Search results matching tags 'Learning' and 'Book Review'

Book Review (Book 10) - The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

BuckWoody — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:24:00 GMT

This is a continuation of the books I challenged myself to read to help my career - one a month, for year. You can read my first book review here, and the entire list is here. The book I chose for March 2012 was: The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick. I was traveling at the end of last month so I’m a bit late posting this review here.

Why I chose this book:

My personal belief about computing is this: All computing technology is simply re-arranging data. We take data in, we manipulate it, and we send it back out. That’s computing. I had heard from some folks about this book and it’s treatment of data. I heard that it dealt with the basics of data - and the semantics of data, information and so on.

It also deals with the earliest forms of history of information, which fascinates me. It’s similar I was told, to GEB which a favorite book of mine as well, so that was a bonus.

Some folks I talked to liked it, some didn’t - so I thought I would check it out.

What I learned:

I liked the book. It was longer than I thought - took quite a while to read, even though I tend to read quickly. This is the kind of book you take your time with. It does in fact deal with the earliest forms of human interaction and the basics of data.

I learned, for instance, that the genesis of the binary communication system is based in the invention of telegraph (far-writing) codes, and that the earliest forms of communication were expensive. In fact, many ciphers were invented not to hide military secrets, but to compress information. A sort of early “lol-speak” to keep the cost of transmitting data low!

I think the comparison with GEB is a bit over-reaching. GEB is far more specific, fanciful and so on. In fact, this book felt more like something fro Richard Dawkins, and tended to wander around the subject quite a bit. I imagine the author doing his research and writing each chapter as a book that followed on from the last one. This is what possibly bothered those who tended not to like it, I think.

Towards the middle of the book, I think the author tended to be a bit too fragmented even for me. He began to delve into memes, biology and more - I think he might have been better off breaking that off into another work. The existentialism just seemed jarring.

All in all, I liked the book. I recommend it to any technical professional, specifically ones involved with data technology in specific. And isn’t that all of us? :)

Book Review (Book 8) - The Elements of Persuasion

BuckWoody — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:57:23 GMT

This is a continuation of the books I challenged myself to read to help my career - one a month, for year. You can read my first book review here. The book I chose for January 2012 was: The Elements of Persuasion by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman.

Why I chose this Book:

As I mentioned in a previous review, I think good storytelling is an essential part of any career. Communication is basic in not only our professional but personal lives, and everyone I’ve met responds well to stories, from children to executive audiences. Not only that, learning to tell a story helps you formulate concepts about the topic, which is yet another way of learning.

I heard about this book from a couple of folks, and it landed within search of “storytelling” and “business”. Whenever I just search for “Storytelling” I either end up with lists of stories (which is fine) or lists of children’s books on storytelling (which is also fine) but neither of these are quite what I’m looking for.

A quick search on Amazon and I located the book, and then a quick check of my various e-library offerings and I downloaded it to my laptop for reading.

What I learned:

This is a “selling” book, but not like you might think. It’s not a book of a quick sale like at a car-lot or a “quick-sale” environment. It’s more along the lines at the executive level and longer-term sales - those involve stories as well.

Sadly, this is another “business book” - the kind I normally don’t like much. There are typical case-study layouts with lots of examples, but in my mind not enough didactic information to actually help you develop a good story-telling mantra.

Even so, I learned some interesting things about the process these authors use. Some of the case studies are interesting, and I did pull out that a story should work towards a single, defining sentence. This isn’t unique to this book, but it is a reinforcement of what I’ve learned elsewhere. Although nothing to do with storytelling, I did like the reference to Lockheed’s “14 Rules”, which I hadn’t read before. They also break down the storytelling process into five elements, which is actually covered better (in my mind) in a book called “20 Master Plots” , which may actually be the storytelling book I’ve been searching for.

Or perhaps I should just write the one I’m looking for.

At any rate, not sure I would recommend this book to others - perhaps as a check-out, but not a purchase, at least if this is for the same reason I looked it up.

Raw Notes:

As I read, I take notes - it’s called “reading with a pencil”. These are the notes I made to myself, in no particular order and with no context other than the book itself:

Stories are interesting to us all.
Describes five elements in a story, but in fact this is for only one type of story. Other books describes more story types.
Very standard business book, but there are good tips in some of the chapters.
Explained how to connect with the audience, good points Spends a lot of time referring to other books The book of five rings Work towards a single, memorable sentence.
Changes partway through into stories about stories. This is better.
A mix of storytelling and sales, although this was touted for sales, feels much more like selling than storytelling, advertisements.
Interesting story about memory championships, where contestants memorize cards. They use unusual stories.
Look up Lockheed and the 14 rules

Book Review (Book 2) - Rhetoric by Aristotle

BuckWoody — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:27:16 GMT

This is a continuation of the books I challenged myself to read to help my career - one a month, for year. You can read my first book review here. The book I chose for July 2011 was Rhetoric, by Aristotle. You can read it here for free: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/a8rh/

Why I chose this Book:

I read this long ago, but I would like to re-read it to learn how to more clearly formulate my arguments and help my writing skills to improve. This book is the foundation for arguing a point - which we all do, or at least need to do, every day. Arguing does not imply an adversarial relationship; it merely means you’re trying to persuade someone to see your point of view.

What I learned:

Even though this work is thousands of years old - boggles the mind to think of what has occurred in that time - people are largely still the same. During this work Aristotle talks about everything from psychological motivations for good and bad to politics and power. And it seems his observations are still dead-on. What that taught me is that people deep down have very common descriptors, even across cultures. Knowing those motivators gives you an “edge” in a discussion. If you know someone’s position in war, a game, or in a negotiation, you have a powerful tool to help them understand your position, potentially getting what you want.

This all sounds rather manipulative, but it isn’t. Aristotle starts out by stating that your own motives and positions need to be evaluated before you even attempt the argument to ensure you’re on solid footing. And he states that your argument should be to change behavior for the better, not for evil. He even defines what those things mean.

It’s all done in a very syllogistic (logical argument, A+B=C kind of thing) fashion, which is very direct if not a little too black and white. And of course he is a bit chauvinistic in places and some of the examples are not easily translated - but if you can overlook those things you can learn to be a better communicator, whether that is at a 1-1 level or speaking to large crowds. A very recommended read.

Raw Notes:

I take notes as I read, calling that process “reading with a pencil”. I find that when I do that I pay attention better, and record some things that I need to know later. I’ll take these notes, categorize them into a OneNote notebook that I synchronize in my Live.com account, and that way I can search them from anywhere. I can even read them on the web, since the Live.com has a OneNote program built in. Note that these are the raw notes, so they might not make a lot of sense out of context - I include them here so you can watch my though process.

(There are actually three books in this one work, but I’ve only posted the notes from Book 1 here)
1. An interesting read overall – but I think it deals mostly with the speaker, and not enough with the medium and methods to influence the receiver. It does, however, explain the motivations of the listeners, so you can form your own way of dealing with this.
2. I often read about the book before I read the book – (How to Read a Book - definitely check this one out)
3. Considered a series of notes by his students more than a purpose-written book
4. Reading it because it is considered the foundation of persuasion, one of the many goals of communication
5. In fact, persuasion is touted as the only goal of debate.
6. Learned more about enthymemes, which are aimed more at persuasion than demonstration.
7. Beginning was a definition of terms – very nice. (Book 1)
8. In defining an argument, “non-essentials” should not be allowed. This avoids many logical fallacies.
9. Wow – he prescribes that the law should be carefully defined, and not left to judges to interpret. Objectivity is the goal, and is not entirely possible with human beings.
10. The discussion of judges at the fore seems to indicate that the argument’s decider is the most important decision. Good take-away.
11. Reading with a good dictionary is essential. Do not skip over any part of a word you do not understand.
12. He teaches that speakers are the representative of truth – if truth does not prevail, it is the fault of the speaker.
13. Not everyone learns in the same way, so studying rhetoric is a way of obtaining multiple ways of teaching.
14. You must understand both sides of an argument in order to fully argue your position.
15. Great good, and harm, can come of skill in speaking than in skill at arms.
16. Medicine is not just to make you healthy again, it can also be used to make you as well as possible.
17. Three influencers of persuasion: personality, audience preparation, and proofs.
18. There are many divisions of topics into numeric orders – I do this a great deal as well. Not sure of the meaning of that, if any.
19. Reading classical works is interesting – the breakdown of sentences is like a syllogism itself.
20. Amazing – in chapter four, he details the effects of political speech, and even details some of our current systems by name, such as “Ways and Means” and “National Defense”.
21. Chapter four deals with political knowledge required to argue effectively, but this can be extended to all facets of life. Basically he says “know yourself, know your enemy, know your environment.” Sage advice indeed, and far too often ignored by the dim lights we continuously put into office.
22. Chapter five says that happiness is “prosperity with virtue” – and further defines it as “independence”. Amazing how much of that we are willing to give away.
23. Definitely some elitism espoused.
24. Chapter 6 deals with what is "good", or "right". This is a foundation for arguing a position, since your argument is easily lost if it is not deemed within the realm of "rightness". Aristotle seems to base what is good on what is found in nature, although it is interesting that fairness, which most consider good, is not a natural construct.
25. In Chapter 7 Aristotle makes good use of building logical arguments, classically using syllogisms to do so, as you might expect
26. In Chapter 8, Aristotle continues the theme that the more knowledge you have, the better your arguments will be. In fact, it seems to follow that perhaps you will settle your own internal arguments as you learn more, and perhaps not need to argue a particular point at all.
27. He states that the impetus of most arguments is no impetus at all - that is, most of the time the primary goal is the continuation of the established order.
28. He explains the various forms of government to complete Chapter 8.
29. Chapter 9 begins with a discussion on how to be empathetic in your arguments, that is, to make the other person agree with your point, so that it is as much their idea as yours.
30. To accomplish this goal, Aristotle feels that your argument should be noble and virtuous, and explains what both of these means. In essence, he states their meaning is the most good for the most people.
31. He also states the passive form of the Golden rule, as well as the Active form.
32. Wow – he gets a bit chauvinistic in this chapter, stating that a man’s actions will be more noble than a woman’s!
33. Part of getting the agreement of point of view is to basically flatter or call out the good in another person.
34. Chapter Ten covers figuring out more about those that do “wrong”, and in true philosophic fashion, he defines the term wrong first.
35. He states that we do “wrong” based on the nature of our character. That is, whatever your character weakness is, the wrongdoing will be exposed along that fault line. So it follows that knowing someone’s character can aid you in arguing with them.
36. Character, then, leads to predictive analysis. He has not discussed the danger of this type of activity.
37. It is quite interesting to evaluate my own actions based on some of the “motivators” Aristotle puts forth in this chapter. Knowing yourself – however uncomfortable a process that might be – is also key to winning your argument.
38. Chapter 11 covers a range of human emotions and a very Epicurean view, but I do like this quote: “Where there is competition, there is victory.” Sums up the human condition quite nicely. We have to compete, it is our nature. Shying away from it will not help.
39. Chapter 12 deals with the ways that people try to avoid punishment for their actions, especially the wealthy and politically connected. Not much has changed, it seems. ?
40. He also explores the darker side of rhetoric, and how some use it to avert judgment.
41. In chapter 13 he explains the differences between specific law, written down, and “universal law”, which he deems to be inherent. This is not a reasonable position, in my mind. Each person interprets that differently.
42. Chapter 14 deals with the results based on acting on these laws, both justly and unjustly.
43. Chapter 15 explains other means of persuasion, including contacts, promises and even torture. An interesting take on convincing folks to see things your way, and once again, quite timely! Seems in 2000 years of human history, we have not learned a great deal.

Head in the Clouds–Eyes on the Books

BuckWoody — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:43:00 GMT

I normally post technical topics here on this blog, but I’m extending this post a bit to include a little professional development. Don’t worry; there’s some tech (and Distributed Computing tech, no less) in this post as well.

I recently presented a few sessions on a “SQL Cruise” to Alaska (more on that here) and one of those sessions was on professional development. As part of that, I had everyone do some exercises on career building, and we created some deliverables we would be accountable to each other on. After all, one of my favorite business quotes (my version, others have said something similar) is:

What gets measured gets done.

One of the deliverables was to establish our career goal(s) for the next year, and then come up with a list of 12 books that would help us get there. We promised to read one book per month, and report back on our blogs a review of the book and how it applies to the career. So in no particular order, here is my list – I’m telling you all, so call me on it if I don’t post a review on one of them. I reserve the right to change my list as I learn more, but 12 books is the rule:

Programming Windows Azure by Siriram Krishnan: Learning about how to select applications suitable for Distributed Technology. (June )
Rhetoric, by Aristotle: I read this long ago, but I would like to re-read it to learn how to more clearly formulate my arguments and help my writing skills to improve. (July)
Favorite Folktales from Around the World, by Jane Yolen: Storytelling is at the heart of presenting well. ( August )
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely: Understanding the actions of others is key to my success. ( September )
The Cloud of Unknowing, Anonymous: The role of faith in life. ( October )
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott: I’ve heard a lot about this, and I’m not even sure I agree with it. But I want to see what it says about collaborative efforts and how I can leverage them. ( November )
Think Stats: In my studies of "Big Data", the skill I find missing most of the time is Statistics - as part of the "Data Scientist" role I'm investigating, this is part of a kit you can get from O'Reilly. I actually replaced another book with this one. ( December )
The Elements of Persuasion by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman: Another "storytelling" book. ( January )
Designing Data Visualizations by Noah Iliinsky and Julie Steele: Part of my "Big Data" focus. ( February )
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick: This is a book I've heard a lot about, and it's in a similar vein as GEB, one of my favorite books. ( March )
Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform: Using Microsoft products to solve a given problem. It includes Cloud strategies as well. ( April )
20 Master Plots by Ronald B. Tobias: Stories and themes are part of software, presenting, and working in teams. This book claims there are only 20 plots, ever. Let's see. ( May )

As part of keeping each other accountable, I hereby tag a few of my fellow travellers – and you, of course, are invited to play along. Link back to this blog post and put your link in the comments below if you want us to follow your journey:

Tim Ford: http://thesqlagentman.com/
John Halunen:
Dev Nambi: www.devnambi.com
Grant Fritchey: http://www.scarydba.com/