A Bag full of Books

The progress I have made with reading books, is very encouraging and uplifting. I have surpassed all my previous records, and broadening & deepening my knowledge base in the process. Even when comprehension matters than counting the number of books, reading more from the first page to the last one, is satisfying.

The number of books and pages are the usual counts. The number of texts is also another means of counting. Whichever, on all counts, with all humility, I have exceeded the past success. Doing-forward matters more than looking backward. The past success must not breed a complacent mindset, but a basis for being competent – the doing better & more.

There are several insights being drawn from reading the books. Each one will be reviewed as usual. This year, is, however, different. A new approach is adopted for sharing. This is the birthday present for myself that I am giving. Usually, I write down my thoughts and views on the contents and concepts of each chapter of a book. These are my intuitions and perceptions. The gift is sharing these.

Meanwhile, these are the main messages.

Biography Bias

The writing of someone’s biography is a big task. It requires balancing the facts with the truths. Trying to reconcile being sympathetic with being scholastic. At times, getting the balance right can be difficult. Unintentionally, the real Robert Goddard, the grandfather of rocketry was not represented well in the biography of Theodore von Karman that I read. Contrasting, Goddard was painted as lonesome and secretive, hence, not successful.

The truth, however, is that Goddard invented the multi-stage rocket system. And was a successful serial inventor for the military. Reading another book, points this out. The biographer of von Karman was blind to the fact that working for the military requires secrecy. The truth that most likely informed his relocation from the boisterous Boston to the reclusive Roswell, New Mexico.

Goddard’s virtue of family-orientation, working with its wife and trusted lieutenants not highlighted. And his work for the military likely precluding him for transferring laboratory inventions into business products.

This bias is also observed in presenting the doings of the real biblical Moses, Edwin Land, and others.

Writing the biography of someone must not be a platform for denigrating another. A subject of a biography can be showcased with his achievements; without reducing another. Or without a due diligence of the underlying truth.

Innovation

All the books are about innovation in one way or the other. Transformation comes by transitioning from one idea or system to another. Creating a new product or service, requires inventing a different one from the extant, in improving upon the existing one, or inventing a new one entirely. And success comes by building the business or commercial actions & activities for making such an innovation. One, which is solving the various problems of doing, making, living, relating, and servicing.

The process of creating an innovation itself is an arduous one. It is also rewarding and uplifting, especially when success comes. For an innovator or entrepreneur, the ups & downs of creating the prototypes, raising money, getting customers to buy and use the products, and even convincing regulators about safety, are part of the thrills of innovating.

The battles between stagnation and streaming are winning by innovation. The ebb & flow of economic & organisational life – struggles of caring, living and making, getting solved by changing mindsets, and by creating the better and new for doing & living more. The adventure is becoming an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs

The process of innovation requires the alignment of many factors to gel or succeed. It is the entrepreneur, who gets the mixing right that often survives the arduous journey of innovation. Often met with ridicule and scepticism, entrepreneurial engineers, innovators, and scientists, attain by being a Master of Systems alignment.

A product or service can be invented. Laboratories and workshops can churn out prototypes, patents can be filed, and papers published. It is, however, the mobilisation of most of the suitable factors in an economy, and aligning the different, often conflicting individuals and infrastructure, that foster success.

The entrepreneur is the arch-aligner. The one, who is not complacent with the status quo, not deterred by the prevailing mindset, or discouraged by hurdles & setbacks. Most transformative changes in economies and organisations, often by those with such entrepreneurial mindset.

Imagination

Innovation arrives by seeing beyond the present or the past. It takes vision to envisage that the present will not be enough or conducive for the emergent. In addition, it is being visionary that sees that the product or service will work, even when many cannot fathom it.

The power of imagination is the driving motor of successful entrepreneurial innovators. It is the dynamo, which powers their belief in their creations. The picture, which is the blueprint for creating the unprecedented and the unseen.

The imaginers are often not carried away with the beauty or florescence of the present. They always see the faults, limitations, and mistakes. And most essentially seeing what is better, and working tirelessly, creating the future.

Industry

Ideas, images, and inventions become reality by industry. Enterprises and organisations create innovations when they are industrious. When the leaders becoming stewards, and mobilise the much-needed resources for fostering creativity and innovation. Making the right decisions at the right time.

Growth and productivity in an economy or system, is by having the suitable infrastructure, platform, and structure for innovating. Be it biological, chemical, digital, mechanical, physical, or social innovations, their fruitfulness comes by the capacious, capable, and competent industrial system.

The manufacturing and service resources in an industrial system, bring about the realistic transitioning of an idea into a successful innovation. Industry is the crucible that combines the knowledge, finance, the talents, and raw materials for creating the future.

Industry works with markets to access the needed resources, and to scale the products and services for the benefits of customers and users. And the companies, organisations, and universities in the right place, coalescing to forming the more fruitful industrial system. The emerging hub suitable for intentional and purposive creativity, enterprises, and innovations.

The contents of a book are informative. Information itself is not alone. It takes insight and intuition to see errors and faults in the lines of arguments being pursued. Or seeing the gaps that can enrich the contents or concepts.

No author is perfect, information itself is not. It is taking the best out of the information being shared, and sifting out the truth from the facts, and not drawing the wrong conclusion, that matter.

Authors often display personal bias in their writings. It is being human. The key knowledge I take from reading books, is through the lens of my Christian faith, intention, and purpose. The reviews are for encouraging and supporting the quest for being better.

God Bless & Jesus Saves. Merry Christmas in Advance.