The Impact Code

Nigel Risner explaining his model for a more fullfilled life that I first picked up on the Wyko Management Development program.

I have seen Nigel present this material several times and although I can't immediately remember what all the letters of IMPACT stand for, I do remember the point about being 'in the room' (you will have to read the book to find out what it means).

In summary:
In the room
Model from the best
Passion & Purpose
Action
Comic Relief
Trust

Talk to the Hand

After reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves I picked up this book also by Lynne Truss.

A humourous rant on those things that would cause 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' to write into the telegraph.

Stumbling on Happiness

Every now and then you stumble across a wonderful book that you only picked up because of the strange title whilst browsing the bookshelves waiting for another delayed flight - well this is one of those little gems.

The essence of the book is that we try and do the things today that we think will make us happy tomorrow and when we get there we are often saddened to discover that we made the wrong choices and worse than that we are so ungrateful towards the idiot who made those choices.

How can this happen, shouldn't we be the best people to judge what the tastes, preferences, needs, and desires of the people we will become next year (or at least tomorrow)?

Well the book explains why we are typically so poor at it and it does give some tips on how to be a little better at enjoying life.

There are echoes in here of the truths about humans very poor ability to detect true correlations and causal relationships that also popped up in The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness.

Working with Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman - the originator of the Emotional Intelligence and author of teh book of teh same name, here applies his concepts specifically in the working arena.

Strongly rooted in empirical study of what makes successful leaders different, and even more important, what lessons we can all learn from them, the book is a good solid grounding in the techniques that can make you a better leader.

A reasonably dense book it certainly isn't a light read but worth it in the end.

The Millennium Problems

In May 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute in Paris announced that $1m prizes were being offered for solutions to each of seven unresolved problems of mathematics.

This book doesn't explain the problems in detail but rather aims to give the background that a lay reader can understand and more important why the problems themselves are considered important.

The Riemann Hypothesis - about the pattern of primes
Yang-Mills Theory - quantum physics behaviour of particles
P vs NP problem - proof that certain equations are unsolvable by computation
Navier-Stokes equations - familiar to engineers of fluid dynamics but there is no formal solution to them
The Poincare conjecture - how do you tell the difference between an apple and a doughnut?
The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture that builds on Fermat's Last Theorem and points to possible solutions
The Hodge Conjecture - about an obscure issue deep within abstract topology.

The Agile Gene

Matt Ridley follows on from his earlier work 'Genome' to explore the nature vs nurture debate. In the end he describes it as a false dichotomy with nurture favouring certain individuals and hence the genes that will continue their lineage, in turn defining the personality of those who will nurture the next generation.

The Ancestors Tale - A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life

Richard Dawkins travels back over the human family tree to the dawn of life and introduces us to the other life forms that branched out along the way (including who there descendants are today, or were in the fossil record)

I must admit I lost interest before the end of the book. Once you get the idea it is more of a review of the taxonomy of life than a deeply philosophical study that many of his other books are. I would recommend it to anyone interested in biology or taxonomy though.

The Gold Mine

An explanation of lean manufacturing written as a novel (similar to The Goal several years before). If you, or someone you know, wants to leanr about the subject but doesn't get on with conventional text books - then this could be the book for you.

Published by the Lean Enterprise Institute - who have many more conventional books on the subject if you are interested.

The Definitive Book of Body Language

From Allan & Barbara Pease (grandmasters in the art) comes a truly definitive guide to reading other people and hence improving your depth and effectiveness of communications with them.

Much more than just a guide to body signals, the book also explores the underlying psychology and physiology behind the body language signals.

A very readable book whether you are a complete novice or an expert in the craft.

The book has been reprinted many times in slightly different versions but they all contain the same material.

Creating a Learning Culture

A rather detailed, technical book that leaders of organisations that are trying to develop their staff for tomorrow's challenges should attempt to read (or at least get someone in their organisation to read).

A snippet from the book: Delphi found that 42% of corporate knowledge is in their employee's brains, 26 in paper documents and only 20% in electronic form.

On Intelligence

From the man who invented the PalmPilot, a book about how the brain works from the perspective of pattern recognition and heirarchical feedback loops.

As in several other books I have enjoyed on the same subject it captures the idea that brain functions such as what we call 'intelligence' are not coded to specific operations in the brain but are more akin to meta descriptions of such operations. I like the analogy that a water molecule isn't wet - but a collection of them do exhibit this property.

Schrodinger's Kittens and the serach for Reality

John Cribbin explores the strange quantum world in a way that makes you feel you might just be able to understand it. At any rate you will enjoy the stories and explanations.

The kittens of the title are the metaphorical offspring of the famous though experimental cat who is both alive and dead at the same time. The book outlines some of the possibilities opened up by the consequences of the science - and how some of them have turned out to be true.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Bought for me as a Christmas present and I couldn't put it down.

Many others have written far more eloquently than me on this book - but I will add that it really does shed light on why the little things in life do matter!

In the blink of an eye: how vision kick-started the big bang of evolution

Andrew Parker gives a decryption of the Cambrian Explosion in evolutionary history and makes a very good argument that it was the evolution of vision that kick-started it.

How to dunk a Doughnut

A very entertaining book that looks at the science behind such things as how to boil the perfect egg, catch a ball, the physics of sex and why some vegetables absorb more gravy than others.

A Devil's Chaplain

A diverse collection of Dawkins essays from over 25 years covering a wide range of topics. A very good introduction to some of the underlyig themes that have enlightened hs work.

Fast Food Nation

You will never feel the same again when you eat one of the fast food meals after reading this book.

And the really disturbing thing is that the book explains why the food tastes so good and you do want to eat it (despite what is in it and what it is doing to you and the planet)

The Blank Slate

A seminal work on the Nature vs Nurture debate, that actually comes out to say it is around 50:50 but with much more nature than most would be prepared to admit.

Numerous examples from various studies to illustrate his points that challenge 'modern' thinking that we are all equal - we are not. On the other hand that doesn't mean we don't all have something to bring to society.

The Mind Made Flesh

A collection of Nicholas Humphrey's essays on the evolution of the mind touches on a wide range of apparently unrelated themes but his style serves to make each of them entertaining and enlightening.

A good book to read on a long journey.

Get Anyone to do Anything

A rather overhyped superficial book that summarises the work of others rather than offering much that is original. Nonetheless, it does offer insights into approaches that will bring results (most of the time) in certain situations.

Why do buses come in threes?

An enjoyable light read that opens the lid on teh mathematics of everyday life.

One of the examples - which is the best day of the week to buy a lottery ticket for a Saturday lottery?
The answer is Friday - if you buy it earlier in the week you are more likey to be run over by a car (1 in 10m) before you can collect your prize (1 in 14m)!

Sex, Drink and Fast Cars - The creation and consumption of images

Stephen Bayley explores the meaning of cars and looks at how these meanings are exploited by designers, advertisers and marketeers.

He looks at how the designs and associated meanings have evolved over the years.

I guarantee you will never look at the other cars in the traffic jam in the same way after reading thi sbook.

Fermat's Last Theorem

Simon Singh writes more of a history of a mathematical puzzle than about the puzzle itself (though he does explain that too in a clear and understandable way)

Unweaving the Rainbow

Richard Dawkins sets out in this book to arge that understanding the origin and evolution of life doesn't mean you have to wonder at it any less.

In fact he makes a very good argument for wondering at the beauty of it even more.

Designing Feedback

A rather obscure book, that focusses in just on the design of management performance measures. You might think you already know all there is to know on teh subject but I am confident that everyone will find something new in here.

In summary the messages are:
Measures should have their origins in customer needs
Measures should provide feedback to all those in the organisation who can make a difference
Measures need to be balanced and appropriate to the level of their audience
Report performance trends as well as externally benchmarked absolute results