Blink

I liked Outliers so much that I had to read Malcolm Gladwell's other book - Blink. The book is about intuitions, hunches or our unconscious self, how they help us in making better decisions - better than a more thoughtful process and how the mind can adapt and develop these hunches through experience and learning.
An interesting book, not as good as Outliers though. He makes his argument in the first couple of chapters, reiterates the point through different stories (as in Outliers), but the stories are not as interesting. One of the chapters that talks about how different facial expressions could be analyzed to figure out individuals actual emotions is just a bit too detailed and long. It wasn't that bad though and I would still love to read his best-seller "The Tipping Point".

Beijing Part 2 & Outliers

This was my second trip to Beijing. Stayed at J.W. Marriott. It was neat. Never stayed in such a high end room before. The one feature I loved - TV right above the bath tub. Lot of amenities too!! Sure enjoyed the stay. Came back only for the better though. Have 9 days off from work. Took the Monday and Tuesday off along with the extended long weekend the company mandated for Thanksgiving. Finally loads of time to spend with Anya. :)

Read a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It is a must read. Highly recommended. He starts by explaining how Roseta, Pennsylvania has low rates of heart related problems amongst its population. He also explains why major league players for NHL in Canada have more players born in the first quarter of the year. He then goes on to illustrate how Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun) and Bill Gates were successful because of several intangible factors in addition to their hard-work and determination. It talks about how a combination of ethnicity, the demographics and failure of white-shoe law firms to accept takeover litigation made successful lawyers out of some Jewish immigrants including Joseph Flom. It also tries to explain why Asians are good at Math (however that was not as convincing as the other outliers). He also convincingly explains why Korean airlines had more crashes before the 1990s. A really awesome book.

The Soul of a New Machine

This book was nice. The title does sound geeky, but believe me, it's far from that. Its an account of Data General building their first 32-bit mini-computer during their hay days. A really engrossing book that briefly touches the politics involved in higher ups, emphasizes the grueling hours put in by the hardware engineers, talks about the thrills and trauma of being a manager with unrealistic deadlines, the satisfaction and enthusiasm of getting the job done, and a sense of void in the engineers after the exhilarating journey ended.
The book won a Pulitzer Prize. One thing/term I learned from the book. "Mushroom theory of management".