Book and Movie Review - Alan Turing and The Imitation Game

Book: Alan Turing (Hourly History); Movie poster: The Imitation Game

 

What does it mean to be a visionary?
You definitely have to go beyond the current thought patterns. But more importantly, you have to elevate yourself to another level of thought - a whole new way of thinking.

That's what Alan Turing did when he went about trying to crack the Enigma machine decryption. He knew that he had to beat a system, and he visualised the entire mechanism months before he started building it, and years before he actually completed it and cracked it, all the while going more by his own convictions, in the face of opposition from his team as well as his superiors.

Maybe that is what Einstein meant when he said that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them... or in this case, encountered them.

The book talks about Turing's story in a tragic manner, and the movie does great justice to what Turing goes through during and after solving the problem, and then, after so many more years post the World War too.

Awe-inspiring story, told in a beautiful, awe-inspiring way.

Ratings:
3.5 stars of 5 for the book, and 4 stars of 5 for the movie.

Book Reviews: 'The Goal', 'It's Not Luck' and 'The Choice' by Eliyahu Goldratt

Cropped cover images. Source: Amazon.in

I have been a big fan of Eliyahu Goldratt's books ever since I first read 'The Goal' during college. I have read it multiple times, and ditto for 'It's Not Luck', which is now also titled 'The Goal Part II'.

These books are written as novels, and narrate the story of Alex Rogo, a factory manager who solves problems at his factory, in his marriage, and later at his division with the help of a consultant, Jonah. Fast-paced and gripping and yet easy to read, these books present Goldratt's approach of finding breakthrough growth by challenging seemingly logical assumptions.

Most of his other books are all written as novels too.

'The Choice' is the one I read most recently.
Here as well, his thinking processes are presented as a conversation between him and his daughter. The book is written from the POV of his daughter, a professional organisational psychologist. She takes the reader through her stream of thoughts and intermittently reads from reports to understand work done by Goldratt at various companies.

Compared to other books, this book distills the thinking processes into a set of belief systems that Goldratt holds about how humans work and solve problems. Since I had read other books, some bit of this books repetitive and slow. But the reveal of the basic beliefs was as enjoyable and mind-blowing as his other books.

Here are the links to books I have read and their ratings according to me:
The Goal, applies his theory to Production Management; Rating 5 stars of 5
It's Not Luck, applies it to Marketing; Rating 5 stars of 5
Critical Chain, applies it to Project Management; Rating 3 stars of 5
Isn't It Obvious?, applies it to Retail and Supply Chain Management; Rating 4 stars of 5
The Theory of Constraints, explains the core theory; Rating 5 stars of 5
The Choice, explains the core beliefs; Rating 4 stars of 5

Book Review: The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely

Cropped book cover. Source: Amazon.in

Just like movies, it's true for books too: sequels are rarely as good as the first. But 'The Upside of Irrationality' by Dan Ariely, is an exception.

Dan Ariely's first book on this topic was 'Predictably Irrational'. It introduced us to irrational human behaviour. And gave a few examples from his researches over the years.

But with 'Upside...', Mr. Ariely gives a more application-based understanding of our irrationality. And with each topic he assesses, he shows the variations within that irrational behaviour of ours. Hence, this book remains as enlightening and fun, but ends up being much more useful than the first book.

Also, it has many more examples and lessons that you will find relatable to your life and your decisions. So it has the added advantage of partly being a self-help book too.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5
You can buy the 'Upside of Irrationality' on Amazon here

Book Review: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Cropped Book Cover. Source: Amazon.in

If you say yes to one or both these questions, you will find this book very interesting:
(1) Do you like reading about what drives our habitual behaviour?
(2) Do you believe in this saying “culture eats strategy for breakfast”?

Much like the cover explains, this book aims for both explaining human behaviour and taking a shot at self-help and improvement. It also seems reliably applicable in personal and organisational situations (sections 1 and 2), but it seems a force-fit in the social context (section 3).

Rating: 3.5 stars of 5
High rating for the applicability for the framework, cutting a few points for the 3rd section.

If you have already read and liked this book, you will like these too:
- Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” and “Blink”
- Thaler and Sunstein’s “Nudge”
- Lewitt and Dubner’s “Freakonomics”

You can buy the ‘Power of Habit’ on Amazon here

Book Review: Presentation Masala by Vivek Singh

 

Cropped Book Cover. Source: Amazon.in

Think of this book as what Dale Carnegie’s books are for Public Speaking. Loaded with examples, and yet extremely simple and crisp is why I loved reading this book.

The author delivers exactly on the expectations set out by the title. None of the chapters are about content. The entire book is about context, packaging and delivery.

A must-read for professors as well as professionals, and more so, for those who focus exclusively on content when preparing for their presentations.

I got the Kindle version for free due to a LinkedIn promotion, but it’s worth paying for, too. And I don’t know Vivek, so this isn’t the obligatory positive review. The book is genuinely good!

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5

Book Review: The Joy of Game Theory by Presh Talwalkar

If Game Theory sounds intimidating and complex, start here to see how it is simply all around us, and while you're at it, learn some tricks too.

While this book is a "collection" of articles, it is written in a very delightfully interesting way and makes for a fun reading. Makes me want to read about Game Theory, so yes, serves its purpose too.

Rating: 4 stars of 5
Free on Kindle Prime Reading

Book Reviews: Leonardo da Vinci and Mao Zedong

I find history fascinating!
Especially how it shows over and over that success and failure are usually a result of both circumstances and choices.

These 2 books are what I read, but the Hourly History collection is much bigger.

Very crisp and informative; it took about 60-80 minutes to read each. A good first book about the topics, and not detailed enough to form your opinion about them.

Rating: 4 stars of 5

Read them for free on Kindle Prime Reading

Book Review: Make Love Not Scars by Ria Sharma

Going through the first few pages felt like "is this even a serious book about acid attacks!"
But that was because the author was taking me on a journey... a roller-coaster ride! Some chapters are so dark I wanted to quit, but continued even as I struggled to cope with the Covid-19-caused lockdown in India. But man, what a story!

Thank you, Ria, for writing this.
And thank you more for the candour with which you have written it.

Rating: 3.5 Stars of 5
Buy it here.

Outliers: An outstanding take on 'Luck'

"I make my own destiny."

This is what my T-shirt says today. But the book in my hand respectfully disagrees.

'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell presents a very compelling case on why successful people are not just brilliant and hard-working, but also 'lucky' to be in the right place at the right time. In fact, as the first few chapters in the books explain, some successful people are 'lucky' even for the month and year of their birth!

Outliers explores both width and depth of 'luck' playing a role in the success stories of people. The first section explains the amazingly wide set of circumstances that, as Paulo Coelho would have said, conspire to make a person fulfill his/her dreams. And the second section goes deep in the history of successful people... in many cases, up to a few generations back in time. And both sections present the same conclusion. Success is as much a matter of chance, as it is a matter of genius.

Talk of equal opportunities for everyone!

This might depressing and dis-empowering, but the book's message is exactly the opposite. And this is where the book itself becomes an outlier among books on success. Gladwell goes on to say that the conclusions simply mean we can 'create' more successes by simply adding the 'luck' factor. In many cases, it can mean doing as simple things as tweaking the circumstances a bit. Like a small change in the rules of how Canadian hockey players are selected for professional leagues can give us double the size of outstanding players, even if the pool of eligible players remains of the same size.

If what the book suggests is true, the impact of making such small changes around us would be so big, that it would be beyond measurement.

At a very personal level, I found the book very inspiring. I finished the book with this thought:
"At the same time when I am carving out a living for myself, I am willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly, creating circumstances for others being successful (or failures). I contribute to the 'luck' factor that their genius requires."

And that sounds like true power!

Truth, Lies and Advertising by Jon Steel

A book written about advertising, and by an adman, would invariably talk about truth and lies, and how advertising is somewhere in between. However, this book says nothing about such issues, and maybe that's why, talks a lot of sense.

An interesting read by any measure, 'Truth Lies and Advertising' takes the reader into the fascinating world of account planning, and how it is not the next fad in the advertising world. It explores the depths of the job and how!

Some interesting statements made in the book, attributed to the original quoters:

On research: The average American has one testicle and one breast.

When you prepare a mousetrap, leave enough room for the mouse.

On enthusiastic clients who focus on product features: "It's just a f*cking chocolate cookie."

You don't have a good strategy till you have a good ad.

(Don't have the book with me now, so not verbatim)

In addition to all the information and 'insight' into the world of account planning, this book also helped me understand why 'got milk?' is such a great campaign.

It turned out that the campaign was not what I thought it was. All the print ads that you must have seen, showing celebrities with a milk moustache, are Phase 2, or maybe Phase 3 of the campaign. The original idea leaves you spellbound with its creativity and simplicity.

Absolut Fun!

What does a marketer do if it wants to sell a product that:
1) has no odour, taste or colour by itself
2) is just another product in an already crowded market
3) whose country of origin has no credibility in the making of this product, and
4) has to build the entire business from scratch

Would you believe if I told you,
that this brand is the largest selling imported brand in the US in its category?
Or that it sells at a premium much higher than other brands in the market?
Or that its bottles have become collectibles over the years?
Or that it still runs that same advertisements that marked its launch almost 3 decades ago?

That is the fascinating story of Absolut Vodka, a name that was invented just 3 decades ago, but claims to continue a tradition that's centuries old.

The book 'Absolut, Biography of a Bottle' written by Carl Hamilton presents a wonderful account of how the business and advertising of Absolut started.

The writing style too is commendable - one that makes the reader think he is tracing a scandal of sorts right from its origin to its launch and success in the United States. Throughout Carl demonstrates the power of advertising in building a brand, and the apparent disrespect the advertising world has to ethics. Overall a fun read, though.

The essence of the advertising campaign behind Absolut Vodka can be summed up in this paragraph taken from the book.

In Germany, several brands had been beaten into extinction when Allied bombers blew the factories to rubble in World War II, halting production for several years. After the war, they rose like a flock of Phoenixes from the ashes, and qucikly regained their previous market shares. Brand names had an iron grip on the people. This was a problem for new products, like instant coffee and frozen food. Simply put, they had no history. Such products were as scary as a person with no past. The only solution, Dichter said, was to invent a past.