non_fiction – Page 5 – Made by Mikal

High Output Management

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 24, 2016
Post category:Book

A reading group of managers at work has been reading this book, except for the last chapter which we were left to read by ourselves. Overall, the book is interesting and very readable. Its a little dated, being all excited with the invention of email and some unfortunate gender pronouns, but if you can get past those minor things there is a lot of wise advice here. I'm not sure I agree with 100% of it, but I do think the vast majority is of interest. A well written book that I'd recommend to new managers.

Bad Pharma

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 21, 2016
Post category:Book

Another excellent book by Ben Goldacre. In this book he argues that modern medicine is terribly corrupted by the commercial forces that act largely unchecked in the marketplace -- studies which don't make a new drug look good go missing; new drugs are compared only against placebo and not against the current best treatment; doctors are routinely bribed with travel, training and small perks. Overall I'm left feeling like things haven't improved much since this book was published, given that these behaviors still seem common. The book does offer concrete actions that we could take to fix things, but I don't see many of these happening any time soon, which is a worrying place to be. Overall, a disturbing but important read.

Richistan

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 7, 2011
Post category:Book

This book examines the lives of the newly wealthy in America. Its a little dated, in that it was written before the recent real estate crash, but apart from that is a very good book. It is readable, interesting, and raises some interesting questions about what will happen with wealth in an increasingly globalized world. The book also does a good job of highlighting the increasing gap between the ultra-wealthy and not just the poor, but the middle class as well. I really enjoyed this book. [isbn: 9780307341457]

The Bad Popes

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 1, 2011
Post category:Book

This book focuses on bad popes from the middle ages, and there were some hilariously bad popes in that period. The story is interesting and engaging, even if the commentary is a bit dry in places. However, given this is a factual well references history book, it is surprisingly readable. I enjoyed it. [isbn: 0750933372]

Being Geek

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 1, 2011
Post category:Book

This book by long time Apple engineering manager, as well as startup employee, Michael Lopp is a guide to how to manage geeks. That wasn't really what I was expecting -- which is sort of the inverse. I was hoping for a book about how to be a geek who has to deal with management. This book helps with that, by offering the inverse perspective, but I'd still like to see a book from my direction. The book is well written, in a conversational and sometimes profane manner (a comment I see others make about his other book "Managing Humans"). I think that's ok in this context, where it feels as if Michael is having a personal conversation with you the reader. An overly formal tone here would cause the content to be much more boring, and its already dry enough. I'm not sure I agree with everything said in the book, but the first half resonated especially strongly with me. [isbn: 9780596155407;0596155409]

Bad Science

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 22, 2011
Post category:Book

I've been trying to read one non-fiction book a month recently, and this is the one for January. This book is simply excellent and I'm glad I read it. It is clearly written, entertaining, and easy to understand. Yet it covers complex issues about how mis-reporting of medicine result in people dying. It covers statistical errors, dodgy marketing, and self serving journalism. An excellent book that I am now going to force my wife to read.

Why Can’t Elephants Jump?

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 2, 2010
Post category:Book

This is another fun book from New Scientist's Last Word column and I enjoyed it. A good read, and I actually learnt some stuff (some of it possibly true) along the way.

Mars: A Survival Guide

Post author:mikal
Post published:October 19, 2010
Post category:Book

This book, written in the style of a travel guide, was an impulse purchase the other day as a brand new book. That's rare because I don't tend to buy new, and certainly not in Australia (everything is so expensive!). However, this book isn't available on Amazon because its from the ABC, and looked good, so I bit the bullet. The book's first half is interesting and very readable. After that it tends to die down into an exhaustive treatment of issues you'd need to consider if moving to Mars, and feels like a list of lists. It picks up again towards the end. I know its hard to be interesting in non-fiction reference books, but I feel this book lost its way at the midpoint and could have tried harder to be interesting. However, it was still ok overall and I might be being overly harsh as I don't read much non-fiction. [isbn: 9780733324895]

I Know You Got Soul

Post author:mikal
Post published:October 5, 2010
Post category:Book

This is a collection of relatively short Clarkson articles about machines he thinks are inspiring. I don't agree with all his choices, and many of the articles are clearly biased against America. For example, he insists that everyone on an aircraft carrier is stupid. Why? Because they didn't let him film a fighter with one engine on fire. However, the book is funny, and good light reading. I read most of it on a bus for example. If you're into Clarkson, then its worth reading. [isbn: 9781856130974]

The World According to Jeremy Clarkson

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 19, 2010
Post category:Book

Like On Cars, this book is a collection of Clarkson's newspaper articles. These articles are relatively recent though (post 2001), and cover a much smaller span. This book focuses on things other than cars, and Clarkson's opinions range from sensible and thoughtful to outright weird. I read this book during a series of take offs and landings of flights when they wouldn't let me use my e-book reader, and that worked well. I wouldn't want to sit down to read this entire book front to back. [isbn: 9781856132626]