Ashok's Blog

"The wisdom of crowds" book by James Surowiecki underlines the importance of the wisdom of the the crowd in making better decisions. This is contrary to the general belief that experts always have the right answers and they can make better decisions.  The book describes number of instances where the crowd or a group made a close call. This doesn't mean that well informed analysts are of no use in making good decisions. However the advice of experts need to be pooled with other people to make better decisions. Group decision will be better than most of the people in the group. It's unlikely that one person will be better than the group.  Not all the groups can make good decisions. When a group has people who think alike in worldview and mindset, then they easily fall prey into groupthink. These type of groups would not make the best decisions. Smartest group are made of people with different perspectives who are able to stay independent of each other.  Homogeneou

Following is the list of my favorite books that can help improve your Leadership skills. The list is in not in any order. 1. How We Decide   2. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action 3. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right 4. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard 5. Six Thinking Hats 6. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us 7. Confessions of a Public Speaker 8. Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive 9. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future 10. Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time 11. Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition; Why It Can Matter More Than IQ 12. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die 13. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In 14. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity 15. How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Succe

This book is  about how human mind make decisions and how we can make better decisions. Sometimes we need to think through the options we have and sometimes we need to listen to our emotions. The secret is to know when to use these different styles of thought. Reason and feelings have important strengths and weakness. Different situations require different strategies. How we decide should depend on what we are deciding.   Our reasoning is like the charioteer and our emotions are the horses. People have disparaged the emotional brain, blaming our feelings for our  mistakes. Emotions are crucial part of decision making. A brain that can't feel can't make up its mind. Since Plato we have been assured that a perfectly rational world would be perfect world. This is not true. The reality of the brain is that, sometimes, rationality can lead us astray. Choking is one of the example of the havoc that can be caused by too much thought. It's an illustration of rationality gon

Ask the question WHY first, inplace of WHAT,  if you want to have a lasting impact. This is the main theme of the book, "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek. WHAT is important, but needs to be driven by WHY. Refer the picture with WHY, HOW and WHAT concentric circles. WHY is the inner circle and WHAT is the outer circle. Our default approach is outside-in thinking (WHAT -> HOW -> WHY). Simon suggest to have an inside-out approach thinking (WHY->HOW-> WHAT). - Apple introduced their iPod by offerings us "1000 songs in your pocket". Unlike other players, Apple advertising didn't offer descriptions of product details. It wasn't about them, it was about us . And we understood WHY we wanted it. Creative advertised their product as 5 GB MP3 player. Creative told us WHAT  their product was and Apple told us WHY we need it. Companies try to sell us WHAT they do, but we buy WHY they do it .   - Inspired leaders communicate from inside out, WHY -> HOW

I've been using Vibram Five Finger (VFF) shoes from the last four months. I ran the Oakland full  marathon and 200 mile relay with Vibram shoes.  I thought of giving Vibram a shot after reading the book, "Born to Run" .  The book had sound reasoning on why running barefoot is better than running with the regular shoes. I started getting shin pain with my regular shoes. After running with Vibram, my shin pain stopped. The shin pain I was getting may also be because of my shoes. I'm a believer in trying before saying "No". I've only positive things to say about Vibram. It took me about a month to get used to Vibram shoes. I noticed that when running with Vibram or bare foot, different set of muscles are exercised. I was able to run comfortably and my running speed increased. My suggestion is give Vibram a shot. If it works then it is great. If it doesn't work for you, then go with your regular shoes.

I'm using kindle for more than six months.   I have brought close to a dozen kindle books.  Following are few points that can help you decide whether you want to buy a Kindle or not. Kindle uses e-ink and is not hard on the eyes, unlike reading from the computer screen. It's almost like reading the regular book. You can read for hours without straining your eyes. Most of the kindle  book cost $9.99. Kindle books are priced lower than the regular books. However you cannot resell the books. When you factor this in, there is not much price differentiation. You cannot lend kindle books to your friends. There are number of free books available. Most of the old classic books are freely available on kindle. You don't need physical space. This was an important factor for me. I was running out of space on my book shelf and I did not want to want to add additional shelf. When you are traveling you can carry the  entire library with you.    You are not restricted to few boo

This book provides good insights on making changes. It can be a change at a personal level or a Leader who wants to make a change in his organization. An analogy of a Rider and an Elephant is used in this book. Rider is the logical part and our thinking which drives us. Elephant is our emotion. To make a change, you need to appeal to both the Rider and the Elephant. If you appeal only to Rider, your team will have understanding without motivation. If you appeal to Elephant you will have passion without direction. It is easy to turn an easy change problem into a hard change problem. If you want somebody to eat less, serve them in a smaller plate instead of worrying about convincing or educating them. What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. When you shape the path you make change more likely. To change behavior, direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant and shape the path. If you are trying to change things, there will be bright spots. Understanding the br