Flash Boys

Author: Michael Lewis


High Frequency Traders (HFT) are the new punching bag on wall street. Michael does not spare any punches in telling the story of how HFTs insert themselves between the investors' market orders and profit handily by being middle-men in the trade. The big banks all turn a blind eye and the exchanges are happy to sell co-location to the HFTs and get their cut of the action. 

I am a big fan of Michael’s story-telling abilities and really enjoyed his books like “Boomerang” and “The Big Short”. However, in “Flash Boys” I felt that he was desperately looking for a good story to tell and came up short. There are several attempts to tell a human story, starting with Dan Spivey’s building a low-latency high speed network to connect Chicago with New York, Brad Katsuyama’s singular mission to build a fair Stock Trading exchange or Sergey Aleynikov, the Russian programmer who worked for Goldman Sachs and was arrested in 2009 by the FBI on charges that were ultimately found to be baseless. All of these are peripherally connected to HFT, but do not come together to tell a tight-knit story. 

I am Malala

Authors: Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb


I was moved by the courage of a School Teacher and his daughter to promote the education of girls in Pakistan. It is shocking to read in black and white, how people are using everything in their power to prevent young girls from getting an education. The recent kidnapping of 200 Nigerian School girls by Boko Haram is yet another manifestation of this evil force among us. It is very telling that Boko Haram roughly translates into “Western Education is Sin” and the goal of this group is to prevent young women from getting an education. 

Malala tell’s her life story of how difficult it was for her father to run a girl’s school in the Pakistan border town of Swat  and the constant threats they had to face on an everyday basis. I was moved by her father’s undaunted courage and perseverance in keeping the school going despite the many obstacles he had to overcome. Growing up with all of this tension around her, only increased Malala’s resolve to stand up for girl’s education in Pakistan. She got the attention of both local and international media and was recognized by the Pakistani Government.  After being shot by the Taliban, her fame has increased by leaps and bounds. She has been featured in a movie “Girl Rising” and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at the tender age of 16.  Read the book for a first hand look at what it is like to be a young girl in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Author: Ben Horowitz


There are two parts to this book by Ben Horowitz. The first tells the story of his two startups, LoudCloud and Opsware and the lessons he learned from them. This is the more interesting and authentic part of the book, where Ben provides a ring-side view of the crises that he faced and how he handled them. One of my close friends worked at Opsware during this period and I was curious to read about the developments there and validate them with him.

The second part of the book contains general teachings from Ben on the challenges a CEO faces and how to navigate them. Needless to say, Ben has a wealth of experience, both personal as well as second hand with the many ventures that he has invested in.  This is well trodden turf and there aren’t many new words of wisdom that he doles out here. He re-enforces the well-known belief that it is “lonely at the top”. He says that a CEO should expect to be uncomfortable with the state of affairs most of the time and it is important for you to develop “Techniques that can calm your nerves”. 

The book is written in a very readable style and Ben has a great way of simplifying the verbiage so that the message pops out. For instance to highlight the role of the CEO, he says “some employees make products; some make sales; the CEO makes decisions”. He also has a very nice way of bringing out the contrast of behaviors in a binary fashion. He describes two types of CEOs: Peacetime and Wartime CEOS. In another context he talks about CEOs as being “Ones” or “Twos”.  To get more insight into this, you will have to read the book.