Tinker, Tailor

I was at Borders just now and I couldn’t resist taking this picture.

John le Carre is good.

What do you think would happen if you did an experiment, where you gave 2 groups of people free flow of ice cream, and the only difference was that the first group was given medium-sized bowls, and the second given large ones?

Would the 2 groups scoop the same amount, or would the bowl size affect how much they scooped and ate?

Or, what if you did another experiment with another 2 groups, and for one group, you gave them 7 colours of M&M’s, and for the other group you gave them 10 different colours of M&M’s?

Would both groups eat the same amount, or would the variety of colours affect how much they ate?

If you want to know the answers, check out Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Mindless Eating is a book about the psychology of eating. The author Brian Wansink is a scientist who has conducted numerous studies on the subject, including those experiments mentioned above.

On second thoughts, for my own personal safety, I better reveal the results.

Here’s what happened to those ice cream eaters:

Those who were given the huge bowls dished out huge amounts. In fact, they dished about 31 percent more - 127 more calories’ worth of ice cream. […]
Big dishes and big spoons are big trouble. As the size of our dishes increases, so does the amount we scoop onto them.

And the M&M’s?

Most people know that all M&M’s taste alike. The color is just added to the coating. There’s no way they should eat different amounts.

But they do. The person with 10 colors will eat 43 more M&M’s (99 versus 56) than his friend with 7 colors. He does so because he thinks there’s more variety, which increases how much he thinks he’ll like the M&M’s and how much he thinks is normal to eat.

If you want to lose weight and you absolutely need to eat M&M’s, get those single coloured ones.

Speaking of losing weight, this book is stuffed with many, many more such fascinating insights into our psyche when it comes to eating, which would help one lose weight almost effortlessly (albeit quite gradually).

Heck, even if you don’t need to lose weight, the stuffing in there is still equally fascinating.

This book is for people who eat. Enough said.

What do you do when you’ve only started work a short while ago, and your work desk is already in a mess, and your boss walks by your desk every morning?

And what do you do when your boss dumps a book on one of the piles on your desk, a book that talks about mess?

You read it of course.

It helps that the book’s title is A Perfect Mess. The subtitle is even more compelling: “The Hidden Benefits of Disorder–How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place.”

As the subtitle suggests, this book explains why some messiness is actually beneficial and even more productive than a neat and highly-organised system.

Like a (moderately) messy desk being more efficient than a very neat one - something which I’ve known for a while. It’s always comforting to have someone else agree with you on something so radical.

Besides efficiency, messy desks can inspire serendipitous ideas and breakthroughs, when things are connected together by chance, just because they happen to be placed close together.

The book also covers other areas where some mess can be beneficial, including work - work planning. Everyone knows that long-term planning is useless. What most people don’t realise is that it can be harmful as well. No wonder the company I work for doesn’t have a real long-term plan, but it’s doing well. No wonder the boss passed me the book…

Whatever it is, this is an eye-opening book, whether you’re a messy Bessie or a neat Nazi. If you’re the messy type (like me), you won’t be ashamed of your mess again after reading this.

P.S. I find some of the cases in the book a little stretched, probably because of the pro-mess bias of the authors. But not enough to harm the book.

If you’ve read enough of those Mars vs Venus books (I haven’t touched any), or those why-women-can’t-read-maps-and-men-fart-out-loud books, but you’re still interested in gender differences, this book may be for you.

The Essential Difference: Male and Female Brains and the Truth About Autism
by Simon Baron-Cohen

Baron-Cohen has 2 simple premises in this book: (1) males tend to be better at what he calls “systemizing” - building and understanding systems, and females tend to be better at “empathizing”; and (2) autism is just an extreme form of the male type of brain.

This book (and maybe this post) is bound to generate a lot of controversy, because of the first premise, that males tend to be better than females at “systemizing” - which means that guys tend to be better at science, engineering, computers, figuring out how a machine works, etc. The feminist in me would have protested too, if I didn’t read carefully enough.

It’s really no different from saying that men tend to be taller than women, something which reasonable feminists readily accept. This of course doesn’t mean that all men are taller than all women, it also doesn’t necessarily mean that the tallest man in the world is definitely taller than the tallest woman (although chances are that he is taller, and in reality it happens to be so).

So this also doesn’t mean that all men are better than women at engineering. Or that the best physicist is definitely a man (but there’s a good chance that he is).

But, women tend to be better at empathizing, at reading and understanding the emotions of another human being.

Which leads to the other premise - that autism is an extreme form of the male brain. People with autism have difficulty relating to others, and most of them don’t realise that a smile or a frown indicates anything. Males do tend to be more insensitive (just ask any wife with a hubby watching soccer on TV), and bring that insensitivity to the extreme, and you’ll get autism. According to the book.

Most of the book is really about building the case for the 2 premises, and presenting the (pretty convincing) evidence. It also has a number of pretty fun tests to determine how male or female your brain is - my favourite is probably the “reading the mind in the eyes” test, where you’re supposed to determine a person’s expression just from a picture of their eyes and eyebrows. I did better than a lot of my female friends (hah!).

The book will be an important one (if it isn’t already), and it’s quite readable for a somewhat-academic book. A must-read only if you’re seriously into gender differences. Otherwise, if you’re just interested in the tests, check out BBC’s Sex I.D. site, where a number of tests are based on this book.

Turns out that I have an androgynous mind, according to the tests. Which might be a good thing.

The Most Frightening Company On Earth.

That’s what Harvard Business Review calls it.

St. Luke’s is probably the only company in the creative industry (advertising) that seriously takes creativity seriously.

Experiment at Work: Explosions and Experiences at the Most Frightening Company on Earth
by Andy Law

This book looks at some of the philosophies and policies behind St. Luke’s. I’ll list down some of them:

- Everyone is a co-owner. This mean that a portion of the company shares are distributed equally among everyone each year, with additional shares reflecting the number of years the co-owner puts in. This encourages teamwork, and everyone benefits from the effort put in.

- Fear, greed, and ego are outlawed, and the lack of co-operation is a firing offence. This, of course, encourages teamwork as well.

- Poor performance isn’t necessarily seen as a bad thing - people have their good times as well as bad, and the strong teamwork helps people get back on track.

- Co-owners are indeed really the most valuable asset. Of course every other company claims the same. But if a co-owner has a personal commitment which clashes with a professional one, the personal commitment is allowed to take precedence. Whoa. And of course, there are no fixed hours, and co-owners can work anywhere (at home, etc.).

- Sabbaticals (1-3 months) are given every few years, recognising the value of learning and resting and satisfying one’s curiosity.

- Sharing everything, and total transparency. There are no offices nor personal desk spaces and co-owners are discouraged from staying in one place for too long. All meetings are open and all information is available to co-owners, including salary details. This point is probably hardest to swallow, but it’s because they felt “it represented the most human form of a networked environment”.

- Only clients have fixed space, so the office is organised around the clients. Meetings happen everywhere, with people popping in and out of rooms to meet other team members or clients to cross-pollinate ideas, or at the lunch area, the reception floor, or in the garden.

- The office is an art canvas, with the colours and theme changed monthly. So the office may sometimes look like a hospital ward, a Catholic church, a beach, or look like a mass murder has just taken place. (I was pretty proud of my graffiti-covered walls of my old office until now.)

- The Make Yourself More Interesting Fund pays for courses that co-owners attend to make themselves more interesting. Like parachuting, anthropology, Indian head massaging, and horse-whispering.

This company challenges even some assumptions that I’ve had, but at the end of the day, I realise that what they do makes a lot of sense. Agreeing that it makes sense is one thing, actually implementing it is another - you’ll need a lot courage and gumption, and loads of support from people who are equally crazy.

A great book to blow away some barriers in your mind, even though I find some parts a little too airy-fairy (when they explain their metaphysical assumptions and beliefs). Not for the narrow-minded.

Addendum

I forgot to add an important point. One of the reasons why St. Luke’s is so frightening is that they don’t have any plan. As in 10-year or 5-year 2-year plan. No, they don’t believe in planning, because most plans don’t come to fruition anyway. Instead, they rely on serendipity. They survive on serendipitous events, which bring them business. Frightening to most, exhilarating to some.

I’m pretty interested in business management, even though I don’t run any businesses myself.

But that hasn’t stopped me from giving free advice consultancy to friends who run businesses. I should start charging for my consulting services someday, perhaps when I have more credibility. Give my friends some credit - some of them actually take heed to some of my wacko ideas despite my lack of credibility (other than the fact that I read business books, and that I have method in my madness).

And not surprisingly (to me), they are doing quite fine. I’d like to think that they’d be doing much better if they were willing to try out my more extreme ideas, but well, maybe it’s just my lack in persuasion skills.

Or perhaps I should just pass them a copy of Alpha Dogs.

Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business can become a Leader of the Pack
by Donna Fenn

In Alpha Dogs, you read about how different types of seemingly ordinary and mundane small businesses like a bicycle shop, an ice cream parlour, or a sock company overcome great odds using seemingly insane methods to survive, and even thrive.

My favourite example is the bicycle shop, Zane’s Cycles, which uses seemingly unreasonably good customer service to fight against the likes of Wal-Mart and thrive.

A customer had saved for months to buy her husband an expensive Trek bicycle as a surprise. She brought the husband to the shop window of Zane’s Cycles, where the bicycle, with balloons and a “Happy Valentine’s Day, Bob” sign, was supposed to be displayed. But the Zane’s Cycles employee forgot. Needless to say, the customer was humiliated, and didn’t have a very happy Valentine’s Day.

Then here’s how they responded at Zane’s Cycles:

Ciocci, [the employee] who had simply forgotten about the bike, was mortified. He immediately began fretting over the long-term ramifications of his mistake and calculating the probably cost to the business. Zane and his store manager, Tom Girard, sprang into action. Girard drove the bicycle to the customer’s house and told her that the store would absorb the $200 balance. Then Zane called Cilantro’s, a coffee shop in nearby Guilford, and arranged for a catered lunch to be delivered to the customer and her co-workers. Lastly, he gave the couple a gift certificate - with no spending limit specified - for dinner at Quattro’s, an upscale Italian restaurant in Guilford.

Because the customer didn’t expect such a response from Zane’s, while she ordinarily would have become a sworn enemy of Zane’s, she was turned into a huge evangelist for them.

Check out this book if running a small business interests you. Not all the chapters/case studies will be relevant, but Alpha Dogs will certainly inspire you push unexplored limits of the business.

I’m typing this on my Apple iBook (which I’ll soon replace), and the first computer I ever used was also an Apple - the Apple II.

I was still a tiny kid then, and the only command I can remember from then is “CATALOG”, which would display the list of games on the diskette. No mouse and windows then - everything was in text. Green text.

And I would remember the nights watching my dad open up the plastic casing of the Apple II and do stuff with the motherboard. And I still remember the green motherboard with neat rows of microchips.

It would be many years later before I learnt about the genius behind the design of that motherboard: Steve Wozniak.

As I learnt more and more about Woz from different sources, including hearing and even attending some of his talks, it was hard not to admire him - he’s one of the best hackers ever (the good kind of hacker).

So when his autobiography appeared, I had to read it:

iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

Turns out that we have quite a lot in common. (Okay, he’s a lot smarter than I am.)

Besides being a geek (a few leagues above me), he’s also a major prankster.

Like one time when he made this device in 12th grade that looked like a bomb and made a ticking sound and he put it in his friend’s locker.

He was soon hauled into the vice principal’s office

I knew I was in big trouble, and finally they sat me down with the principal, and the vice principal, the counselor, the dean, and two police officers. And the principal starts telling me how the English teacher, Mr. Stottlemeier, had heard a ticking sound in the locker. The principal, Mr. Bryld, told me how he opened the locker, clutched the device to his chest, and then ran all the way out to the football field and dismantled it!

I started laughing, even though I was trying not to , so then I tried to cough to cover it up. But I couldn’t even do that, because I knew that I rigged [it so that it would] start ticking faster when someone opened up the locker door.

Reminds me of the times I got hauled to the vice principal’s and principal’s offices. But that’s another story.

Another story which make me snigger uncontrollably was how he manipulated people using a device that could interfere with TV signals. Read the book to find out more.

But he’s really a good guy - one of those rare people who don’t turn evil when there’s money involved. Like how he sold many of his Apple shares cheaply to those who contributed to Apple’s success even though they weren’t with Apple when they went public - it was the largest IPO ever then.

Although I really enjoyed the book, I’m not sure if everone would appreciate it as much as I did. I suppose you need to be interested in Apple and computer history. And a few parts of it can be quite technical - you need to know computer engineering to fully appreciate those parts (I’m not exaggerating) - especially when he tries to explain the elegance of his engineering designs.

Then again, if you want insight into the mind of a playful genius with a good heart, this might be worth checking out.

“We’re going to create buzz!”

Whenever I hear that in a meeting, I cringe. A just-before-you-go-for-battle cringe.

Other variations:

“We’re gonna have word-of-mouth marketing!”

“We’re gonna do viral marketing!”

The worst one I ever heard was from this marketing consulting company. One of the consultants announced boldly, “we’re gonna viral it!”

No, she didn’t say that! “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch what you said. Could you repeat that?”

“We’re gonna viral it!” she repeated, looking straight at me like an evil Chinese teacher staring at an inattentive 8-year-old.

“Since when did viral become a verb?” I whispered sarcastically to my neighbour.

Not surprisingly, her marketing plan was hardly viral or buzzworthy or word-of-mouthy. The only viral thing about it was that it made me cough. Giving out prizes to encourage people to visit and contribute to a website? Ho ho ho. Makes me want to sneeze as well.

I’ve sat through so many such meetings that words like “buzz” have become a signal of potential cluelessness.

So when I first heard about this book, Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff by Mark Hughes, I was rather sceptical.

But the reviews I read seemed really promising (ah, reviews are like word-of-mouth), so I gave it a try.

It didn’t take long before I read about pushing the “six buttons of buzz” to start conversations:

- The taboo (sex, lies, bathroom humor)
- The unusual
- The outrageous
- The hilarious
- The remarkable
- The secrets (both kept and revealed)

I could tell if an idea would be buzzworthy or not, but I couldn’t articulate it very well. This list will be useful if I ever have to sit through another one of those meetings again.

The book also has a useful chapter on getting media attention. The most-frequently written news stories:

- The David-and-Goliath story
- The unusual or outrageous story
- The controversy story
- The celebrity story
- What’s already hot in the media

And some tips I like on advertising:

- Balance media diet
- Use clutter-free media
- Take off the shine (polish)

And something about discovering creativity:

- Be courageous - demand creativity of yourself
- Define the Problem… dump the strategy
- Understand your customers firsthand
- Swing the bat often
- Pay attention to names and words
- Create content, not ads

Great book to read, especially if you wanna understand buzz.

Wow it’s been almost 3 months since my last review of books. Problem is, I make time to read, but I don’t give myself time to type out a review.

Anyway, I’m really excited about this list, as all the books in this list are MUST-READS!!

Okay, I lied. Not all the books here are must-reads, but certainly some of them are, including this one, if you’re into marketing.

All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin

The title of this book is also a lie, a way to grab your attention, as it did mine. It helps that I happen to like Seth Godin’s writings already, and I follow his blog. Anyway, the main idea of this book is that effective marketers tell stories (”lies”), and consumers want to believe stories that have been framed to fit their worldview.

Take SUVs for example.

Instead of buying a car that makes sense, more people choose to buy an SUV. They believe the story, not the facts. SUVs get lousy mileage. They are more dangerous to the driver, to her passengers and to other vehicles than minivans. They create more than their share of pollution. They create more wear and tear on the roads and take up extra space on parking lots and highways. But they make people feel good.

It’s the story that changes people’s feelings about the SUV. Although SUVs aren’t safer than other cars, they certainly feel that way because they are bigger and higher, and their wheels have bigger and mean-looking flares.

Creative’s Sim Wong Hoo should read this book - then he’ll better understand why his mp3 players aren’t selling like hot ipods. One of the best marketing books I’ve read.

Speaking of lies, there are plenty of them (or inaccuracies, to use a less emotionally-laden term) in Da Vinci Code.

Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code by Bart D. Ehrman

There must be already at least a dozen books out there pointing out the historical errors in Dan Brown’s bestseller, and in fact I was about to read one of them when I found out that Bart Ehrman was working on this book, so I decided to wait for Ehrman’s instead. You see, Ehrman is a well-known scholar specialising in early Christian history, and if anyone was qualified to comment on Dan Brown’s claims on Christian history, it would be Bart Ehrman.

Ehrman gives very comprehensive and detailed arguments, with substantial background information to back up his arguments. The book isn’t terribly readable - it reads slightly better than an academic paper, but if you’re determined enough to find the best arguments against Dan Brown’s claims (which are probably disturbing to you), this would be the book.

Be forewarned though, if you’re a conservative Christian: Ehrman is an agnostic, and he does not give the Bible any special treatment and assume that it’s inerrant and inspired etc. But then again, that makes his arguments stronger since his position is very neutral.

Go for this book if you want the background, the history, and the facts, but you’re suspicious of anti-da vinci code books by Christians.

Let’s go into fiction now…

The Mouse And His Child by Russell Hoban

If you think this sounds like a children’s book, it is. But it’s not merely a children’s book - in fact, I wonder if it’s really one, since it’s so profound that I suspect many adult readers don’t get it.

Sure, it’s about this father-son windup toy mouse pair that goes through a series of mostly unfortunate and even violent events and finally have a happily-ever-after ending, but look a little deeper, and you’ll see philosophical explorations, even mathematics - far too deep for the typical kid. Or adult.

Here’s the reply of the Muskrat when the mouse child asked him to make the father-child pair self-winding:

‘I’m afraid that’s a little out of my line,’ said Muskrat. ‘Oh, I’ve tinkered with clockwork now and then, but I have long since gone beyond the limits of mere mechanical invention. That’s applied thought, you see, and my real work is in the realm of pure thought. There is nothing quite like the purity of pure thought. It’s the cleanest work there is, you might say.’

Don’t tell me a child understands that.

Awesome book, but not for everyone. Read slowly, think deeply.

Since we’re talking about stories, here’s another storybook…

The Paradox of Excellence by David Mosby, Michael Weissman

Now it doesn’t look like a storybook, nor does the title resemble one, but it uses a fictional narrative to convey the main points of the book.

So yes, this is really a business-related book, about companies which provide an excellent service, easily better than their competitors, but are under-appreciated by their customers, because their customers have gotten used to their excellence and have come to take them for granted. Thus any deviation or mistake made by the company may result in an overreaction by the customer (e.g. moving to a competitor), even though the company is still outperforming everyone in the whole scheme of things - the “paradox of excellence”.

As mentioned earlier, this book uses a fictional story to illustrate learning points, so it’s extremely easy to read (can be finished in one or two sittings), quite memorable, and thus is very effective.

A great book to check out if you’re facing (or about to face) the paradox of excellence.

Everything Bad Is Good for You by Steven Johnson

Some of you already know that I don’t watch TV, and if I have kids of my own, they won’t get to watch TV either.

Then I come across this book that makes the bold claim that just about everything that is widely believed to be bad, including TV, may actually be good, plus it’s by an author I like, so I figure I have to check it out, and perhaps, rethink my opinion on TV.

Johnson’s main argument is that the “bad” things in popular culture like TV, computer games, etc. are getting more complex, and thus require more cognitive effort. For instance, many of today’s most popular TV sitcoms (of which I have little knowledge) portray complex social webs which require and develops mental muscle, something missing in older TV shows.

His argument, seems pretty sound. But the question that kept crawling back into my consciousness was: yeah, keeping track of all those complex relationships in the TV shows does require more effort now, but doesn’t it still fall short of real life? Aren’t real-life relationships even more complex? (Well, mine are.)

The same goes with his take on computer games - sure they’re requiring more brainpower than ever. But I’d choose real-life offline interaction anytime, if I had the choice.

For those with no choice and no social life, perhaps everything bad might be good for you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend this book.

But now for some books that I really recommend…

Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent

The author of this book, a woman, disguised herself as a man and lived as a man for over a year. This book is about her experiences and reflections on the whole experience, comparing and contrasting the male and female psyche.

Here’s just one of the experiences: When she walks down the street as a woman, men have no qualms about staring at her, undressing her with their eyes. I suppose this is something most women or girls face, and most guys don’t realise.

Now when she disguised herself as a man, she discovered that no man would stare at her - there’s a sense of mutual respect between men, an understanding that if a man stares at another, it means that they want to either “fight or fuck”. Many young women find this completely foreign.

Norah Vincent brings out many other little things that we take for granted as a member of our own sex but is unknown to members of the opposite sex, in areas of work, friendship, dating, etc.

An awesome and mind-expanding read. I’ve been raving about this book to too many friends already.

Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie

I probably wouldn’t have bothered with this book if it wasn’t recommended (and raved about) by an insightful CEO of some architecture firm in the US.

And when I first held it in my hand at Borders, I was somewhat doubtful, because many of the pages had whimsical and juvenile drawings, and some of the text were floating all over the page like some pretentious modern poetry that tries too hard.

But I ordered it anyway.

And once I started actually reading it, I was completely hooked.

The book is just a whole series of stories and incidents that happened to Gordon MacKenzie, who was working at Hallmark. By the time he was at Hallmark, it had already turned into a bureaucracy (a “giant hairball”), and he talks about how he stayed creative (and sane) in the organisation without getting sucked into the system - he calls “orbiting”.

Many of the stories are crazy and hilarious (like how he got the new position of “Creative Paradox” at his company - what kinda position is that?), but contain lessons and insights for cubicle-dwellers like me who are trying not to lose the creative spirit. Oh, it’s tremendously easy to read too.

This book was so radical that MacKenzie initially had to self-publish it. Now it’s a cult classic in the business/management world.

When I finished this book, I cradled it in my hands for far too long, wishing that it had many more pages. I hate to use the word “inspirational” (it sounds too sissy), but darn, it really did inspire me. *Wistful sigh*

Photoshop LAB Color by Dan Margulis

Since my last few reviews included a Photoshop book, I shall, for the sake of tradition, add in this one, even though I didn’t have time to read much of it.

This book is about using the LAB colorspace in Photoshop to do image editing. It doesn’t sound like much, but it really is. Oh, if you don’t know what’s the LAB colorspace, or if you don’t know what’s colorspace, this book might prove rather difficult. Then again, if you’re already a pro and you know a lot about colorspaces, some parts of this book might prove difficult as well.

What I love about this book is that it frequently goes against the grain of conventional wisdom, yet the techniques work better than the conventional - exactly my type. And his instructional style is erudite and witty. My type again.

So, if you’re already a Photoshop pro and you want your skills to take a quantum leap, devour this book. Dan Margulis is simply the very absolute best author of Photoshop books out there. I’m not exaggerating.

These few weeks have been busy, and the coming ones are gonna be much worse, which means that I won’t have that much time to read.

But, “won’t have that much time” doesn’t mean “completely no time”, so you can expect me to be reading still. Reading stuff like the Her World magazine which I requested for the last time but have yet to get.

Because no one lent me a copy of Her World, I had to settle for these books:

Save The Cat! by Blake Snyder

The subtitle of the book boldly claims that this is the “last book on screenwriting you’ll ever need”. I’m not exactly into screenwriting, but I heard from a few trusted sources that this is a great book, so I decided to check it out. Besides, I sometimes read books about stuff that I’m not into, just so that I can widen my perspective.

After reading this, I now understand why some movies work and some don’t. And why we felt sad when King Kong died, but didn’t feel as sad when the other humans die. The only problem with it is that it can only explain the success or failure of conventional movies, not unconventional ones films like Memento. Very good book nonetheless - you’ll learn a lot about storytelling, if nothing else. Required reading for film enthusiasts and aspiring screen writers.

Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson

Since I’m still on topics that I’m not exactly into, here’s another.

I know very little about improv, not even enough to know whether I like it or not, but it certainly sounds interesting, so I thought I could learn something about it, and this looked like the book to read. Just to doublecheck, I went over to Amazon.com to look at the ratings. Almost everyone gave 5 stars.

What I didn’t notice is that all the identifiable reviewers were female. And that the book is really a self-help book. I was expecting something more concrete and technical with quick tips, but what I got was the improv philosophy and approach to life, so this book didn’t quite meet my expectations. The maxims in the book were quite thought-provoking: “say yes”, “don’t prepare”, “just show up”, “start anywhere”, “be average”, “pay attention”, “face the facts”, “stay on course”, “wake up to the gifts”, “make mistakes please”, “act now”, “take care of each other”, “enjoy the ride”, but I found the illustrative stories somewhat bland (with some great exceptions). It’s a thin book (about 150 pages), but it took me weeks to complete. If you’re the type that likes self-help books (few men do), go ahead and check it out if you want to learn something about improv. Otherwise, I don’t really know. All I know is that I still know very little about improv.

Photoshop Blending Modes Cookbook for Digital Photographers by John Beardsworth

Speaking of things I know little about… a lot of people think I’m some kind of Photoshop expert. I guess that’s not too far from the truth, since I can make my mom look young enough to be my sister, I can make my dad as handsome as I am (ok that’s easy), or I can make myself as sexy as Angelina Jolie (quite easy too - just expand my lips a little). But, I feel a tinge of guilt whenever I claim to be an expert, because I know that I haven’t conquered the world of blending modes. (In Photoshop, blending or blend modes can be accessed from the drop down list which says ‘Normal’ by default, found on the layers palette.)

Which is where this book comes in. Although I use blending modes quite often, some of the blend modes are still not intuitive to me, and I go through a lot of trial and error. I basically can’t visualise the exact effect without trying it out.

I haven’t had time to try out much of the stuff in this book yet, but it’s comforting to know that there’s such a book ready for me at my disposal. Once I’m done with it, I can guiltlessly call myself an expert. Check it out if you’re a Photoshop pro.

‘Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!’ by Richard P. Feynman

If you’re creative and unconventional and funny and you love science, you’re probably already a fan of Richard Feynman.

In this book, Feynman recounts many memorable incidents in his life growing up, as a student, as a researcher in the Manhattan Project (building the WWII atomic bomb), as a Nobel Prize laureate professor with curious interests, and his insights into human nature from those incidents. Although he’s best known as a brilliant physicist, this book also talks about his exploits as an artist (with his own show), as a drummer in Brazil, as an expert lock-picker in the nuclear bomb facility, or a womaniser in Las Vegas. Loads of fun stuff to read, even though he sometimes geeks out and talks about technical stuff which I don’t understand. What I like most is that it gives insight into how he thinks - how he simplifies complex concepts in his own mind to the astonishment of those around him, how he views the world with its systems and cultures around him, and how he survives and thrives even though he’s so different from everyone around him. He’s such a genius - your IQ and creativity levels will be raised a few levels after this book.

Now, for some fiction…

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

After my last books review where I reviewed Sophie’s World, too many people asked me to read this, which is by the same author. I finally buckled under the pressure.

This novel has an interesting structure (I lurve interesting structures), although not as strange as Sophie’s World. Like Sophie’s World, it’s basically about philosophy, but this one has less philosophy history and more of the (ideal) mindset of a philosopher - someone constantly curious, constantly questioning, constantly misunderstood. Which really resonates with me (like Feynman’s book above). Definitely worth a read - it’ll set you thinking.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I normally avoid bestsellers, unless I’ve got other reasons to read them. I chose to read this because this novel is written in the voice of an autistic boy with Asperger’s syndrome. According to an autistic Amazon.com reviewer, this book “got it right”.

This book gives fascinating insight into the autistic’s mind - how logical to the point of illogic, how blithely unemotional and anti-emotional in an environment of emotions, how brilliant and knowledgeable yet idiotic at the same time. The language of the book may be simple - a pre-teen could easily enjoy it - but the issues are deep and sophisticated. No wonder it won a whole bunch of prizes and awards. A wonderfully unique and fresh novel.

Ok, that’s it for now.

Will someone kindly pass me a copy of Her World???

I just realised that it’s been about 2 months since my last book review.

Yup, I’ve given up reading.

You wish.

Of course I’ve been reading away - just that I haven’t been in the mood to blog about books. But I’m noww in the mood, so here’s the mother of all book posts featuring some of the books I read that are worth mentioning (yeah I left out some crappy books, most of which I didn’t complete anyway).

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter

I’m only about halfway through. I agree with my mathematician colleague when he said that this book is one of those where you read a little at a time. So far, it has been fabulous, examining interesting structures in mathematics, music, art, computing, and many other fields. It will definitely appeal to the logical types who like having their minds stretched and twisted. Not always an easy read, but it’s probably as easy as it can get. Each topic is introduced by a cute and short story which serves as an illustration and to prepare your mind for the heavier stuff ahead. I gladly paid 35 bucks for this, even though it’s easily available at the library.

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

Over the years, too many friends have bugged me to read this so I finally did. It’s a fictional story that gives a brief introduction to western philosophy, from the pre-Socratic greeks to some of the more recent thinkers of the last century. I read this to refresh my dwindling knowledge of philosophy history, but was pleasantly surprised by the plot - the structure is mind-bending. I’m certain the author got the stuctural inspiration from Gödel, Escher, Bach, and both authors are probably fans of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Just like me

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

I’m easily impressed by books with interesting structures, and this book fits that category. While not exactly mind-bending like Sophie’s World, this one is pretty good for a more ‘normal’ story (Sophie’s World is frankly quite weird). The worldview of the book is Christian, so avoid it if you’re allergic to anything christian. Be forewarned - while this is fiction, I know people who have been moved to tears and adjusted their worldviews because of this book. Many have also declared this their favouritest novel of all time. While I’m a little less generous with my praise, I still found this a great read.

Mastering Black and White Digital Photography by Michael Freeman

Enough about fiction and words - here’s one about pictures. But if you’re one of those who cannot imagine why some people like black and white photographs (not because it’s cheaper to print them on newspapers), this book may not be for you. I almost decided to leave out this book from this post, but I figure that some of you might find this useful. The bulk of this book is on Photoshop techniques for conversion from colour and other tweaks and effects, and is pretty specialised (not for you if you’re satisfied with desaturation to convert colour to b/w). Also, I think that Michael Freeman’s books are generally of high quality, and this is certainly no exception. Required reading if you’re into b/w digital photography and editing, but not yet an expert. Some Photoshop knowledge required.

The Best Software Writing I selected & introduced by Joel Spolsky

Since we’ve just mentioned Photoshop, which is software, here’s a software-related book. I enjoy Joel Spolsky’s writings on software and project management, which is why I decided to read this one. This is basically a collection of well-written software-related writings by others. There are articles by the usual suspects like Paul Graham and Clay Shirky, and there are also those by previously-unknown ones (to me) like “why the lucky stiff” who wrote an incredible guide to the Ruby programming language (complete with silly cartoons). If I ever decide to learn Ruby, it’ll be from there. Loads of good stuff for geeks, but not all will be willing to pay for this book, since the articles are available online.

The Big Moo by The Group of 33, Seth Godin

Here’s another book composed of articles by different authors, but this time on business. The authors are a bunch of 33 business thinkers, speakers, and authors, such as Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, and Guy Kawasaki. Really easy to read, since most of the articles are short (just a few pages) - great if you’re running a company and too busy to read a ‘proper’ book.
The title doesn’t say much, but the subtitle is “Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable”. Some of the chapters I like include “They Say I’m Extreme”, “Stop Being Ordinary”, and “Where Do Ideas Come From?” While I can’t say I like all the chapters, there’s enough great stuff in there to make this worth a read. An enjoyable one too.

The Power of the Purse by Fara Warner

Here’s another business book, but targeted towards a more traditional big-business audience. The basic premise is that women are no longer just an important minority as consumers - they have become the majority market. And you need to make a shift in your company strategy to be competitive (and it’s not just about turning your products pink). Fara Warner uses quite a few case studies, mostly from large companies like McDonald’s, Home Depot, P&G, Kodak, Nike etc. Not exactly my kind of book (too traditional), but still an informative read.

iCon Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon

Since we’re still on the topic of business, here’s a book about one of the most successful businesspersons around. If you iDolize Steve Jobs and are fanatical about Apple, this is a must-read (but you’ve probably already read it anyway). I read this not because I worship Jobs, but I think he’s done enough great stuff to make me want to know what makes him tick (you’ll also get to know what ticks him off). It also gives insight into how Apple as a company works (or what didn’t work). Oh, last I heard, Steve Jobs banned all Wiley books from Apple stores because of this book. (Thanks to my Apple-fan friend who lent it to me.)

The Geography of Thought by Richard Nisbett

Which 2 of the following 3 words should be grouped together?
panda, monkey, banana
If you’re Asian, you’re likely to group monkey and banana together, and if you’re American, you’d likely pick panda and monkey.
This book is basically about how Asians and westerners think differently, and the implications. One of the ways is Asians tend to be more aware of objects in their environments and contexts, while westerners tend to concentrate on the objects themselves. This is an important book - it really deserves a post of its own. I wish I had read it earlier.
I actually reserved this book for a friend who asked me to borrow it for her. But by the time it reached me, I had forgotten all that, and I ended up reading it myself. Later as I was returning iCon Steve Jobs to her (yup she’s that Apple-fanatic), I also told her how interesting this book is, and she reminded me (to my embarressment) that she asked me to borrow it for her. Oh well.

Okay, enough books for now. Time to give my eyes a rest. Can someone lend me the latest issue of Her World?

I enjoy reading stories to kids. Probably because no one ever pays any attention when I talk, so seeing a kid sit there wide-eyed in rapt attention while I read does wonders for my self-esteem.

The only thing I don’t like is when the kid asks me to read the story again. Punishment for not reading well enough the first time? Actually, young children do need repetition, and they enjoy it. But I’d always ask to read another book - it’s hard for me to read with expression and enthusiasm if I’m reading the same stuff within 5 minutes.

Anyway, some years ago, this dad was showing me the Arthur’s adventure series of interactive stories he bought for his son. The dad was glowing with pride as his son clicked through the interactive features of the story, as if the son was on track to become a Nobel Prize laureate.

I wasn’t impressed, and I felt that the son wasn’t learning very much, but I kept my mouth shut since the dad wasn’t going to listen to me anyway.

What triggered me to write this post was this article - Interactive learning fails reading test (via Slashdot).

“Teachers and parents should be aware that an interactive story book may provide their children with more entertainment than education.”

I may be a geek and I may be in love with technology, but if I have kids of my own, they won’t be touching the computer very much. And none of these interactive story crap.

In fact, when parents come to me on advice for their kids, one of the first things I say is “read to your kid.” It’s not just educational, it’s emotionally bonding. (The other advice I give is “let them go out and play.”)

A related book to check out is The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved. I borrowed it from the library once, but I didn’t get around reading it. I suspect that it’s worth a look.

Many moons ago, the Rambling Librarian emailed me some questions on reading and blogging.

RamblingLibrarian (RL): What’s your blog for? (what is its purpose)

TinkerTailor (TT): Even without you asking, I ask myself such existential questions every now and then. And, like any deep, existential question, I don’t have a good answer

Read the rest of the interview.

A friend who writes better than me told me she likes My Secret History so I decided to check it out.

Paul Theroux writes disgustingly well. I hate him I envy him I’m jealous of him.

Here’s how he described a first sexual encounter:

We had gone there alone and ignorant, and lay stupidly under the trees; but now we know a little more. I could not tell where my flesh ended and hers began.

Wickedness entered me. My sould darkened and I felt a shameful thrill as it tottered and began to fall. It caught fire, and Tina was crying softly but holding me, and then we were both burning.

Damn.

I hate the feeling when I finish a few good books at the same time then realise that I don’t have anything worth reading on standby.

Life is hard.

“You call this art???”

Looking at art these days, especially of the modern variety, it’s sometimes easy to ask this question.

We often assume that art should be beautiful, having ‘purposiveness without a purpose’, as Kant puts it. But how about those art pieces which are frankly ugly, even gruesome or disgusting, like Fransisco Goya’s Saturn?

But is it art? explores different (and often competing) art theories to see how and why different art works could be considered art.

Like Andres Serrano’s offensive Piss Christ, which was made with the artist’s own urine.

Or Andy Warhol’s completely mundane Brillo Boxes, which is nothing but a replica of soap-pad boxes which could be purchased at a supermarket.

Or how culture and race and gender and even museums and money affect our perception of art.

I particularly like the 1989 ad How Women Get Maximum exposure by the Guerilla Girls which says

Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?
Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.

While this book is primarily on art theory, Cynthia Freeland managed to make it immensely readible. If you’re interested in the subject, I think this would be a joy to read, unlike the typical academic read.

And it’s by Oxford University Press. I’m one of the few people I know who sometimes bases my book choices on the publisher, and OUP is definitely a good one.

I should add some thoughts to my recent post, Dogs, Teddy Bears, and Airconditioners, the part about talking to babies who are too young to understand language.

I was observing a lady cradling a baby in her arms, looking into his eyes, and talking to him. Just talking and talking to him.

Of course she knew that the baby couldn’t understand a word, but that didn’t deter her from acting like he did.

And that isn’t an uncommon scene - I’ve often witnessed women carry on conversations with babies. Some men do that too, but that seems more uncommon.

Admittedly, I’ve tried to do that myself. I enjoy carrying babies (provided they don’t puke or pee on me), and there was a time when I tried to talk to that adorable little thing, but, I found it really awkward, and it was only marginally easier than talking to, say, a dog or teddy bear or maybe an airconditioner.

I didn’t explain why I tried to talk to babies.

No, I wasn’t trying to be like a woman.

The only reason was that I believed that speaking to babies is important for their language development, that babies learn the sounds of language very early. I owe these ideas to Steve Pinker in The Language Instinct, a very important book on language. I read it quite a while ago, so I don’t remember a lot of details, but go read it if you’re into language/linguistics - some parts are quite technical, but at least two-thirds of it is quite readable.

When you find something you can’t say, what do you do with it? My advice is, don’t say it. Or at least, pick your battles.

I’m lucky to have older and more experienced people tell me the same. Pick your battles.

The most important thing is to be able to think what you want, not to say what you want. […] Draw a sharp line between your thoughts and your speech. Inside your head, anything is allowed.

Something I still need to learn. Shuddup when it’s time to shuddup.

Every era has its heresies, and if you don’t get imprisoned for them, you will at least get in enough trouble that it becomes a complete distraction.

Tell someone who has gotten into a lot of trouble about this. Like me.

The trouble with keeping your thoughts secret, though, is that you lose the advantages of discussion. Talking about an idea leads to more ideas. So the optimal plan, if you can manage it, is to have a few trusted friends you can speak openly to. This is not just a way to develop ideas; it’s also a good rule of thumb for choosing friends. The people you can say heretical things to without getting jumped on are also the most interesting to know.

Again, I’m lucky to have friends who are crazy enough not to shun me for my ideas. A few of them even share my ideas. How cool is that?

Perhaps the best policy is to make it plain that you don’t agree with whatever zealotry is current in your time, but not ot be too specific about what you disagree with. […] If [Zealots] try to force you to treat a question on their terms by asking “are you with us or against us?” you can always just answer “neither.”
Better still, answer “I haven’t decided.”

I’m so gonna try this the next time. If I remember.

Paul Graham has ideas on how to engage the zealots:

One way to do this is to ratchet the debate up one level of abstraction. […] You can attack labels with meta-labels: labels that refer to the use of labels to prevent discussion.

Another way to counterattack is with metaphor. […]

Best of all, probably, is humor. Zealots, whatever their cause, invariably lack a sense of humor. They can’t reply in kind to jokes.

Great advice not just for me, but for many here who have things to say about certain policies here.

This is my last post on chapter 3 (“What You Can’t Say”) of Hackers & Painters. (I’ve reviewed other parts of this book earlier here: Hackers & Painters, Why Nerds Are Unpopular, What You Can’t Say (part 1, Nervous Groups, Why?).

There were some questions on tenses in Chinese in my Chinese Grammar post, so I thought it was interesting enough to talk about it briefly here.

Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar (pg 29) has an excellent summary on Chinese tenses, if you understand the grammar terms:

One feature common to all verbs in Chinese is that they do not conjugate for tense. The time of the action specified by the verb is normally indicated by placing a time expression before the verb or at the beginning of the sentence. Chinese verbs do have to be related to aspect, however, in that there needs to be some indication of whether the action has been completed, is on-going, or is part of past experience. This is achieved by introducing an aspect marker le, guo, or zhe as a suffix to the verb, or zài directly before the verb. Action verbs without aspect markers usually express habitual action or intention.

I was thinking of explaining the above in detail, but it’s too tedious because quite a bit of background knowledge is required. Maybe another post, if I’m up to it. Anyway, I hope this is helpful in some way.

Some would ask, why would one want to do this? Why deliberately go poking around among nasty, disreputable ideas? Why look under rocks?

I do it, first of all, for the same reason I did look under rocks as a kid: plain curiosity. And I’m especially curious about anything that’s forbidden. Let me see and decide for myself.

Second, I do it because I don’t like the idea of being mistaken. If, like other eras, we believe things that will later seem ridiculous, I want to know what they are so that I, at least, can avoid believing them.

Third, I do it because it’s good for the brain. To do good work you need a brain that can go anywhere. And you especially need a brain that’s in the habit of going where it’s not supposed to.

Great work tends to grow out of ideas that others have overlooked, and no idea is so overlooked as one that’s unthinkable.

It’s just too bad that too many people around who won’t even consider considering the unthinkable (they take unthinkable too literally). And I must admit that I do have a tendency to suspect the intellectual capacities of such people. On the other hand, I greatly respect those who can consistently come up with the unthinkable. I may not agree with them all the time, but these people help me knock out barriers and blockages in my mind.

Whatever the reason, there seems a clear correlation between intelligence and willingness to consider shocking ideas. This isn’t just because smart people actively work to find holes in conventional thinking. Conventions also have less hold over them to start with.

Amen to that.

Here’s more:

Training yourself to think unthinkable thoughts has advantages beyond the thoughts themselves. It’s like stretching. […] If you can think things so outside the box that they’d make people’s hair stand on end, you’ll have no trouble with the small trips outside the box that people call innovative.

Why do you think I’m so pessimistic about our educational system? Simply because thinking the unthinkable is simply unthinkable for us. No, it’s not just because of the education system. It’s the people. People like us.

Still at chapter 3 (“What You Can’t Say”) of Hackers & Painters. (I’ve reviewed other parts of this book earlier here: Hackers & Painters, Why Nerds Are Unpopular, What You Can’t Say (part 1, Nervous Groups).