Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Yet another book on what causes brilliant successes - statistical outliers. But this one is good, in that it gives credit where its due (that's at least what I think) - opportunity and luck. Most books talk about just hard work/leadership (Good to great, etc.) or just luck (The halo effect). This one distills it to a point that it quantifies the amount of hard work needed - 10000 hours+ before you get "going", and it ties it up with opportunity and luck. (Why are all top Canadian hockey players born in first quarter of the year? What difference does family background have on test scores of first and fifth graders? What the good time to be born if you are in software, law, etc)? Though I think that quantifying the "right year to be born" for a particular profession is stretching things a bit too far, as it suffers from the survivor ship bias (Influence by Cialdini; The Black Swan by Nicholas Nassim Taleb), its still interesting.

Most of the Asian anecdotes refer to China, it would have been good if the author had also considered India, because some of the deductions would/may not be true in the Indian context (related to maths prowess, IQ, holidays, etc.) In doing the generalisation for Asian community, India is an important part that I think has been overlooked.

Overall its an interesting read, a very well told story and stresses on the right things for success. I dont think we have cracked this puzzle yet but its definitely better than the general glorification of skills, leadership, charisma, etc.

Definitely recommended.

Predictably Irrational - the hidden forces that shape our decisions

Dan Ariely has written an excellent book on human behavior - Predictably Irrational.
This books researches the many cases where we behave irrational -- and Dan exposes why this irrational behavior is "predictable".

I specially enjoyed reading the part about social and professional costs and why social and professional things cannot be mixed; why people will do things for free but not when they are offered a small compensation instead. Interesting.

This book is similar to the book "Influence: the psychology of human persuasion" by Dr Cialdini. I would rate Influence better of the two, as it seemed more scientific and had a clearer chain of thought. In Predictably Irrational, there are quite a few parts, specially in the chapters in the beginning, that I felt that the author was not really scientific but was pushing through his personal opinions. This isn't expected from an author with such credentials as of Dan Ariely. But the later chapters do appear more scientific, with information about control cases, etc - exactly what I would expect throughout any book which delves into human behavior.

Overall, I think this book is definitely worth reading. It contains important lessons on pricing, expectations, influence of arousal, etc.

Quotable Quotes from letters of Warren Buffet

While reading through the Letters of Warren Buffet, I had underlined some quotes - nuggets of wisdom - and I thought it will be a good idea to share them here:

-------

Put all your eggs in one basket - and watch that basket. (Mark Twain - Pudden'head Wilson)

To finish first, you must first finish. (Indianapolis 500 winner)

More money, it has been noted, has been stolen with the point of a pen than at the point of a gun.

If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. (David Ogilvy)

The intellect should be a servant of the heart, but not its slave.

Its probably true that hard work never killed anyone, but I figure why take the chance. (Ronald Reagan)

Managers eager to bet heavily on their abilities usually have plenty of ability to bet on.

As they say in poker "if you have been in the game for 30 minutes and you don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy".

In the short run the market is a voting machine but in the long run its a weighing machine. (Ben Graham)

Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you are old, people wont think that you are going ga-ga. (David Ogilvy)

You shape your houses and then they shape you. (Winston Churchill)

Every putt makes someone happy.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to arbitrage and you feed him forever.

If something cant go on forever, it will end. (Herb Stein)

Fools rush in where angels fear to trade. (Ray DeVoe)

If at first you do succeed, quit trying.

Fools give you reasons, wise men never try.

Most men would rather die than think. Most do. (Bertrand Russell)

I cant understand why more people aren't bi-sexual. It doubles your chance of a date on Saturday night. (Woody Allen)

Eating my words has never given me indigestion. (Winston Churchill)

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

Bull markets can obscure mathematical laws but they cannot repeal them.

If earnings have been unwisely retained, its likely that the managers too have been unwisely retained.

Essays of Warren Buffet

I read this book last week - The essays of Warren Buffet : Lessons for investors and managers" by Lawerance A Cunningham. This book is basically a collection of essays written by the great investor Warren Buffet in the annual reports of Berkshire Hathaway. This book is a treasure trove on investing and a must read for any one who really wants to "invest".

While I was doing my MBA from MDI my professor Dr Sanjay Bakshi had told the class to read the annual reports. I think most of the class didnt, to thier loss. I just about got to the point of downloading them but didnt get started on reading them. This book is great for getting one started with the reports because it distills and collates stuff from across the essays and puts them in a more readable form.

So if you want to catch up on all those years of annual reports, get this book instead. I dont think I need to waste my energy talking about the essays or Mr Buffet, so I will end here.