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90. The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories Leo Tolstoy Synopsis Four short stories from Leo Tolstoy including: - Family Happiness - The Death of Ivan Ilych - The Kreutzer Sonata - Master and Man Comments Family Happiness This one started very slowly and as this was my first time reading something by Tolstoy I was beginning to believe he was something of a Russian Jane Austin. A wrongful assumption I made! This story dives deeper into the human psych of a young lady before and after her marriage. Here I'm starting to see the length of detail that Tolstoy goes into when describing human psychology through a novel. The Death of Ivan Ilych Again, human psychology is the theme when Ivan Ilych dies. His colleagues are more interested in taking his position than to mourn the death of their co-worker. The Kreutzer Sonata This one dives into the realm of sex and marriage and follows the conversation of a man who killed his wife and his fellow passengers in a train cabin. Chilling and frank. Master and Man Similar to the story of Ivan Ilych, this follows the story of a trader who is lost in his pursuit for getting a better deal and does so by forgetting his family and the rest of the world around him. Rating. 4 Stars

89. Man's Search for Meaning. Viktor E. Frankl. Synopsis Psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl's memoirs of his years of unspeakable horror endured during a Nazi concentration camp. Comments As you could expect, this book is frank and to the point. Viktor Frankl discusses his horrific experience during his time in a Nazi concentration camp and explores the human psyche of both the inmates and the prison guards. After this shocking introduction, comes the introduction to his logotherapy which is based around the principles of life having a meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones and our main motivation for living is to find a reason for living. If one can find a reason for living, the 'why,' then the 'how' becomes irrelevant. I would like to wonder if there would have been more stories from the people who didn't make it out. Rating. 5 Stars

88. Tabloid Tokyo I. Botting, Connell, Hoffman, Schreiber. Synopsis 101 Tales of Sex, Crime and the Bizarre from Japan's Wild Weeklies. Comments A set of very entertaining short snippets from Japan's tabloids. Excellent job by the authors for seeking these out and publishing them in English so the English speaking world can learn more about Japan's underworld. Rating. 5 Stars

87. The Toyota Way. Liker J. Synopsis What can your business learn from Toyota? This book goes beyond the surface of lean tools and techniques to discover the holistic approach to management in the company. Comments Just because you have a kanban system does not make you Toyota. Major takeaways -> Long term philosophy, eliminate waste, get quality right the first time (yes, seriously), grow your own people and your business partners (the extended company), building a learning enterprise and Toyota's leadership approach to doing this. Rating. 5 Stars

86. The Essential Drucker. Drucker P. F. Synopsis A concise selection of Peter Drucker's work from 1942 to 1999. Starting with 'The Industrial Man' and inclusive of 'Management Challenges for the 21st Century.' Comments I found this really great for catching up on. Nice and concise and straight to a lot of points. Excellent for someone who's never read Drucker before and needs to know what he's all about without ploughing through tonnes and tonnes of papers. Rating. 5 Stars

85. (27-Jan-2007). Digital Capital. Tapscott. D., Ticoll. D and Lowy. A. Synopsis A writeup on a costly study of business webs (b-webs) and the modern structure of companies that have transformed the rules of business in their industries. Comments This is jam packed full of case examples such as eBay, Schwab, MP3, Linux and Cisco which is what I like in a book like this. In here, five types of b-webs were covered, being: Agora, Aggregation, Value Chain, Alliance and Distributive Network and are certainly an eye opener. Rating. 4 Stars

84. Blue Ocean Strategy. W. Chan Kim and Mauborgne. R. Synopsis How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Comments Excellent! Major takeaways -> Strategy Canvases and Building Execution into Strategy. Rating. 5 Stars

83. The Harvard Business Review on Marketing. Synopsis A great collection of papers on Marketing Comments I love these little books from Harvard Business Review. They have selected a good set of papers from leading authors on the topics. The papers in this one were: - The Brand Report Card. Kevin Lane Keller. - Bringing a Dying Brand Back to Life. Mannie Jackson - How to Fight a Price War. Akshay R. Rao, Mark E. Bergen and Scott Davis. - Contextual Marketing: The Real Business of the Internet. David Kenny and John F. Marshall - The Lure of Global Branding. David A. Aeker and Erich Joachimsthaler. - Are the Strategic Stars Aligned for Your Corporate Brand? Mary Jo Hatch and Majken Schultz - Torment Your Customers. (They'll Love It). Steven Brown - Boost Your Marketing ROI with Experimental Design. Eric Almquist and Gordon Wyner Rating. 5 Stars

82. (26-Feb-2007). IQ. The Brilliant Idea That Failed. Murdoch. S. Synopsis A journalistic view of the history of IQ tests. Comments This is quite an interesting read if you are looking for a history of IQ tests and a biased view that the purpose of IQ testing is purely to provide fuel for snobbery. Chapter 1: The Problem with Testing So what is the problem with IQ testing? It tests IQ and only IQ. This short chapter sets the idea for the rest of the book: that IQ testing is puffery. Chapter 2: The Origins of Testing This chapter explores Galton, a statistician, and his failed attempts to measure intelligence by the circumference of one's head. Eugenics was born. Chapter 3: The Birth of Modern Intelligence Tests This chapter gives a good account of how Binet's early tests came to test reasoning skills, language, abstract thinking and cognitive abilities. Chapter 4: America Discovers Intelligence Tests An American psychologist by the name of Henry Goddard would be the one to discover the European work on intelligence testing and this chapter presents a romanticised account of how Goddard managed to convince the American medical world to utilise IQ testing to help identify imbeciles and feeblemindedness. Some of Goddard's case studies are given too. Chapter 5: Turning Back the Feeble Minded This chapter begins with a humourous account of the testing that was used test whether fresh immigrants should be allowed to enter America. Some doctors are even reported to be able to 'spot the feeble minded from just walking up the stairs among the long line of immigrants.' Chapter 6: The Tests that Changed the World Chapter six is a chapter in which the author begins to set up his argument that IQ testing limits itself to a limited set of intelligences. It was world war I where intelligence tests took a turn for the worst and ignored a more broader method of testing people. This combined with a desire by psychologists, who's field was relatively new, to be treated and regarded as peers to medical doctors, caused the beginning of IQ testing's overselling. Chapter 7: Alpha and Beta This chapter begins to point out flaws in the IQ testing system via the people who administrate them. The example of the black race being largely discriminated against is first discussed in this chapter. Chapter 8: From Segregation to Sterilization... The concept of dark knowledge comes into this chapter. The case study of Carrie Buck is presented as a case where a young lady was sterilized due to having a low IQ score. Chapter 9: Nazis and Intelligence Testing The Nazis wouldn't be able to escape a book like this. The author gives the account of how the Nazis took the idea of sterilization of people based on IQ scores to Nazi proportions. Chapter 10: The Eleven Plus in the United Kingdom The Eleven Plus examination in the UK is not spared as it is given as an example of a system where an obsession with segregating the smarted from the dimmest is paramount. Chapter 11: Intelligence Testing and the Death Penalty It was only 2002 that the US Supreme Court decided that the mentally retarded can no longer be executed. This chapter covers the case of Daryl Atkins, who despite having an IQ of 59 was able to plan out a series of events that would lead to an armed robbery. His initial death sentence and the appeals that followed it would result in a series of IQ tests being taken by the convict. What was noticeable is that his IQ actually increased involuntary during the course of these tests because of the sheer amount of practice that he accrued. This example given, opens up a big question about the validity of such tests and the actual thing that they are testing. Intelligence. What IS the intelligence that they are measuring? Chapter 12: What do IQ Tests Really Measure? What does an IQ score of 59 actually mean? It means that the testee has a score of 59 for a series of verbal and non verbal questions answered. This chapter gives a brief and perhaps too brief introduction to Wechler type tests. Chapter 13: Alternatives to IQ This chapter covers the story of a prolific English drug dealer who had a extremely high IQ and high amount of social intelligence. Thus opening up the topics of multiple intelligences as theorised by Howard Gardner's 1983 book 'Frames of Mind.' Gardner's arguments come from the basis that intelligence should not be constructed from statistical analysis but, rather, eight criteria from various disciplines. Chapter 14: The SAT Just like the chapter on the 11 plus, the author discusses the streaming system used in American high schools. This time, however, he brings up the topic of blacks vs whites in terms of intelligence testing. This is to be continued into his final chapter... Chapter 15: Black and White IQ In the final chapter, the author brings his largest argument back into light. Black IQ vs white IQ. A subject matter in which American psychology is obsessed with. The concept of the evolution of a race based on their living conditions and challenges put before them in ancient times is given as an absurd example of how some do try to propose the view that different races have different levels of IQ. In actual fact, the author uses this chapter to explain that given a certain IQ test, blacks did fare much worse than their white counterparts. Although, he argues, that the blacks scored worse because 'white English' was used on the tests. Which is to say, that the context of the tests is probably one of the major factors involved that mostly obscures results and the IQ yardstick. In essence, my takeaway from this book is that IQ testing is no 'one size fits all' solution. Overall this in interesting history book and a good argument that IQ testing is mostly based on the overselling of the entire concept and topped off with the field's puffery. However, if one thing is to be highlighted about this book it is that the modern 'IQ' tests have not been credited for their testing of different intelligences such as 'social' and 'spatial' intelligences. Rating. 3 Stars

 

81. (30-Nov-2007). Thinking Allowed? Fernandez W. Synopsis One man's comments on politics, fear and change in Singapore. Comments The usual musings from a Singaporean who sat down and wrote a book about national issues that are close to his heart. Rating. 3 Stars

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