Reviews and Comments

Reread this, couple years back. However, with the "expanded" edition, so I thought I'd check it out. From the original, there's a preface and summary at the end that appear new. The other has indicated he's also cleaned up the text, but I could not detect any differences. Didn't have the time to side-by-side to find the differences.

Essentially, the same book from 10 years back. Does it matter which you read? No, the stories, points and details are the same. The Anniversary Edition may be preferred, but we are splitting hairs.

Great book from this Stanford lecturer and venture capitalist. Details all the aspects and takes on Systems Leaders and how they can benefit organizations.

Often times a Systems Leader has to look at a big picture and figure out what is the best thing to do for the organization. One part may think their task is most important; yet in the large view, their work may not move the needle.

Jenny Harrington manages portfolios of dividend stocks. With this book, she details her approach, her research, and some very interesting stock and customer stories.

I found this book to be very entertaining and useful. It is probably useful for investors, those who are interested in dividends, have their own dividend portfolio, and even money managers and advisors.

One thing it did tell me between the lines is that building a portfolio takes decent restart time and effort, which I don't have.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I heard a short interview with her on a podcast.

Side: my book pages kind of smelled like breakfast cereal. Perhaps rice.

I found this to be a rather enjoyable book. I have been reading up on productivity, deep work and focus, so a lot of this content wasn't new or a surprise. What I appreciated was the look back over decades on how we've changed as part of the Information Age and how we consume information - and how that's shoved at us from all angles with bright flashy blinking text boxes.

The book does take a critical look at politics at the end, which might bristle some. I do think with critical thinking, it is important to understand both sides. The approach he takes is very wholesome and properly critical, so I wouldn't recommend discounting it.

Typical style of the writer, this covers dozens of steps and things one or a family can do to get onto a path of being a millionaire. No quick solutions, these are a collection of the best things to consider doing.

Probably best for a person in their first third of their career, and reference for the rest of us.

Geared for managers, leaders, consultants and change agents. The author and her colleagues spend years with dozens of companies that implement four day work weeks. The book starts off with history of work and various legislation about work. Observations from the companies, several of which weren't successful for various reasons. Also macro aspects of four day weeks, such as less travel, less heat, etc. A solid book, chock full of observational data.

This is a practical playbook for leaders of any stage. Either as a refresher, or as it reads, probably the basis or spawned from a workshop from the author's company.

The main point is that leaders have to be flexible during certain times or moments, and do so on aspects that the author calls flexors each of which has a spectrum. The book covers over a dozen flexors with several pages to each. The end covers turning skills into habits, and making a flexible leadership organization.

The 2021 book that brought together several NYTimes stories and more. Written by two NYTimes reporters, this categorizes many of the company's questionable decisions (and indecisions) through it's existence. With an obvious "must grow" mentality, this drove many of the responses.

Kind of sad. A good management lesson for any aspiring or existing people manager.

This collection covers 7 complete texts of some of Plato's best known and perhaps most important dialogs.

This isn't the easiest to read though. My library had a $6.95 paperback copy that was an inch thick. The translations were easy to read, but overall, you are reading two or three people talking amongst themselves. For long periods of time. This was apparently the way at that time.

Overall, I did enjoy it. I did hit my max library renewals and even went longer. This is a particularly thick/dense book.

This book covers 15 or so philisophies and religions, the popular ones that readers might want to explore. Each is written by an expert, and they summarize the important points.

Each chapter is several pages. Nothing too in depth. It's a decent take on a morsel from each. Who'd benefit from this book? Someone who just realized they need to put more philosophy/religion in their life and don't know where to start.

Yeah, it's a niche. That's all I got. What I leared is that I have some altruistic tendencies among my other philosphy interests.

Really enjoyed this. Thinking critically, I have to assume that this may be a bit lopsided in it's views and takes.

However, the wealth of experiences the author brings are just overwhelming. The fact that due to legal action, the author was not permitted to promote the book says something for how the Facebook legal team sees the stories.

In many cases, just simple in-actions have grave consequences. Philosophers have struggled about the importance of doing the right thing and action as part of leadership, and it's well written over time. History is covered in inaction examples.

This should be on the reading list for any company leader or manager.

A recent book from these writers/creators. They do not take a left or right view - they sling mud both ways to both sides. They revisit government decisions and show them as short sighted and not taken in our best interests.

This book covers the United States history and potential. They do focus on several building block programs and opine on what could be done to improve the situation. They cover artificial scarcities and how those have persisted over the decades, along with the impacts of such.

All in all, it's a well thought out and honest look at some huge problems the United States has, with prescriptions that may or may not work, but are probably worth trying. For the better of all of us.

The book does say that some of the content comes from their columns; fans may feel deja vu while reading.