Outliers: Malcolm Gladwell

a review/ish

I think the best way to summarize or review this brilliant book is through Bill Gates’ story.
To be as rich and successful as Bill Gates you need two things:

First: 10000 (ten thousand) hours of programming: this is how many hours Bill Gates had by the time he founded Microsoft. That is  approximately 4 hours a day, every day. It is hard work, but doable, if you have the determination and will you should do it, and if you do, you will succeed.

Second: You need to be born in 1955. It is not a coincident that Microsoft founder was born in 1955, Paul Allen, the cofounder was born 1953, Apple founder was born in 1955, Bill Joy who wrote Java and almost all the codes we use now and founded Sun microsystems was born 1955, and so the other cofounder s like Andy Bechtoisheim.

In 1974 the personal computer entered a new age with the production of a $350 kit called Altair 8800. Suddenly it became in reach of every tech lover, not just big companies and institutions.

So why 1955? Because when you are 19/20, old to understand but not working for any company and moulded into whatever the companies do, but not too young so you can start a business; that is the right age.

Malcolm Gladwell argues that for success you need hard working and determination, but also factors that way beyond your control, most of the time it is the date of birth, your race, heritage, or religion that will decide if you have a chance to succeed in this world, and often it is not necessarily in the way you think.

To be successful hockey player in Canada you need to be born in the first two months of the year, Jews were not allowed to own land in Europe, so when they migrated to the US they had the advantage above many other immigrants of being skilled craftsmen and traders.

On a personal level/ example: In 1997 British people elected a Labour government, which published a white paper to improve the NHS. Part of that improvement plan was recruiting nurses, eventually the decided to recruit from oversees. In 2000 they reached to Jordan, at a time where I had enough experience  to apply and travel to the UK. If I was few years younger I won’t got that opportunity, which was not a result of my hard work and dedication, but rather a political event that I had no influence or even knowledge of at the time.
This is not to undermine hard work, talent, determination or dedication, but you could have all of that and still not succeed, because the external factors were not in your favour.
It is a great book, there is much more than what I listed here and I would say it is a must read.
 

Motivational, leadership and self-helping books

 

A Review

Over the past year or so I have read few of these self- helping books, not just because I like reading but also because I feel that I could do with some help ( I am very humble).

Overall, I can honestly say that they don't help, I know this sounds arrogant and as if I have "I know it all" attitude, but the truth is that some ideas are helpful for some people in some situations providing that certain conditions are met, but overall these books do not offer any scientifically tested methods to improve the quality of your life or reach your potential.

Of course they vary in what they offer and how they offer it. Some are properly structured, some are enjoyable read, and some are just waste of time.

I will list these books (in the picture below) with some reflection on the contents, ideas presented and methodology used. I will be brief, to the point, and somehow harsh. It is important to note that these books are very subjective; therefore my judgement is well suited, because it is very subjective.

 

Simon Sinek
Start with why

I loved Simon Sinek's TED talk, it was really good and I wanted to read the book for some time but didn't get to it till recently.
The TED talk is 17 minutes, the book is 260 pages. Frankly, just watch the talk and save yourself the time and money. He is just rambling on and on about the same simple idea he presented in 17 minutes.

Make Your Bed
Admiral William H McRaven

I didn't read it; I tried but got really bored after the first few pages. Flicked through the book exploring and nothing caught my attention. Again, there is a YouTube video by the admiral that is concise and better than the book. The anecdotes and the way it is told felt like an army officer telling you how "you know nothing" and "you weren't there" sort of Hollywood performance, but in a really boring way.

7 Habits of highly effective people
Steve Covey

This is a very popular book, people recommend it and refer to it, so I approached it with high expectations, quickly I was disappointed.
There are some (emphasise on the literal meaning of some) good ideas, very useful and definitely make sense, but they are common sense.
The two main factors that made me dislike the book are the anecdotes and the lack of science (the latter is a common theme in all these types of books).
I will list a couple of anecdotes from the book, I will not explain, expand or elaborate, I hope that you will get the idea:
"I was on the subway, a man got on with two kids, they were disruptive and very loud, gradually everyone in the coach got annoyed. The man did nothing to stop them or control their behaviour. I eventually said to him: could you ask your children to calm down, please? He said: I think I should, we just got out of the hospital after their mum has died, I think they don't know what to do and niether do I".
"I wasn't happy with the accommodation, I complained to the vice chancellor and he said he will speak to the manager of the accommodation. He called me to his office and the manager of university accommodation was there, he asked me to inform him of what the problem was ".

This is often a reoccurring theme in these books, a very strange, unique, unusual anecdote and from it there are lessons to every reader's life.

Atomic Habits
James Clear

Now things are getting better. I enjoyed this book, mainly because it is structured in a gradual and interesting way. He uses a lot of good examples to illustrate the idea/s he is preaching.
But frankly I could tell you in two or three sentences what took James Clear few hundred pages to explain:
Change things in very small steps, create some good habits and keep them, associate bad behaviour with a habit and avoid it. Done.
of course this is slight exaggeration, there is a lot more details on that. But I would hesitate to recommend reading this book, if you really want a structured programme to address specific issues; it might help.

The Subtle art of not giving a f*ck
Mark Manson

I really enjoyed reading this (actually it was an audio book, which made it more enjoyable). I picked up a couple of good points that I tried to use in my life and they are useful:
Decide what to care about and what not, in other words, things you should give a fuck about and the things you shouldn't. By doing so you can preserve your time, energy and feelings to what matters to you. But again, this should be common sense really.

The other point that struck me and made me think about a lot of things I did /do is:
Fault and responsibility are two different things: others might make mistakes, then the outcome of their mistake lands on your path, it becomes your responsibility to act, blaming them doesn't change the fact that you are now responsible for what happens next. The example that he gives is a very good one: you open your door to find a new born baby in a basket on your front door; you could blame the person left the baby as much as you like but that doesn't change the fact that it is now your responsibility to act. Shutting the door and leaving the baby outside is your doing and you will be responsible for the consequences! Another example is if someone jumps in front of you in traffic, they are careless drivers, now that is the fault and you can blame them for the irresponsible behaviour. Shouting and cursing, or crashing into the back of their car, that is on you, you are responsible for your reaction, regardless of their fault.

Apart from these things the book does not offer anything substantive, still it is worth reading.

12 rules of life
Jordan Peterson

Jordan Peterson is a very controversial figure, and frankly that is why I read 12 rules of life. I did not want to include this book in this quick review because it will be unfair, but I read it a while ago and did not get to write about it in detail, so before I completely forget it (I am getting old) I thought I need to scribble something down.

Jordan Peterson is a great writer, especially when it comes to work of literature and religious text; he has a unique ability to break down the text in minute details and extracting an unbelievable metaphors and lessons from every word. To give you an example; in sleeping beauty the princess had a needle prick caused by a spinning wheel’s needle. Jordan Peterson takes this well-known Disney fairy tale and starts to analyse the metaphors. The spinning wheel is fate, the pricked bleeding finger in the princess hand is losing virginity and coming of age, sleeping (the plot) because she chooses unconsciousness over the terror of adult life. Now that is brilliant, over the top, but definitely beautiful. The problem now with this complex analytical approach to something as simple as a fairy tale is the same mistake in every book: Generalisation.

Worryingly, Jordan Peterson applies this way of “over-analysing” behaviours over an individual or a group (or lobsters) to apply to our everyday lives. Yes we have issues with hierarchy in society, especially when we talk about the patriarchy, but is this just an evolution we inherited from lobsters?   

 If you really want to get some benefits and self-help from “12 rules of life” just read the table of contents, then try to apply the broad titles to your own life. If you want to read it with critical mind, then you will enjoy parts of it, disagree with many other parts, and then walk away with your own conclusion about Jordan Peterson.

 

 

 

There are three other books that are related but very different: Freakonomics, Super Freakonomics and Outliers. I will try to talk about these at some point, especially Outliers.

 

 

a poem about a tree, but I don't write poetry

I wish I could write poetry

I would have written a poem about this tree I see everyday. Old as life but still standing. Our history is written inside it as circles. Young lovers' secrets carved on its trunk. Extending it arms to everywhere, to the sky, to eternity. Shinning green when all that surround it is autumn. Branches almost touching the ground, 

As if it doesn't want to far apart from it's roots

As if it wants to comfort the golden dead leafs 

As if it is weeping the loss of the children of other trees

As if it is protecting the fallen from being forgotten 

As if it is a mother for all that is there 

As if it loves the land, we call homeland 

I wish I could write poetry

I would write a poem about this tree I know

Ahmad Baker 

PS: I chose not to take a picture of the said tree, because I wanted to paint it in words... 

Should we be happy that Biden won?

 Should we be happy that Biden won?

I asked myself this question often as I see the different response to the results. I am in no doubt that Trump is bad, and if we are comparing Biden to Trump -this is a very low par- then Biden is better. But will he be a better president? and whatever he represents is good for us? I mean by us: humans, citizens of the world, I am sure individual countries as India and Israel would prefer Trump, and so the Brixters and right wing parties in Europe, but collectively as humans of planet earth: is Biden good? Should we be happy? 

The American presidential election is a very important event in the world; the US is the leading super power today, militarily and economically. The past 4 years showed that the American president enjoys enormous powers while in office, and they can steer the country politics in any direction they wish to do. Therefore, who sits in the oval office will impact on all our lives, whether we like it or not.

There are many American policies that impact directly or indirectly on our lives across the world; policies towards fossil fuel, Paris accords, tax regulations, Chinese steel and 5g companies, and the list goes on. Of course add to that the invasion of Iraq or interference in South American elections, and all the geopolitical decisions that express the American imperialism.

I am sure many would have different views on the above examples, also might debate that the change in leadership in the US does not often change their policies especially foreign policy. Under Obama, shale gas fracking, deep sea oil wells, drone attacks, and much more took place that was not much different to Trump. Yes he was a great orator, but it should not make a real difference, if your father’s murderer brought flowers to the funeral that does not absolve them from the crime!

One of the things that Trump was very known for, aside from being racist xenophobe, is lying. Trump and his team have worked tirelessly to spread lies, encourage conspiracy theories and doubt all truths. In fact the word “post-truth” was word of the year in 2016 according to the OED. Mistakenly, many people blame Trump for this, forgetting that Trump is part of the Tea Party and Sarah Palin who have been paddling lies for the past ten years. Biden is no better, he supported the Iraq war, do you remember that? What was the truth about WMD? I could list endless examples of lying politicians, and trust me ( I might be lying) Trump is not an exception or an exaggeration (see Yuval Hariri 21 lessons for the 21st century, he had a chapter on misinformation). In fact, as a Labour and Corbyn supporter I can list few of the lies that Corbyn championed; like being pro EU! The problem Corbyn had was that he was not good at lying, which is what the British pubic prefer.

This narrows the choices/ options to compare a current Trump presidency to a future Biden presidency, but I think it narrows it to a very important one variable, a very big one.

“The clan are marching without hoodies”, this is how a commentator referred to the events in Charlottesville, which Trump defended them stating “there are fine people on both sides”. This is what Trump in the white house means, racists, neo Nazis, xenophobes had the president on their side. It is acceptable to be racist in public, because the president is.

Racism is not a Trump invention, nor is misogyny, islamophobia, xenophobia, or any hatred ideology, they always existed and will not go away anytime soon. However, it was not something of a debate, not a matter of opinion, we as society, imperfect as we are, we had almost a consensus on what defines racism or xenophobia, it was easy to call it out, hard to defend. During Trump era, these divisive ideologies became main stream, an opinion anyone could “proudly” have! This is the most dangerous place for us humanity to be, and it will be a huge task to move from this very dark place where we all live now.

If you want to cheer Biden winning- which I have- I think there is only one good reason which is the end of normalising racism, that’s all what Trump really was different to any other American president (recent). It is though very important one. I do not want to be very optimistic, because Bide is not really that good, and more importantly we are all still living in the hatred Trump helped to flourish, and we all have to change that.

Ahmad Baker