Tedded - Business Book Review

“I’m going to practice it a zillion million times,” she said. “I’m going to play super good.”

“The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle is a book on how to grow talent. The author is against the wisdom that talent is natural. The book is around the belief that talent come from Myelin. Myelin is the “insulation that wrap these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy.” When the certain signal is sent down the nerve system, myelin wraps around the nerve fibre. The thicker the myelin, the better the signal. Thus, “skill is myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and that grows according to certain signals.”

The book is divided into three parts of talent growing; 1. Deep Practice 2. Ignition 3. Master Coaching

Contents

Part 1: Deep Practice

Chapter 1: The Sweet Spot

This is the first chapter to familiarise us with the deep practice. Coyle wrote about Brazilian football (soccer) and why it is the world’s talent hotbed. He had an amazing story of Edwin Link and how his unusual device transformed the training of the Air Force.

Chapter 2: The Deep Practice Cell

This chapter surrounds the idea of myelin and how it might be the holy grail to talent. It is very scientific. To sum it up, “deep practice x 10,000 hours = world-class skill.”

Chapter 3: The Brontës, the Z-Boys, and the Renaissance

The author started with the Brontë sisters from England in the 1850s who wrote fantastic children books. He also wrote about the group of skaters by the name of Z-Boys and the guilds during the renaissance and how they produced highly talented people.

Chapter 4: The Three Rules of Deep Practice

This chapter, Coyle gives us three rules of Deep Practicing. 1. Chunk It Up 2. Repeat It 3. Learn to Feel It

Part 2: Ignition

Chapter 5: Prima Cues

It is merely things that get you interested, that excite you and bring you passion. Coyle wrote on how the success of Se Ri Pak, a Korean golfer, had an impact on the next generation of female Korean golfers and how young Russian tennis players wanted to be the new Anna. “If she can do it, why can’t I?”

Chapter 6: The Curaçao Experiment

The remote Caribbean island, Curaçao, did a miraculous work at producing lots of talented baseball players because the ignition sparked when an island hero, Andruw Jones, hit a home run. However, the real success of Curaçao is that it keeps motivational fire lit, Doyle tells you how they did it.

Chapter 7: How to Ignite a Hotbed

This chapter is about KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) by Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin. The story of success of KIPP is like a miracle but the core of it is to constantly ignite the students with just a word, college. No,… “COLLEGE!!”

Part 3: Master Coaching

Chapter 8: The Talent Whisperers

Talent does not come alone, the talented people in their fields need a coach, a mentor, or a master. Coyle wrote about Herman Lamm, the originator and teacher of modern bank-robbing skill! He wrote about Hans Jansen, a cello teacher at Meadowmount Music School in Chicago and how he personalised his teaching method. There is also a wonderful story of John Wooden, a great basketball coach and his amazing coaching techniques.

Chapter 9: The Teaching Blueprint

The author elaborated the four virtues of teaching 1. The Matrix or a task-specific knowledge of the teacher (He wrote a nice story of Linda Septein who taught Jessica Simpson and Beyonce Knowles) 2. Perceptiveness - how to perceive students individually 3. The GPS Reflex - the just-in-time informative directives 4. Theatrical Honesty which is the ability to connect with students.

Chapter 10: Tom Martinez and the $60 Million Bet

This is a chapter about Tom Martinez, a retired junior college American football coach, and his teaching method on a promising young quarterback, JaMarcus Russell.

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I would like to compare this book to an ideal book: a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is written in simple language albeit some scientific information. The structure is very simple with the three parts, Deep Practice, Ignition, and Master Coaching. Minor drawbacks are some uses of unnecessary ambiguous words such as Matrix, Threatrical Honesty, etc. but they are minor, though.

Distinction: 7/10: There are many books on this subject already and it reminds me of a recent book, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell and the two have some similarities and some differences. However, The Talent Code is excellent at instilling the knowledge of Myelin making us view talent from a different perspective.

Practicality: 8/10: This book is practical especially in the field on Deep Practice. Daniel Coyle explained nicely on this issue and it is not difficult to implement it to our daily life. Chunk It Up, Repeat, and Learn to Feel It are pretty much straightforward and Deep Practice is the best part of the book because the other two, Ignition and Master Coaching are more difficult to implement.

Credibility: 3/10: Although this is a very good book, it has a major flaw. This book is like a qualitative research. It is deep in the subject and in the examples and stories in the book. However, it lacks generalisation. You might say “That’s the way it is” to a story but that might not be the way the rest are. There are some contradictions in the book as well.

For example, in the Chapter 9, the author stated that teaching soccer is different from teaching violin. Teaching soccer must be free flowing because the soccer circuitry is “varied and fast, changing fluidly in response to each obstacle.” So, the coach rather lets the players perform. On the other hand, the violinist has to be accurate, precise, and stable. The coach, thus, has to stop and make sure that the circuitry is correct.

The argument is convincing and sensible until we noticed the way the legendary John Wooden, a basketball coach, coached. It’s undisputed that basketball is more similar to soccer than violin that it requires fluidity in the game but Coyle wrote that John Wooden constantly issuing informative corrections of movements to players. He might not stop the game but he surely keeps correcting players, not letting them flow. Coyle wrote “[The soccer coach] occasionally smiles ot laughs or says oooooooo for a close play as a fan would. But he doesn’t coach in the regular sense of the term, which is to say he doesn’t stop the game, teach, praise, critique, or otherwise exert any control whatsoever.“

There are some other contradictions or, at least, an overlap. In the chapter 8, Coyle wrote that some coaches coach love or make the children love what they are doing. The quote from the research of Dr. Benjamin Bloom in the chapter is “Perhaps the major quality of these teachers was that they made the initial learning very pleasant and rewarding. Much of the introduction to the field was a playful activity, and the learning at the beginning of the stage was much like a game.“

However, in chapter 7, regarding KIPP, the process is not really similar, if not opposite. The new students will be introduced to “discipline” from the first day on everything; how to walk, how to talk, how to sit at a desk, how to look at a teacher or classmate who’s speaking, and so on. Students, on the first day, sat on the floor without a desk because “…everything here at KIPP is earned. EVERYTHING is earned. Everything is EARNED.” This is a much tougher game than the piano class in Dr. Bloom’s research. Likewise, at Spartak, the tennis hotbed in Russia, they did not “play” tennis - they preferred the verb borot’sya - “fight” or “struggle.”

There are many minor contradictions and overlaps in this book and make it much less convincing and credible and much of them are in the parts of “Ignition” and “Master Coaching.”

Insightful: 7/10: Daniel Coyle had done a very good work with his interviews in the so-called talent hotbeds around the world. Those examples are backed with stories from those involved. However, more researches with less depth would be great to confirm the findings of the deep and insightful ones.

Reading Experience: 6/10: At first, this book is very promising with the first part, “Deep Practice.” It gives you intriguing knowledge and very practical methods. However, the book fades out in the later parts I discussed above. While the “Deep Practice” part is very scientific, the other parts are not as solid. The general theme of the whole book is nice but the contradictions can frustrate you.

Overall: 6.5/10: This is a good book with a different perspective on how we look at talent. It will provide you with inspiration and sufficient guidelines to make you more talented in your fields. The Deep Practice part of the book is simply invaluable. The other two parts are not bad but some unclear messages might hold you back.

“Click and the appropriate tape is activated; whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of behaviors.”

“Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini is a book about psychology and how people react to the weapons of influence. The book has been published numerous times and the first edition dated back to 1984. The good point is that, despite dramatic changes in lifestyle and technology, human psychology does not change much. We are still the social animals and the weapons of influence is as effective to us as ever, if not even more. The book is arguably one of the best selling psychology books ever (although we can classify it as a business or self-improvement book).

Contents

(Actually, to explore the contents, you can easily google “Influence, Cialdini” and there will be a lot to read. So, I’ll keep it very brief.)

Intro: Weapons of Influence

1. Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take … and Take

The rule of reciprocation is that when you give someone something, it is almost obligatory that the person who took it has to return the favour. This rule is very effective that you feel you need to give back even though you are not satisfied with the whole situation.

2. Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind

This is the shortcut of human beings. We tend to do what we set our mind to without thinking much. It reduces time spent but sometimes consistency without careful consideration can be disastrous.

3. Social Proof: Truth Are Us

When you are thinking and doing one thing, it might be true or false. When too many people are thinking and doing that thing, our human mind tend to believe that it is true just because so many people do and believe in it. It might sound insignificant and Cialdini told us stories that the rule of “Social Proof” can lead to tragic deaths.

4. Liking: The Friendly Thief

It is not as simple as that you will do something if you like it. The author wrote different perspectives of liking such as that salesperson often pretend to be similar to us in one way or another to trigger the sense of association and similarity that can deceive our judgment or sexy ladies in the ad can stimulate the “liking” and alters your perception towards the product.

5. Authority: Directed Deference

We are born to obey authority from parents, teachers, etc. When we are adult, this same trait is still with us and we tend to obey and rely on people who we believe have higher authority. Authority comes in different forms such as titles, or even clothes.

6. Scarcity: The Rule of the Few

People always perceive that less is more valuable. Not having something is more tolerable than losing something. We always fear losing things or desire rarer things that sometimes it clouds our judgment.

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I would like to compare this book to an ideal business book; the book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is structured nicely into 6 weapons of influence and each of them are explained sufficiently with many interesting researches. Those researches are not filled with complex statistics but common senses in everyday situations like a choice of cookie, car salesperson, poster ads, etc.

Distinction: 9/10: It is a matter of then and now. At the time the book was first published I doubt that there were many book that explored into our mind on how we make decisions. The findings are eye-opening in how they explain the reasons why we do what we do. Currently, there are many similar books on this topic but it is likely that “Influence” has influenced most, if not all, of them.

Practicality: 7/10: This book offers solid guidelines on how these methods work and how to avoid them. However, implementation is a different story because in many situations, there will not be enough time for you to implement it perfectly unless you are a natural born influencer. Nevertheless, this book is very useful if you have time to think and make decision.

Credibility: 7/10: Each method is supported by many researches; they are very credible. Moreover, those methods are pretty much common senses and self-explanatory but most of the time, we are not even aware of them because they are built-in our behaviours and they are often triggered subconsciously and involuntarily. The points are taken because some researches might still be just coincidence because despite having many researches, some are not deep enough.

Insightful: 9/10: This book is a great compilation of psychological researches about persuasion. There are more than “200″ references in the bibliography section in a 280 pages book. Some of them might be shallow but that number of researches is intriguing and you will learn a lot from the book.

Reading Experience: 2/10: I have been objective throughout my review, I need a place to be subjective and sentimental. You can ignore this completely but I do not like this book at all. Some remarks of the author has “influenced” me totally negatively. I will give you some examples.

Regarding the mass suicide in a jungle settlement in Guyana, South America led by the Reverend Jim Jones under the name of The People’s Temple. Approximately 910 died in the incident; people took strawberry flavored poison. The author suggested that due to the rule of “Social Proof”, when people are uncertain of the situation, they follow others and all of them died in orderliness. “When viewed in this light, the terrible orderliness, the lack of panic, the sense of calm with which these people moved to the vat of poison and to their deaths, seems more comprehensible.” [emphasis mine]

On the other hand, when the author explained people who are sport fans who refer to the team they support “we” when the team win. For example, when the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, 11 million people - in a city of 1.5 million - crowded the streets to shout “We’re Number 1″ as their heroes passed in a victory parade. And when the team lost, the sport fans rather refer to the team as “they”. Cialdini wrote

“Unless I miss my guess, they are not merely great sports aficionados; they are individuals with a hidden personality flaw - a poor self-concept. Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment.” [emphasis mine]

It continues “No matter which form it takes, the behavior of such individuals shares similar theme - the rather tragic view of accomplishment as deriving from outside the self.” [emphasis mine]

In the later chapter, there is an analogy of a shopper and fish; I find it very insulting to many people. It’s about shopping. He explained that commercial fishermen use loose bait to attract a large schools of certain fish. When water is full of fish snapping mouths competing for the food. Fishermen drop unbaited lines and catch fish because it crazed food and will bite at anything, including bare metal hooks. He stated that a “Bargain Sale” sign is a loose bait and you, shoppers, are craving fish.

“If the bait, of either form, has done its job, a large and eager crowd forms to snap it up. Soon, in the rush to score, the group becomes agitated, nearly blinded, by the adversarial nature of the situation. Human and fish alike lose perspective on what they want and begin striking at whatever is contested.” [emphasis mine]

Hence, while I felt terribly sorry for those in the mass suicide, we can imply that Cialdini sees them as psychologically normal but under a bad circumstance. While passionate sport fans (a majority of men) have poor self-concept and a rather tragic view of accomplishment. And girls fighting for clothes on sale (most female, obviously) are nearly blind food craving fish. Next time when you are going to support your sport team, take a look at a mirror and tell yourself how great you are instead. And ladies, alway buy full price.

Overall: 7.0/10: Despite the fact that I detest some remarks and the general know-it-all egotistical attitude of the author, this is an excellent book. It will teach you how to beware of the influence from everywhere in every social setting. The six methods are very clear and the number of researches are remarkable if you decide to use them or to prevent them from influencing you. Unfortunately, the author has totally influenced my negatively but when thinking of it sensibly, I still recommend everyone to read the book.

“While no company can ever embrace all of the world and all of mankind, Coca-Cola comes about as close as any.”

“The Ten Commandment for Business Failure” by Donald R. Keough, a former president of the Coca-Cola company, is a small book that, if you follow the instructions, will guide you to be a very successful loser. If you do not want to be one, this book is a must read and take those lessons as a cautionary tale.

Coca-Cola is one of the most recognisable brands on the planet but it was still vulnerable to failures. In this book, Keough tells you stories of Coca-Cola, among other companies, on how it became successful and how it failed at times. When you read the words “failure” and “Coca-Cola”, I bet the word “New Coke” sprang to your mind. Despite all the stories from any business book or textbook, in this book, you will have a chance to know it from the former president of Coca-Cola himself.

Contents

Commandment One: Quit Taking Risks

“It’s reasonable to think that because when you achieve something, even very little, there is the great temptation to quit taking risks.” Apart from telling you the reason that quit taking risk is a sure way to failure, Keough wrote briefly about Xerox and how they quited taking risk.

Commandment Two: Be Inflexible

Keough started this chapter with a story of Coca-Cola bottlers in 1940s-1950s and how they almost brought the company down because of the inflexible practice. This chapter also has the examples of IBM and Ford. All in all, “when the conditions around you change, remain inflexible. Keep on keeping on. Stand firm, You will fail.’

Commandment Three: Isolate Yourself

This chapter targets at those who get yourself a great big office in some remote corner of the most remote executive floor and the shut the door. And also put out a sign: “Don’t make the boss mad. Bring me no bad news.”

Commandment Four: Assume Infallibility

“If something seems to be heading in the wrong direction, cover up, better yet, wait until you have a full-blown crisis, then blame it on some external force - or blame it on somebody else.” Keough wrote about a brief ignorance of Coca-Cola that damaged the reputation dearly in Belgium. There was also a story of Coca-Cola in Germany that Keough admitted he was wrong because he somewhat assumed infallibility.

Commandment Five: Play the Game Close to the Foul Line

He wrote about the problem with the Wall Street that made CFO the rock stars of business instead of being the guardians of the transparency and the fiscal integrity of the corporations. “There is no such thing as business ethics. Just ethics. It’s not separated from the rest of your life.”

Commandment Six: Don’t Take Time to Think

Keough wrote that we are in the generation that is obsessed with technology. People said we are in the ‘information age’ but he disputed that we are in the ‘data age’ with all the ICT (Information and Communication Technology). We need to think and Keough tells you the vice of not thinking.

Commandement Seven: Put All Your Faith in Experts and Outside Consultants

This chapter has the popular case study, New Coke, not on how it failed but how it was caused. There is also a nice anecdote on Coca-Cola wine business.

Commandment Eight: Love Your Bureaucracy

“The bureaucrats who control these (bureaucratic) rituals guard them with their lives because any change undermines their own power or authority.” He also mentioned that bureaucracy in one of the main reasons talented individuals left the company. There are some short stories of Coca-Cola, Dell, NASA, etc regarding love of bureaucracy.

Commandment Nine: Send Mixed Message

“It doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll be rewarded.” is an example of a mixed message that Keough wrote about. Mixed messages create confusion. He wrote about Columbia and how Coca-Cola purchasing it sent a mixed message to everyone.

Commandment Ten: Be Afraid of the Future

The pessimists will not push anything forward be it corporations or a society. This chapter, Keough hit on the faces of those with pessimism.

Commandment Eleven: Lose Your Passion for Work - for Life

This is the bonus chapter and Keough wrote on how it is the most important one.

…

Next, I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book or a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 9/10: It is a little book written in a plain language and all the commandments were beautifully in sync. You do not have to fret with statistical data or figures, everything is easy to learn and absorb.

Distinction: 4/10: The major difference between this book and others is that it is written by Donald Keough. All the commandments and stories in this book are not new, just from an opposite perspective.

Practicality: 8/10: It is somewhat confusing to define ‘practicality’ of this book. Following the book will definitely lead you to failure and this book is written in a sarcastic tone. Thus, do the opposite and use the commandments in this book as a caution.

Reliability: 9/10: It is very hard to dispute his commandments. Look at the ten (eleven) commandments and try to tell which one will not lead to business failure. I can’t, and I don’t think anybody can. Although his experience alone is great enough, Keough put together different and interesting (albeit indifferent) stories of other companies and industries.

Insight: 5/10: This book is small and the stories are short. I wish stories, especially Coca-Cola ones, are longer with more insight and details. However, another thing I love about this book is quotations from various people. They are not numerous but I like every single one.

Reading Experience: 9/10: You will finish the book in no time. It is a pleasure to read. The tone of the book is sarcastic, casual, and joyful. I have never and will never have a chance to talk to Donald Keough but from the experience I have from reading the book, I come to think that the foreword by Warren Buffet might be true that “Don talks such sense and offers such inspiration. Don can tell you to go to hell so wonderfully you’ll enjoy the journey.”

Overall: 7.3/10: Get this book and you will like it. There are some flaws because it is very short but I truly believe that you can find much use of it. Hang this book it front of you office to remind you what you must not do in your business and you will shut the door to failure. By the way, I rarely pay attention to the praises and foreword but this book probably has one of the best compilations; Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jack Welch, and Rupert Murdoch… well… and George W. Bush!

“The situation we are facing is of a magnitude comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the next worst bear market, the stagflation period of the 1970s.”

“The Little Book of Bull Moves and Bear Markets” by Peter Schiff was published in October 2008. Before releasing the book, Peter Schiff predicted the situation of the housing market in the US ‘right’. The reason that it took me more than six months to review is that a financial and invesment book’s quality will be proven over time (just like the investment per se). And for this book in particular, reading it now and reading it in October 2008 are like reading a different book.

This book is, in a nutshell, about the cause of the current economic crisis, what will happen in the future, and how we can deal with it financially, professionally, and socially.

Contents

Chapter One: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again

Peter Schiff explained, in a simple language, different periods of economic slumps and booms and the causes. The conclusion is that we are now in an inevitable recession for many years to come.

Chapter Two: Saving Your Assets

“Stay Out of Cash and Bonds.” In this chapter, he wrote on how the US exported inflation and it is going to backfire making US dollar worthless.

Chapter Three: Beware of False Prophets

He claimed that the government’s economic policy is political and measures and indicators are misleading such as GDP, inflation, unemployment, among other things. He stated that the government, Wall Street, and industry groups were having an agenda and their information is misleading.

Chapter Four: Of Babies and Bathwater

This chapter is about investing in the US. His parting words are to stay away from dollar. However, there are some US stocks worth holding onto.

Chapter Five: Hot Stuff

Commodities are hot and this chapter tells you how to hold onto them.

Chapter Six: The Ring in the Bull’s Nose

“Making Money with Gold and Silver”. It’s self-explanatory. And he tells you six ways to play gold and silver.

Chapter Seven: Weathering the Storm

He predicted that dollar will be in a free fall and we should invest in other currencies and this chapter tells you how.

Chapter Eight: Favorite Nations

Following the previous chapters, Peter Schiff recommends numerous nations from the North America (Canada) to Europe (Norway, Switzerland) to Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong), etc. to invest in.

Chapter Nine: If You Want to Roll the Dice

He briefly tells you that the emerging markets are on the way to bull markets.

Chapter Ten: To Infinity and Beyond

This chapter is for your ‘profession’ consideration. He portrays the profession or industry that are going down, i.e., retail, real estate, etc. and potentially profitable ones such as construction, agriculture, merchant marine, etc.

Chapter Eleven: A Decade of Frugality

Spend less, start saving (not in dollar), get rid of debt, stockpile goods, etc.

Chapter Twelve: Pack Your Bags

He advised you to emigrate to other countries. This chapters tell you brief information on immigration laws, banking environment, lifestyle, language, and how should you choose the country to live in.

Chapter Thirteen: The Light at the End of the Tunnel

He wrote about the (then) upcoming election that both candidates will make the country suffer more with different means. He tells you to wait until 2012, the next election, and his solution is two words: Ron Paul.

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I’ll compare this book to the ideal book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The very first few chapters are the background and analysis of economic crisis we are in but Schiff explained it simply although there are few points that you need basic knowledge in finance or economic to comprehend. The second half of the book is very straightforward, ditch your dollar, invest elsewhere and move!

Distinction: 6/10: The point of the book is similar to other books explaining the economic crisis and how to deal with it. All of them are different in one way or another because, in economics, there are countless ways to foresee the future but the worst case of this one is one of the worst around.

Practicality: 5/10: Talking about investing abroad is easy, doing is much harder. Chapter five to seven offer solid but complicated (for normal people) ways to invest but you can simply go to, surprisingly, Schiff’s company, Euro Pacific Capital, and they will simplify the complicated investment! The very last chapters are also easier said than done such as emigrating to other countries and probably looking for a new job if you are in the busting industry. Moreover, if you are not an American, you will not find much use of the book.

Reliability: 3/10: This is very controversial. More than six months on, Peter Schiff predicted a doom in housing market, an inevitable recession, and a rise (but not that high) in gold price ‘right’. As of the rest, I have to say they are wrong (or not so right yet). I do not want to jump into the debate and analysis because everyone is a genius in a hindsight but the most obvious mistake is that he ‘overestimated’ the rest of the world. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and the rest of Asia could not capitalise from the US downturn because US is a customer too important to the economies. Thus, dollar is still fine (at least now) meaning that most of the second half of the book is void.

Insight: 4/10: For a start, trying to put the world in a small book is tough. And almost everything is Schiff’s opinion with very little insight from other experts.

Reading Experience: 5/10: If you like a thriller movie where everyone dies in the end, you will probably enjoy the book. This book is equal to the movie ‘Knowing’ starring Nicolas Cage.

Overall: 5.2/10: It is almost impossible to write a book that can predict the economy in the future right. Peter Schiff took a gamble on this book and it did not turn out well. His assumptions were rigid with no margin for error. However, it might be possible that his prediction is too early and a total collapse in the US market is yet to come. Until that time, rest this book on the shelf and when the perfect storm is actually coming, get this book and emigrate!