When most of my own clients disappear, leaving out of office messages like breadcrumbs, I figure it’s time for the annual Favorite Things edition of the blog!
One great thing about this blog edition is that is it evergreen! If you can’t deal with it now, save it. It will age well –even better than last year’s Christmas fruitcake.
This year, I’ve added books to the podcast list.
I promise this is NOT a repetition of the 20 other lists you’ve received.
Unlike those high-brow enriching emails, this list leans toward pleasure.
Podcasts
Cover Story from New York Magazine. The first season is called “Power Trip”, an 8-part investigative report into the emergence of psychedelic exploration and therapy (ostensibly).
Business Wars I’ve listened to about 5 of these seasons. They are exploration of specific rivalries in business history and range from the Coke-Pepsi rivalry to Southwest versus American Airlines, and Airbnb’s fight to operate in New York City. There are at least 15 of the full seasons– probably more. But who’s counting. They are very well done. My favorite so far has been Häagen-Dazs versus Ben and Jerry’s. That’s the one at the link.
Smoke Screen is another ongoing series with single-subject seasons. I recently listened to Puppy Kingpin, an investigation of the secret world of brokers acting as conduits between puppy mills and pet shops. It is a fascinating exploration of how business crosses the line from being sound and strategic to being corrupt and ultimately criminal. It really doesn’t focus on the dogs as much as the business machinations. Who doesn’t love a good machination?!
Bad Bets is a production of the Wall Street Journal. These are business scandals, unpacked. The first I heard was on Enron. The investigation goes into detail about the people involved and the ways in which things went sideways –up to the bitter, and economically disastrous end. Those of a “certain” age, who have personal memories of the unfolding, will find it surprising. Enron’s demise was a major influence on my writing my own book, Powered By Principle. So, of course, I had to hear it. They also have seasons exploring the Nikola and Theranos scandals—and others.
Books
I read a lot. But I’ve never included any books in my annual Favorite Things list. While I read Adam Grant. Julia Galef, Annie Duke and all the other household names on business, leadership, decision-making and so forth, those books aren’t here.
That’s not because I didn’t enjoy them. But the vortex of popularity often leaves behind a lot of very talented authors and brilliant thinkers.
On the whole, these are not necessarily new—although most are new-ish.
Non-Fiction
Geography is Destiny by Ian Morris: A fascinating history of the 10,000 year history of Great Britain viewed through its unique geography —and through the changes in that geography over time. Britain emerges as a power only when shipping became viable. It’s a fascinating book.
The Crux by Richard Rumelt, a Stanford professor and expert on strategy. (He has an earlier book that is also excellent.) This is definitely on my list of best business books of the year. In this book he makes a critical point about strategy—that a vision, mission, and list of objectives is NOT a strategy and never will be. Instead, a strategy addresses the crux. That fundamental obstacle that stands between the current circumstance and the desired outcome.
The Innovation Illusion How Our Obsession With the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most by Fredrik Erixon and Björn Weigel. Most of Silicon Valley and our culture is obsessed with innovation –with creating disruptive technology that forges its own category. But, if we spent even a small part of the same energy on making things work well—on maintenance, and infrastructure and anticipating breakdowns –everything would work so much better.
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach. What are we to do with animals that violate our expectations? Like when a black bear is a regular visitor to your fridge! The book presents a collection of situations where, for a variety of reasons, the needs and wants of wild animals collide with our own –and it doesn’t go well. I wished it were longer and offered more solutions. But I was delighted to have had a taste of this quagmire.
Fiction
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWit. This tiny book packs a punch. The protagonist is a very sheltered French girl who has been raised to conform to a very strict and simple set of rules of decorum. All of the rules are intended to steer her clear of doing anything in poor taste (“mauvais ton”). Then she is thrust into the sea of shark’s in New York’s literary scene. How long before they eat her alive? It reads like a contemporary fable.
Other People’s Clothes by Calla Henkel. It takes place in Berlin, during the early 2000s. Two foreign exchange students share a house and one of the housemates has an abiding lust for partying with European royalty or rich jetsetters. They get in over their heads. It’s a frantic journey –and has a lot of hysteria and blood along the way. Having misspent some of my own youth faking my way into A-list European nightclubs, it had an eerie familiarity—to a point.
The Maid by Nita Prose. This is one of the books that made various lists. But it is too good not to include. It’s a whodunnit with a guileless, possibly neuro-atypical, 25 year old at its center. She discovers a murdered body while doing her job as a hotel maid. The ensuing story is a strange mix of The Strange Case of the Dog That Didn’t Bark in the Night, and Body Heat.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman. This novel was a huge deal a few years ago. It’s a cerebrally narrated by Turkish student entering her freshman year at Harvard. She ends up in what may or may not be a love affair with a Hungarian mathematics student. The second half of the book takes place in Hungary where she joins an organized English teacher “corps” for the summer. I spent much of the book confused in a way that was appropriate to the main character’s own alienation. Reviewers said the book was funny. I never laughed. But I loved the interwoven explorations of philosophy and language.
Batuman’s second installment, Either/Or, came out this year. It too has also won critical acclaim.
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. This is not only not new –it is old! But I read it for the first time this year despite it having been a favorite of everyone around me from it’s publication in 1980. It is a saga in 28,000 BCE (roughly), when paleontologists believe Neanderthals were starting to be eclipsed by Cro-Magnons. A 5-year old child survives an earthquake that destroys her family, and is adopted by what we come to believe is a Neanderthal clan. Nothing about this sounds like a page-turner. Disregard your instinct here. It is riveting.
Dessert
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Gailbraith. This is the 6th in the Cormorant Strike series under J.K. Rowling’s nom de plume. Like all the books in this series, it’s a strong mystery with lots of complexity. One note. If at all possible, do not read this on Kindle. Much of the action takes place within the chat function of a virtual game. The font in these portions is so small that it is entirely unreadable—and it doesn’t magnify in Kindle’s UI. So, get the hard copy book from your library!
State of Terror by Hillary Clinton with Louise Penny. I was astounded at how good this was. My expectations were low. Bill Clinton also tried his hand at fiction (with Patterson). It was awful. But this is a true page turner. The protagonist is the Secretary of State—clearly an avatar of the author. But this version of her is like a superhero. All at once brilliant, intuitive, tactful, strategic, and fearless. But despite the implausible flawlessness of the character, this is a shockingly good read. Disregard whatever political feelings you have about the author. If you like political and international thrillers, you’ll love this.
