Book Reviews

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“Reading is the enemy of writing.” Not sure who said this, but it is wrongly attributed to Einstein. He is also, probably wrongly, attributed to have said, “After a certain age, one should stop reading.”

Having said this, I continue to read books on various topics that interest me. Self-help, finance, programming, academic books, etc. I mostly “read” in the form of audio-books, while I am driving, working-out, or doing something else that requires minimal cognitive effort. While I do this, I make notes to reflect on for myself. I am sharing these notes on my website. These notes are by no means comprehensive, rather, points from the book that were most meaningful to me.

I hope you find value in these notes and “read” the books for yourself if you like.

I will have links on my reviews where you can buy the books/audio-books. These are affiliate links, but, only for the books that I would buy and gift to my friends.

Cheers!

Weighed Scoring

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How do you make important decisions? Seeking advise from others who are more experienced helps. What if you can’t ask anyone else? No worries. You may try making a pros vs cons list, rolling dice, or even flipping a coin. But what if the decision to be made is just too big for a coin flip? Here, a “weighed scoring” system will help.

Pros vs cons assumes that an entry in either column will cancel one in the other column. Not all entries are equally significant. In a weighed scoring system you create buckets and assign a percent factor. All the percent factors in all your buckets add to 100%. Each bucket also has a minimum and maximum score. Let’s say 1 to 5. Do not use zeros. You add up all the buckets by multiplying with the percent factor of that bucket. Do the same for each option. You now have a weighed score that can be used to compare options a lot more systematically.

Let’s run through an example:

I need to decide what university to do my studies in. I have 10 to choose from. I create three buckets with a percent factor assigned: reputation (0.5), cost (0.25), and city (0.25). The three add up to 1 (which is 100%}. I have a minimum score of 1 and a maximum score of 5.

UniversityReputation (0.5)Cost (0.25)City (0.25)Score
U of CityA5113
U of CityB1553
U of CityC3222.5
Weighed Scoring

We seem to have a tie. We can have a closer examination between these two options and reassess them for determine the winner. Sometimes, similar to a coin toss, it’s about eliminating options as much as finding the winner.

I hope you get the idea and utilize this system in some of your more complex situations were a pros vs cons list just doesn’t cut it. This system is used by large organizations and governments to determine who to award projects to. So the system certainly works.

All the best, and remember, stay frosty!

Two favorite tools

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Starting from a young age, I always carried two things with me: a digital wrist watch and a pen. This was something I observed my father. As a young man, I thought it was cool to have these things with me. This is of course before the smart phone was invented. I consider myself fortunate that smart phones weren’t around as they are a major distraction for the young.

Why is a wrist watch such a great tool:

  • Sense of urgency: besides being able to see the time, it gives the wearer a sense that the day is passing by and time is running out. It forces the wearer to make the most of the day.
  • Stopwatch: you can time yourself on how long tasks take, and try to beat your time.
  • Timer: Parkinson’s law (covered in previous posts) states that time dilates to fill the alloted slot. Pomodoro technique is a powerful and practical use of this principle where you give yourself limited time (usually 25 mins) to accomplish a task, take a break, and have another Pomodoro, until the task is completed.
  • Alarms: you can set multiple alarms throughout the day to make sure you have a trigger (the alarm) to initiate your task or habit.

Most importantly, you do not need to pull out your phone to do these things, which will distract you.

A basic watch will do the job. It will cost you <$100. You don’t want a smart watch as it will distract you. Casio and Timex basic watches are perfect. I personally use the Timex Ironman watch.

Why is a pen such a good tool:

Well this one is easy, you need to write things down and won’t need to ask others for a pen.

What basic tools do you use to help you stay on top of your day?

Cheers.

Intelligence

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Based on what I have observed, there are three types of intelligence:

General intelligence: this is the intelligence that most people know. It is related to academic, work, day to day problem solving, etc. It relates to an individual’s IQ.


Financial intelligence: as the name suggests, this relates you how one spends, saves, and makes money.

Emotional intelligence: this relates to people, emotions, and ego.

It is extremely rare to find someone who excels at all three. Commonly, someone may be intelligent at two of the three types of intelligence.


“”
Thoughts and comments are welcome.

Sticky Notes – Version 2

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We all know the little yellow papers that stick to things and tend to cluster around our monitors. The Sticky must be one of the most clever inventions of our times.

We carry a powerful computer in our pockets. Access to knowledge has never been easier. I also think of my phone – as I am sure many people do – as a note-taking device. To me, there are three sticky notes levels, short term, medium term, long term. I use three apps to help me stay organized. (I am not affiliated with any of them.)

Simply Sticky: light weight, no frills, app. It works as a widget. I use it for daily tasks and things I need to remember for a few days. The beauty of this app is that your notes have a limited screen space and they cannot be saved. This forces me to clear the tasks asap to make room for other tasks.

Google Keep: short-term notes. Thoughts can be stored categorically and organized in groups. I use this for grocery lists, book reviews which then go to my permanent storage location, anything that needs collaboration as notes can be shared, etc. This is a medium-term storage and notes get deleted when they are filed.

OneNote: my projects, lessons I learnt, daily journals, advanced notes, goals, long term goals, things that need to be tracked, and basically anything that does not fall in the above two, will end up here.

Why three apps and not just one? The three act as independent idea environments. The act of moving the idea through the stages helps evolve and solidify it.

I must mention that nothing will replace old fashioned pen/paper. All ideas start here. The apps just complement this and make it easier to stay organized.

Hope this helps others. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Good-Bad-Good Sandwich

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You have heard the other party’s comments, and you have some positive criticism of your own, but you know if you share it the other party might get offended. You have their best interest in mind, however, people get defensive when you ask them to change their outlook.

One technique to help you get your ideas across and received is to use the “good-bad-good sandwich.”

When the other person has completely presented their argument, and you have actively listened, pause for two seconds, mirror their argument and give them a positive feedback. This is the top of your sandwich. Now they are receptive to your criticism. Present your argument next. You can be direct now. When done, mention something else positive about their argument, or the fact that it is a challenging situation they are in. This is the bottom of your sandwich.

Try it!

Interview Aces

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Congratulations, out of the frying pan and into the fire! You have a job interview now. You worked hard to find the job, now it’s time to work harder for the interview. By consulting my clients on interview prep, I have come up with a short list of what needs to be mastered for the interview. Hope it helps you too.

The Sandwich answer:

Interviewer: “So tell me about your strength.”

You: “I believe we all have strengths and weaknesses that are part of our personality. One of my core strengths is my organizational skills. [Insert a specific story that proves this.] Being aware of my strength, I leverage it where I can and try to share this skill with my colleagues.

Stories:
People remember stories. Story answers are the best answers. The components of a good story are three-acts:

Act 1: background, establish the hero, their motives, the who, what, where, why.

Act 2: define the problem, something that causes distress.

Act 3: the solution, restoring status quo, what is the lesson learnt.

Pace and lead:
Match and mirror your interviewer’s personality, appearance, speaking speed. If they talk slow, you talk slow, if they are sitting cross legged, you sit cross legged, of they smile often, you do the same. You can then lead with your answer and they will listen.

Answer what they want to hear:
Always put yourself in your interviewer’s shoes and ask what is the right answer in their mind. Don’t lie, but be aware of what you are saying and what they are hearing.


I believe these are some of the core interview skills and should me mastered with practice. Be yourself, but align yourself with what your audience is expecting. You have a good story to tell, make sure you are heard.

Good luck!

Daily Checklists

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I start my workdays with checklists. Reviewing my calendars, notes, and any tasks on my to do losts, I place them in one of three buckets:

1. Personal development: these are things that I have to do everyday, like, meditate, journal, stretch, skip rope, spend 10 min on a book, etc. Tasks that I want to build habits of daily go here. I will modify this list from time to time, but this list is most important of the three.

2. Personal work: these are day to day admin tasks, any projects I may be working on those days (short or long project), grocery lists, anything that takes time and discipline to accomplish. These items are ranked in priority.

3. Work-work: this is the list of tasks related to my daytime job. It’s important to prioritize tasks and do the best to accomplish them. As I get more efficient in this bucket, I can improve my earnings and allow more time of personal development tasks. 80/20 applies here too (see below).

I use a blank piece of paper to write these lists, and don’t save these lists. I find using paper superior to electronic formats.

Carry forward: any item not completed that day may go forward, or get screen out.

80/20: realizing that this 80/20 rule applies to my lists, I don’t aim for 100% completion, rather, allow items to be unaccomplished. Since the list is rankes by priority, the less important items will filter out.

Parkinsons law: by limiting the time I allocate to complete tasks, I force myself to complete them effeciently. As Parkinson’s law states: time will dilate to what you allocate to accomplish a task…

Pomodoro: giving myself 25 min per task, keeps me motivated to finish it before the timer runs out. It actually becomes a fun exercise, and I reward myself in between.

Systems vs goals: this may seem like a goal-oriented approach, but it is not. The ides is to develop a system which I improve with every iteration. But honestly, it is fun!

Solve My Problems

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Managing people ia hard, especially managing family. So many emotions to navigate, feelings to avoid like land mines. Although it feels good that someone trusts you enough to pour their feelings on you, but it can get stressful for the listener.

Try this: when presented with a problem, especially a complaint abt someone, listen actively to the complainer. Make sure you can empathize with them and try to put yourself in their shoes. Next, say, “I know this is hard, I know how you feel…,” then ask them for a solution. “What do you suppose I should do?” “What makes sense to you?”
This asks the complainer to reflect inwards and think about the problem clearly. Most of the time they will agree there is nothing wrong, or they already knew the solution. People are just people.

Best Stress Management Strategy

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stress

On a piece of paper write 2 questions. Question 1 would be on the first half of the page, question 2 will be on the second half.

Question 1: What am I stresses about?

Describe the stressful situation in couple of sentences.

Question 2: What can I do about it?

List the possible steps you can take to remove the stress.

 

In the end you will find that there is either no reason for the stress, or that you have a perfect solution to deal with it.