I won’t give it the highest praise for suspense and thrill, but that is more than made up for by the way the yarn is spun — in the first person of T. Lang. The language is dry, self-deprecating, dripping with sarcasm, and outright funny. I’d forgotten how rarely one reads books that have laugh-out-loud moments. Certainly not to be missed.

Game Change

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

A great inside look at all aspects of the 2008 US Presidential election. It covers both the Democratic and Republican nominations as well as the general election. The book is fast paced and perfectly embodies the theme of truth being stranger than fiction. In parts thriller, and in parts soap-opera, the book contains quite a few surprises for a political outsider or novice.

The biggest surprise is that the major drivers of the successful candidates were seemingly small “mistakes” by others — a chance misstatement here by a spokesman or spouse, the focus of the press on one particular story instead of another. If you believe the book’s causality chain, this book will leave you feeling quite disturbed about the workings of democracy.

Elsewhere, the book speaks of the various dramas that unfolded over the course of the election — Hilary and Obama’s bitter fight with the surprise ending of Hilary becoming SecState, the unexpected selection of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate, the McCain campaign’s recovery from a near-death spiral into oblivion, Obama’s embarrassment by his preacher Jeremiah Wright and more. Pretty much like the juicy part of the West Wing, with not much emphasis on policy. That’s one thing the book does not deal with… I do know that there were proper policy debates on issues like health care and so on but they’re rarely discussed and if so, only in a political context. Fair enough, I guess, given that the book is meant to be a thriller.

Your Brain at Work

David Rock

I decided to read this book after watching a wonderful presentation by the author at Google (here’s the video). The book and the author’s work is aimed at improving and optimizing mental performance. The central theme of this book is to explain various kinds of ‘blocks’ to clear thinking, insight and mental productivity to the reader, and to provide strategies for avoiding or getting around them.

I found approach in the book to be unique. At the beginning of every chapter, the author describes a scene from the life of a couple at work and sometimes at home — usually a scene where mistakes by the characters lead to them making poor decisions. The author then explains the issue, presents solid research about his point, and ends the chapter with a ‘take two’ — how the story might have unfolded if the characters had followed the right strategies.

A sample of the issues discussed — external distractions, internal mental competition among tasks that we must perform, interactions with emotions, the nature of mental insights. I could pretty much relate to every single chapter. In any book like this, it’s quite easy to get lost in the nitty-gritties of the research material presented as you go through it; so the author very helpfully provides a clear summary of the points discussed and improvement steps at the end of each chapter. I picked up this book from the library, but this is one that I’ll buy and read again and again.

Decided to give the Dresden Files series a try based on the recommendation of friends. It’s a fantasy series, only set in modern Chicago. The main character, Harry Dresden, is a wizard, master of spells and deals with demons and the like.

I’ve always been interested in what a fantasy story in the modern setting would look like. This book, however, isn’t exactly what I was looking for. There’s little character development, no clear belief system for the magic being used, and no major philosophical exploration. In short, this isn’t a book by Tolkien or Robert Jordan. It could hardly be one at just over 250 pages.

Having said that though, it’s a great read. It’s fast paced, witty and you can quickly identify with the protagonist, who pretty much narrates the story. Lots of action and a decent plot kept the pages turning for me. I’ll move on to the next few books in the series and hope it doesn’t get boring!