Henry Hagnäs

Vagabonding

"Vagabonding - An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel" by Rolf Potts is indeed an uncommon book. The author himself took upon himself, according to the introduction, to write a different book that reflected "himself" and I hope he was successful. The result, however, is a bit of a mess. The book is heavy with quotes, literally hundreds of them, both spread out like separate sidebars and woven (loosely) into the text. These quotes make the text loose its flow and makes it quite hard and annoying to read. The advice itself is decent if not pretty self-evident to anyone who has travelled more, long-term or otherwise (or just have common sense). Every now and then Potts goes into some very interesting anecdotes and stories about what he has seen on his travels but they always end up shorter than you'd wish. Basically the book would have been a lot better and more interesting if the author had explained his advice through examples and anecdotes instead of quotes.

The best parts of the book are actually found on the website[1], all the resources he mentions are listed and updated there. Lots of websites and books suggested that seem like good places to start should you feel like going out in the world. I'm guessing the resources will also be more in-depth than his book so you can concentrate on studying what is most important to you.

I really wanted the like this book, it comes highly praised by Tim Ferriss and other "lifestyle-gurus" but it really is not a very good book and the tips and suggestions are so very basic you'd think they are written for someone who hasn't left their home country. For those this book could indeed be of assistance and inspiration but it just wasn't for me.

[1] http://www.vagabonding.net/

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" is a short and very personal memoir by the japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, where he describes choice parts of his life via his passion for running.

The book is extremely well-written and personal, its not a biographical work in the traditional sense because it concentrates on only a, admittedly big, part of Mr. Murakami's life - running - and compares it to his writing. He passionately describes how and why he runs, how it has shaped him as a person and in extension his writing.

It's only about 170 pages and a fast and easy read. Even if you aren't a runner it gives an interesting perspective to the world and mindset of the runner. That said, I found it fascinating and inspiring because I've been dabbling with running the last few years - not sure how much of the book is of interest to someone who doesn't like either running or peering into an intimate part of another persons psyche. I would nonetheless recommend it, if for no other reason because it is actually a good and different kind of book.

Nudge

"Nudge: Improving Decision About Health, Wealth and Happiness" by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein is a fun and easy to read book about surprisingly serious topics. It comes highly recommended by a multitude of different people and sources, not the least my dear The Economist gave it their "A Best Book of the Year"-award/badge/thing.

The subtitle might suggest that the book is a self-help book but that is (mostly) not the case. The book talks about the choices we make but often from a grander perspective of creating useful default choices and making it easy to do the right thing, wether when choosing food or pension plans. Much of the advice goes to the "choice architects", the people who decide in what order things are presented etc. However, it does also empowers the reader to recognize where those choices have been made badly for you, either in ignorance or for deception, and helps us make a more conscious choice where we deem it important.

The writers are both professors at the University of Chicago (School of Business and Law, respectively). There are copious amounts of references and notes in the end, which always is a good sign. The book itself is also very facts-based, it references much research and doesn't claim to come up with much own ideas just collecting the wisdom of others (again, something that I find both refreshing and honest). Lots of books like these are written to bang on the authors own drum and support their pet-theory.

It follows the tradition of books like Freakonomics and writers like Malcolm Gladwell in making real world economics and psychology easy and fun to read. For people who enjoy learning and understanding about how the world works this is really something you need to read. Even more than most other books in this field, "Nudge" feels practical and more real than many other books in the same vein. Especially people in the position of making choices for other people, either explicitly or implicitly in designing a form or plan, need to know how important the way in which the alternatives are presented is! People are lazy or get paralyzed when the complexity or amount of choices is too much for them and you need to help them make a good choice.

If there is any criticism to be pointed out it is that the book is very US-centric and some of the discussions about 401(k)'s and other strictly American idiosyncrasies can feel uninteresting for an outsider but that is both understandable (since the authors are from the US) and isn't overwhelming.

All in all, I highly recommend "Nudge" for being an interesting, educational and fun read!

The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns

The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns is a book about personal investment and trading written in a personal and conversational tone. It makes for a fast and easy to read format but can be annoying at times. That said, its a very instructional and informative book for anyone doing or considering personal part or full-time trading. The author himself makes his living being a “medium-term trader” and this is the tactic he teaches, however, it should be noted that he made the critical mass of money by good old-fashioned work and risk-taking entrepreneurship. He lives and works in the UK and some of the advice are UK or FTSE-centered but most information is quite universal nonetheless.

The book works well as an introductional text to personal investment but gives good advice to more advanced investors as well and, especially when it comes to investing, its good to be reminded about the basics every now and then. Its easy to think you are better than the rest after a few wins - which in turn usually makes you crash spectacularly. 

So, the book begins from the basics, asking you if trading is right for you and describing the reality of trading from a refreshingly honest angle. It goes on to teach the basic vocabulary of stock trading and what it means. By chapter three even the more experienced investor should start to read more carefully, this is where the author goes into different trading strategies and describes his own in more detail. Basically what he does, and mostly describes in the rest of the book, is called “medium-term trading”. This means that he doesn’t, very often at least, try to day-trade and find the hot stock of the day. Instead he does research his investments like value/long-term investors do but try to find shorter upsides. Reasons why the stock would give him 30-40% return over the following months or at most couple of years. This also means being able to cut your losses quick instead of getting stuck with a badly performing stock which didn’t go as planned. 

He does also go into more details about warrants, short-selling and other things that a beginning trader really should avoid but is good to know exists. Some instruments like spread-betting aren’t available here in Finland either - I think, but then again, I’m a beginner so I haven’t even searched for anything like that (yet). The information on how to do basic chart-reading and technical analysis alone was worth the price of admission for me, it didn’t teach me magic but it did give me a enough information to understand the vocabulary and thinking behind it. 

The book also has a chapter on usual mistakes investors make and which really could have been avoided and does give you some good rules of thumb on how to avoid a similar situation. It also reminds you not to get too cocky because that is when you think the rules do not apply to you! 

Since the book doesn’t try to be very advanced it ends with an excellent suggested reading list which I have copied down for future Amazon-orders. 

If you are curious about or already investing you really should do yourself a favor and read this book, its easy to read and informative. It doesn’t claim to help you make millions but it will help you not make stupid mistakes and that’s all you can honestly ask for. Warmly recommended!

Know-How by Ram Charan

I’m sure there are other book-buying addicts like me that sometimes wake up with a book in their hand they don’t know why they ordered. Ram Charan’s “Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform From Those Who Don’t” is exactly one of those. According to my GMail archives I first mailed myself a note to buy this book, and several others, from work in 2007. This was during a time I was interesting in management, business and leadership so it makes sense. I never got around to reading the book then and picked it up now, only to find a bunch of business drivel that really should have been an essay or two.

There really needs to be a format (I guess Harvard Business Review et al are that currently) where longer essays instead of books can be published. Unfortunately I’ve also seen examples of books that come out HBR-articles that are nothing but the same idea but with 300 pages of fluff around it.
Anyway, the eight know-hows that Ram Charan thinks that leaders have to have are: positioning and repositioning, pinpointing external change, leading the social system, judging people, molding a team, setting goals, setting laser-sharp priorities and dealing with forces beyond the market. It really is as common sense as you would imagine. Leaders apparently need to be able to envision their business landscape and make corrections to products etc, they need to be good team-builder and judges of character and good at steering that group etc. The last point, “Dealing with forces beyond the market” is marginally useful for people that aren’t from the Internet generation but really, does it come as a surprise that there might be people objecting to your business-ideas if you act like Monsanto?

I ended up making some kind of record on reading through the book, didn’t want to write about it unless I actually thumbed through it, it took me a couple of hours and I’m not getting that time back. I’m a fast reader so even fluffy books that give me a few new ideas of ways of thinking are worth thumbing through but this one really has no redeeming factors. Every chapter begins with a short description about the idea or know-how and then goes into cuddly business-stories, half of them about Jeff Immelt at General Electric, about how he and his team made good decisions. He backs the story up with more anecdotes from other companies, basically name-dropping.

The problem with business anecdotes is that there are so many business that do well despite doing lots wrong (and companies that do everything right but fail), that a business writer will always find one that supports his position for at least a few years. Studies have shown that many companies management books show off as exemplary really haven’t beat the market or held up in the long run. Try reading a few 10 year old management books and you’ll see. There’s no real research or statistics in this book, only stories and anecdotes that don’t really help anyone trying to become a better leader. The next CEO of GE won’t need this book to make the right decision.

Keep away. I should’ve.

Finanssikriisi - Elämää taantuman keskellä

Finally leafed through this collection of essays written during the financial crisis by Vesa Puttonen, a well-known finance professor in Finland. I got it as a free subscriber gift when I subscribed to "Arvopaperi" a finnish monthly magazine about economy (stopped subscribing after the cheap 4 months, wasn't worth it to me).

I mostly read it because Puttonen has written several textbooks about economics and investment that I've been thinking about buying and this was a cheap and easy way to see if I like his style. I did so I'll probably look into buying one or two of his textbooks soon.

This book, however, wasn't worth much - but then again, I paid nothing for it and neither should you.

Rework

     

Click here to download:

Rework_tagbookreview_delay5_mi.zip (206 KB)

The authors behind Rework are Jason Fried and David Hansson, the dynamic duo behind 37Signals. David Hansson is better known as @dhh, the guy behind Ruby on Rails which powers 37Signals' popular "web 2.0" services like Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise and Campfire. They are well known for a contrarian view towards the way web and tech-companies are structured and live the way they preach - 37Signals has a relaxed and hands-off approach to management, they haven't taken any outside investments and keep their team small. This book is their second book about how they make a living successfully this way.

Rework is a short and fast read, full of advice that is useful but also very commonsense. Sometimes you need to hear the obvious too and this is a good a book as any for that. The message of commonsense minimalism in business rang very true and almost painfully obvious as I read the book but as I said, useful to hear.

Jason and David go through explaining how and why you should start a business, why you should ignore advice like writing mission statements and do long-term planning and instead scratch your own itch, think small but flexible , etc. They have some pretty good tips on productivity and management of creative people as well as handling marketing and PR in a small business. The important word here is "business", not "startup" — they both loathe the term startup which they think implies that you are building something fast to just sell it off to some sucker instead of building a sustainable, real, business.

If you are planning on starting a company or working on growing the company you really should take the time to read through "Rework", if for nothing else to get a little different viewpoint on how to do business. You won't feel a feeling of enlightenment after reading the book but you won't be bullshitted either — its nothing if not an honest book and that is refreshing!

p.s.. I read the book, as you can see, on my iPod touch. You can buy the book at http://ebookstore.sony.com/

The Undercover Economist

Bill Hicks: Love All The People

Freedom(tm)

"Freedom(tm)" is the follow-up to "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago (http://www.henryhagnas.com/daemon-11) and wow... It's all of Daemon and then some. Luckily I had the opportunity to spend my whole day reading it, along with a great spring sunshine:

 

I have to first of all retract my previous criticism of Daemon's ending, while I think both books as one would probably have been better it isn't as bad as I first said. Both books are divided in parts that jump in time to keep the action going (since the books span years in time) and the jump between the books is quite natural. That said, to keep yourself sane you really should order both books or you'll end sitting on pins and needles while waiting for "Freedom(tm)" to show up.

As I said, the story continues a few years down the line, the Daemon has grown in power but so have its opponents and the resistance they provide, which keeps the book interesting and exciting all the way to the very end. I won't say more about the plot because I don't want to ruin anything for future readers of either "Daemon" or "Freedom(tm)", you simply owe yourself to read both of these if the initial review of "Daemon" seemed to tickle your interest. 

Daniel Suarez really does weave an excellent story out of the current modern technological, social and even economic trends, I especially enjoy the fact that I recognize a lot of the themes from popular books, articles and thoughts going around at the moment. Many other tech-people staying current will no doubt also recognize these. Even though they are more immediate and transparent future projections than what is described in say Neuromancer by William Gibson or even Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson I hope the description of their use will inspire people. I'm especially thinking about the Augmented/Virtual reality part that is basically Layar on steroids (for those who don't know, Layar is a dutch-developed Augmented Reality browser for iPhone and Android).

Do yourself a favor, order these books now.