Predictably Irrational, The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

I recently read Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely. This book is well written, and easy to read.

If you think you’re a rational person, read this book as soon as possible. It will help you understand how we are wired and/or conditioned to be irrational, and we typically aren’t even aware of it. This concept can be a bit disheartening, but the good news is that we can fix at least some of this irrationality by being aware of how it can occur and by making a steady effort to compensate for it. The key, it seems, is increasing our awareness and planning to be irrational (this concept is explored in-depth in The Black Swan
as well).

Not only is this book very interesting and enlightening, but I found it to be quite entertaining as well. I would put this one near the top of your reading list.

Finished 7/13/09, Rating: 9/10

48 Days to the Work You Love

I just finished reading 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller. I found this book to be generally helpful and easy to read, but it doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking or terribly enlightening either.

48 Days to the Work You Love will likely help you find inspiration, motivation, and just may spark a few ideas. However, there isn’t much ‘meat’ to the book. It only glosses over these topics at a high level and leaves you still to do the work of figuring out the details and coming up with a plan for finding new work or making money on the side. It offers nothing that you can’t find on hundreds of websites for free, but if you want to spend some money on this book you’ll have it packaged into an easy-to-read, paper format.

If you think that earning an hourly wage, working for someone else is the only way to make a living, you can certainly benefit from reading this book. If you already know that isn’t your only option, and/or you are already earning money on the side, you probably won’t find anything new here. I’d say it’s worth reading if you think you need some help finding a new direction with your work and income. If you already have that part figured out, there isn’t anything else for you here.

Finished reading on 7/15/09, Rating: 7/10

A Wrinkle in Time

I just finished reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. This is another classic that I never got around to reading when I was a kid. This may sound strange, but that’s not the reason I chose to read it now. I actually read it because it’s one of the books from Lost. My wife and I recently became hooked on Lost, and we’ve watched the entire series over the last couple of months. Since we are seriously addicted to the show, we of course have to read the books referenced in the show as well (yeah, I guess we are huge nerds).

Anyway, regardless of the reason for reading it, A Wrinke in Time is a great book and a quick, easy read. It has an interesting combination of a sort of fantasy and sci-fi theme. I don’t want to give away any of the details, so I’ll leave it at that. I sort of got a C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia feeling from the book. I can definitely see a relationship to Lost as well, again I won’t mention any details in case you haven’t read the book or seen Lost.

I enjoyed it very much and I definitely recommend reading it.

The Pixar Touch – The Making of a Company

I just finished reading The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company
, by David A. Price. This was an interesting book, starting with the history of Pixar (I had no idea Pixar was started about 30 years ago) and finishing with Pixar’s current state of success, shortly after the merger with Disney and just before launching Ratatouille.

One big theme in the book is conflict. Steve Jobs is obviously difficult at times and Disney, particularly Michael Eisner, proved to be just as difficult to work with. In the end, Jobs and Pixar definitely won, though Disney Animation was also saved in the process when Disney acquired Pixar. Surprisingly, this deal was also what made Steve Jobs a billionaire, not his involvement with Apple.

Not to imply Jobs was only a negative influence on Pixar. I’m quite amazed that he had the vision to see what Pixar could become and put his money at risk on what was at the time a completely unproven company in 1986 (though clearly Pixar was loaded with brilliant, creative people).

In my mind, John Lasseter emerged as the creative force most responsible for the amazing success of Pixar’s movies. What is even more interesting is that he was fired from Disney (where he was an animator) prior to his joining Pixar. Disney had a real problem seeing the future of animation and computers and couldn’t let go of it’s old 2D animation dogma until long after seeing Pixar’s success.

I read this book looking for business lessons, not because I’m a fan of Pixar (I’ve seen most of its movies but not all). This book is long on the history of Pixar, but maybe a little short on the business details. However, I thought one of the greatest business lessons found is the importance of having the ability to look outside your circle of expertise (where Disney animation was stuck for a long time) and see what is changing in the world around you (fast rate of technology growth changing the way animation would be done in the future).

I think the other key lesson to be learned from this book is to not let personal grudges get in the way of business. A lot of money was left on the table due to stubborness or personal vendettas. This was a problem for virtually all parties involved—clearly the ability to put these issues aside could provide a huge advantage in business.

Overall I enjoyed the book. If you are a fan of both technology and business (or just a Pixar junkie) you’ll definitely enjoy it.

Alice in Wonderland

I’m working on crossing off more classics from my reading list and I just finished reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time. Frankly, I didn’t care for it all that much. It was rather confusing, odd, and abstract. I’m sure it was more unique or innovative when it was written, but I just couldn’t get into it and had a rather hard time just finishing. Oh well, I’ve marked another book off my list anyway.