Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Interesting book on how humans make immediate decisions without a lot of obvious information. It opened up a lot of interesting ideas to pursue and offers a number of links to other books I want to read.
I saw this book in the book raffle at Science Online 2012. I didn’t get it in the raffle, but decided to buy it later. I’m glad I did. My longer review is on Goodreads.
There is a lot to like about this book for scientists or technologists who are leery of working with the media. It should be on the list of to-read books for many scientists who want the public to know about their work.
I reviewed the book Before the Lights Go Out by Maggie Koerth-Baker on Goodreads. I got a preview copy at the Science Online 2012 conference in January 2012. Excellent reporting from a member of the Boing-Boing crew.
Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us by Maggie Koerth-baker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I kept losing links to the Science Online 2012 and other non fiction and science books so I plan to post the links here.
My Reading List from Science On-line 2012
The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA by Jeff Wheelwright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Excellent book on the story of a New Mexico valley interweaving the genetic issues with BRCA in a close community. A very touching story that I enjoyed a great deal.
I have over three decades in the scientific and software development world so I was curious when I noticed Terrence Ryan’s new Pragmatic Bookshelf book “Driving Technical Change”. The subtitle is “Why People on Your Team Don’t Act on Good Ideas, and How to Convince Them They Should”. This subtitle tells you a lot about what Terry was writing about. He is mid career in the software development field and has worked in a number of companies. He has had a lot of enthusiasm about bring new ideas and tools into his teams. This enthusiasm comes out as a bit of frustration as he describes the battles with colleagues to embrace new technology and techniques. He turned that frustration into a search for ways to convince the skeptics that the changes were worth the effort.
He approaches the reader by offering a list of stereotypes for the skeptics in an organization in part two of the book. In part three, he offers techniques for mitigating the push-back you get from each type of skeptic. Part four offers strategies for the reader that could be useful in pushing for change. As I read the book, I was often nodding my head agreeing with many of his thoughts. The skeptics do come out and many are the stereotypes that he describes. Sometimes the same people take on several of the behaviors and sometimes the people change behavior depending on the topic. Some people are your allies on an issue and then become your enemy on others.
I think the book is best read by someone with a few years of experience in a technical field, but not so many that they already understand office politics. After a decade or two in a technical field, you know the landscape. The interaction of people on a team comes down to culture and politics of your organization. If you understand people and politics, you will go a long way in making your work life easier. You will also know when to fight the battles and when to retreat. Knowing when to retreat is the most important since most people are competitive and want to fight. That is where the maturity makes a big difference in your career. This is similar to the stock market decisions. It is easier to know when to buy a stock than when to sell.
Another important issue is to decide who you are and what you want in your career. Do you want to fight for technical change on your team or do you move from team to team or company to company looking for that great fit? Which is more comfortable for you? This book could help someone on that quest, but should be partnered with other resources on career development and change management.
