akshat's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 07 Aug 2024 13:13:10 -0700 60 akshat's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes, #8)]]> 754713 242 Arthur Conan Doyle 0755334434 akshat 0 4.26 1917 His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes, #8)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: akshat
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1917
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you]]> 52283963
The Mom Test is a quick, practical guide that will save you time, money, and heartbreak.



They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little . As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right .



Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. This book is going to show you how customer conversations go wrong and how you can do better.

]]> 138 Rob Fitzpatrick akshat 5 However, I highly doubt that anyone having read this book 10+ times can stick to the guiding principles.
Making common-sense the most uncommon virtue :)]]> 4.37 2013 The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you
author: Rob Fitzpatrick
name: akshat
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/24
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves:
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Mostly common-sense, but a good go-to checklist for new founders.
However, I highly doubt that anyone having read this book 10+ times can stick to the guiding principles.
Making common-sense the most uncommon virtue :)
]]> The Psychology of Money 55362487 252 Morgan Housel 9390166276 akshat 0 to-read 4.49 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: akshat
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ayurveda Way: 108 Practices from the World's Oldest Healing System for Better Sleep, Less Stress, Optimal Digestion, and More]]> 30648729 256 Ananta Ripa Ajmera 1612128181 akshat 0 to-read 3.82 The Ayurveda Way: 108 Practices from the World's Oldest Healing System for Better Sleep, Less Stress, Optimal Digestion, and More
author: Ananta Ripa Ajmera
name: akshat
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products]]> 22668729 How do successful companies create products people can’t put down?

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?
Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,� these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.


Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.


Eyal provides readers with:


� Practical insights to create user habits that stick.
� Actionable steps for building products people love.

� Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.]]> 256 Nir Eyal 1591847788 akshat 0 to-read 4.12 2013 Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
author: Nir Eyal
name: akshat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger]]> 944652 512 Charles T. Munger 157864366X akshat 0 to-read 4.38 2005 Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
author: Charles T. Munger
name: akshat
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> Rich Dad, Poor Dad 69571 195 Robert T. Kiyosaki 0751532711 akshat 0 to-read 4.10 1997 Rich Dad, Poor Dad
author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
name: akshat
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Psychology of Money 41881472 242 Morgan Housel 0857197681 akshat 0 to-read 4.27 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: akshat
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> Letters from a Stoic 97411 No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers. Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a Stoic, detailing these principles in full.

Seneca’s letters read like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt of death, the value of friendship, and virtue as the supreme good.

Using Gummere’s translation from the early twentieth century, this selection of Seneca’s letters shows his belief in the austere, ethical ideals of Stoicism � teachings we can still learn from today.]]> 254 Seneca 0140442103 akshat 0 to-read 4.33 64 Letters from a Stoic
author: Seneca
name: akshat
average rating: 4.33
book published: 64
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind]]> 31555 Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases:


A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial.
A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience?
A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.
Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- the human mind -- yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.]]> 352 V.S. Ramachandran 0688172172 akshat 0 to-read 4.26 1998 Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
author: V.S. Ramachandran
name: akshat
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales]]> 63697 243 Oliver Sacks akshat 0 to-read 4.08 1985 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
author: Oliver Sacks
name: akshat
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change]]> 33369254
In this book, author Camille Fournier takes you through the stages of technical management, from mentoring interns to working with the senior staff. You ll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path, whether you re a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization.

* Discover how to manage small teams and large/multi-level teams
* Understand how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams
* Deal with people problems and learn how to mentor other managers and new leaders
* Learn how to manage yourself: avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders
* Obtain several practices that you can incorporate and practice along the way]]> 226 Camille Fournier 1491973897 akshat 0 to-read 4.23 2017 The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
author: Camille Fournier
name: akshat
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management]]> 45303387 289 Will Larson 1953953336 akshat 0 to-read 4.08 2019 An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
author: Will Larson
name: akshat
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think]]> 37850908 Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.

When asked simple questions about global trends�what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases.

It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. ]]> 353 Hans Rosling 1473637481 akshat 0 4.56 2018 Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think
author: Hans Rosling
name: akshat
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love]]> 13525945
Not only is the cliché flawed—preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work—but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.

After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers.

Matching your job to a preexisting passion does not matter, he reveals. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.

With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love.

So Good They Can't Ignore You will change the way we think about our careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.]]> 288 Cal Newport 1455509108 akshat 0 4.05 2012 So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
author: Cal Newport
name: akshat
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)]]> 386162
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!]]> 193 Douglas Adams akshat 0 4.28 1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
author: Douglas Adams
name: akshat
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals]]> 54785515 The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.

Nobody needs to be told there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and ceaseless battle against distraction; we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient and life hacks to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with “getting everything done,� Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing that many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.]]> 271 Oliver Burkeman 0374159122 akshat 3 Overall, it's a kind-of on the same lines as other time management books of Cal Newport, Scott Adams, Gary Keller, etc.]]> 4.20 2021 Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
author: Oliver Burkeman
name: akshat
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/16
date added: 2023/01/16
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It's common knowledge, but to be told that life is only made of 4000 weeks is fascinating I guess ¯\_(�)_/¯
Overall, it's a kind-of on the same lines as other time management books of Cal Newport, Scott Adams, Gary Keller, etc.
]]> <![CDATA[On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction]]> 53343 On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.]]> 321 William Zinsser 0060891548 akshat 0 currently-reading 4.23 1976 On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
author: William Zinsser
name: akshat
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Elements of Clojure 31159768
Polanyi calls this "tacit knowledge", a thing which we only understand as part of something else. When we speak, we do not focus on making sounds, we focus on our words. We understand the muscular act of speech, but would struggle to explain it.

To write software, we must learn where to draw boundaries. Good software is built through effective indirection. We seem to have decided that this skill can only be learned through practice; it cannot be taught, except by example. Our decisions may improve with time, but not our ability to explain them.

It's true that the study of these questions cannot yield a closed-form solution for judging software design. We can make our software simple, but we cannot do the same to its problem domain, its users, or the physical world. Our tacit knowledge of this environment will always inform our designs.

This doesn't mean that we can simply ignore our design process. Polanyi tells us that tacit knowledge only suffices until we fail, and the software industry is awash with failure. Our designs may never be provably correct, but we can give voice to the intuition that shaped them. Our process may always be visceral, but it doesn't have to be inarticulate.

And so this book does not offer knowledge, it offers clarity. It is aimed at readers who know Clojure, but struggle to articulate the rationale of their designs to themselves and others. Readers who use other languages, but have a passing familiarity with Clojure, may also find this book useful.]]> 120 Zachary Tellman akshat 5
The Writing Clojure lays down guidelines on naming, which I think is fantastic. Very few books talk about this, given that naming is such an important aspect of daily work.
Additionally, it also talks about some idioms & conventions of Clojure.

The second part, which is about writing Software is much more juicy than the first. It talks about Indirection, Modelling software, drawing boundaries, handling pull/transform/push of data, composing processes by reducing & aggregating them, etc.

For Clojure/FP enthusiasts, the entire book is worth reading. For non-Clojure devs, 2nd part on writing Software might be very appealing.]]> 4.22 Elements of Clojure
author: Zachary Tellman
name: akshat
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/10
date added: 2022/12/19
shelves:
review:
Elements of Clojure is divided into 2 parts largely: Writing Clojure & writing Software in general.

The Writing Clojure lays down guidelines on naming, which I think is fantastic. Very few books talk about this, given that naming is such an important aspect of daily work.
Additionally, it also talks about some idioms & conventions of Clojure.

The second part, which is about writing Software is much more juicy than the first. It talks about Indirection, Modelling software, drawing boundaries, handling pull/transform/push of data, composing processes by reducing & aggregating them, etc.

For Clojure/FP enthusiasts, the entire book is worth reading. For non-Clojure devs, 2nd part on writing Software might be very appealing.
]]> <![CDATA[User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development]]> 3856 304 Mike Cohn 0321205685 akshat 0 to-read 3.88 2004 User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development
author: Mike Cohn
name: akshat
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time]]> 95887 The legendary Eat That Frog! (more than 450,000 copies sold and translated into 23 languages) provides the 21 most effective methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more. This new edition is revised and updated throughout, and includes brand new information on how to keep technology from dominating our time.]]> 144 Brian Tracy 1576754227 akshat 0 to-read 3.90 2001 Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
author: Brian Tracy
name: akshat
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Kafka: The Definitive Guide: Real-Time Data and Stream Processing at Scale]]> 28321010 322 Neha Narkhede 1491936169 akshat 0 to-read 4.15 Kafka: The Definitive Guide: Real-Time Data and Stream Processing at Scale
author: Neha Narkhede
name: akshat
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software]]> 179133 Ralph Johnson, author of Design Patterns "If you don't think you are getting value from your investment in object-oriented programming, this book will tell you what you've forgotten to do. "Eric Evans convincingly argues for the importance of domain modeling as the central focus of development and provides a solid framework and set of techniques for accomplishing it. This is timeless wisdom, and will hold up long after the methodologies du jour have gone out of fashion." --Dave Collins, author of Designing Object-Oriented User Interfaces "Eric weaves real-world experience modeling--and building--business applications into a practical, useful book. Written from the perspective of a trusted practitioner, Eric's descriptions of ubiquitous language, the benefits of sharing models with users, object life-cycle management, logical and physical application structuring, and the process and results of deep refactoring are major contributions to our field." --Luke Hohmann, author of Beyond Software Architecture "This book belongs on the shelf of every thoughtful software developer." --Kent Beck "What Eric has managed to capture is a part of the design process that experienced object designers have always used, but that we have been singularly unsuccessful as a group in conveying to the rest of the industry. We've given away bits and pieces of this knowledge...but we've never organized and systematized the principles of building domain logic. This book is important." --Kyle Brown, author of Enterprise Java(TM) Programming with IBM(R) WebSphere(R) The software development community widely acknowledges that domain modeling is central to software design. Through domain models, software developers are able to express rich functionality and translate it into a software implementation that truly serves the needs of its users. But despite its obvious importance, there are few practical resources that explain how to incorporate effective domain modeling into the software development process. Domain-Driven Design fills that need. This is not a book about specific technologies. It offers readers a systematic approach to domain-driven design, presenting an extensive set of design best practices, experience-based techniques, and fundamental principles that facilitate the development of software projects facing complex domains. Intertwining design and development practice, this book incorporates numerous examples based on actual projects to illustrate the application of domain-driven design to real-world software development. Readers learn how to use a domain model to make a complex development effort more focused and dynamic. A core of best practices and standard patterns provides a common language for the development team. A shift in emphasis--refactoring not just the code but the model underlying the code--in combination with the frequent iterations of Agile development leads to deeper insight into domains and enhanced communication between domain expert and programmer. Domain-Driven Design then builds on this foundation, and addresses modeling and design for complex systems and larger organizations.Specific topics covered include:
Getting all team members to speak the same language Connecting model and implementation more deeply Sharpening key distinctions in a model Managing the lifecycle of a domain object Writing domain code that is safe to combine in elaborate ways Making complex code obvious and predictable Formulating a domain vision statement Distilling the core of a complex domain Digging out implicit concepts needed in the model Applying analysis patterns Relating design patterns to the model Maintaining model integrity in a large system Dealing with coexisting models on the same project Organizing systems with large-scale structures Recognizing and responding to modeling breakthroughs With this book in hand, object-oriented developers, system analysts, and designers will have the guidance they need to organize and focus their work, create rich and useful domain models, and leverage those models into quality, long-lasting software implementations.]]> 560 Eric Evans 0321125215 akshat 0 to-read 4.14 2003 Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
author: Eric Evans
name: akshat
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact]]> 35414701 Exactly What to Say, he delivers the tactics you need to get more of what you want.

Best-selling author and multiple award-winner Phil M. Jones is highly regarded as one of the world's leading sales trainers.]]> 148 Phil M. Jones 0692881956 akshat 0 to-read 3.67 2017 Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact
author: Phil M. Jones
name: akshat
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action]]> 7108725 Why do you do what you do?

Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?

People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why. It was their natural ability to start with why that enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things.

In studying the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way—and it's the complete opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit—those are always results. WHY does your organization exist? WHY does it do the things it does? WHY do customers really buy from one company or another? WHY are people loyal to some leaders, but not others?

Starting with WHY works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire. And the people who follow them don't do so because they have to; they follow because they want to.

Drawing on a wide range of real-life stories, Sinek weaves together a clear vision of what it truly takes to lead and inspire. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others or who wants to find someone to inspire them.]]> 256 Simon Sinek 1591842808 akshat 0 to-read 4.10 2009 Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
author: Simon Sinek
name: akshat
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Hamlet 1420 289 William Shakespeare 0521618746 akshat 3
The plot is very interesting; however, the end is too abrupt. There was enough room for dialogue in the last scene]]> 4.02 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: akshat
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1601
rating: 3
read at: 2021/12/27
date added: 2021/12/27
shelves:
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There's lot of truth told about life that goes beyond our sugary filters.

The plot is very interesting; however, the end is too abrupt. There was enough room for dialogue in the last scene
]]> The Merchant of Venice 24128 249 William Shakespeare 0743477561 akshat 5
The story is really gripping, there's element of friendship, love, humour and thrill in the story.

Side note: if Shakespearean English frightens you, try reading a book from spark notes publication titled No fear Shakespeare. They have English translation side-by-side]]> 3.77 1596 The Merchant of Venice
author: William Shakespeare
name: akshat
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1596
rating: 5
read at: 2021/10/05
date added: 2021/10/05
shelves:
review:
This was my first Shakespeare Book and I now know why he's the author with most number of books sold historically

The story is really gripping, there's element of friendship, love, humour and thrill in the story.

Side note: if Shakespearean English frightens you, try reading a book from spark notes publication titled No fear Shakespeare. They have English translation side-by-side
]]> <![CDATA[Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives]]> 24908389 Two decades ago, when Sudha Murty approached a group of devadasis for the first time, determined to make a difference to their lives, they threw a chappal at her.
Undeterred, she went back, telling herself she must talk to the devadasis about the dangers of AIDS. This time, they threw tomatoes.
But she refused to give up. The Infosys Foundation worked hard to make the devadasis self-reliant, to help educate their children, and to rid the label of the social stigma that had become attached to it. Today, there are no temple prostitutes left in the state of Karnataka.
This is the powerful, inspirational story of that change initiative that has transformed thousands of lives.]]> 256 Sudha Murty akshat 0 to-read 4.09 2015 Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives
author: Sudha Murty
name: akshat
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[TANTRI THE MANTRI (VOL -5) : TINKLE COLLECTION (TANTRI THE MANTRI : TINKLE COLLECTION)]]> 37261262 71 Rajani Thindiath akshat 0 to-read 4.58 TANTRI THE MANTRI (VOL -5) : TINKLE COLLECTION (TANTRI THE MANTRI : TINKLE COLLECTION)
author: Rajani Thindiath
name: akshat
average rating: 4.58
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/09/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea]]> 44428950 336 Marc Randolph 0316530204 akshat 0 to-read 4.18 2019 That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea
author: Marc Randolph
name: akshat
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)]]> 35074096
This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.]]> 416 Stephen Fry 0718188721 akshat 4 Indians, and probably people from across the world will find uncanny similarities with myths from their own culture.
Who copied from whom, we'll never know ]]> 4.27 2017 Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: akshat
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/02
date added: 2021/09/02
shelves:
review:
It's like a story book to read at night for adults.
Indians, and probably people from across the world will find uncanny similarities with myths from their own culture.
Who copied from whom, we'll never know
]]> Programming Pearls 52084 "The first edition of Programming Pearls was one of the most influential books I read early in my career, and many of the insights I first encountered in that book stayed with me long after I read it. Jon has done a wonderful job of updating the material. I am very impressed at how fresh the new examples seem."
- Steve McConnell, author, Code Complete

When programmers list their favorite books, Jon Bentley's collection of programming pearls is commonly included among the classics. Just as natural pearls grow from grains of sand that irritate oysters, programming pearls have grown from real problems that have irritated real programmers. With origins beyond solid engineering, in the realm of insight and creativity, Bentley's pearls offer unique and clever solutions to those nagging problems. Illustrated by programs designed as much for fun as for instruction, the book is filled with lucid and witty descriptions of practical programming techniques and fundamental design principles. It is not at all surprising that Programming Pearls has been so highly valued by programmers at every level of experience.

In this revision, the first in 14 years, Bentley has substantially updated his essays to reflect current programming methods and environments. In addition, there are three new essays on (1) testing, debugging, and timing; (2) set representations; and (3) string problems. All the original programs have been rewritten, and an equal amount of new code has been generated. Implementations of all the programs, in C or C++, are now available on the Web.

What remains the same in this new edition is Bentley's focus on the hard core of programming problems and his delivery of workable solutions to those problems. Whether you are new to Bentley's classic or are revisiting his work for some fresh insight, this book is sure to make your own list of favorites.]]> 239 Jon L. Bentley 0201657880 akshat 0 to-read 4.20 1986 Programming Pearls
author: Jon L. Bentley
name: akshat
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/01
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]]> The English Teacher 196743 "Mr. Narayan has repeatedly been compared with Chekhov. Ordinarily such comparisons are gratuitous and strained, but in this case there are such clear and insistent echoes that any careful reader will be aware of them. There is that sense of rightness which transcends mere structure. There is the inexplicable blending of tragedy and humor. Most of all, there is a brooding awareness of fate which makes the story seem not authored, but merely translated."--J.F. Muehl, "Saturday Review"
"[Narayan] does not deal in exemplary fates, and the Western novel's machinery of retribution is far too grandiose for him. . . . In Narayan's world, scores are not settled but dissolved, recycled, restated. 'Both of us will shed our forms soon and perhaps we could meet again, who knows? So goodbye for the present.' These are the concluding words for the novel "A Tiger for Malgudi," but they constitute a universal epilogue one could append to most of Narayan's fiction."--Russell Davies, "Times Literary Supplement"]]> 180 R.K. Narayan 0099282283 akshat 0 to-read 3.82 1945 The English Teacher
author: R.K. Narayan
name: akshat
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1945
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon]]> 56694384 Working Backwards is an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time, top-level Amazon executives.Colin started at Amazon in 1998; Bill joined in 1999. In Working Backwards, these two long-serving Amazon executives reveal and codify the principles and practices that drive the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known. With twenty-seven years of Amazon experience between them, much of it in the early aughts—a period of unmatched innovation that brought products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services to life—Bryar and Carr offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was refined, articulated, and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable.With keen analysis and practical steps for applying it at your own company—no matter the size—the authors illuminate how Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels and reveal how the company’s culture has been defined by four customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence. Bryar and Carr explain the set of ground-level practices that ensure these are translated into action and flow through all aspects of the business.Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors� in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian� is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices—shared here for the very first time.]]> 305 Colin Bryar 1529033853 akshat 0 to-read 4.37 2021 Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
author: Colin Bryar
name: akshat
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams]]> 34466963 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781501144318.

Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night's sleep every night.]]> 368 Matthew Walker akshat 0 to-read 4.37 2017 Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
author: Matthew Walker
name: akshat
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Designing Data-Intensive Applications]]> 23463279

In this practical and comprehensive guide, author Martin Kleppmann helps you navigate this diverse landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data. Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same. With this book, software engineers and architects will learn how to apply those ideas in practice, and how to make full use of data in modern applications.


Peer under the hood of the systems you already use, and learn how to use and operate them more effectively
Make informed decisions by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different tools
Navigate the trade-offs around consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and complexity
Understand the distributed systems research upon which modern databases are built
Peek behind the scenes of major online services, and learn from their architectures]]> 562 Martin Kleppmann akshat 0 to-read 4.72 2015 Designing Data-Intensive Applications
author: Martin Kleppmann
name: akshat
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/12
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need]]> 52275335 In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical - and accessible - plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.

He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions-suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.

As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.]]> 272 Bill Gates 0241448301 akshat 0 to-read 4.12 2021 How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
author: Bill Gates
name: akshat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Good to Great, 2)]]> 4122 368 Jim Collins 0060566108 akshat 0 to-read 4.06 1994 Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Good to Great, 2)
author: Jim Collins
name: akshat
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't]]> 76865
The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?

The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:
Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.

The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.

A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.

The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.]]> 300 Jim Collins 0066620996 akshat 0 to-read 4.12 2001 Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
author: Jim Collins
name: akshat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values]]> 1169674 325 Fred Kofman 1591795176 akshat 0 to-read 3.94 2005 Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values
author: Fred Kofman
name: akshat
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Thank You, Jeeves (Jeeves, #5)]]> 16241200 230 P.G. Wodehouse 0393345998 akshat 0 to-read 4.14 1933 Thank You, Jeeves (Jeeves, #5)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: akshat
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1933
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Very Good, Jeeves! (Jeeves, #4)]]> 9862342 1 Jeeves and the Impending Doom
2 The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy
3 Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit
4 Jeeves and the Song of Songs
5 Episode of the Dog McIntosh
6 The Spot of Art
7 Jeeves and the Kid Clementina
8 The Love that Purifies
9 Jeeves and the Old School Chum
10 Indian Summer of an Uncle
11 The Ordeal of Young Tuppy]]> 272 P.G. Wodehouse 0393339793 akshat 0 to-read 4.27 1930 Very Good, Jeeves! (Jeeves, #4)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: akshat
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1930
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Right Ho, Jeeves (Jeeves, #6) 9850375 257 P.G. Wodehouse 0393339785 akshat 0 to-read 4.29 1934 Right Ho, Jeeves (Jeeves, #6)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: akshat
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1934
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/20
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]]> Carry On, Jeeves (Jeeves, #3) 16387 273 P.G. Wodehouse 1585673927 akshat 0 to-read 4.26 1925 Carry On, Jeeves (Jeeves, #3)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: akshat
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1925
rating: 0
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]]> My Man Jeeves (Jeeves, #1) 200572 My Man Jeeves is sure to please anyone with a taste for pithy buffoonery, moronic misunderstandings, gaffes, and aristocratic slapstick.

Contents:
"Leave It to Jeeves"
"Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest"
"Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg"
"Absent Treatment"
"Helping Freddie"
"Rallying Round Old George"
"Doing Clarence a Bit of Good"
"The Aunt and the Sluggard"

Of the eight stories in the collection, half feature the popular characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, while the others concern Reggie Pepper, an early prototype for Bertie Wooster.

Revised versions of all the Jeeves stories in this collection were later published in the 1925 short story collection Carry On, Jeeves. One of the Reggie Pepper stories in this collection was later rewritten as a Jeeves story, which was also included in Carry On, Jeeves.]]> 256 P.G. Wodehouse 1585678759 akshat 0 to-read 4.07 1919 My Man Jeeves (Jeeves, #1)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: akshat
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1919
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google]]> 34427200 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are the four most influential companies on the planet. Just about everyone thinks they know how they got there. Just about everyone is wrong.

For all that's been written about the Four over the last two decades, no one has captured their power and staggering success as insightfully as Scott Galloway.

Instead of buying the myths these compa-nies broadcast, Galloway asks fundamental questions. How did the Four infiltrate our lives so completely that they're almost impossible to avoid (or boycott)? Why does the stock market forgive them for sins that would destroy other firms? And as they race to become the world's first trillion-dollar company, can anyone chal-lenge them?

In the same irreverent style that has made him one of the world's most celebrated business professors, Galloway deconstructs the strategies of the Four that lurk beneath their shiny veneers. He shows how they manipulate the fundamental emotional needs that have driven us since our ancestors lived in caves, at a speed and scope others can't match. And he reveals how you can apply the lessons of their ascent to your own business or career.

Whether you want to compete with them, do business with them, or simply live in the world they dominate, you need to understand the Four.]]> 320 Scott Galloway 0735213658 akshat 0 to-read 3.80 2017 The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google
author: Scott Galloway
name: akshat
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Joy of Game Theory: An Introduction to Strategic Thinking]]> 19342361 155 Presh Talwalkar akshat 4
This book discusses following topics:
1. Hotelling's game-why competing co-locates even though it's bad for consumer
2. Dominated and Dominant strategies, focal points for coordination
3. The Talmud answer for splitting resources fairly
4. Nash equilibrium and the Prisoner's dilemma in various scenarios like the Casino, Southwest airlines, honest pricing, golden balls TV show
5. How can we change the game from being played to writing the rules ourselves? Creating incentives, burning bridges, being immovable and inflexible
6. The Braess paradox for traffic, The leader's dilemma, Market unraveling
7. How waiting in line, wearing high heels are all wasteful games we've to play
8. How jealousy can turn a dominated strategy into a dominant one and reduce pay-offs, with multiple examples of how people shoot themselves in the foot by thinking relatively instead of absolutely]]> 3.93 2013 The Joy of Game Theory: An Introduction to Strategic Thinking
author: Presh Talwalkar
name: akshat
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/19
date added: 2021/02/19
shelves:
review:
Everyone should be familiar with the concepts of Game Theory as we make decisions daily. This book helps someone entirely new to this topic gain a lot of understanding.

This book discusses following topics:
1. Hotelling's game-why competing co-locates even though it's bad for consumer
2. Dominated and Dominant strategies, focal points for coordination
3. The Talmud answer for splitting resources fairly
4. Nash equilibrium and the Prisoner's dilemma in various scenarios like the Casino, Southwest airlines, honest pricing, golden balls TV show
5. How can we change the game from being played to writing the rules ourselves? Creating incentives, burning bridges, being immovable and inflexible
6. The Braess paradox for traffic, The leader's dilemma, Market unraveling
7. How waiting in line, wearing high heels are all wasteful games we've to play
8. How jealousy can turn a dominated strategy into a dominant one and reduce pay-offs, with multiple examples of how people shoot themselves in the foot by thinking relatively instead of absolutely
]]> <![CDATA[Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words]]> 25329850 Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words, things are explained in the style of Up Goer Five, using only drawings and a vocabulary of the 1,000 (or "ten hundred") most common words. Explore computer buildings (datacenters), the flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates), the things you use to steer a plane (airliner cockpit controls), and the little bags of water you're made of (cells).]]> 64 Randall Munroe 0544668251 akshat 0 to-read 4.14 2015 Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
author: Randall Munroe
name: akshat
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/01/28
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]]> <![CDATA[What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]> 21413662 xkcd comic ask Munroe a lot of strange questions: What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by his signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)

In celebration of 10 years of unusual insight, Randall Munroe has revised his classic blockbuster to ask what if? x 10. The result is 10x the adventure of scientific inquiry. Featuring brand-new 2-color annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition is far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.]]> 303 Randall Munroe 0544272994 akshat 4 Bored by the fact that a lot of answers ended up with plasma and world destruction. Would have liked a little more creativity and diversity]]> 4.13 2014 What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
author: Randall Munroe
name: akshat
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/25
date added: 2021/01/28
shelves:
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Appreciate the lengths Randall went to to get everything as right as he could.
Bored by the fact that a lot of answers ended up with plasma and world destruction. Would have liked a little more creativity and diversity
]]> <![CDATA[Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors]]> 39074550 An international bestseller

The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, "When am I ever going to use this in the real world?"

"Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations--that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes." --Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything

Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations enabling the design of skyscrapers and bridges. Most of the time this math works quietly behind the scenes . . . until it doesn't. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences.

Math is easy to ignore until a misplaced decimal point upends the stock market, a unit conversion error causes a plane to crash, or someone divides by zero and stalls a battleship in the middle of the ocean.

Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.]]> 314 Matt Parker 0241360196 akshat 0 to-read 4.11 2019 Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
author: Matt Parker
name: akshat
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> Microservice Patterns 34372564
Microservice Patterns teaches enterprise developers and architects how to build applications with the microservice architecture. Rather than simply advocating for the use the microservice architecture, this clearly-written guide takes a balanced, pragmatic approach. You'll discover that the microservice architecture is not a silver bullet and has both benefits and drawbacks. Along the way, you'll learn a pattern language that will enable you to solve the issues that arise when using the microservice architecture. This book also teaches you how to refactor a monolithic application to a microservice architecture.]]> 520 Chris Richardson akshat 0 to-read 4.24 Microservice Patterns
author: Chris Richardson
name: akshat
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/10
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]]> Exhalation 41160292
In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.]]> 368 Ted Chiang akshat 0 to-read 4.27 2019 Exhalation
author: Ted Chiang
name: akshat
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Stories of Your Life and Others]]> 223380 ]]> 281 Ted Chiang 0330426648 akshat 0 to-read 4.28 2002 Stories of Your Life and Others
author: Ted Chiang
name: akshat
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder on the Nile (stage play)]]> 658292
Characters: 8 male, 5 female

Interior Set

Simon Mostyn has recently married Kay Ridgeway, a rich woman, having thrown over his former lover Jacqueline. The couple are on their honeymoon and are at present on a paddle steamer on the Nile. With them is Canon Pennefather, Kay's guardian, and Jacqueline, who has been dogging their footsteps all through the honeymoon. Also on the boat are a rich, ill tempered old woman with her niece and companion, a rather direct young man, a German who nurses a grudge against Kay's father and Kay's maid. During the voyage Jacqueline works herself into a state of hysteria and shoots at Simon, wounding him in the knee. A few moments later Kay is found shot in her bunk. By the time the boat reaches its destination, Canon Pennefather has laid bare an audacious conspiracy and has made sure the criminals shall not go free.]]> 104 Agatha Christie 0573012989 akshat 3 4.19 1944 Murder on the Nile (stage play)
author: Agatha Christie
name: akshat
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1944
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/12/07
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]]> The Song of the Bird 345279
Anthony De Mello
Image
08/21/1984
192
Binding Paperback
0.38lbs
8.22h x 5.44w x 0.53d
9780385196154

About the Author
Anthony De Mello was a Jesuit priest known throughout the world for his writings and spiritual conferences. He died suddenly in 1987. Among his many books are Sadhana and Awareness .]]> 174 Anthony de Mello 0385196156 akshat 5 4.36 1982 The Song of the Bird
author: Anthony de Mello
name: akshat
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2010/08/31
date added: 2020/11/22
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[So You Want to Talk About Race]]> 35099718 In this breakout book, Ijeoma Oluo explores the complex reality of today's racial landscape--from white privilege and police brutality to systemic discrimination and the Black Lives Matter movement--offering straightforward clarity that readers need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.

Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word."]]> 248 Ijeoma Oluo 1580056776 akshat 0 to-read 4.48 2018 So You Want to Talk About Race
author: Ijeoma Oluo
name: akshat
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World]]> 40718726 352 Jack Weatherford akshat 0 to-read 4.08 2004 Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
author: Jack Weatherford
name: akshat
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/10/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Everyday Ayurveda: Daily Habits That Can Change Your Life in a Day]]> 27865095 320 Bhaswati Bhattacharya 8184004575 akshat 0 to-read 4.12 Everyday Ayurveda: Daily Habits That Can Change Your Life in a Day
author: Bhaswati Bhattacharya
name: akshat
average rating: 4.12
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date added: 2020/10/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World]]> 41795733
Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world's top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.

David Epstein examined the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields--especially those that are complex and unpredictable--generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They're also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can't see.

Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.]]> 339 David Epstein 0735214484 akshat 0 to-read 4.12 2019 Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
author: David Epstein
name: akshat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/10/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Value Investing and Behavioral Finance: Insights into Indian Stock Market Realities]]> 6922763 356 Parag Parikh 0070680043 akshat 0 to-read 4.05 Value Investing and Behavioral Finance: Insights into Indian Stock Market Realities
author: Parag Parikh
name: akshat
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/10/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age]]> 6565257
We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care?

Consider these Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet.

Hackers & Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West."

The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.]]> 314 Paul Graham 059610636X akshat 5 4.18 2004 Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
author: Paul Graham
name: akshat
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/05
date added: 2020/10/05
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]]> The Infinite Game 38390751 Do you know how to play the game you're in?

In finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed, and the endpoint is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified.

In infinite games, like business or politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game; there is only ahead and behind.

The more I started to understand the difference between finite and infinite games, the more I began to see infinite games all around us. I started to see that many of the struggles that organizations face exist simply because their leaders were playing with a finite mindset in an infinite game. These organizations tend to lag behind in innovation, discretionary effort, morale and ultimately performance.

The leaders who embrace an infinite mindset, in stark contrast, build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organizations. Their people trust each other and their leaders. They have the resilience to thrive in an ever-changing world, while their competitors fall by the wayside. Ultimately, they are the ones who lead the rest of us into the future.

Any worthwhile undertaking starts with Why - the purpose, cause or belief that inspires us to do what we do and inspires others to join us. Good leaders know how to build Circles of Safety that promote trust and cooperation throughout their organizations. But that's not enough to help us chart a course through the unpredictable, often chaotic landscape of today's marketplace.

I now believe that the ability to adopt an infinite mindset is a prerequisite for any leader who aspires to leave their organization in better shape than they found it.]]> 251 Simon Sinek 073521350X akshat 0 to-read 4.15 2017 The Infinite Game
author: Simon Sinek
name: akshat
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> The Intelligent Investor 6621611 The classic text annotated by noted financial journalist Jason Zweig to update Benjamin Graham's timeless wisdom for today's market conditions. Warren Buffet: "By far the best book on investing ever written."

Considered the greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham's philosophy of "value investing" -- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies -- has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949. Over the years, market developments have proven the wisdom of Graham's strategies. While preserving the integrity of Graham's original text, PerfectBound's revised edition includes updated commentary, whose perspective incorporates the realities of today's market, draws parallels between Graham's examples and today's financial headlines, and gives readers a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham's principles.

More than one million hardcovers sold


Now available for the first time in paperback!

The Classic Text Annotated to Update Graham's Timeless Wisdom for Today's Market Conditions

The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" -- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies -- has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949.

Over the years, market developments have proven the wisdom of Graham's strategies. While preserving the integrity of Graham's original text, this revised edition includes updated commentary by noted financial journalist Jason Zweig, whose perspective incorporates the realities of today's market, draws parallels between Graham's examples and today's financial headlines, and gives readers a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham's principles.

Vital and indispensable, this HarperBusiness Essentials edition of The Intelligent Investor is the most important book you will ever read on how to reach your financial goals.

]]> 640 Benjamin Graham akshat 0 to-read 4.35 1949 The Intelligent Investor
author: Benjamin Graham
name: akshat
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Dear Stranger, I Know How You Feel]]> 48731634 198 Ashish Bagrecha 9388754794 akshat 0 to-read 3.83 Dear Stranger, I Know How You Feel
author: Ashish Bagrecha
name: akshat
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/09/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics]]> 16158542
It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys� own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.]]> 404 Daniel James Brown 067002581X akshat 0 to-read 4.37 2013 The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
author: Daniel James Brown
name: akshat
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know]]> 43862012 THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Compelling, haunting, tragic stories . . . resonate long after you put the book down' James McConnachie, Sunday Times Book of the Year The routine traffic stop that ends in tragedy. The spy who spends years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon. The false conviction of Amanda Knox. Why do we so often get other people wrong? Why is it so hard to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger's motives?Using stories of deceit and fatal errors to cast doubt on our strategies for dealing with the unknown, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual adventure into the darker side of human nature, where strangers are never simple and misreading them can have disastrous consequences.]]> 379 Malcolm Gladwell akshat 1 In this book, I was looking at pointers on how to talk to strangers, how to adjudged strangers. Instead I found general pointers and common sense around dealing with people in general.
Cuban spies, Sandra Bland, suicidal couplings, KSM, Amanda Knox, all stories point to buy two summaries: don't default to truth and reading human emotions isn't as easy as shown in movies.
Other books like Freakonomics are better at such story telling. The contents of the book don't do justice to it's title :)]]> 3.99 2019 Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: akshat
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2020/07/19
date added: 2020/07/20
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Malcolm Gladwell is a great author with works like outliers.
In this book, I was looking at pointers on how to talk to strangers, how to adjudged strangers. Instead I found general pointers and common sense around dealing with people in general.
Cuban spies, Sandra Bland, suicidal couplings, KSM, Amanda Knox, all stories point to buy two summaries: don't default to truth and reading human emotions isn't as easy as shown in movies.
Other books like Freakonomics are better at such story telling. The contents of the book don't do justice to it's title :)
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]> 912 J.K. Rowling akshat 5 "Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike"]]> 4.50 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: akshat
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/06/27
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The character of Umbridge is pure evil and makes you grind your teeth. The bureaucracy, politics is quite realistic. The character development of Ginny and Harry is amazing. Voldemort and Dumbledore just won your hearts with their words!
"Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike"
]]> <![CDATA[Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High]]> 15014
When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. Crucial Conversations gives you the tools you need to step up to life's most difficult and important conversations, say what's on your mind, and achieve the positive resolutions you want. You'll learn how to:

Prepare for high-impact situations with a six-minute mastery technique
Make it safe to talk about almost anything
Be persuasive, not abrasive
Keep listening when others blow up or clam up
Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want]]> 240 Kerry Patterson 0071401946 akshat 0 to-read 4.04 2002 Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
author: Kerry Patterson
name: akshat
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Win Friends & Influence People]]> 4865
Since its release in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold more than 30 million copies. Dale Carnegie's first book is a timeless bestseller, packed with rock-solid advice that has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

As relevant as ever before, Dale Carnegie's principles endure, and will help you achieve your maximum potential in the complex and competitive modern age.

Learn the six ways to make people like you, the twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking, and the nine ways to change people without arousing resentment.]]> 288 Dale Carnegie akshat 0 to-read 4.22 1936 How to Win Friends & Influence People
author: Dale Carnegie
name: akshat
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1936
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[On Speaking Well: How to Give a Speech With Style, Substance, and Clarity]]> 638846 224 Peggy Noonan 0060987405 akshat 0 to-read 3.84 1998 On Speaking Well: How to Give a Speech With Style, Substance, and Clarity
author: Peggy Noonan
name: akshat
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Relevant Search: With applications for Solr and Elasticsearch]]> 28328882
Relevant Search demystifies relevance work. Using Elasticsearch, it teaches you how to return engaging search results to your users, helping you understand and leverage the internals of Lucene-based search engines.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the Technology

Users are accustomed to and expect instant, relevant search results. To achieve this, you must master the search engine. Yet for many developers, relevance ranking is mysterious or confusing.

About the Book

Relevant Search demystifies the subject and shows you that a search engine is a programmable relevance framework. You'll learn how to apply Elasticsearch or Solr to your business's unique ranking problems. The book demonstrates how to program relevance and how to incorporate secondary data sources, taxonomies, text analytics, and personalization. In practice, a relevance framework requires softer skills as well, such as collaborating with stakeholders to discover the right relevance requirements for your business. By the end, you'll be able to achieve a virtuous cycle of provable, measurable relevance improvements over a search product's lifetime.

What's Inside


About the Reader

For developers trying to build smarter search with Elasticsearch or Solr.

About the Authors

Doug Turnbull is lead relevance consultant at OpenSource Connections, where he frequently speaks and blogs. John Berryman is a data engineer at Eventbrite, where he specializes in recommendations and search.

Foreword author, Trey Grainger , is a director of engineering at CareerBuilder and author of Solr in Action .

Table of Contents]]> 360 Doug Turnbull 161729277X akshat 0 to-read 4.22 Relevant Search: With applications for Solr and Elasticsearch
author: Doug Turnbull
name: akshat
average rating: 4.22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves]]> 7776209
Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.

This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.]]> 448 Matt Ridley 006145205X akshat 0 to-read 3.94 2010 The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
author: Matt Ridley
name: akshat
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World � and Why Things Are Better Than You Think]]> 34890015 Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.

When asked simple questions about global trends�what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases.

It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. ]]> 342 Hans Rosling 1473637465 akshat 5 4.34 2018 Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
author: Hans Rosling
name: akshat
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/06/03
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Brought up in a developing nation, I never held a negative view of the world. However this book helped me to control my instincts, mainly the blame, negativity, generalization and urgency. Hopefully, this will help me take in information and action with a calmer mind.
]]> <![CDATA[The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine]]> 26889576 The #1 New York Times bestseller: "It is the work of our greatest financial journalist, at the top of his game. And it's essential reading."—Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.




Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time.]]> 291 Michael Lewis 039335315X akshat 0 to-read 4.34 2010 The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
author: Michael Lewis
name: akshat
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley]]> 28259132 Liar’s Poker meets The Social Network in an irreverent exposé of life inside the tech bubble, from industry provocateur Antonio García Martínez, a former Twitter advisor, Facebook product manager and startup founder/CEO.

The reality is, Silicon Valley capitalism is very simple:

Investors are people with more money than time.

Employees are people with more time than money.

Entrepreneurs are the seductive go-between.

Marketing is like sex: only losers pay for it.

Imagine a chimpanzee rampaging through a datacenter powering everything from Google to Facebook. Infrastructure engineers use a software version of this “chaos monkey� to test online services� robustness—their ability to survive random failure and correct mistakes before they actually occur. Tech entrepreneurs are society’s chaos monkeys, disruptors testing and transforming every aspect of our lives, from transportation (Uber) and lodging (AirBnB) to television (Netflix) and dating (Tinder). One of Silicon Valley’s most audacious chaos monkeys is Antonio García Martínez.

After stints on Wall Street and as CEO of his own startup, García Martínez joined Facebook’s nascent advertising team, turning its users� data into profit for COO Sheryl Sandberg and chairman and CEO Mark “Zuck� Zuckerberg. Forced out in the wake of an internal product war over the future of the company’s monetization strategy, García Martínez eventually landed at rival Twitter. He also fathered two children with a woman he barely knew, committed lewd acts and brewed illegal beer on the Facebook campus (accidentally flooding Zuckerberg's desk), lived on a sailboat, raced sport cars on the 101, and enthusiastically pursued the life of an overpaid Silicon Valley wastrel.

Now, this gleeful contrarian unravels the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing and reveals how it is invading our lives and shaping our future. Weighing in on everything from startups and credit derivatives to Big Brother and data tracking, social media monetization and digital “privacy,� García Martínez shares his scathing observations and outrageous antics, taking us on a humorous, subversive tour of the fascinatingly insular tech industry. Chaos Monkeys lays bare the hijinks, trade secrets, and power plays of the visionaries, grunts, sociopaths, opportunists, accidental tourists, and money cowboys who are revolutionizing our world. The question is, will we survive?]]> 528 Antonio García Martínez 0062458191 akshat 0 to-read 3.66 2016 Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley
author: Antonio García Martínez
name: akshat
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility]]> 36417234
McCord advocates practicing radical honesty in the workplace, saying good-bye to employees who don’t fit the company’s emerging needs, and motivating with challenging work, not promises, perks, and bonus plans. McCord argues that the old standbys of corporate HR―annual performance reviews, retention plans, employee empowerment and engagement programs―often end up being a colossal waste of time and resources. Her road-tested advice, offered with humor and irreverence, provides readers a different path for creating a culture of high performance and profitability.

Powerful will change how you think about work and the way a business should be run.]]> 228 Patty McCord 1939714095 akshat 0 to-read 4.04 2018 Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility
author: Patty McCord
name: akshat
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/01
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]]> xkcd: volume 0 6902644 xkcd as a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. While it's practically required reading in the geek community, xkcd fans are as varied as the comic's subject matter. This book creates laughs from science jokes on one page to relationship humor on another.

xkcd: volume 0 is the first book from the immensely popular webcomic with a passionate readership (just Google "xkcd meetup").

The artist selected personal and fan favorites from his first 600 comics. It was lovingly assembled from high-resolution original scans of the comics (the mouseover text is discreetly included), and features a lot of doodles, notes, and puzzles in the margins.

The book is published by Breadpig, which donates all of the publisher profits from this book to Room to Read for promoting literacy in the developing world.]]> 120 Randall Munroe 0615314465 akshat 0 to-read 4.33 2009 xkcd: volume 0
author: Randall Munroe
name: akshat
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened]]> 17571564
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!]]> 371 Allie Brosh 1451666179 akshat 0 to-read 4.16 2013 Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
author: Allie Brosh
name: akshat
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 akshat 4 4.56 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: akshat
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/05/14
shelves:
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Sassy Ron and Dumbledore and Good twists.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)]]> 5 435 J.K. Rowling 043965548X akshat 5 4.57 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: akshat
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/04/27
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Awesome plot twists and character developments. Favourite book in the series uptil now
]]> <![CDATA[Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports]]> 432940 296 Howard Schilit 0071386262 akshat 0 to-read 4.23 1993 Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports
author: Howard Schilit
name: akshat
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization]]> 255127
This revised edition of the bestselling classic is based on fifteen years of experience in putting Peter Senge’s ideas into practice. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition. The leadership stories demonstrate the many ways that the core ideas of the Fifth Discipline, many of which seemed radical when first published, have become deeply integrated into people’s ways of seeing the world and their managerial practices.

Senge describes how companies can rid themselves of the learning blocks that threaten their productivity and success by adopting the strategies of learning organizations, in which new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and people are continually learning how to create the results they truly desire.

Mastering the disciplines Senge outlines in the book will:

� Reignite the spark of genuine learning driven by people focused on what truly matters to them
� Bridge teamwork into macrocreativity
� Free you of confining assumptions and mindsets
� Teach you to see the forest and the trees
� End the struggle between work and personal time

This updated edition contains more than one hundred pages of new material based on interviews with dozens of practitioners at companies such as BP, Unilever, Intel, Ford, HP, and Saudi Aramco and organizations such as Roca, Oxfam, and The World Bank.]]> 445 Peter M. Senge 0385517254 akshat 0 to-read 3.92 1990 The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization
author: Peter M. Senge
name: akshat
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hobbit, or There and Back Again]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien akshat 0 to-read 4.29 1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: akshat
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/05
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]]> The Lord of the Rings 33 One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.

When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.

The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.]]> 1216 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618640150 akshat 0 to-read 4.52 1954 The Lord of the Rings
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: akshat
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1954
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Wages Don't Fall During a Recession]]> 684016
By taking this approach, gaining the confidence of his interlocutors and asking them detailed questions in a nonstructured way, he was able to uncover empirically the circumstances that give rise to wage rigidity. He found that the executives were averse to cutting wages of either current employees or new hires, even during the economic downturn when demand for their products fell sharply. They believed that cutting wages would hurt morale, which they felt was critical in gaining the cooperation of their employees and in convincing them to internalize the managers' objectives for the company. Bewley's findings contradict most theories of wage rigidity and provide fascinating insights into the problems businesses face that prevent labor markets from clearing.]]> 544 Truman F. Bewley 0674009436 akshat 0 to-read 3.86 1998 Why Wages Don't Fall During a Recession
author: Truman F. Bewley
name: akshat
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup]]> 37976541 The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end in the face of pressure and threats from the CEO and her lawyers.

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work.

For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When Carreyrou, working at The Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company's value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors.

Here is the riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a disturbing cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley.]]> 339 John Carreyrou akshat 0 to-read 4.38 2018 Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
author: John Carreyrou
name: akshat
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/03/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers]]> 35992620 WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE

Paul Kennedy’s international bestseller is a sweeping account of five hundred years of fluctuating economic muscle and military might.

Kennedy’s masterwork begins in the year 1500, at a time of various great centres of power including Minh China, the Ottomans, the rising Mughal state, the nations of Europe. But it was the latter which, through competition, economic growth and better military organisation, came to dominate the globe � until challenged later by Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Now China, boosted by its own economic prowess, rises to the fore. Throughout this brilliant work, Kennedy persuasively demonstrates the interdependence of economic and military power, showing how an imbalance between the two has historically led to spectacular political disaster.

Erudite and brilliantly original, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the politics of power.

]]> 705 Paul Kennedy 0008226474 akshat 0 to-read 4.22 1987 The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
author: Paul Kennedy
name: akshat
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1987
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]]> <![CDATA[Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell]]> 36501797 #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller
New York Times Bestseller
USA Today Bestseller

The team behind How Google Works returns with management lessons from legendary coach and business executive, Bill Campbell, whose mentoring of some of our most successful modern entrepreneurs has helped create well over a trillion dollars in market value.

Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders on both coasts, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016.

Leaders at Google for over a decade, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle experienced firsthand how the man fondly known as Coach Bill built trusting relationships, fostered personal growth--even in those at the pinnacle of their careers--inspired courage, and identified and resolved simmering tensions that inevitably arise in fast-moving environments. To honor their mentor and inspire and teach future generations, they have codified his wisdom in this essential guide.

Based on interviews with over eighty people who knew and loved Bill Campbell, Trillion Dollar Coach explains the Coach's principles and illustrates them with stories from the many great people and companies with which he worked. The result is a blueprint for forward-thinking business leaders and managers that will help them create higher performing and faster moving cultures, teams, and companies.]]> Eric Schmidt 0062839276 akshat 0 to-read 3.93 2019 Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
author: Eric Schmidt
name: akshat
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable]]> 242472
A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives.

Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.�

For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb will change the way you look at the world, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, “On Robustness and Fragility,� which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world.

Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark book—itself a black swan.]]> 480 Nassim Nicholas Taleb 1400063515 akshat 0 to-read 3.96 2007 The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
name: akshat
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2007
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]]> Thick: And Other Essays 40365093 Smart, humorous, and strikingly original thoughts on race, beauty, money, and more—by one of today's most intrepid public intellectuals

Tressie McMillan Cottom, the writer, professor, and acclaimed author of Lower Ed, now brilliantly shifts gears from running regression analyses on college data to unleashing another identity: a purveyor of wit, wisdom—and of course Black Twitter snark—about all that is right and much that is so very wrong about this thing we call society. In the bestselling tradition of bell hooks and Roxane Gay, McMillan Cottom’s freshman collection illuminates a particular trait of her tribe: being thick. In form, and in substance.

This bold compendium, likely to find its place on shelves alongside Lindy West, Rebecca Solnit, and Maggie Nelson, dissects everything from beauty to Obama to pumpkin spice lattes. Yet Thick will also fill a void on those very shelves: a modern black American female voice waxing poetic on self and society, serving up a healthy portion of clever prose and southern aphorisms in a style uniquely her own.

McMillan Cottom has crafted a black woman’s cultural bible, as she mines for meaning in places many of us miss and reveals precisely how—when you’re in the thick of it—the political, the social, and the personal are almost always one and the same.

Thick --
In the name of beauty --
Dying to be competent --
Know your whites --
Black is over (or, special black) --
The price of fabulousness --
Black girlhood, interrupted --
Girl 6 --
Notes]]> 248 Tressie McMillan Cottom 1620974363 akshat 0 to-read 4.43 2019 Thick: And Other Essays
author: Tressie McMillan Cottom
name: akshat
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/03/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)]]> 960
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.]]> 736 Dan Brown 1416524797 akshat 5 3.95 2000 Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)
author: Dan Brown
name: akshat
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Applied Supervised Learning with Python: Use scikit-learn to build predictive models from real-world datasets and prepare yourself for the future of machine learning]]> 45455049 Explore the exciting world of machine learning with the fastest growing technology in the world

Key FeaturesUnderstand various machine learning concepts with real-world examplesImplement a supervised machine learning pipeline from data ingestion to validationGain insights into how you can use machine learning in everyday lifeBook DescriptionMachine learning—the ability of a machine to give right answers based on input data—has revolutionized the way we do business. Applied Supervised Learning with Python provides a rich understanding of how you can apply machine learning techniques in your data science projects using Python. You'll explore Jupyter Notebooks, the technology used commonly in academic and commercial circles with in-line code running support.

With the help of fun examples, you'll gain experience working on the Python machine learning toolkit—from performing basic data cleaning and processing to working with a range of regression and classification algorithms. Once you’ve grasped the basics, you'll learn how to build and train your own models using advanced techniques such as decision trees, ensemble modeling, validation, and error metrics. You'll also learn data visualization techniques using powerful Python libraries such as Matplotlib and Seaborn.

This book also covers ensemble modeling and random forest classifiers along with other methods for combining results from multiple models, and concludes by delving into cross-validation to test your algorithm and check how well the model works on unseen data.

By the end of this book, you'll be equipped to not only work with machine learning algorithms, but also be able to create some of your own!

What you will learnUnderstand the concept of supervised learning and its applicationsImplement common supervised learning algorithms using machine learning Python librariesValidate models using the k-fold techniqueBuild your models with decision trees to get results effortlesslyUse ensemble modeling techniques to improve the performance of your modelApply a variety of metrics to compare machine learning modelsWho this book is forApplied Supervised Learning with Python is for you if you want to gain a solid understanding of machine learning using Python. It'll help if you to have some experience in any functional or object-oriented language and a basic understanding of Python libraries and expressions, such as arrays and dictionaries.

Table of ContentsPython Machine Learning ToolkitExploratory Data Analysis and VisualizationRegression AnalysisClassificationEnsemble ModelingModel Evaluation]]> 406 Benjamin Johnston 1789955831 akshat 5 4.00 Applied Supervised Learning with Python: Use scikit-learn to build predictive models from real-world datasets and prepare yourself for the future of machine learning
author: Benjamin Johnston
name: akshat
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/02/26
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]]> <![CDATA[High Performance Browser Networking]]> 17985198
Author Ilya Grigorik—a developer advocate and web performance engineer at Google—starts with the building blocks of TCP and UDP, and then dives into newer technologies such as HTTP 2.0, WebSockets, and WebRTC. This book explains the benefits of these technologies and helps you determine which ones to use for your next application.

- Learn how TCP affects the performance of HTTP
- Understand why mobile networks are slower than wired networks
- Use best practices to address performance bottlenecks in HTTP
- Discover how HTTP 2.0 (based on SPDY) will improve networking
- Learn how to use Server Sent Events (SSE) for push updates, and WebSockets for XMPP chat
- Explore WebRTC for browser-to-browser applications such as P2P video chat
- Examine the architecture of a simple app that uses HTTP 2.0, SSE, WebSockets, and WebRTC]]> 400 Ilya Grigorik akshat 5 4.51 2013 High Performance Browser Networking
author: Ilya Grigorik
name: akshat
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/02/04
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This book will help you understand a lot of basic concepts around networking at a practical level.
]]> <![CDATA[Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You]]> 103761 "Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!"

Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the qualities every writer must have, as well as a spirit of adventure. In this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing. Here are practical tips on the art of writing from a master of the craft—everything from finding original ideas to developing your own voice and style—as well as the inside story of Bradbury's own remarkable career as a prolific author of novels, stories, poems, films, and plays.

Zen in the Art of Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one subject: your own life.]]> 158 Ray Bradbury 0553296345 akshat 0 to-read 4.10 1973 Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You
author: Ray Bradbury
name: akshat
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1973
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]]> Kubernetes: Up & Running 26759355
Authors Kelsey Hightower, Brendan Burns, and Joe Beda--who've worked on Kubernetes at Google--explain how this system fits into the lifecycle of a distributed application. You will learn how to use tools and APIs to automate scalable distributed systems, whether it is for online services, machine-learning applications, or a cluster of Raspberry Pi computers.


Explore the distributed system challenges that Kubernetes addresses
Dive into containerized application development, using containers such as Docker
Create and run containers on Kubernetes, using Docker's Image format and container runtime
Explore specialized objects essential for running applications in production
Reliably roll out new software versions without downtime or errors
Get examples of how to develop and deploy real-world applications in Kubernetes


]]> 202 Kelsey Hightower 1491935677 akshat 0 to-read 4.03 2016 Kubernetes: Up & Running
author: Kelsey Hightower
name: akshat
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/01/19
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]]> The Watchmen 828695 272 John Altman 0399151737 akshat 0 to-read 3.36 2004 The Watchmen
author: John Altman
name: akshat
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Mind Master:Winning Lessons from a Champion's Life]]> 48675164
From the time he learnt to move pieces on a chessboard as a six-year-old, Vishy � as Anand is fondly called � has racked up innumerable accolades.

The first World Chess Champion from Asia, he emerged on to the world stage when chess was largely a Soviet preserve, climbed the ranks to become World No. 1, bagged five World Championship titles and won tournaments across all formats of the game. A peerless ambassador of chess, his is one of the most revered names in the sport.

In Mind Master, Vishy looks back on a lifetime of games played, opponents tackled and circumstances overcome, and draws from its depths significant tools that will help every reader navigate life’s challenges:

What role do tactics and strategy play in the preparation for achieving a goal?

How can emotions be harnessed to your advantage in tricky situations?

What precautions should you take before you decide to leave your comfort zone and embrace risk?

What do you need to do to stay relevant in the face of rapidly changing realities?

Is unlearning really the only way to learn?

These are just some of the nuggets Vishy touches upon with characteristic wit, easy wisdom and disarming candour in Mind Master � a delightful and invaluable exploration into the self that will thrill, inspire and motivate readers as few books have done before.]]> 312 Susan Ninan 9351951502 akshat 0 to-read 4.34 Mind Master:Winning Lessons from a Champion's Life
author: Susan Ninan
name: akshat
average rating: 4.34
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date added: 2020/01/10
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]]> High Output Management 324750
The essential skill of creating and maintaining new businesses—the art of the entrepreneur—can be summed up in a single word: managing.Born of Grove’s experiences at one of America’s leading technology companies (as CEO and employee number three at Intel), High Output Management is equally appropriate for sales managers, accountants, consultants, and teachers, as well as CEOs and startup founders. Grove covers techniques for creating highly productive teams, demonstrating methods of motivation that lead to peak performance.

"Generous enough with advice and observations to be required reading."� The Wall Street Journal]]> 272 Andrew S. Grove 0679762884 akshat 0 to-read 4.27 1983 High Output Management
author: Andrew S. Grove
name: akshat
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1983
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs)]]> 18581690 171 Venkatesh G. Rao 0982703031 akshat 0 to-read 4.19 2013 The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs)
author: Venkatesh G. Rao
name: akshat
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life]]> 36064445 New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility

In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one’s own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.

As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:

� For social justice,focus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations.
� Ethical rules aren’t universal. You’re part of a group larger than you, but it’s still smaller than humanity in general.
� Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others.
� You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. “Educated philistines� have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets.
� Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines.
� True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you’re willing to risk for it.

The phrase “skin in the game� is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it’s also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, “The symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that’s necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster,� and “Never trust anyone who doesn’t have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.”]]> 272 Nassim Nicholas Taleb 0241300657 akshat 0 to-read 3.88 2018 Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
name: akshat
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/11
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]]>