Learnings from books I read in 2021

There wasn’t any dearth of good books that were published in 2021. But this column is more about the books that I read this year rather than about the ones that were published in 2021. I have tried to share with the readers just the most important messages and learnings from some of these books. I tend to read more of nonfiction, though there were a few fiction books as well. My reading habits are quite diversified. The lessons presented are only from nonfiction and range from biographies to books on philosophy, global economy, self-improvement, behavioral sciences, and leadership.

?1.?????Think Again by Adam Grant: An easy-to-read short book on the theme of “Rethinking”. It starts with intellectual humility - knowing what we don't know, and which triggers our curiosity and ultimately leading to new discoveries.?It is divided into three sections - Individual rethinking, Interpersonal rethinking, and Collective rethinking.

?The book is full of word gems: "If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom."

Another one: "Our convictions can lock us in prisons of our own making. The solution is not to decelerate our thinking - it's to accelerate our rethinking. That's what resurrected Apple from the brink of bankruptcy to become the world's most valuable company." Do read this book to stay hungry and curious, and to be able to recognize that we are wrong more often than we would like to admit it.

?2.???Gandhi – the years that changed the world (1914-48): This fine magnum opus is written by Gandhi’s greatest biographer Ramachandra Guha. A well-researched and balanced book, it not only gives a deep insight into this great soul but also the complexities that tied India in knots during this period. While pointing to Gandhi’s greatness, the author doesn’t hesitate to point out his shortcomings.

Gandhi helped India’s transition from empire to nation, autocracy to democracy, society whose laws sanctioned the most extreme form of discrimination to a country whose constitution mandated equality of all citizens, regardless of caste, gender, language, or religion. His biggest contribution was to make the freedom movement a mass movement, reaching deep into the countryside, bringing in millions of peasants, workers, artisans, and women into its fold.

His other achievements – forging of harmonious relations between India’s religious communities, desire to end the pernicious practice of untouchability, and developing self-reliance for India. These campaigns were conducted in parallel and were of equal importance to him.?I teach leadership & I learnt so much about the concept of Leadership by studying the tallest leader that India has produced in the last century.

?3.?????Long walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela: The autobiography covers Nelson Mandela’s journey from childhood to the moment that he became the President of South Africa. A journey of nearly 8 decades from being a student, flourishing attorney to his transformation as a revolutionary, and then being a long serving prisoner for 27 years.

The book captures the transition of South Africa - from a nation practicing the worst form of discrimination to the abolition of apartheid and becoming a genuine democracy. Mandela captures his life’s moments in vivid detail and fair honesty. He comes across as a resilient man who not only stoically withstands the adversities of life but also as a very positive person who has a clear value system and strong set of beliefs. He had a vision for his country and was prepared to sacrifice his personal life for the cause. Like Gandhi, he wasn’t the ideal husband or the loving father, but a person completely devoted to the vision of a free South Africa. At times, he does succumb to his weaknesses like other mortals.?To reach the goals, he does compromise but never abandons his core ideals. But above all, he comes as a true forgiver, showing his magnanimity in embracing the white Africans without any prejudice. But Mandela was at best a partial success. He could not be the glue that could bring all the people together despite his best efforts. But he would certainly be remembered as one of the greatest heroes of the twenty-first century.?

4.?????The Socrates Express by Eric Weiner: A book written in easy reading style about the life and philosophies of selected thinkers and leaders like Socrates, Rousseau, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Confucius, and Gandhi. It’s quite an assorted list but makes an interesting reading. Each chapter while dealing with a person begins with a train journey to either the person’s house, tombstone, or the city in which they lived. On this journey, Eric talks about the core philosophy of these people in a story-like lucid manner.

?The book is certainly not for people who have mastered philosophical work and are looking for a fresh critical analysis. But for people like me who are fascinated by the evolution of philosophy and are still getting familiarized with the different strains of philosophical works. It’s not a Will Durant’s Story of Philosophy but an Engineering student’s first book for appreciation of philosophy.

While discussing Schopenhauer, he says, “While other philosophers attempted to explain the world out there, Schopenhauer was more concerned with our inner world. We can’t know the world if we don’t know ourselves”. Profound thoughts said so eloquently.

?In another chapter on Gandhi, he mentions, “Here was a man who owned his short comings. Not afraid to change his mind. Here was a man who attracted cranks, faddists and madmen and embraced them all. A man wiling to die but not kill for a cause. Here was a man who stared down an empire and won. Here was a man - not god or a saint but a flesh-and-blood man- who showed the world what a good fight looks like”.

?5.?????Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson: Steve Jobs had a roller coaster life. A intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: PCs, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing.?He built a lasting company endowed with his DNA, filled with creative designers, and dare devil engineers who could carry forward his vision, making his company one of the world’s most valuable company.

He also stands an ultimate icon of inventiveness, imagination, and sustained innovation. He knew that to create value in the twenty-first century, was to connect creativity with technology. He and his colleagues were able to think differently. They were able to create devices and services that consumers did not know they needed.

?He was a genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical. He became one of the greatest business executives of our era. History will place him in the pantheon next to Edison and Ford. More than anyone else, he made products that were completely innovative, combining the power of poetry and processors. With a ferocity that could make working with him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world’s most innovative company.

?6.?????Amazon Unbound – Jeff Bezos and the invention of a global empire by Brad Stone: The book starts with a quote from Jeff Bezos at a prize acceptance ceremony, “Every interesting thing, I have ever done, every important think that I have ever done, every beneficial thing I've ever done, has been through a cascade of experiments and mistakes and failures.” He further continued and said, “I'm covered in scar tissues as a result of this.”

As the first chapter of the book talks about. “Amazon was booming but its name was stained. Amazon was admired and even beloved by customers while its secretive intentions were often mistrusted and the towering net worth of its founder, set against the plight of its blue-collar workforce in company warehouses, provoke unsettling questions about the asymmetric distribution of money and power. Amazon was no longer just an inspiring business story but a referendum on society and on the responsibilities that large companies have towards their employees, their communities and the sanctity of our fragile planet.”

The book talks about the amazing story of Amazon from a start-up in the garage of a three-bedroom house in a Seattle suburb to an immensely successful diversified business. The company almost died during the dotcom bust. But it remerged, perhaps stronger. Today, it sells nearly everything and delivers its packages promptly, powers much of the Internet in its data centers, runs one of the most successful newspapers in the world, streams television shows and movies to homes, and sells Alexa – a popular line of voice activated speakers.

Interestingly Bezos had nerves of steel and wasn’t afraid of embracing conflict. He would say, “if I have to choose between agreement and conflict, I will take conflict every time, it always yields a better result.” There are other Jeffisms in the book. For instance: ?how double the experimentation equals twice the innovation, how data overrules hierarchy, and the more famous one about “multiple paths to yes”- an Amazonian notion that an employee with a new idea who gets rejected from one manager should be free to shop it to another, so that a promising concept doesn't get killed at birth.

7.?????Atomic habits by James Clear: Habits says James Clear is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly and often automatically. The central theme of the book is that the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits. And he says that even small or atomic habits continuously performed over a period can provide astounding results due to the application of the law of compounding. If you can get one percent better each day, one can end up being 37 times better by the end of the year. Conversely, if you get one percent worse each day, you will decline to almost zero. The outcomes that we desire – loss of weight, a savings corpus or better relationships are nothing but a lagging measure of our habits. But he delinks these outcomes with goals and associates them with systems. The goals are the results that we wish to achieve, and systems are the processes that lead to the results. He mentions, “You do not rise to the level of your goals but fall to the level of your systems.” He advises the readers to focus on the overall system, rather than a single goal.

?He mentions that there are three layers of behavior change – outcomes, processes, and identity. The outcomes are results – winning a game or publishing a book. The process is changing behaviors at the system level – developing a meditation practice, maintaining a routine at the gym, or having a curiosity to read different books. The deepest layer is changing the identity at the level of your beliefs. According to him, “Outcomes are about the goals, processes are about what you do, and identity is about what you believe.” The goal is not to reduce 10 kilograms, but to become fit. And a goal is not to read a book, but to become a regular reader.

8.?????Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein: A must read for people who regularly make judgements, assessments, and evaluations in their work or private life. In a way, it carries forward the work of Prof Daniel Kahneman in his notable work - Thinking Fast and Slow. In that book Prof Kahneman had talked extensively about the irrationality of human thinking with its associated cognitive biases like Over Confidence, Confirmation and Loss Aversion. This book begins with the metaphor of a shooting range to explain what can go wrong with the human judgement., particularly the different decisions that people make in organizations. There are essentially two types of errors. Some judgements are biased: they are systematically off target. Other judgements are noisy; as people who are expected to agree end up at different points around the target.

?Most organizations the authors mention suffer from both bias and noise. While bias is a error in a set of judgements in the same direction, it is the noise in the system which is the subject of this book. For example, a faulty weighing scale which shows an extra 2 kilos each time you step on it is bias. A weighing scale which shows a different reading each time you weigh yourself is a noisy weighing scale.

Their conclusion is simple:?"Wherever there is judgement; there is noise".?

?The book's central message is while noise at times may be a desirable thing in life. It can build choice and enhance creativity. But noisy judgements can do a lot of harm, and there is need to reduce if not eliminate noise from judgements. For example, enhancing the quality of judgement in new hires, particularly at top and senior management level could have a huge impact on the performance of the organization. Hiring a wrong CEO could destroy its value.

?The authors offer a lot of suggestions to improve Judgements. Their key suggestion for reducing noise is "decision hygiene". They use the metaphor of handwashing to prevent germs from entering our bodies. One of the key principles of decision hygiene is "Obtaining independent judgements from multiple judges, then aggregating those judgements.". This one is highly effective in interviews. This requirement of independent judgements is routinely violated in organizations when the senior most manager posts his views about the best candidate out of a selection. Very likely, the other managers would go with this opinion, and rather not challenge it with their view. But if everyone is allowed to state their independent judgement and then either it is aggregated or discussed, the outcome would be much better.

?A less noisy world would save a lot of money, increase fairness, improve public health and safety and above all prevent any avoidable errors. This is the opportunity that this book is seeking to address.?

?9.?????Reimaging Capitalism in a world on fire by Rebecca Henderson: The book opens with a humorous but a powerful quote:

“Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for our shareholders.”

It further mentions: “Taken literally, a single-minded focus on profit maximization would seem to require that firms not only jack up drug prices but also fish out the oceans, destabilize the climate, fight against anything that might raise labor costs—including public funding of education and health care, and attempt to rig the political process in their own favor”.

?Free market capitalism is one of humanity’s greatest inventions and the greatest source of prosperity the world has ever seen. At the same time, its single-minded pursuit of profit has led to rampant inequality and the looming threat of climate catastrophe - and now threatens to destroy the society on which it depends. Rebecca argues that business can simultaneously make a positive impact on the world by confronting the realities of our environmental crisis and the need to address social and economic inequality, while also delivering the sustained economic growth that brings prosperity and wellbeing to society.

?Drawing on lessons from companies from around the world who are already making a positive difference, Reimagining Capitalism shows that this new approach is not only a moral imperative but also an extraordinary opportunity to drive growth and innovation in an increasingly competitive world. And, perhaps most critically, she suggests that it has the potential to balance the power of the market with the power of democratic, accountable government and strong civil society - the only long-term solution to the problems that we face.

?The book ends with a profound message: “I learned that it is not death that is the tragedy. It is failing to live that is the tragedy. Everybody dies. But not everybody lives.”

?10.?How to decide: Simple tools for making better choices by Annie Duke: I quite often teach a course on “Effective Decision Making”. The first point that I always make in that course is that the only thing you have control over that can influence the way your life turns out is the quality of your decisions. Annie Duke lays out a series of tools anyone can use to make better decisions. You'll learn how to identify and dismantle hidden biases and accept that you can rarely be certain of how things will turn out.

For example, what do you do when you're faced with a big decision? If you're like most people, you use a pro and con list, spend a lot of time second guessing or regretting decisions that don't work out, get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly seeking other people's opinions, and trying to find just that little bit more information that might make you sure, or you do the opposite and just go with your gut feeling. But this is exactly the wrong way to go about combating the biases working against you.

What if there was a better way to make quality decisions so you can think clearly, feel more confident, second guess yourself less, and ultimately be more decisive and be more productive?

The good news is that decision-making is not a matter of luck or smarts, but a teachable skill that anyone can get better at. And the great news is that even a small improvement in decision-making will make a huge impact on your life.

In?How to Decide, Annie Duke lays out a series of tools anyone can use to make better decisions. You'll learn how to identify and dismantle hidden biases and accept that you can rarely be certain of how things will turn out.

?Through practical exercises and engaging thought experiments, this book helps you analyze key decisions you've made in the past and troubleshoot those you're making in the future. Whether you're picking investments, evaluating a job offer, or trying to figure out your romantic life, this book is the key to happier outcomes and fewer regrets.

11.?Perfectly Confident: How to calibrate your decisions wisely by Dan A. Moore: An expert on the psychology of decision making at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Dann Moore examines the importance of being confident, arguing that confidence is good, but overconfidence can hinder growth. He starts the book by saying: “Confidence is an estimate of one’s own potential, ability or accuracy. The difference between this estimate and how one performs reveals overconfidence, under confidence or accuracy.” He further adds that overconfidence is one of the most significant cognitive biases. It has been blamed for the sinking of the Titanic, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 and the great recession that followed and the Deep-Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Decades of research demonstrates that we often have an over-inflated sense of self and are rarely as good as we believe. This book brings together the best psychological and economic studies to explain exactly what confidence is, when it can be helpful, and when it can be destructive in our lives. Confidence is an attitude that considers both personal feelings and the facts.?Don Moore identifies the ways confidence behaves in real life and raises thought-provoking questions. How optimistic should you be about an uncertain future? What justifies your confidence in something amorphous and subjective like your attractiveness or sense of humor? Moore reminds us that the key to success is to avoid being both over- and under-confident. In this essential guide, he shows how to become perfectly confident—how to strive for and maintain the well-calibrated, adaptive confidence that can elevate all areas of our lives.

12.?Think like a Monk by Jay Shetty:

“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”

The book, as the quote suggests is an attempt to combine the ancient Indian wisdom and the author’s personal experiences. The aim is to help individuals apply a monk mindset to their lives. Think Like a Monk shows you how to clear the roadblocks to your potential by overcoming negative thoughts, accessing stillness, and creating true purpose. It can be challenging to apply the lessons of monks to busy lives. However, Shetty provides advice and exercises to reduce stress, improve self-discipline and focus, and maintain relationships in the modern world. The book is profound, poignant, and practical.

Happy Reading and Wishing all my followers and LinkedIn connections a very joyful 2022.?