Author: Dave Nelson

I put off reading this book for what felt like a long time. I heard a lot of negative things about it from various podcasts and blogs when it first came out and I figured I would read it later. After awhile coworkers were referring to passages of the book and quoting it a lot, so I decided I finally needed to read it.

I got it as an audiobook from Audible narrated by Dylan Baker and it took me two weeks to listen to all 25 hours of it. Mister Baker did a great job narrating the book, I really enjoyed his performance.

Walter Isaacson had unprecedented access to Steve Jobs, his family, his friends, employees at Apple, and a lot of other people in Steve’s life. I don’t think any author has ever had that kind of access to a person like Jobs.

The details in the book are amazing, if you have an interest in the history of Apple and want to know much of its history, then this book is for you. If you are looking for a memoir, I don’t that will ever happen. Steve Jobs just wasn’t that kind of person. Maybe he didn’t have the type of personality that would let him share many of his real emotions. And maybe he just didn’t have the emotions and feelings that many people do.

There is so much in this book, I am still processing a lot of it.

At the moment my favorite insight from the book is about how Jobs used prototypes and mockups to determine what would work best. It was done with the iPhone, iPad, and even the Apple stores. I hope companies everywhere listen to that, quick prototypes put in front of users and decision makers early and often will save time and money and lead to better products every single time.

From the publisher:

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

I rate this book a 9 out of 10, anyone interested in biographies, computer history, Apple Computer, or Steve Jobs will absolutely love this book.

Tony Hsieh is an amazing guy with an amazing vision who has surrounded himself with really amazing people.

If you have any interest in how a business should be run please read this book. The way Zappos functions really is how I believe a company should be run, not just retail business but all businesses. It can change the way you think at a very deep level and make you very unhappy with the way things are being run by almost every other business out there.

I am so impressed by this book that I am visiting the Zappos offices in June to get a first hand look at what the cult of Zappos is really like.

From the publisher:

In this, his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh – the widely admired CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer – explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of employees, customers, vendors, and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own life experiences, and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success. Even better, he shows how creating happiness and record results go hand-in-hand.

He starts with the “Why” in a section where he narrates his quest to understand the science of happiness. Then he runs through the ten Zappos “Core Values” – such as “Deliver WOW through Service”, “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness”, and “Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit” – and explains how you and your colleagues should come up with your own.

Hsieh then details many of the unique practices at Zappos that have made it the success it is today, such as their philosphy of allocating marketing money into the customer experience, thereby allowing repeat customers and word-of-mouth be their true form of marketing. He also explains why Zappos’s number-one priority is company culture and his belief that once you get the culture right, everything else – great customer service, long-term branding – will happen on its own.

Finally, Delivering Happiness explains how Zappos employees actually apply the Core Values to improving their lives outside of work – and to making a difference in their communities and the world.

©2010 Tony Hsieh (P)2010 Hachette

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone interested in books about corporate culture and how to treat customers.

This book popped up in my Audible recommendations and it intrigued me.

Written by a former FBI agent with business professor and psychologist Marvin Karlins the book is like a quick guide to reading people’s body language.

I enjoyed the contents of this book and do recommend it for everyone, not just business people and card players, but if the book was properly edited it wouldn’t be much more than a pamphlet. The audiobook is 7 hours and 24 minutes long and I think it would be about 2 and a half hours long if all the useless repetition and rambling was removed. That would make it a much better book.

The narrator, Paul Costanzo, turned in an absolutely terrible performance. His voice sounded a lot like a computer voice in an underpowered gadget with lousy speakers. It does not sound like he had ever read the material before reading it for the recording. It appears that this is a common problem for him and I will be actively avoiding any books that he is involved in.

From the publisher:

He says that’s his best offer. Is it? She says she agrees. Does she? The interview went great – or did it? He said he’d never do it again. But he did.

Listen to this book and send your nonverbal intelligence soaring. Joe Navarro, a former FBI counterintelligence officer and a recognized expert on nonverbal behavior, explains how to “speed-read” people: decode sentiments and behaviors, avoid hidden pitfalls, and look for deceptive behaviors. You’ll also learn how your body language can influence what your boss, family, friends, and strangers think of you.

You will discover:

1. The ancient survival instincts that drive body language
2. Why the face is the least likely place to gauge a person’s true feelings
3. What thumbs, feet, and eyelids reveal about moods and motives
4. The most powerful behaviors that reveal our confidence and true sentiments
5. Simple nonverbals that instantly establish trust
6. Simple nonverbals that instantly communicate authority

Filled with examples from Navarro’s professional experience, this definitive book offers a powerful new way to navigate your world.

©2008 Joe Navarro (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

I rate the book a 6 out of 10 for content and the performance of the audiobook a ZERO out of 10.

I listened to this audiobook narrated by Roy Dotrice while commuting and working out.

Wow, these books are long, this one is 47 hours and 40 minutes! That is almost 2 full days of audio. According to Amazon the paperback is 1216 pages long.

I wont go into any details about the story because I don’t want to spoil anything and if you have not read the second book I recommend you don’t read the publisher’s summary below.

I am still enjoying these books and overall found this one riveting. I caught myself parked in the driveway listening to it a little longer each night when I got home or to work. Good stuff.

From the publisher:
Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world…

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others, a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords….

©2000 George R.R. Martin, (P)2004 Books On Tape, Inc., published in arrangement with Random House Audio Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and a must read if you have read the first two Song of Ice and Fire books.

I listened to this book from Audible.

I really like Zig Ziglar’s message, I find it positive and inspiring.

This audiobook is a part of a larger series, but here is the rub, Audible does not make it clear what books make-up the entire series and what order they should be read in. So listening to just this book makes me feel incomplete, like there is something important missing, like I don’t have the entire story.

Although I feel unsatisfied with this book, I did enjoy listening to it and will probably get another book or two that will hopefully be a part of the series, maybe someday I will actually get the entire message.

Publisher’s summary:

How to Stay Motivated provides you with clear and proven techniques to use to enhance relationships, improve your self-image, set and achieve goals, and so much more! Setting and achieving your life goals are among the most important activities in which you can apply yourself, as your goals will set the course of your most important decisions.

Apply these winning steps from the motivational master himself to build a better, more productive, satisfying life for yourself and your family. Change your picture and change every facet of your life.

©2008 Zig Ziglar; (P)2008 Made For Success

I rate this book a 6 out of 10, would probably be an 8 with all the pieces.

Susan Cain: The power of introverts (TED Talk)

I listened to this as an audiobook from Audible.

I have always known that I am an introvert, but this book taught me so much about myself that I don’t know where to begin. This book really blew me away and I look forward to sharing it with a lot of friends and co-workers.

I think the publisher’s summary below does a great job, give it a read and if it speaks to you I can’t recommend the book highly enough. If you manage people, have a spouse that is shy or introverted, are introverted yourself, just anyone at all, you should do yourself a favor and read this book.

Kathe Mazur does a wonderful job bringing the subject to life narrates it, I look forward to listening to her again soon.

What has impressed me the most is that I have discovered many of my behaviors are actually done in an attempt to overcome or hide just how introverted I really am. I believe that trying to hide my introverted-ness has been a large negative influence on my entire life; it has left me tired, frustrated, and often angry. Quiet has given me some tools and ideas of how to handle my feelings and desires in much more productive ways. Now it is up to me to use what I have learned to improve the life of myself, me family, and those around me.

From the publisher:

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society–from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.

Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the 20th century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.

Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts–from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."

This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.

©2012 Susan Cain (P)2012 Random House

I rate this book a 10 out of 10 and recommend it to everyone!

I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Ray Porter.

I have to tell you that I only made it a little over half-way through listening to this book before I gave up on it, I really wanted to stop much earlier than that. Ray Porter does an excellent job narrating this book, but he did not have much to work with.

There just isn’t much useful here, his assumptions about why certain decisions and outcomes came about strike me as being very wrong. It doesn’t feel like any research or fact checking was done. The killer questions he extolls do not feel useful to me; in fact they feel counterproductive. Ugh… that is enough.

I am not including anything from the publisher.

I rate this book a 0 out of 10 and I recommend you do not waste your time.

I received this book after attending a workshop with Whitney Quesenbery and Steve Krug. It was a great seminar with lots of hands-on training in a two-day format.

With only 91 pages of content Simple and Usable is more of a pamphlet than a book and did not include much that I found to be original, but I have read a lot of books on the subject of usability over the years.

I like the presentation of the material and each even numbered page covers a single subject with a smattering of references and quotes while the odd numbered pages are relegated to photos that may or may not be relevant to the facing page.

If you want a quick read to get your head around the idea of "Simple and Usable" and how it applies to design, this book is a good choice. If you are looking for a book about usability and web design there are other books that are more thorough and practical.

From the book’s website http://www.simpleandusable.com/:

Have you ever set out to simplify a user experience and found that everyone around you was trying to add more complexity and detail? Have you ever found yourself caught between customers who demand simplicity and competitors who out gun you with exciting features? Designing simplicity can be complex.

Simple and usable offers examples and stories that break the subject down into tips, strategies and guidelines you can follow to create websites, software or mobile apps which have a compelling simplicity.

I rate this book a 6 out of 10, if you are looking for a quickie this may be your book.

I read this book as an Audible audio book.

I enjoyed listening to this book, Tom Weiner does a great job narrating it and bringing a lot of emotion and depth. Depth that I am not sure exists in the book’s written form.

This is not a spy novel nor is it the memoirs of a spy; it is more of a collection of events as seen from the author’s perspective arranged in a chronological order. There are plenty of passages that let us see deeper into the person that is "Fred Burton" and we get to learn some of what makes him tick, but I do not feel like I got the whole picture at any point. Part of that is the fact that most of the events the book covers have many elements that cannot be shared and part of it is the format of narration chosen by the author.

What the book does make clear is that terrorism is here to stay. We would all be a lot better off with more people like Fred Burton in the world.

From the publisher:

For decades, Fred Burton was a key figure in international counterterrorism and domestic spy craft. As a member of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service in the mid 1980s, he was on the front lines of America’s first campaign against terror. Now, in this hard-hitting memoir, Burton emerges from the shadows to reveal who he is, what he has accomplished, and the threats that lurk unseen except by an experienced, world-wise few. Told in a no-holds-barred, gripping, nuanced style, this behind-the scenes account of one counterterrorism agent’s life and career is a riveting listen.

©2008 Fred Burton; (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

I rate this book a 7 out of 10, if you are fan of spy novels I think this is a good read.

I received this book while attending a workshop with Whitney Quesenbery and Steve Krug. It was a great seminar with lots of hands-on training in a two-day format.

If you read a lot of books on design and usability there may not be much in this book you have not read before, even so it can be a great resource for sharing with others and as a meta-reference for looking up more information on studies, experiments, and papers.

I also think this is a great book to thumb through while working on a design, maybe picking a random number from 1 to 100, reading that chapter, and then thinking about how it may apply to your design.

From the Susan Weinschenk’s web site:

You design to elicit a response. You want your target audience to buy, read, register — to take action of some kind. Designing without understanding about people is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People covers the psychology research that you need to know in order to design intuitive and engaging websites, software and products that match the way people think, work, and relate.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 as a reference and as a source of inspiration.

I read this book as an ebook on an iPhone using eReader Pro.

In the second book of the series we get some more time with Thaddeus, Gloria and the new magician nicknamed Houdini.

My favorite part of this story is when Ahazuerus, talking about himself and Thaddeus, explains to Houdini “We are two sides of a coin. He lacks empathy and tact, although he is slowly acquiring both. I lack drive and ambition, though I too am learning. We complement each other perfectly.” This really speaks to me; the two of them are growing together as a team and as individuals. It increases my desire to learn more about both characters and the characters that surround them.

From the authors web site:

The carnival is traveling among the stars, and finding all kinds of problems that Thaddeus Flint and his crew didn’t anticipate. What use is a wild animal tamer when the audience looks more like the animals than the trainer. Who would pay to watch Butterfly Delight perform her striptease when to many of them it seems like an unappetizing snake shedding its skin? One by one, Flint and his alien partner, Mr. Ahazuerus, must tackle each problem before the show goes broke.

I rate this book a 7 out of 10 and the complete series as a 9 out of 10.

Like the first book of the series I read this book on a Kindle and listened to it on an iPhone switching back and forth as needed.

Wow, these books are long. It took me a few weeks to make it through this one. But it was a great ride.

The story goes on and on with no end in sight. The characters are holding my attention and I look forward to reading the third book, although that will have to wait until June or so as I am in non-fiction book mode now.

I am still surprised by how much I am enjoying these books, especially given their length and relatively slow pace. I was able to sum up most of the various plot lines from the book to my wife in less than an hour, I left out some of the good bits so she will still have some surprises left when we watch the TV show.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clash_of_Kings):

A Clash of Kings picks up where A Game of Thrones ended. The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros are plagued by civil war, while the Night’s Watch mounts a reconnaissance force north of the Wall to investigate the mysterious people, known as wildlings, who live there. Meanwhile, in the distant east, Daenerys Targaryen continues her quest to return to and conquer the Seven Kingdoms. All signs are foreshadowing the terrible disaster that is to come.

I rate this book a 9 out of 10, it is even better then the first book.