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Innovation Generation by Roberta Ness (see review)
In Innovation Generation Roberta Ness was to tell you that generating ideas is a matter of skill than chance. She uses here experience in university teaching on innovation to suggest tools to achieve that in a scientific setting. Even though many ideas have been around for long, they haven’t percolated into academia. It is a good book for that target audience.
Rating 6/10. Finished 2012-06-25
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Sleepfaring by Jim Horne (see review)
We spend more than a third of our life sleeping but we know very little about it. I read this book while I was experimenting with polyphasic sleep. It is a good read for anyone wanting to learn about this mysterious subject, but sometimes the excessive referencing to other chapters within in the book could put the reader off.
Rating 6/10. Finished 2010-07-20
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What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly (see review)
Kelly’s hypothesis in the book is very simple: what technology wants is that we keep building new ways of using technology to benefit us, which in turn will drive us to develop even more new technologies. I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious, loves technology or wonders what the world will be in the future.
Rating 7/10. Finished 2011-02-28
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Self-reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson (see notes)
It is a powerful essay to remind ourselves of our potential. You may read the essay itself for free here. The one I read was a version of the essay published by Seth Godin’s Domino Project. It includes self-reflection by leading luminaries but they are not needed to understand the true value of this essay.
Rating 8/10. Finished 2011-05-29
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The Art of War by Sun Tzu (see notes)
Despite the book being about war and war tactics, it is remarkable how much of it may be applied to our daily lives. This ancient book has explored human nature in such detail that whenever one may need to fight against an enemy (human or not), there will be bits in this book which may prove useful.
Rating 8/10. Finished 2010-12-26
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Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (see notes)
After reading Outliers, I was excited to read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Unfortunately, despite it’s great narration the book didn’t quite live up to expectations. Nevertheless, it is a great read. There are many lessons to learn from it but he does not go to the extent of finding tools that could help the reader achieve them. Lots of food for thought though, as is usual from MG’s other books.
Rating 7/10. Finished 2011-02-22
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Six (Thinking) Frames by Edward de Bono (see notes)
I read this book on the advice of a friend. It has some useful models but it’s not very easy to put it in practice. May be I found it hard to relate the shapes with the ideas and thus found it hard to remember. Very short and quick read though.
Rating 3/10. Finished 2011-04-11.
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How t o Get Rich by Felix Dennis (see notes)
A very well written account of his experiences converted to advice on how to get rich. There is a nugget of gold on every page. I thoroughly enjoyed his narration and never once felt like I was being talked down to. Dennis seems, as he must be, a wise man and has a lot to offer in this book.
Rating 9/10. Finished 2011-03-27.
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59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman (see notes)
I found the book to be an interesting read. Although, I have to admit that after a while the studies and their results got a little boring so I started skipping to the ‘In 59 seconds or less’ section where he concludes the studies and gives a set of to-dos to make the best of those results. I’ve made a list of those in the notes.
Rating 7/10. Finished 2011-10-23.
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Akshat Rathi 