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Who wrote the Oxford English Dictionary?

 
Stumped aren’t you?

 
We are familiar with the authors of so many books- but the one book that helps us make sense of all the other books- remains a complete mystery to us. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was a crowdsourcing project that took 70 years (1858 to 1928) to complete! Did you know that? The team that came together for the project, the editors and many of the contributors (largely volunteers), made this their magnificent obsession; chasing down obscure words and when they appeared first!

 
Author Sara Ogilvie ticks all the right boxes; she was not only editor of Oxford Dictionary Australia, but also on the Amazon team that developed the Kindle. She has written a book that makes us question- “why didn’t anyone think of this before?” ‘The Dictionary People- The Unsung Heroes who Created the Oxford English Dictionary’ is the most obvious book never written until now!

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights - 


1. The OED is one of mankind’s greatest achievements, and yet, curiously, its creators are largely unknown. The dictionary itself- as we know it today- is a modern development. Earlier versions of the dictionary were prescriptive- they explained to a reader how something should be pronounced. Its only in the 19th century that the dictionary began to trace the meanings of words across time and describe how people were actually using them.


2. Who were the people behind this unprecedented book? As Sarah Ogilvie reveals, the ‘3000’ people she tried to track down were as varied as the daughter of Karl Marx, a president of Yale and a cocaine addict found dead in a railway station laboratory! All of them held somewhat loosely together by Dr James Murray, who died during the compiling of the alphabet ’T’ in 1915, not knowing whether his project would ever be complete!


3. How did these people come together? Dr James Murray asked people to read their local books-and send him small words and quotations on 4*6 inch paper slips. His clarion call was quite powerful; one of the respondents Margaret Alice Murray read the advertisement while she was living in Kolkata. There is no doubt that the OED was the greatest crowdsourcing endeavour in human history, the Wikipedia of its time.


4. Which of the contributors sent the maximum slips to Dr Murray? The award goes to Thomas Austin Jr. who sent a total of 1,65,061 slips. Sarah Ogilvie has labelled 26 chapters as per the letters of the alphabet. Not the most remarkable aspect; but interesting.


5. Ogilvie’s zealous detective pursuit of the identities and stories of the contributors to the OED is very well crafted. The very idea of this book and the author’s approach to it is unique and likely to elicit sharp reactions from people.


There is a serendipity to this book itself; just as theres a serendipity to the OED. In her last days living in Oxford, before taking a teaching position at Stanford, Sarah Ogilvie, who had worked as an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, discovered six handwritten address books noting the names of more than 3,000 contributors to the project. This is what triggered her journey.


 
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first Reading Coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: Who wrote the Oxford English Dictionary?

How the front-facing camera in smartphones messed up adolescents!

 
Which was the first phone with a front facing camera that changed our lives forever? Tough one, even though this was so recent. It was the iPhone 4, introduced in June 2010!

 
The author refers to the period 2010 to 2015 as the ‘Great Rewiring of Childhood’, not just in America but most Western nations. Thanks to the introduction of ever more powerful filters and editing softwares, the reflection that each girl saw in her mirror got less and less attractive, relative to the girl she saw on her phone. As the lives of girls moved on to social media platforms, boys buried themselves deeper into multiplayer games, YouTube, Reddit and even porn! 


The problem was that every thing was free and engineered to be addictive, in this alternate world. Adolescents lost the ability to be fully present with people around them. This not only changed social life for them forever, but also for the minorities that did not use these platforms!

 
Whew! That was quite a mouthful. Jonathan Haidt is the professor of ethical leadership at NYU Stern and he knows a thing or two about the psychology of morality and moral emotions! Wow! Thats some specialisation! And this is his third book.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:

 
1. The book is divided into four parts


Part 1: Mental health trends among adolescents since 2010


Part 2: The nature of childhood and how we messed it up!


Part 3: The harm that results from the new phone-based childhood


Part 4: What we must do now to reverse the damage in our families, schools and societies


The author offers a way out, highlighting that change is possible, only if we act together. 

 
2. Talking about the benefits of free play that we all indulged in as kids, Haidt says that the small challenges and setbacks that happen during ‘play’ are like an inoculation that prepares children to face much larger challenges later! He laments how free play began to decline in the 1980s. This decline accelerated in the 90s. Hereafter, the rapid spread of high -speed broadband in the 2000s, arrival of the iPhone in 2007 and the like and retweet buttons that appeared in 2009, meant that the life of Gen Z would never be the same again!

 
3. The author says that social media harms more girls than boys! Explaining the obsession of girls with perfection triggered by social media, the author cites a song by Olivia Rodrigo

 
“I kinda wanna throw my phone across the room
Cause all I see are girls too good to be true!"

 
He shares data, revealing that heavy users of social media have higher rates of depression and other disorders than non-users!

 
4. The author also points out that a phone-based life often fills 'our life's search for meaning' with trivial and degrading content! But are we really passive victims of big tech? Or are we consciously choosing a life of being misled?

 
5. Much like defective products are recalled from the market, Haidt says that we must consider that in 2010, most people did not know that smartphones would plunge us into a mental health crisis! Now that we are more aware, can we raise the age of internet adulthood to 16? Can we recall age 13-16 back to real play? And can tech companies find a way to verify and reject everyone below 16?

 
The book offers meaningful suggestions to solve the problem at hand. In that sense, 'The Anxious Generation' is a refresher about how to reclaim human life for human beings in all generations. The book reminded me of similar ones in the genre we have reviewed earlier such as Gloria Marks ‘Attention Span' and Dr Kristy Goodwin’s ‘Dear Digital, We need to talk.’

 
The gravitas of the issue at hand merits more conversation on this topic.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

I read two books this week on the subject of making money; ‘The Trolls of Wall Street’ by Nathaniel Popper and ‘The Book of Wealth’ by Mark Möbius. The former is a fast paced, narrative on how online discussion platforms contribute to ‘actionable opinion’ on Wall Street. The latter is a part introductory, part philosophical book about key terms and key actors who have shaped the stock market.

 
Mark Mobius sticks to definitions, fundamentals and doesn’t really get into specific tips. ‘The Trolls of Wall Street’ however is a genre-breaking book. I went on Reddit - the host of WallStreetBets - and checked out the community ‘r/WallStreetBets’. I was shocked to discover that the community had 16 million members. Founded by Jaime Rogozinski, with pre-defined but ever evolving rules of engagement, ‘WallStreetBets’ had been around since 2012.

 
Why would such a strong online community need offline representation via a book? A part of me felt that this was great news for the publishing industry. There’s easily a large population of people who will encounter the sub-Reddit WallStreetBets for the first time, thanks to this book.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:


1. WallStreetBets seems to have come up as a ‘home for angry young men unhappy about their diminished place in the world', at an individual level. However, it grew to become a community that eventually helped these men discover their potency as a collective. The idea of ‘male bonding’ between people who might never meet, but focus exclusively on ‘making money,’ while keeping the unfocussed folks out of the community was spot on! The other thing was the need for young men to express themselves in an environment where they didn’t necessarily have to watch their language and behaviour for the presence of women. Tough but thin line.


2. The idea that people start their blogging journey online, talking about everything under the sun and then refine it over time, basis what they really want to talk about is exactly how we understand the offline world as well. The same traits, curiosity, originality and honesty are valued in both places. And common interests shape why people come together and stay together.


3. There is a certain generation born before the 1980s to whom the idea of online communities creating ‘make or break calls’ on new products and services may seem ridiculous. But the discussion on WallStreetBets was extremely critical to the fortunes of RobinHood, GameStop etc; Also the idea that a generation that grew up playing video games takes bitcoins and making money off their mobile phone seriously, are truths the book presents in a matter of fact way.


4. The book offers a window into the ‘power struggles’ within online communities - does the founder of a community remain in charge? Can an outsider become the prime mover in a community they didn’t begin? Can a community thrive on the ethos that ‘people who are easily offended will not be tolerated?’


5. The very idea of moderators in online forums and their importance comes alive in the book. A community has a purpose, a language and a vibe. A major shift from these cannot come in without the buy in of the key moderators.

 
Is all of online, just offline 2.0? Only that you can do it from your basement, or even type while you’re drunk and not have to dress up and behave properly?

 
Summing up, author and journalist Nathaniel Popper talks about ‘people, connections and wealth’ in the online world in The Trolls of Wall Street. Mark Mobius is also talking about ‘people, connections and wealth’ in the offline world in ‘The Book Of Wealth.’ The bottomline is that larger the number of people buying into your story, the more your influence. Online offline, potatoh potahto!
 
 
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: Of money, male loneliness and more

I was reading ‘The Menstrual Coupe’, a collection of 23 short stories by Malayali author Shahina K Rafiq, when I heard about the doctors rape in Kolkata. On August 9, a trainee doctor on 36 hour duty dozed off in the seminar room at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata. She was subject to rape and murder and her body was discovered by colleagues the next morning. She has taken up a profession meant to serve people irrespective of their gender, caste and creed. And she faced the most heinous of gender crimes!

 
I couldn’t help but draw parallels between the ‘trapped’ women Shahina K Rafiq writes about in ‘The Menstrual Coupe’, and the doctor’s case. Shahina crafts a world of imagination for her female characters- perhaps imagination is the only place where they can escape patriarchy!

 
Here’s an alleged situational joke from the book! “On her wedding night, a bride confessed that she was in love with someone else. The groom said, “ at least let me make some use of the money I have spent on the pandal. You can leave tomorrow!” Some joke? The author crafts images of men raised in families in an entitled way, sitting around passing judgements about women in the extreme; makes one uncomfortable! “What about the men destroyed by women” asks a character in the book. Are we equating a woman’s right to love a person, other than her lovelorn admirer, with rape? Another question- do snakes coil themselves around menstruating women because they like the smell of blood? What! Clearly, much to ponder about.

 
I turned the page to another book, The Glass Cliff, by Sophie Williams. Make no mistakes, this is a very hard-hitting book for career women. It poses questions like -


1. Are women being hired in leadership roles, only after the business is already underperforming? Like Marissa Mayer’s shift to Yahoo from Google.


2. Is this a trend no one is talking about?


3. Are women being brought in as stopgaps till the company finds the right male candidate?


4. Worse, are women being brought in as scapegoats? So even if nothing works, the company can shrug off the blame on her?


There’s an observation that political parties field women in ‘unwinnable’ seats. Reading this book, made me realise that its high time we spoke about mental abuse against women, as much as physical abuse. Borrowing a leaf from the Kolkata case, a question arises-is elevating women deliberately when its time to fail, equivalent to ‘abuse of’ a woman’s career? “For would-be female leaders, the choice is often between the poisoned chalice or nothing at all,” quotes author Sophie Williams in the book.

 
In the Menstrual Coupe, the trauma of compulsory female servitude may often be passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter. And the women who want leadership roles ( despite all odds being stacked against them) take a fatal risk- they go all in! They prepare to perish, while taking the minutest off-chance that they may actually rise.

 
This theme- of trauma passing down generations reminded me of Elif Shafaq’s ‘The Island of Missing Trees.’ “We are afraid of happiness. From a tender age we are taught … that for every morsel of contentment, there will follow … suffering …” says the book. Another line goes thus about a scene in a pub; “both women were laughing so hard … the other customers began to look … no one imagining it was pain they were setting free.”

 
The Island of Missing Trees is not a feminist story, unlike ‘The Glass Cliff’ and “The Menstrual Coupe.’ But it deserves to be mentioned in our review of women’s writing because of its deep empathy with the human need to find connections.

 
We crave human connection. But every time a woman is violated, especially by someone she is connected to and knows, we destroy her faith and years of human progress! 
 
 
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: Of glass cliffs, menstruation and missing trees

AI TO MY AID, OR NOT?

 
The name Ethan Mollick rang a very powerful bell in my head, even though I couldn’t place why.

 
I put his name out on Google, only to remember how much I had enjoyed his previous book ‘Communities of Innovation’ in which he and co-author David Emery talked about the video gaming industry. Specifically, the release of the World War II game Battlefield 1942, which was followed by fans investing $16.5 million of labor into it for free, making it better and popular! The authors extended this to how not just gaming companies but any business, could channel user passion into mutually beneficial work. 

 
In this book, ‘Co intelligence: Living and working with AI,’ Mollick focuses on how practical aspects of AI can transform our world.The first sentence of the book is something we are likely to remember for a very long time! 'I believe the cost of getting to know AI, really getting to know AI is at least three sleepless nights,' says Mollick, in the same vein as Charles Dickens said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," in A Tale of Two Cities.

 
Here are our five BookStrapping insights-
 
1. Mollick admits that he once found himself arguing with a chatbot that accused him of being unethical, when he asked for help to write computer code. Humour is not the missing element in this book for sure!

 
2. Referring to AI as a General Purpose Technology (GPT), the author says that most general purpose technologies impact every aspect of our lives for example- steam power which created the industrial revolution improved productivity by 18 to 22%. However, it also changed other aspects of our life such as travel ; I had never thought of steam engine and AI in one category.

 
3. AI could very well be a ‘cheating tool.’ However, Mollick argues that funnily enough, AI makes baseline knowledge and education matter more than ever before! This is an interesting contrast presented in the book. The very technology, that can make you bypass everything, requires intelligence to be ‘used right’ in the first place. Just like the erstwhile calculator made most teachers and parents cry out loud about the future of mathematics, and yet became commonplace, AI too might find its slot. But the question remains, what is right usage of AI?

 
4. Another question is, what brings out the best in AI? Mollick says that AI works best when treated like a human being. He shares a telling example of how his own reticence to write a book, was trashed by AI rather sternly. He also shares many interesting conversations with AI, one of which ended in AI calling humans ‘cyborgs’ - creatures that use machines to enhance their abilities and extend their senses. Wow!

 
5. Mollick discusses the application of AI to art, even though art is supposed to be ‘original and creative.’ He puts forth the argument that ‘new ideas do not come from the ether’. They are based on existing concepts.’ Breakthroughs happen when people connect distant, seemingly unrelated ideas. So why can't AI create art?

 
Artificial intelligence was a term invented in 1956 by John Mcarthy of MIT. One can only conjecture to what extent he envisaged its power. The author presents four scenarios in the chapter AI as our future- all of which seem mighty probable. The theory that expertise is needed to use AI but may not eventually prevail over AI also seems plausible. Because AI itself will create the next generation of AI.

 
Regardless, we seem to have created a Frankenstein that a few bad actors could misuse in dangerous ways.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ On Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping:  Co intelligence: Living and working with AI

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE?

 
We’ve all heard of Uber. Its lesser known competitor is InDrive, a service popular in South and Central America, built by Siberian technologist and entrepreneur, Arsen Tomsky, our author. 

 
Tomsky was invited by his father (who abandoned him at a young age) to join him in Paris and create a future for himself. Instead, Tomsky searched his soul for his purpose, decided to stay put in Yakutsk, Siberia and built one of the world’s most popular ride hailing services, operational across 700 cities and 45 countries. 

 
If you’re an entrepreneur struggling with an uphill journey, I urge you to read this book and soak in Tomsky’s rollercoaster life!

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:


1. Early in the book Tomsky introduces you to his childhood stutter, how his mother used to take seriously ill often and how an elderly grandmother was their only support after an absentee father! Tomsky wonders whether childhood trials eventually build a strong character in adulthood? Or is a happy childhood better? Who knows?


2. This is one of those books were every sentence is loaded with evidence! What evidence? That of life in Russia. For instance, Tomsky talks about standing in line for food! Later, juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet, heremarks how they would joke about the ‘President of Russia being so rich that he could buy a Snickers bar every day! Really?


3. The book tales you back to life in the 90s Russia, in a very intimate way. Tomsky’s early stints as a programmer in Russia, during which he wrote a program to increase transparency of financial transactions did not quite work out for him. Because transparency and Russia DID NOT go hand in hand! As he realised that folks would sabotage his ‘audit’company, he had to pivot his entire program to a kind of bookkeeping service!


4. My favourite insight from the book for entrepreneurs who dream big, has to be this! ‘Friends and acquaintances sometimes worry that you will become more successful than they are, which would damage their self esteem. So they try consciously or subconsciously to stop you from a new venture by describing the many threats and risks you will face!’ Citing the work of psychologists Abraham Tesser, Sarah Hill and David Bass, Tomsky insists that the best course is to listen to no one. Instead, analyse each situation based on as many precise facts as are available!


5. As an entrepreneur, one often blows up money on projects that don't take off and is compelled to return right back to survival mode. Tomsky reminds us of the upside that sometimes, solutions that stem from a complete lack of funds, are extremely innovative and useful.


Written with a fair amount of patriotic flair, Tomsky’s deep love for his motherland and mathematics, is a fantastic window of inspiration to an entire generation who feels that excellence in mathematics is a punishment of some kind.

 
But how did he build Indrive? How many experiments did he undertake before developing it?How did he build teams that believed they were part of something bigger than themselves. Read the book to find out!


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: Inner Drive by Arsen Tomsky

CHINA: GLOBAL PREDATOR OR FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER?

 
This book reminded me of Peter Navarro's ‘Death by China.’ The title is self explanatory and pretty much suggests how the world seems to perceive China - a predator economy of sorts.

 
However, author Peter S Goodman, the New York Times’s global economics correspondent upends traditional notions. He believes that the top 1 percent of the rich of the world, first made China the sweatshop of the world for their own benefit. They reorganised the world’s supply chain, seeking the cheapest producer, China, whose goods they could sell for maximum profit! 


The pandemic made them cry foul because suddenly, local manufacturing capacity was zilch! Shipping container fleets carrying life-critical items were stuck in global waters- almost 25 trillion dollars- even as those on board, miles away from the shore, wondered when they would get home. There was an urgent need to change tactics.

 
I asked myself the question - are the decision makers of the world really so myopic? COVID might’ve exposed the flaws in the system. But the author asserts that these flaws were deliberately cerated to maximise profit.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:

 
1. The argument that China is stealing jobs gets gut punched heavily in the book! What started with Chinese workers constructing railroads in the 19th century, recruited by industrialists who monopolised profits, transited later into multinational brands investing in factories that celebrated cheap Chinese labour, choosing to pay them instead of their own workforce. It was all about profits and continues to be about profits. The beneficiary of this production-brand separation is the international investor class, says the author.


2. With the whole world competing for supplies being manufactured in a single country, I realised that countries like India, who don’t import all essentials from China, were far better off! For eg; Chinese factories were the source of 90 percent of several antibiotics sold in the US. Scary!


3. A brilliant chapter analyses how Henry Ford’s business legacy put common sense first and shareholder interest second. He is quoted as follows, “business is a service, not a bonanza!”, arguing in favour of employment generation and the greater good of the people. The chapter is authoritative and evidently deeply researched and is a reminder of the days before ‘Just in Time’ became a mis-marketed holy grail for ‘lean’ business.


4. The emergence of alternatives to China, some early, some post the pandemic such as Vietnam and South America is explained with the support of detailed case studies. The author also questions whether they were alternatives at all, given that China had started putting up manufacturing plants all over South America, so as not to lose their biggest customer- the USA.


5. The author makes good use of the last chapter to talk about how technology is helping people feel more in control of the supply chain itself. But will technology preserve innovation and prevent monopoly is a question that remains to be answered.

 
The author ends on a despondent note- that 'we have surrendered our decency with our sense of economic security'. As a reader though, the alternatives that the author builds in, to analyse how the world has come out of one crisis after another, is a ray of hope.

 
Peter S Goodman’s name must resonate with his previously published bestseller, ‘Davos Man,’ in which he profiles five representative “Davos Men”—members of the billionaire class—chronicling how their shocking exploitation of the global pandemic has accelerated a fifty-year trend of wealth centralization. His language remains consistent, his approach remains meticulous and his hypotheses remains thought provoking, whether you agree with him or otherwise.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: How the world ran out of everything by Peter S Goodman

LETS KEEP THE BOOKSTORE NOVELS COMING
 
A sequel can make sense only to someone who has read the original book- at least that's what I believe. So, when the opportunity to review ‘More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop’ came my way, I started by reading its prequel, ‘Days at the Morisaki Bookshop.’ I finished both the books in five hours flat. That’s how easy and involving the tale is - simple storyline, highly charged emotions- and that’s perhaps the formula for how a book of fiction becomes a bestseller!

 
Stories set in bookstores have their own quaint charm; have you read A Bookshop of One’s Own, a true tale penned by feminist icon Jane Cholmeley? If not, make sure to put it on your reading list.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights


1. Can a work of fiction be fast as well as slow at the same time? In ‘Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, the reader is introduced to Takako, a young lady who is navigating her way through life, heartbreaks and her career; everything that a young person might experience. She somehow begins to care for her maternal uncle Saturo Morisaki, who runs the eponymous bookstore and his wife Momoko. It is an intensely emotional tale set in a very idyllic environment. In fact, the emotions of the protagonists become more evident, thanks to the languid pace of the novel.


2. The book, strangely enough, introduces us to many readers and begs the question - what does a book mean to the lives of people? How can it bring people together? The book celebrates the curious, real Jimbocho neighbourhood of second-hand book shops in Japan and the people who run these bookstores.


3. The Morisaki Bookshop, one among 170 bookshops stocking second hand books in the area, is known for ‘modern Japanese literature.’ It was not a successful business by any means. But it supports an entire community of people in a uniquely symbiotic manner; people who get to know each other over time and offer social support to each other in very meaningful ways.


4. A very significant part of the book is the story of several Japanese authors and booksthat are imbued into the tale as conversations. The tales of Osamu Dazai, Junichiro Tanizaki, and Sakunosuke Oda come alive in the book as conversations between the protagonists. Memories, identities and culture come alive in a simple story told with great empathy.


5. The two novels raise many questions- could reading be a way to open yourself to the world? Is reading a solitary act after all? How about the work of the many people behind the scenes, who place a book in your hands? And can reading a book change the course of your life?

Yes, I do have a soft corner for novels set in bookstores. Maybe they will propagate the magic of bookstores and reading themselves by bringing that imagery alive.

 
I’m tempted to mention one more book. ‘The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry’ by Gabrielle Zevin, a dramatic novel! In the book, A.J. Fikry, the grumpy owner of Island Books, finds a 2-year-old child sitting on the floor, with a note attached to her, asking Fikry to look after her! Wow!

 
After all, anything can happen in a bookstore.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: ‘More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop' by Satoshi Yagisawa

'How Big Things Get Done,' is a book about life itself; about getting any project done- whether it's renovating your kitchen, baking a wedding cake or building an airport.

 
Authors Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner present a compelling argument; all failed projects, create disaster in their wake for nations, corporations and individuals. They have come to the conclusion that most projects are at risk of going disastrously, wrong-and explain why so, in a scientific manner.

Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:-

1. The authors talks about the concept of frozen experience - something that is a by-product of repetition and proven result. They suggest that by taking a modular approach to projects, not only can we cut costs by 30%, but also save enough to end global hunger by 2030! Is that how much money we are wasting across the world? Reality check time!

2. Appendix B in the book, contains 37 research papers published by Bent Flyvbjerg. Clearly, he is an authority when it comes to project management. One of the most endearing parts in the book is how the work of several researchers is acknowledged and celebrated to explain a point of view in a more complete manner. For example, the idea of 'psychological safety' or speaking in your mind within a team, during a project, coined by Harvard's Amy Edmundson, finds relevant room.

3. Like most well researched books, there aren't just anecdotes, but detailed and interesting ones at that. How do authors bring Jimi Hendrix's recording studio and the construction of the T5 Airport at Heathrow in one book and make it so seamless. Has to be a by product of knowing your subject exceedingly well.

4. The authors emphasize that before launching a project, it would be useful to check how long, other similar projects have taken and build an estimate from there. Even if the available estimate is a remote one. The tendency to look at one's own project as 'unique', only endangers the success of any project. The authors also talk about the ugly realities of 'fat tail' projects and how divergent and costly they are, from the normal distribution curve.


5. With a database of more than 16,000 projects from 20 different fields over 136 countries, the authors explain concepts such as commitment fallacy, bad-casting and critical errors such as 'what you see is all there is', with genuine empathy. They also openly confront disagreements.


For eg; Bent Flyvbjerg talks about Albert Hirschmann, a renowned economist at Columbia University, who wrote an essay in support of 'doing things better spontaneously'; too much planning and you tend not to do it.' Disagreeing with Hirschmann, Flyvbjerg says that unplanned successes are exceptions! After all, the failures of not planning enough are rarely discussed. But dig deep enough, and you will find a plethora of them!

Finally, the authors make a strong case for modularity and explain that when it comes to survival of the fittest, the fittest is often a 'module' that is successful in reproducing itself. Hence the core of all successful projects is repetition, experience, lower costs and happy teams. An important book about the specifics of 'project management'- something not much written about! An important book about the principles of 'getting big things done!'


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/bookstrapping-supercommunicators-by-charles-duhigg-36363.htm">Bookstrapping: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg</a>

Bookstrapping: How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

Do you want to be helped or hugged or heard?


This is a question the author posits in the book. Methinks its another way of saying, ‘read the room’ before you decide what conversation to have. Charles Duhigg, who is known to ask thought provoking questions in his books, underlines that at the core of every conversation, is figuring out ‘what is this really about!’


Can being a super communicator salvage even the most difficult situations? Are there rules to this? Citing the seminal Harvard research on ‘happiness’, Duhigg encourages us to recognise that since connectedness to each other, is the most important determinant of longevity ; and that higher the degree of social integration, lower the risk of illness and death , communication is not a ‘nice to have’ skill, but a ‘must have’ skill.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights -


1. Miscommunication occurs when people are having different kinds of conversations. For example if one person is speaking emotionally and the other is talking practically, there is a good chance of miscommunication. On the contrary, good communication comes from symmetry. So pause a moment to understand what kind of conversation is happening.


2. In order to be have a meaningful conversation, two people have to match each other. So the question is, ‘do you want to be helped, hugged or heard?’ This is a simple question to set the tone for any conversation- in terms of whether the expectation is to be emotional, empathetic or logical.


3. Every conversation is a negotiation. The book makes an insightful reference to the Harvard Negotiation Project and its outcome, ‘Getting To Yes,’ a book which turned our understanding of negotiation upside down.


4. Meaningful dialogue is also assisted by getting creative; telling stories, jokes, listening more attentively etc; so that a path can emerge. An equally important question is ‘ how do we feel?’ Discussing feelings can help two people discover more about each other and spot 'what makes them uneasy' and how to assuage that.


5. At the world navigates conflict, the author presents a very useful study of communications. Anecdotally rich and insightful, this follows successful editions of his previous works, ‘Power of Habit’ and ‘Smarter, Faster, Better.’


The usual pang of Asian cultures and conversations not featuring in several important books released and celebrated all over the world, cropped up in my mind. Given that most biographies or historical books have a ‘set’ context in terms of place and time and cannot depart from it, one wishes for books on art, culture, self help, productivity- especially those that are anecdotal, to be more inclusive.

 
This observation does not diminish the value of ‘SUPERCOMMUNICATORS’ one bit! 'SUPERCOMMUNICATORS ACROSS CULTURES' might be a very useful sequel from this Pulitzer Prize winning author.

 
How do global bestsellers begin to represent the world we live in in more encompassing ways? Can all of self-help and productivity, as a genre that we review regularly here at BookStrapping, be more inclusive.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

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