Book Bundles: Closing the Innovation Gap and Science for Sale

Just a quick post since I'm still getting up to speed at work post-ICT.

I had ample reading time during my time in camp, so here's a book bundle for your consideration.

Both Closing the Innovation Gap and Science for Sale are 3-star recommendations from me. They're both good books, but get only three stars each from me because their narrow focus generally appeals only to those with a personal or professional interest in science and technology.

The first book deals with what the author considers the necessary conditions or elements required in an innovation "ecosystem" in order for innovation to flourish. The book emphasises a well-known thought among scientists, of how necessary basic research is for innovation to happen. Serendipitous discoveries from seemingly disparate and unrelated fields feed into each other to make new technologies happen. One remarkable (but in hindsight obvious) insight I took away from the book is that technology corporations (such as Intel and Genentech) are all for more (USA) governmental funding for research because basic research is the lifeblood of their (companies') commercial innovation, but the kicker is that they don't want to pay for it. Companies only want to cream off the profitable technologies they can commercialize, so they most certainly aren't going to lead loss-making basic research.

The second book talks about the perils of commercialization of university based research, and how the mission of universities as institutions of learning and knowledge sharing have been compromised by "technology transfer". It also highlights the damage done to the open culture of scientific inquiry by patents, NDA's (non-disclosure agreements) and other barriers to knowledge sharing, all erected in the name of protecting profits. It's a well-researched, hard look at what many people take to be an unequivocally good thing, of universities spinning off their technology. This is particularly relevant in the case of Singapore as we have essentially placed a heavy bet on research in science and technology as an additional pillar of our economy. 

Book Bundles: The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

The Omnivore’s Dilemma (3-stars) is Michael Pollan’s tour de force on the place of food in the lives of the ultimate omnivore, human beings.

In the book, Pollan charts four separate meals, or rather culinary journeys: fast food, conventionally produced industrial food, organic farm food, and hunter-gatherer food. Throughout the book, he examines the relationship between human beings and our food, and some of the relative merits between the four meals.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a good introduction to thinking about the importance of food, and how going organic may be important not just for our health and well-being, but also for the well-being of the planet.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (3-stars) by Barbara Kingsolver is a book that charts the Kingsolver family’s one year experiment in eating only local food, that is food produced by themselves or in the vicinity of where they live.

The experiment was undertaken before the idea of eating locally (the so-called 100-mile diet) became trendy and a rallying cry from Slow Food International all the way to the Google Headquarters.

It’s an interesting book that continues, in some ways, where The Omnivore’s Dilemma left off. It also encourages its readers to rethink how and where they get their food from, and to consider sources that perhaps are healthier or more environmentally friendly.


Ratings System

2-stars: Casual reading only, or interesting but not easily readable, or important but narrow interest material.

3-stars: Interesting, readable and ideas of some importance.

4-stars: Interesting, highly readable, and ideas of considerable importance.

5-stars: Interesting, highly readable, important material of high relevance to most people.

Book Bundles: The Black Swan, Art of the Long View

The Black Swan (4-stars) has been a business bestseller for the past year, particularly in light of the author’s options trader background and the recent subprime mortgage crisis and continuing credit crunch crisis.

The book’s central idea is that the most consequential events that have shaped recent history and will continue to do so in the future belong to the black swan variety: they are low probability, unknown unknowns (in Rumsfeld-speak) that cannot be anticipated, and that have a disproportionately large impact.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb uses his book as a platform to discuss among other things: epistemology, the limitations of the Gaussian distribution and the law of large numbers, and the cognitive fallacies and biases present in humans (which I felt would have been better dealt with from a behavioral psychology viewpoint; see books by Gerd Gigerenzer, Gary Klein and Daniel Kahneman).

At first blush, Art of the Long View (3-stars) would seem to be antithetical to Taleb’s ideas. It is a standard business school textbook (anathema to the non-suit wearing Taleb who nonetheless has a Wharton MBA) and was written by Peter Schwartz, one of the pioneers of Shell’s scenario planning methods. One of the central ideas of Black Swan is that forecasting is doomed to failure, and this would seem to conflict with Art of the Long View.

However, as explained by Peter Schwartz, scenario planning is not about forecasting events, but of imagining scenarios and opening the mind to possibilities. My interpretation of this is that by broadening one’s perspectives through scenario planning, one develops a keener sense of what is possible. At the very least, one develops a healthy respect for the uncertainties inherent in trying to plan for the future. Being cognizant of black swan effects does not preclude efforts in contingency planning that may yet turn out to be useful. Art of the Long View is useful in that respect as it helps to ameliorate the ‘surprise’ factor of a black swan.


Ratings System

2-stars: Casual reading only, or interesting but not easily readable, or important but narrow interest material.

3-stars: Interesting, readable and ideas of some importance.

4-stars: Interesting, highly readable, and ideas of considerable importance.

5-stars: Interesting, highly readable, important material of high relevance to most people.

Book Bundles: Superclass, Asian Godfathers

Superclass (2-stars) is a recently published book that talks about the 6000 people who are each literally one in a million, and who collectively wield enormous influence over society and the way we live. There's a review by Salon here.

It starts out as a relatively interesting book, but I found my attention wandering after the first half of the book. The ideas presented in the book are obvious enough once enumerated. That network effects, globalization, markets, corporations and political systems have created a class of vastly powerful individuals. But for all the book pontificates about how influential the superclass is and how we should all be aware and also wary of such concentration of power, it also acknowledges that the status quo is likely to remain for the foreseeable future. [That’s not to say that the author thinks that the existence of the superclass is necessarily bad. I don’t either.]

In other words, it’s nice to know who runs the world. Now, is there anything we can do to change it, assuming that we would want to?

No? Next.

Just about the most interesting part of the Superclass had to deal with the lives of the superclass and how they hobnob with each other (ok, I admit I am a bit of a voyeur here, but who isn’t). Which brings me to the second half of the book bundle.

Asian Godfathers (3-stars) talks about the, often corrupt, history behind the wealth of Southeast Asian (plus Hong Kong) tycoons. While it might be easy to pan the book as a rabble-rousing call to indignation for the masses, the book is not about the questionable origins of the wealth of Southeast Asian tycoons or their peccadilloes (fascinating as those may be: e.g. most tycoons are Christians for a rather special reason). Indeed, by the author’s own admission, Asian Godfathers is really about the rather unique history behind the cozy relationships between governments, political establishments, and local big businesses in Southeast Asia. For example, the book repeatedly asserts that much of the wealth of Southeast Asian tycoons is derived from economic rent, that is supernormal profits from businesses made possible by exclusive government concessions. We still see that in today’s business environment in Southeast Asia, whether by conscious design or historical inertia.

[For the record, I don’t think these relationships are unique to Southeast Asia. They’re not even uniquely egregious. The situation in Latin America closely resembles that in Southeast Asia. You could make a case that Carlos Slim’s fortune is built on concessionary businesses whose profit margins wouldn’t survive true no-holds barred competition.]

Reading Superclass tends to give one a better, more complete perspective on Asian Godfathers. While the first book gets only 2-stars, Asian Godfathers gets 3-stars for its more in-depth look at Southeast Asia, its greater relevance to Singaporeans, and also its plain readability (it really is a juicier read).


Ratings System

2-stars: Casual reading only, or interesting but not easily readable, or important but narrow interest material.

3-stars: Interesting, readable and ideas of some importance.

4-stars: Interesting, highly readable, and ideas of considerable importance.

5-stars: Interesting, highly readable, important material of high relevance to most people.

Book Bundles: Giving Notice and The Meritocracy Myth

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had a book bundle for further reading on income inequality and social mobility.

Today's book bundle is Giving Notice (2-stars) and The Meritocracy Myth (3-stars).

I mentioned The Meritocracy Myth in that previous post. I won't summarize the material in the books as there is an excellent article by the authors here.

Giving Notice is a 2-star book in my opinion as the book's treatment of the subject of diversity in the workplace is geared more towards senior managers at companies, human resource professionals and other makers of hiring decisions. It does not make easy or casual reading and its audience is far narrower than The Meritocracy Myth.

However, Giving Notice gives a good overview of the problems associated with diversity in the workplace, the tokenism that many companies adopt in place of true support of diversity, and the possible promises and pitfalls of striving for a more even, equal working environment in companies. Certainly, it is a book worth reading by its target audience.

Giving Notice hence gives a practical context for the problems illuminated in The Meritocracy Myth, and points the way to making the corporate environment more friendly to those who are not necessarily cut from the same cloth as present-day decision-makers. It however, does not focus on the social realities or implications of meritocracy and the lack of diversity in today's society.


Ratings System

2-stars: Casual reading only, or interesting but not easily readable, or important but narrow interest material.

3-stars: Interesting, readable and ideas of some importance.

4-stars: Interesting, highly readable, and ideas of considerable importance.

5-stars: Interesting, highly readable, important material of high relevance to most people.

Book Bundles: Blood and Oil, The Prize

I try to read more, and more broadly as well. And in the course of my reading diet, quite often, I come across books that combine synergistically to give me better insights. Not all them cite each other as references (otherwise that would defeat the purpose of me bundling them).

I’m going to term these combinations ‘book bundles’ and posts that describe them will be tagged as such.

Today’s book bundle is Blood and Oil (3-stars), and The Prize (4-stars).

Blood and Oil talks about the central importance of oil to the world economy and how US foreign policy and the distribution of its military presence (in particular Central Command) is integral to securing the supply of oil to the USA and to the world. Its main ideas are that oil is an essential non-fungible commodity, that the most important oil fields are found in unstable regions prone to conflict and geopolitical risk (Middle East), and that increasingly, oil will be a source of power and conflict in the world due to its scarcity. Hence, the link between blood and oil.

Of the two books, Blood and Oil is the more recent one, but The Prize is a tour de force in explaining the modern history of oil and its pivotal role in historical events such as WWII and the formation of modern day Arab states. The Prize gives context to Blood and Oil, and the modern day oil situation. The author of The Prize, energy consultant Daniel Yergin, is presumably writing a new book on the history and future of oil.


Ratings System

2-stars: Casual reading only, or interesting but not easily readable, or important but narrow interest material.

3-stars: Interesting, readable and ideas of some importance.

4-stars: Interesting, highly readable, and ideas of considerable importance.

5-stars: Interesting, highly readable, important material of high relevance to most people.