Life in Kyiv, Ukraine

Book review: I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 (kindle edition)

My personal rating 4 out of 5 stars (Amazon system).

It took me about 4 months to read this books with several timeouts, simultaneous reading of another books, and luck of inspirations to finish it. However during the last two chapters I have finally achieved the high level of immersion to feel this book.

The author, Douglas Edwards, a former journalist, who worked in Google from 1999 to 2005 wriiten light, filled with sympathy story about the early days of great technological company. You will not a lot of “hot” insights or success secrets, though it feels very sincere in my perception.

I particularly like the last chapter about post-IPO days and changed of philosophy among many employees. In fact I would like to read more about the transformation of Google from start-up culture to a corporation.

Here the things(facts) I found interesting throughout the book

1 The questions founders of Google used during the interviews : “"I am going to give you 5 minutes. When I come back, I want you to explain to me something complicated that I don't already know."

2 Everybody knows four P’s, five M’s. Here is the definition of three B’s from Edward – Buckets of Baffling Bullshit :)

3 TGIF – was a weekly Friday meeting, where Nooglers (new Googlers) introduced themselves and the founders shared the important news of the week.

4 Google made recruiting ads to technical keywords like “TLB shootdown” or “lock free synchronization”

5 About design of Google interface “Artur G. Clarke once postulated – any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

6 “Guiding principles for Google brand strategy
-PR and word of mouth work better than ads
-Paid ads work against your brand. Focus on the joy of discovery
-We will grow faster getting current users to search more than by mass marketing
-All our promotions must include a way to measure success
-Product interaction is, and must remain, the primary branding experience
-User retention efforts should center on improving UI and user support

7 Ten things we found to be true – actually, you may find them here

8 “Underpromise and overdeliver. Became as important a mantra to us as Don’t be evil”

9 the definition of SWAGs in planning – “scientific wild-ass guesses” :)

10 in negotiations with AOL about ads “Alan knew how to deal with middle managers trying to score points at the last minute to impress their bosses. Fine, he replied, if you care that much about it, you call Dave Colburn (AOL biggest boss ) and have him call Eric Schmidt… Suddenly the language was no longer an issue “

11 “The founders weren't above bribing senior engineers to attend. Each December, Larry and Sergey "surprised" the staff by handing out a year-end thousand-dollar cash bonus at TGIF…By the end of next year amount of cash needed for the bonuses became unwieldy. Armored cars and shotgun-toting guards were needed to transport and watch over funds until they could be distributed”.

12 About innovations in recruiting “hey had realistic Google ID badges with pictures of real Google engineers on the front and coding challenges on the back to be solved and sent with résumés to our HR department”…” They had a billboard that was simply a mathematical equation followed by ".com." No logo or identification. Those who solved the equation and entered the solution as a web address would get another puzzle and ultimately a Google recruiting page”

13 Orkut story – how start-up mentality fights with established corporation and losses

14 APMM – associate product marketing manager.

15 Google made its IPO in manner "People should feel privileged to buy our stock"

Google has stated in its annual filing for 2004 that every one of its 3,021 employees, "except temporary employees and contractors, are also equity holders, with significant collective employee ownership"

16 About the world
“Why aren't all the signal lights synched to keep traffic flowing at optimum speed? Why, if I punch in my account number when I call customer service, do I have to give it to them again when I get a live person? These are all solvable problems.
 Smart people, motivated to make things better, can do almost anything. I feel lucky to have seen firsthand just how true that is “

17 And I have finally learned about M in CPM
“CPM: "Cost per thousand impressions"-a method of paying for online advertising in which advertisers pay a set rate to have their ads displayed a thousand times, regardless of whether anyone actually clicks on them. The M in CPM comes from the Latin word "mille," which means one thousand.”

Book review: I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 (kindle edition)

My personal rating 4 out of 5 stars (Amazon system).

It took me about 4 months to read this books with several timeouts, simultaneous reading of another books, and luck of inspirations to finish it. However during the last two chapters I have finally achieved the high level of immersion to feel this book.

The author, Douglas Edwards, a former journalist, who worked in Google from 1999 to 2005 wriiten light, filled with sympathy story about the early days of great technological company. You will not a lot of “hot” insights or success secrets, though it feels very sincere in my perception.

I particularly like the last chapter about post-IPO days and changed of philosophy among many employees. In fact I would like to read more about the transformation of Google from start-up culture to a corporation.

Here the things(facts) I found interesting throughout the book

1 The questions founders of Google used during the interviews : “"I am going to give you 5 minutes. When I come back, I want you to explain to me something complicated that I don't already know."

2 Everybody knows four P’s, five M’s. Here is the definition of three B’s from Edward – Buckets of Baffling Bullshit :)

3 TGIF – was a weekly Friday meeting, where Nooglers (new Googlers) introduced themselves and the founders shared the important news of the week.

4 Google made recruiting ads to technical keywords like “TLB shootdown” or “lock free synchronization”

5 About design of Google interface “Artur G. Clarke once postulated – any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

6 “Guiding principles for Google brand strategy
-PR and word of mouth work better than ads
-Paid ads work against your brand. Focus on the joy of discovery
-We will grow faster getting current users to search more than by mass marketing
-All our promotions must include a way to measure success
-Product interaction is, and must remain, the primary branding experience
-User retention efforts should center on improving UI and user support

7 Ten things we found to be true – actually, you may find them here

8 “Underpromise and overdeliver. Became as important a mantra to us as Don’t be evil”

9 the definition of SWAGs in planning – “scientific wild-ass guesses” 

10 in negotiations with AOL about ads “Alan knew how to deal with middle managers trying to score points at the last minute to impress their bosses. Fine, he replied, if you care that much about it, you call Dave Colburn (AOL biggest boss ) and have him call Eric Schmidt… Suddenly the language was no longer an issue “

11 “The founders weren't above bribing senior engineers to attend. Each December, Larry and Sergey "surprised" the staff by handing out a year-end thousand-dollar cash bonus at TGIF…By the end of next year amount of cash needed for the bonuses became unwieldy. Armored cars and shotgun-toting guards were needed to transport and watch over funds until they could be distributed”.

12 About innovations in recruiting “hey had realistic Google ID badges with pictures of real Google engineers on the front and coding challenges on the back to be solved and sent with résumés to our HR department”…” They had a billboard that was simply a mathematical equation followed by ".com." No logo or identification. Those who solved the equation and entered the solution as a web address would get another puzzle and ultimately a Google recruiting page”

13 Orkut story – how start-up mentality fights with established corporation and losses

14 APMM – associate product marketing manager.

15 Google made its IPO in manner "People should feel privileged to buy our stock"

Google has stated in its annual filing for 2004 that every one of its 3,021 employees, "except temporary employees and contractors, are also equity holders, with significant collective employee ownership"

16 About the world
“Why aren't all the signal lights synched to keep traffic flowing at optimum speed? Why, if I punch in my account number when I call customer service, do I have to give it to them again when I get a live person? These are all solvable problems.
 Smart people, motivated to make things better, can do almost anything. I feel lucky to have seen firsthand just how true that is “

17 And I have finally learned about M in CPM
“CPM: "Cost per thousand impressions"-a method of paying for online advertising in which advertisers pay a set rate to have their ads displayed a thousand times, regardless of whether anyone actually clicks on them. The M in CPM comes from the Latin word "mille," which means one thousand.”

Book review: Theodore Dreiser “Financier”

Using Amazon stars system I would give the book 3 stars out of 5.

For me, the representative of fast-moving generation of social networks and information terabytes,  “Financier” story flow felt way too slow. It had the only one peak at the moment of trial decision, which made my reading go into midnight. Beside that, well lots and lots of detailed descriptions of clothes, houses, roads, people I was unable to appreciate and understand (partly due to being non-native reader and old Englich I guess).

Frank Cowperwood is no dounts a strong character, which provokes controversy at some points. But at least he knows what he wants. And he is a true financier, if you treat the gamblers of the stocks markets by that name.

I had an interesting discussion with my friends about justifying Frank’s betrayal of the marriage and running with the younger lady. All the ladies in the discussion seemed to anger that Frank just pursued his right to love and be happy, since his wife was passive, and indifferent person. That, I assume, the difference between fiction and real life. By the way, I also agree that Frank’s decision to abandon marriage with Lilian seems normal the way things are dedcribed in the book.

What else ?

The politicians and relationships that manipulate public opinion are common all over the place. However, we found that Philadelphia of 19^th century is quite different from Ukraine of 21^st. The corruption is different, as in America despite manipulations the law is always the law. In Ukraine bribes overrule any law easily.

Finally, here are particular Dreiser thoughts, attitudes I liked

Unchanged to our days explanation of stock market players

A "bull," he learned, was one who bought in anticipation of a higher price to come; and if he was "loaded up" with a "line" of stocks he was said to be "long." He sold to "realize" his profit, or if his margins were exhausted he was "wiped out." A "bear" was one who sold stocks which most frequently he did not have, in anticipation of a lower price, at which he could buy and satisfy his previous sales. He was "short" when he had sold what he did not own, and he "covered" when he bought to satisfy his sales and to realize his profits or to protect himself against further loss in case prices advanced instead of declining. He was in a "corner" when he found that he could not buy in order to make good the stock he had borrowed for delivery and the return of which had been demanded. He was then obliged to settle practically at a price fixed by those to whom he and other "shorts" had sold.

About being true financier

Anything less than straight-out sales to realize quickly on assets, or buying to hold as an investment, was gambling pure and simple, and these men were gamblers. He was nothing more than a gambler's agent. It was not troubling him any just at this moment, but it was not at all a mystery now, what he was. As in the case of Waterman & Company, he sized up these men shrewdly, judging some to be weak, some foolish, some clever, some slow, but in the main all small-minded or deficient because they were agents, tools, or gamblers. A man, a real man, must never be an agent, a tool, or a gambler--acting for himself or for others--he must employ such. A real man--a financier--was never a tool. He used tools. He created. He led.

About types of love

The love of a mother for her children is dominant, leonine, selfish, and unselfish. It is concentric. The love of a husband for his wife, or of a lover for his sweetheart, is a sweet bond of agreement and exchange trade in a lovely contest. The love of a father for his son or daughter, where it is love at all, is a broad, generous, sad, contemplative giving without thought of return, a hail and farewell to a troubled traveler whom he would do much to guard, a balanced judgment of weakness and strength, with pity for failure and pride in achievement. It is a lovely, generous, philosophic blossom which rarely asks too much, and seeks only to give wisely and plentifully. "That my boy may succeed! That my daughter may be happy!"

About the essence of law

Law, if you had asked him, and he had accurately expressed himself, was a mist formed out of the moods and the mistakes of men, which befogged the sea of life and prevented plain sailing for the little commercial and social barques of men; it was a miasma of misinterpretation where the ills of life festered, and also a place where the accidentally wounded were ground between the upper and the nether millstones of force or chance; it was a strange, weird, interesting, and yet futile battle of wits where the ignorant and the incompetent and the shrewd and the angry and the weak were made pawns and shuttlecocks for men--lawyers,

About judges

He had no respect for judges--he knew too much about them. He knew how often they were sycophants, political climbers, political hacks, tools, time-servers, judicial door-mats lying before the financially and politically great and powerful who used them as such. Judges were fools, as were most other people in this dusty, shifty world. Pah! His inscrutable eyes took them all in and gave no sign. His only safety lay, he thought, in the magnificent subtley of his own brain, and nowhere else.

Book review: Jack Welch “Winning”.

Long time, being a student in university, I was fascinated by brand Jack Welch and one his books (what was it ? hm…).

10 years later, if I needed to describe “Winning” book in one word – I would select “DRY”.

Lots of things were repeated many times, it was very general and sometimes Welch played “Captain Obvious’”. How about this phrase “Create effective mechanisms - money, recognition and training - to motivate and retain”. As a matter of fact, I stopped at 76% of the book with the feeling of being bored.  (thanks to Kindle we know the numbers exactly now)

However I can’t say my reading time was wasted, as there were quite a few Walch’s quotes, attitudes, experiences I find useful for understanding any business. Here are mine favorites:

BEEING A LEADER

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

CANDOR – the biggest dirty little secret in business

In fact, I would call lack of candor the biggest dirty little secret in business. What a huge problem it is. Lack of candor basically blocks smart ideas, fast action, and good people contributing all the stuff they’ve got. It’s a killer. When you’ve got candor—and you’ll never completely get it, mind you—everything just operates faster and better.

GIVE HONEST FEEDBACK

In fact, I hear about that so often that I always end up asking audiences for a show of hands to the question. “How many of you have received an honest, straight-between-the-eyes feedback session in the last year, where you came out knowing exactly what you have to do to improve and where you stand in the organization?”

People do not say things as they are from childhood we taught to soften bad news

TRUST

What is trust? I could give you a dictionary definition, but you know it when you feel it. Trust happens when leaders are transparent, candid, and keep their word. It’s that simple.

HIRING

My immediate answer to this question is: don’t ever rely entirely on one meeting! No matter how pressed for time you are or how promising someone looks, make sure every candidate is interviewed by several people.

PROMOTION

Managers should not only talk to their employees about next career steps,but should elicit from them the names of the two or three people who they think could replace them should they be promoted.

Besides that, there were too general things, controversial statements (his famous 20-70-10 rule) and other unclear stuff.

Leaders (too general)

1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence. 2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it. 3. Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. 4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit. 5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls. 6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action. 7. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example. 8. Leaders celebrate.

Differentiation in people (controversial)

Now let’s talk about the more controversial topic, differentiation among people. It’s a process that requires managers to assess their employees and separate them into three categories in terms of performance: top 20 percent, middle 70, and bottom 10. Then— and this is key—it requires managers to act on that distinction. I emphasize the word “act” because all managers naturally differentiate—in their heads. But very few make it real. When people differentiation is real, the top 20 percent of employees are showered with bonuses, stock options, praise, love, training, and a variety of rewards to their pocketbooks and souls. There can be no mistaking the stars at a company that differentiates. They are the best and are treated that way. The middle 70 percent are managed differently. This group of people is enormously valuable to any company; you simply cannot function without their skills, energy, and commitment.

Unclear stuff.

Jack Welch is a follower of “mission mantra” as I call it. He starts with mission, he says Artur Andersen and Enron failed because of change mission, etc.

Personally, the more I listen about mission, the more this feels like a really “overrated” term, which is too fluffy for practical implementation. I am not stating its non-existence, however it seems the mission is really inside, and usually it is formalized after the success. 

So how would you practically start business with a written mission statement? It seems nobody of “mission is extra important” protagonists does know “how”.

 

My conclusion about the book:

If you are an employee of traditional big corporation (GE, Procter&Gample, Excon but not Apple or Google) you might perceive “Winning” as a book of your type. All other readers might want to look for more exciting and useful reading experience.

 

Keith Ferrazzi: Never eat alone

You certainly may not become a great communicator by simply reading one book. However you may recognize for yourself how vital are connections and ability to communicate in the modern business world, though.

Favorite quotes:

Once you’ve taken the time to figure out what your mission is and where you want to get to, the next step is to identify the people who can help you to get there.

Art of small talk:

-First give a person a hearty smile. It says I am approachable

- Maintain a good eye contact. If you maintain an unblinking share 100% percent of the time, that qualifies as leering. If you keep eye contact less than 70% of the time ,you’ll seem disinterested and rude. Somewhere in between is the balance

- Unfold your arms and relax. Crossing your arms can make your appear defensive or closed.

- Nod your head and lean it, but without invading other’s person space. You just want to show that you are engaged and interested.

- Learn to touch people. Touching is a powerful act. Most people convey their friendly intentions by shaking hands; some go further by shaking two hands. My favorite way to break the distance between me and a person is to touch the other’s person elbow. It’s not too close to the chest, which we protect, but it’s slightly more personal than a hand.

 The best one

As I discussed in the chapter “What is your mission” the answer to “What do you really want ?” determines all that you do and all the people who help to accomplish it. It often comes down to one of three things: making money, finding love or changing the world.

One of 10 expert’s rules:

Creativity is worthless if it can’t be applied. The bottom line four content has to be: This will make us money. The lifeblood of any company is sales and cash flow. All great ideas are meaningless until someone pays for it.

One more

Relationships are not like pies which can be cut into so many pieces. They are more like muscles – the more you work them, the stronger they become.

 

Ken Fisher: The only three questions that count. Favorite quotes.

The book itself I would not recognize as genious, but I did like following ideas:

Investors  hate losses about 2,5 times as much as they like gains. A 25% gain feels as good a 10% loss. Said otherwise, if you gain 10% over here and lose 10% over there, you feel like you are behind. This is commonly known as loss aversion, intimating shortsightedness and overactive reaction to short-term movements. At root, myopic loss loss aversion and the mistakes it leads to are about two things – pride and regret.

Traditional finance notions derive from traditional notions of economics – that humans in aggregate act rationally, markets are efficient or at least semi-efficient, and individuals acting irrationally may be ignored. By contrast, behavioral finance assumes quirky behavior . Irrationality is assumed to be potential behavior. It’s true – our modernized skulls contain Stone age brains. Investors aren’t rational automatons; they are humans and regularly behave in crazy ways when making financial decisions.

You are a unique, wonderful person. I have no doubt; however you’re probably unique just about like everyone else. You’re not statistically unique. In a statistical sense being unique is to be way, way out the end of the bell curve on some set of attributes. If you’re really unique , you’re technically quite weird. Unique means weird. Most folks like to think of themselves as unique. They don’t like to see themselves as weirdos.  You probably

Ken Fisher: The only three questions that count. Investing by knowing what others don't. (Chapter 1-4)

 It's a complicated book for me, but it does bring forward simple investment truth to think about.
Here is most interesting from Chapters 1-4.

Question 1: What do you believe is actually false ?
Question 2: What can you fathom that others find unfathomable ?
Question 3: What is the heck my brain doing to blindside me now ?

Quotes I liked:

"Investors  hate losses about 2,5 times as much as they like gains. A 25% gain feels as good a 10% loss. Said otherwise, if you gain 10% over here and lose 10% over there, you feel like you are behind. This is commonly known as loss aversion, intimating shortsightedness and overactive reaction to short-term movements. At root, myopic loss loss aversion and the mistakes it leads to are about two things – pride and regret"

"Traditional finance notions derive from traditional notions of economics – that humans in aggregate act rationally, markets are efficient or at least semi-efficient, and individuals acting irrationally may be ignored. By contrast, behavioral finance assumes quirky behavior . Irrationality is assumed to be potential behavior. It’s true – our modernized skulls contain Stone age brains. Investors aren’t rational automatons; they are humans and regularly behave in crazy ways when making financial decisions"

First Things Firs: Chapter 1-4

To live, to love, to learn and leave a legacy

1 How many people on their deathbed wish they’d spent more time at work ?
“The enemy of the best is good”
We are constantly making choices about the way we spend our time, and we are also leaving the consequences of this choices. 

2 The urgency addiction
Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important  is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.
It’s become a status of our society – if we are busy, we are important ; if we are not busy we are almost embarrassed to admit it.

3 To live, to love, to learn and leave a legacy
Doing things faster is no substitute for doing the right things
What is “north” ? Is it a matter of opinion ? It is something we should vote on ? Is it subject to democratic process ? No, because “north” is a true reality independent of us.

4 Quadrant 2 organizing: The process of putting first things first
Where there are no gardener, there is no garden
We live our life in terms of goals – not in sense of role playing, but in the sense of authentic parts we’ve chosen to fill.

MANAGE YOUR TIME NOT YOUR ENERGY

Here is the executive summary of truly interesting article from HBR

• The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story.
• To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they're facing.
• Energy audit, which includes four questions in each energy dimension—body, emotions, mind, and spirit.

The Body: Physical Energy

• going to bed at a designated time and sleeping longer
• eating habits from two big meals a day to smaller meals and light snacks every three hours
• take brief but regular breaks at specific intervals throughout the workday—always leaving his desk

 

The Emotions: Quality of Energy

• One simple but powerful ritual for defusing negative emotions is what we call "buying time." Deep abdominal breathing is one way to do that. Exhaling slowly for five or six seconds induces relaxation and recovery, and turns off the fight-or-flight response.
• A powerful ritual that fuels positive emotions is expressing appreciation to others, a practice that seems to be as beneficial to the giver as to the receiver.
• Finally, people can cultivate positive emotions by learning to change thestories they tell themselves about the events in their lives

The Mind: Focus of Energy

    

• to leave his desk and go into a conference room, away from phones and e-mail, whenever he has a task that requires concentration
• a ritual of checking his e-mail just twice a day—at 10:15 am and 2:30 pm.
• at certain points during the day - to turn off his Sametime (an in-house instant-message system).
• Perhaps the most effective focus ritual the executives we work with have adopted is to identify each night the most important challenge for the next day and make it their very first priority when they arrive in the morning.

The Human Spirit: Energy of Meaning and Purpose

• People tap into the energy of the human spirit when their everyday work and activities are consistent with what they value most and with what gives them a sense of meaning and purpose.
• To access the energy of the human spirit, people need to clarify priorities and establish accompanying rituals in three categories: doing what they do best and enjoy most at work; consciously allocating time and energy to the areas of their lives—work, family, health, service to others—they deem most important; and living their core values in their daily behaviors.
• The third category, practicing your core values in your everyday behavior, is a challenge for many as well. Most people are living at such a furious pace that they rarely stop to ask themselves what they stand for and who they want to be.

 

Conclusion

We envision a new and explicit contract that benefits all parties: Organizations invest in their people across all dimensions of their lives to help them build and sustain their value. Individuals respond by bringing all their multidimensional energy wholeheartedly to work every day. Both grow in value as a result.

McKinsey Way by Ethan Rasiel

The whole name of the book is "Using the Techniques of the World's Top Strategic Consultants To Help You and Your business".
It written by former McKinsey employee and contains a lot of insights of McKinsey work. It describes some techniques used by McKinsey consultants. I do not want to write a review, you may find it at Amazon.

What I took from this book is importance of number 3.
3 main ideas to investigate or discuss, 3 lines on Powerpoint slide, 3 major tasks for the day. I do use the concept in my everyday life, e.g not more than 3 priorities at the same time.

I also liked the the thought listed at the end of book. Certainly it is also worth taking into everyday actions :

"Always stay honest. You may find a lot of grey areas on your business path, but always stay at the right track. Pass the Wall Street Journal test. If will not feel ashamed while reading about your career at the cover page of Wall Street Journal, it is good test result"